Facing Bullies

I leave the math class, already feeling anxious of what might happen in recess. But before I could be left ****, I catch up to Sunny, who seems to be heading to her locker. I follow her, without her even noticing. But when we both reach her locker, I wait for her to open it to scare her. I jump from behind to give her a good scare, and I actually manage to make her jump. I think I genuinely frightened her, but that’s the most hilarious thing I’ve done in a while, so I burst out laughing. I don’t know how she is still my friend. She turns around and calms down when she sees me. She doesn’t seem to mind a good scare, and she actually laughs too, but I should probably expect her to come back at me at some point.

—You actually paid attention to this class, huh? Why is that?—

She apparently noticed how focused I was in class, which is something she usually does, mainly because I need to be reminded about taking notes and concentrating. She is always the one to help me with the answers when I have to answer something I don’t know. But this time, I didn’t need any of her help, because I can now pay attention to the class on my own. I bet she must be really proud, or either very suspicious of me. She does seem impressed, though, so I play into it with a bit of mystery.

—Yea, I don’t know what happened, but something kind of changed…—

—Oh really? What happened? Did they finally call your parents to tell them you are failing the year?—

—Yes, but I also think I found something within me to concentrate on what I really want—

—Hmm, interesting. Is that so? Does that mean that you really want to learn now?—

—Yep, definitely—

—That would make me very happy. But are you sure you didn’t come back because you just want to see Miss Alyson again, or am I wrong?—

—Noooo, what are you talking about? I’m all about studying and getting good grades now…—

We both laugh. Sunny always sees right through my intentions, which leads me to believe she might know why I’m behaving so differently now. But it seems like she still doesn’t see such a big difference in me. We are still just playfully talking like we always do. She always makes sarcastic comments to poke fun of me, but I usually always have a clever way to reply. That’s just how we interact lately, and honestly, it’s everything I need to make my day entertaining enough. But like usual, a brief mention of one of our teachers leads us to talking about them, because Sunny just always has something to say about them.

—Hey, it’s crazy Miss Alyson didn’t say much about your grades. I thought she would give you a lesson in front of all of us…—

—Yea, I could see that happening. But you know how she is, I don’t think she would do something that mean. I do think I deserve it, but she is sweet enough to just give me a brief warning—

—She is nice, but you need to take her seriously. You know how she can get sometimes…—

—Yep, I have to watch out for that, but I believe I can redeem myself—

While I’m having a peaceful conversation with Sunny about my grades, I notice that her smile shows hope. I think she genuinely believes in me and my abilities to redeem myself. It’s encouraging to see such a good friend supporting me, even when it’s just with a caring smile, and even when she does make fun of me. But as I feel more comfortable about my academic situation, Sunny changes her expression all of a sudden. Her cute smile turns into a worrisome one. Her eyes then draw away from me, and she looks right behind me. It’s like she is giving me a warning, and I think I know exactly what it is.

I’m now the one to be scared, as I sense my bullies approaching. I know they are behind me, but I’m not fast enough to dodge their attack. Before I can react, I feel one of their hands slapping the back of my head. They actually push me more than slapping me, and it’s with enough **** that they end up shoving me towards Sunny. Luckily, I don’t hit her, but I do hit my head on her locker’s door. Right after I hit my head, I hear my bullies laughing. And just in case they want to hit me or beat me up, I turn around, only to see them walking away while laughing.

—Welcome back, faggot!—

Not only are they incredibly rude, but also kind of homophobic, nice. As I try to recompose myself after the impact, Sunny immediately comes to help me. She holds my head gently, trying to rub the pain away. It feels nice to have a girl take care of me, but of course, my bullies also use that to make me feel bad.

—Leave him alone!—

Sunny tries to defend me, but instead, she makes them attack her as well.

—Come on, you could get a better guy than that!—

I hate it when they try to imply I’m dating Sunny. I know I’m not in her league, but it’s still very weird when they suggest we are a couple. It made me very nervous when they first started saying that, but now it has just become repetitive. And apparently, Sunny also doesn’t care. She doesn’t even pay attention to them anymore and continues to hold me to make sure I’m okay. Even when I try to make a joke out of the situation, she still seems to care too much about me to take this lightly.

—Don’t they have anything better to say?—

—Are you okay, Andrew? Does your head hurt?—

—Not really, but I think I might get a headache if they keep saying the same thing over and over again—

I think that was a pretty funny thing to say, but I still don’t get a laugh out of Sunny. She doesn’t smile or anything, clearly very upset about the situation. But as much as she frowns, she can’t do anything to help. Well, she does make me feel better when she holds my head. But after making so many jokes, it’s clear that I’m doing fine so she lets me go. She still seems concerned, but I just look at my bullies walking in the distance. I can’t help but despise them, and it suddenly brings all of the bad memories I have of them, because apparently my brain got rocked so hard that I felt the need to give some exposition.

My two bullies, at least the main ones, always walk together. I actually think they might be gay and trying to hide it, that’s why they make homophobic insults. But in reality, they probably have sex with half of the girls in this school. They are the most popular guys, everyone knows them, either because they are bullied by them as well, or because they have had sex with them. They are stereotypical jocks, so they are dressed the same, talk the same, and pretty much use the same insults to harass people.

Their main difference is that one is white and the other one is black. They are both taller than me, stronger than me, and I would even say more attractive than me. No, definitely they are if they can fuck every girl in school. But as handsome as they might be, they are still hated by everyone. Not even a sweet girl like Sunny likes him, I think. Maybe they secretly had sex with her, or, you know, I don’t even want to think about it. But the thing is that they’ve been bullying me for years. I don’t want to get into detail with everything they have done to me, but I think today is the last day they will mess with me.

Yea, I’m going to make them pay. They’ll see what I’m capable of. I actually already formed my plan. Well, I actually have a couple of ideas I could try to make them stop bullying me. One is a more indirect one, involving one of the girls that they talk to, and probably fuck too. If they want to mess with me, I can mess with one of their girls and show them how it feels. But that will take a lot of a certain skill that I don’t think I possess quite yet. I could always take the risk, because the other option is even more risky. I can also confront my bullies directly, like standing up for and defending myself. Of course, I can’t fight them, but at least I can show them my confidence and pray that it will work. But now that I think about it, one option sounds a lot better than the other…