The Beginning of it All

{best friends and bullying, a *children's* short story}

Brady walks over to the small bookshelf that his grade five teacherp, Mrs Mayhew, has set up. He grabs his favourite book, Thumbelina, and plops down on the beanbag chair closest to the window. Mrs Mayhew looks up from her desk and sees Brady reading by himself.

        "Why don't you go outside and play with the other boys, Brady?" She asks from her desk at the front of the room.

        "I don't want to. I want to read." He says simply.

        "Okay, well, I'm just going to be gone for a few minutes. Be right back!" She says and leaves the room, black skirt flowing behind her in the wind of her quick pace.

Brady starts to read again, immersing himself into a world of magic and true love, but after two pages the book is snatched out of his hands.

        "Hey!" He shouts, jumping up in protest.

        "What's this? Thumbelina! What are you a girl?" the book-snatcher and his friends cackle as they flip through pages carelessly. "Don't you know that this book is for girls! I guess you must be one then!" They smirk cruelly at him, taunting him with the book.

        "Give it back!" Brady shouts, reaching for the book.

        "Oooh, he's trying to be tough today. I think he needs to understand what happens when he talks back, don't you?" The other boy says as he looks at one of his friends who steps forward and smacks Brady across the face.

        "I'm s-sorry David." Brady whimpers. He takes a step back, but loses his balance and falls into the beanbag chair.

        "What was that?" David asks, smirking as he takes a step forward. David cowers and goes to say sorry again but is cut off by Mrs Mayhew.

        "What is going on in here?" She demands.

        "Oh nothing, we were just giving Brady his book back," David says, and he throws it at Brady, who fumbles to catch the book before it hits his face.

        "Are you okay Brady?" Mrs Mayhew asks

        "Yeah," He says quietly, "I'm fine." Brady puts the book back and rushes out of the classroom. He breaks down crying once he reaches the safety of a stall in the bathroom.

Later That Day...

As Brady is walking home after school, David and his friends show up.

        "I think you deserve a little beating for almost letting us get caught this morning," David says. He nods his head at his friends and suddenly they all launch at Brady, punching and kicking and beating him.

        "That's good!" David shouts once he realizes that Brady is hardly moving, curled tightly in a ball.

His friends stop and move away from Brady. David stares at him for a while, Brady has his head down and tries to hold in tears. David grabs him by the collar of his shirt and lifts him up. Brady whimpers when he puts weight on his feet, but stays standing in fear of what would happen if he were to fall.

After a moment, David punches Brady as hard as he can in the cheek. Brady falls in a heap on the ground as the others leave, laughing at him.

After Brady is sure that they're gone he gets up and sulks home. As soon as he steps in the house, his mother sees his bruises and cuts and freaks out, asking him a bunch of questions. Brady doesn't answer as she helps him into the bathroom where she starts to assist his injuries.

After a moment or two, Brady decides to tell his mother what's really been going on.

        "Mommy... I have something to tell you..." Brady tells his mom, "For the past few months, David Hall has been bullying me. I've tried to make him stop, but it just gets worse! Today he got his friends to kick and hit me, and then he punched me; that's where I got the big bruise from, mommy, not from playing at school."

Brady's mom tries to say something, but he continues to talk.

        "And mommy, I've been having these weird feelings. I think my feelings are confused about what to feel. Everyone at school hates me and doesn't like me, but when I'm at home with you, I feel loved and happy. I don't understand it, mommy! Why do I feel like this? The kids at school say that I'm fat, stupid and ugly. At first, I didn't think so, but now I think they're right. They make fun of me for being so small, I try to stretch every day, but it hasn't worked! I'm sorry for not telling you all of this Mommy..."

~~~~~~~~~~

The next day is just as bad for Brady. He crouches in a corner of the classroom as he tries to get away from David and his friends; they're kicking him in the stomach. He can feel his wounds from yesterday opening up; his arms and legs are already screaming in pain from being thrown across the room.

One of them grabs Brady and pulls him up off of his feet. He slams him against a cabinet and Brady whacks his head off the metal. He drops to the ground in a cry of pain; that's when a boy about their age walks into the room and sees Brady surrounded by David and his friends. He rushes in and pushes through them; they start at him, but David gestures for them to stop. The boy crouches down and carefully helps Brady stand up, he walks him over to a chair and sets him down. The boy turns to face David.

        "And who do you think you are? Barging in and ruining my fun!" David says and takes a step towards the boy. He raises his fist, about to punch him.

        "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He says, David ignores him and goes to punch him.

The next thing David knows, he's on the ground. David gets up hesitantly, and stares at the boy for a minute then decides that he shouldn't risk fighting him. With a nod of his head, David and his friends exit the classroom.

        "Who are you?" Brady asks quietly as the stranger turns to face him.

        "I'm Sammy; I moved here last week. We should go to the nurse." The boy says.

They walk into the nurse's room, and she immediately begins to help Brady.

        "How did this happen?" She questions.

        "David and some of his friends were beating him up, and I stopped them," Sammy says

        "Seriously!? You need to tell the principal about this!"

        "We will," Sammy says calmly.

        "Well, I think he is good to go. Now go to the office and tell Mrs Bowers." She says sternly.

They leave the room and go to the office, but Sammy gets Brady to call his mom first. Brady explains what happened to him, and she rushes over to the school.

They both talk to the principal and also to Mrs Mayhew. David and his friends end up having in school suspension. Sammy and Brady stay best friends and always help out people who are being bullied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey, Wattpaders!

I feel like every time I post I have an excuse for being late but this time I just forgot.

I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas!

I don't really know how I feel about this story but you should still...

Comment, vote, follow! 😁😁

May your writing, or reading, be as marvellous as you are!

-Emily