Bullying

Hours later, the clock was torturing me as usual. I didn't pay much attention to Mr. Weaver or other lessons.

The only thing I paid attention was the clock which was hanging on top of the whiteboard.

It was 3:59 in the afternoon, there were only five seconds left until the end of school.

Three........two................one!

Coming behind, the school bell rang loudly. I pushed away my chair and got on with my feet. I was desperate to get out of the classroom.

Yet, two male classmates stopped by and prevented me from going forward.

Unexpectedly, someone grabbed my shoulders from behind, I nearly jumped.

"Alfie, mind I take a minute?" a voice asked, I recognized that voice, it was Philip.

Argh.......this is a really bad day.

As I expected, two classmates took me to a flower yard outside the school walls. One was a fat boy with strong arms and another one had pimples on his face. They were both grinning evilly.

And in the middle of them, Philip stood there smiling.

Without warning, he grabbed my front collar tightly and pushed me aside. I lost my balance and hit the wall nearby. Pain went across my body. Philip barked.

"Hey, BOOKWORM! Didn't you say that you did what I TOLD you to do? I asked you to shave points in order for me to be the first but WHY didn't you do that?!" Philip shouted furiously, revealing his true self.

"I'm......sor....... sorry, Philip. I didn't mean it........err........I tried my best to shave points but I couldn't control the scores so well. I'm really sorry. I won't make this mistake again. Please don't be angry," I apologized. My voice was trembling. I tried to be as gentle as possible, but it looked like no matter what I said would only trigger his anger.

"DON'T BE ANGRY? I LOST in front of the WHOLE class! How can I NOT be angry?! And the one who won happened to be you, BOOKWORM! This is HUMILIATION!" Philip screamed. His ears went red when he recalled the time when everyone in class was talking about me. He couldn't stand himself losing to me. Philip let go of my collar and punched me in the face. It was painful.

"That hurts, right?" Philip asked me wickedly even though he knew the answer already. My head was rather dizzy and I could barely hear what he said, but my instinct told me that I needed to nod.

"Well, you deserved that!" He roared. He let go of his hand and pushed me aside. I fell on the ground and collapsed. My uniform was being crumbled into scrapes of papers, as dust twirled in the air. Philip laughed manically aloud as he saw me so weak, fragile, and vulnerable. Despite this being a nightmare, I still felt relieved that he showed mercy on me. I wanted to look at Philip while talking but I was too afraid to look at his eyes, instead I gazed at the ground.

"Cough....Cough.....Philip. Err......it is true that I got first but this didn't mean that I am better than you. You're the ruler of the class while I'm simply a supporting role. How can someone like me be better than you?" I praised Philip hard in words and tried to describe myself as humble as possible, hoping Philip could let me go.

Philip's mouth slightly went upwards and warned, "So, it turns out that you know yourself. I will forgive you this time, but this will never happen again."

"That's right, LOSER. If you don't want to be punched again, you better listen to Philip!" said the fat boy.

"Yeah! DON'T THINK you are smart even if you have good results. In reality, you are just WEEDS!" said the boy with pimples, laughing at me.

Philip walked towards the school gate, his two followers followed him and left. I stared at their back and felt relieved that they had finally gone.

At school, there is a thing called 'social circle'.

Everyone in class will be separated into different circles. The larger the circle is, the higher position you will be and you can enjoy what you call 'happy school life'.

But if you are in a small circle, you will have less power and less authority.

Yet, no matter if you are in a small circle or a large one. You must follow the rules in the circle. You have to follow the rules no matter if you want to follow it or not.

If you don't follow the rules, you will be isolated.

As for me, I'm not located in any of the circles at all.

I'm located outside the circle.

A person which is called, 'The Marginal man'.

After I saw Philip leave, I struggled to stand up on my feet. But my legs were still shivering, I could barely move. Suddenly, a voice showed up in the air.

"Are you alright?" a kind and familiar voice came from my back. I glanced backwards and saw a short straight black hair man with jade eyes lying against the wall. It was Jay. He walked closer to me and lent his hand to help me stand up on my feet. Our eyes crossed together, I saw his eyes were darken again and lips were being tightened, he must have been biting them. Sigh....I made him worry again.

