Front Line

Front Line - Chapter 10 - Year 8

Front Line

Chapter Ten – Year 8

  Now that I knew what happened at this school, I was more than prepared for what was going to come my way. My ‘tutor room’ stayed the same and would stay the same for another year, so no worries for me about where I would go. The same people stayed in your tutor group, unless they were really badly behaved and in which they would go to the tutor group where it was made up of similar kids. We had a new girl this year, her name was Zara, she wasn’t the best-looking person but we tried to get along with her, she was new after all.

  Around the second day of the start of the year you receive a ‘planner’, all this was to use to write down important dates, events on those days and a place to write down what homework you were given. Everyone always used to decorate their planners, and when I say decorate, I mean completely and utterly ruin it with any junk you had laying around. I was too scared to do anything to pine, I always was scared of what punishment would be given, but I did put on the inside cover a picture of my grandad. He’s been my charm since he passed away and I take a picture of him everywhere with me. People were told they can’t do this to their planners but after a while, the teachers passed caring about it. It wasn’t until around the time the new headmaster would be officially appointed that things would change.

  I was hoping this year, things would be on the up. My prayers were shortly answered. I still attended Youthbase on occasion and I was asked to be involved in a project called ‘the befriending project’, here kids at the school who were bullied, alone or needed anyone could come to us or e-mail us and confide in someone. This is where I’ve now met my long-time friend, David. He was in the year below me it was his first year at school, they selected a person from each year so that there was a varied age range to talk to, not just someone way above your age depending on your issues. David and I hit off our friendship straight away, I remember our first moments together doing challenges and group activities. I was glad I picked him to be my partner in this project, he was going through some issues himself so this was perfect.

  However, despite my happiness in finding David, the much worse bullying and teasing got even worse as the year went on. The same stuff still happened but it became more frequent and sometimes I regretted ever going to that school. I was trying to stand up for myself but in the process only ended up making it worse. This was the case when one day in the school library, I was about to type in my log in name and password, when a girl who often pointed and teased me came in and walked behind me. Being the coward that I was I tried to ignore what I knew was teasing words meant for me, but she came closer and tried to guess my log-in details. Naturally I tried turning the screen away and moving the keyboard but, she got a hold of the keyboard. At this point I still tried to remain calm and polite, so I asked her nicely if she would give it back to me. She still wouldn’t, and she even tried to guess my log in details by pretending to type on the keyboard. This only pushed my patience over the tipping point, and I’m extremely patient even now. I stood up and grabbed the keyboard from her and put it down, by this point she raised her hand to slap me but I beat her to it and slapped her first. She tried to get into a hands-on fight with me, but I was in no mood and whilst stepping back from a hard shove from me she was pulled back off me, releasing the hair she had gripped in her hands.

  This shook me up as no more than last year I had my very first fight in my first year of school. Long story short, I was a scaredy cat and I was ten minutes early from class, I’d been waiting for a while to go into class when a girl stepped in front of me to go in first. She then was joined by her friend, we started off playfully nudging one another but it soon escalated. She shoved me harder and harder until it came to the point we were shoving one another, she punched me in the jaw and on the head, whilst I managed to get one good swing with my eyes closed, landing it right on her face. She was soon pulled off me and back then there was always a winner and loser, because she had to be pulled off me, I was declared the winner.

  Both of these experiences I relish to this day, I didn’t think I would ever fight because I was so timid, but it taught me a great deal. It taught me that anyone can be involved in a fight no matter how confident, or not, you are. It taught me you should defend what you believe to be right, without first resulting to hand-to-hand combat. It taught me to be brave and stand up for yourself, there’s a limit to all of that, avoiding a fight until the last possible second is critical and if possible avoid it all together. No matter if you’re the aggravator or the aggravated, fights solve nothing for anyone and only make things worse. My advice to anyone would be to just don’t let the bully win, even if it means feeling hurt at words they say, words are easily forgotten but actions aren’t. I hated the fights I got into and I was sure to settle any future confrontations with words, not fists.

  Thankfully the rest of the school year since then was full of events that would occupy my time until summer. Including the dreaded P.R.I.D.E awards, non-uniform days, parent evenings, trips, etc. I remember the last day of school, this time I was in art class, sitting next to a boy who was let’s just be brutal here, high. I wasn’t used to being around that sort of thing and when the final bell for that year rang, I was more than happy to get out and taste the fresh air of freedom. Hoping that the next year would be better than the two I’d just had,  decided I would reinvent myself and try even harder for the year that would be here in no time at all.