I reached out for Jay's hand, I felt Jay's body temperature. Strange. His hand is as cold as ice but I feel warmth in it. I looked up at Jay and comforted, "Don't worry, Jay. I'm fine."

"Fine?! Those guys are bullying you again! I don't think you are fine at all." Jay scolded.

"That always happens, I'm used to it already." I answered.

Still, Jay didn't understand me at all and kept on gibbering, "Alfie, your bad habit is you always get used to things. You need to learn how to defend yourself."

"How?" I asked, wondering what he would teach me.

"Such as giving those bullies a one shot hit! And punch them in the face!" Jay insisted.

"What are you saying......?" I was speechless. Sigh.....why this guy can't think carefully before saying anything?

"Jay, I told you a lot of times already, it is wrong to have violence." I reminded him, even though he never listened.

"No, you don't understand, Alfie. This is not violence. This is self-defense. If you keep on showing your weakness to them, they will only keep on bullying you. You need to resist!" Jay explained. Resist, huh? But that is so troublesome.

"Jay. It is not that I don't want to defend myself. It's just that Philip is the class leader, he had huge influence in class. If we offend him, I may be isolated in class. My relationship at school is already not good enough, I don't want to worsen it."

"But look at your body! You got punched so many times!"

"Calm down. Isn't this what always happening? I'm used to it already. Besides, it is not that Philip will always bully me for no reason, he is angry because of the test today, that's all. Once he gets what he wanted, he'll leave me alone." I replied.

"Yes, but......." said Jay, he wanted to rebut my words but he couldn't find any words to say.

"I know you are worrying about me. But I'm really fine." I added.

"Emm.....err...." Jay kept on scratching his head, shrugging on what I said. He didn't want to accept my views but he couldn't convince me either. Thinking back and forth for a while, he eventually gave up and agreed, "Alright, I'll listen to you. But if you are really in danger, even if you disagree, I will still give them a lesson!"

"I wish that never happens." I sighed.

Jay suddenly stared at me and made a gleaning smile.

"Alfie. Let's leave that aside. It is getting late. We still need to buy pizza for dinner and wine too. Let's go to------"

"Alfie?" A voice behind me interrupted Jay. Jay realized there was someone nearby and shut his mouth immediately. A name appeared in my brain when I heard the voice. I turned around.

It was Mr. Weaver.

"Alfie, why are you still here? If you don't have any activities, then you should go back home and take some rest." Mr. Weaver instructed. He seemed worried, perhaps it was because he saw I was strange in the morning when I received my test paper.

"Sorry, Mr. Weaver. I'll leave now." I smiled as I carried my hand school bag on my shoulders. Before I left, I kept my eyes fixed on Mr. Weaver. Mr. Weaver stepped further inwards near the grass bushes, trees and searched around, his eyes were searching for something, well, more accurately, someone. Judging by his behavior, I believed he heard me chatting with someone, he circled the place again but he found nothing. He felt awkward and gazed at the direction where I was standing. Next to me, Jay stood still and remained quiet. He didn't dare to make any sound. Mr. Weaver walked near to me, without knowing Jay's existence and asked.

"By the way, Alfie. Are you alone, here? I thought I heard you talking to someone."

I peeped one glare at Jay and answered with a creepy smile, "I didn't talk to anyone, Mr. Weaver. You must have been too tired from work."

"I see. Is it my imagination?" Mr. Weaver complained. I said goodbye to Mr. Weaver and left him, Jay followed me, with his legs floating in the air.

∞∞

What is family?

What are friends?

I don't know what is family and I don't know what are friends.

At school, I was being bulled. And at home, I was being treated as tools.

So, I made a wish.

I made a desire.

I hoped that I could have a family, hoped that I could have friends.

Then......

Jay appeared.

He gave me everything.

He comforted me when I was sad and believed in me even though no one did.

He is my family member.

Even though he is a ghost.