Bully's Victim

*I do not condone these actions. This story is all fiction and what is written here should never be acted upon. There is always another way. If you find yourself in this situation, tell a teacher, parent, or trusted adult to help you handle these situations.*

David Stuckey was an average eleven-year-old, but he felt very below average, and this would only escalate now that he was starting middle school. No matter how hard he tried to fit it, he always found himself outside the social circle, so he had given up. He figured that if he could stay off the social radar that bullies in middle school wouldn’t even bat an eye at him.

He couldn’t have been more wrong. His first day back to school from summer vacation, went far worse than he could have expected. He woke up late, his parents were already at work, and he had slept through all of his alarms. He cursed aloud; this was not how he wanted to start the school year.  He ran through the house getting dressed and collecting his backpack he dashed from the house to the bus stop just down the road. David made it to the bus stop gasping for air just as it was about to close its doors.

“That was a close one.” The bus driver said and let David onto the bus. David gave the bus driver a wave of thanks and a smile, too out of breath to speak. Still panting David found himself a seat on the bus, and plopped down as the bus began to move again. David regained his breath on the short bus ride to school, but there was a thin layer of sweat upon his brow. The bus pulled up to the school and all of the kids got off the bus in a loud flourish.

David made his way around the crowd, ignoring all the cheers and hollering around him as his schoolmates greeted each other from the summer break. A little pang of jealousy made his stomach turn, no one had missed him over summer break. Even his parents barely talked to him. He spent much of his summer break surfing the internet and drawing comics. He made sure to leave those at home, David knew that if anyone at school saw him drawing them, he would instantly become a target.

Once David had found his homeroom, he positioned himself at a desk in the back corner closest to the door. He had discovered in his few years of trying to be invisible that it was the optimal spot to go unnoticed. David was the first student to enter the classroom, he took a breath to enjoy the calm of the empty room before a cluster of preadolescent students filled it with noise.

“Hey Duckey!” A deep voice called from behind him, someone had been in the room. David hesitated to turn around, he recognized the voice, but he didn’t want it to be him. “Hey, I’m talking to you.” The voice said impatiently.

“That’s not my name.” David replied quietly without turning.

“Oh, sure it is.” The voice replied. “You’re all sweaty from your little run this morning. I thought ducks could fly though. Why didn’t you just fly to school?” David tried to ignore his worst fear, but he kept on talking. This bully was only a year older than him, giving David one year free of him before they ended up in the same school for two years before he got another break. It was going to be a long two years. Leon Oyler was his name. He was a terrible boy, destined for terrible things. Unfortunately, his family was wealthy enough that it didn’t matter what kind of trouble he caused, they were always there to bail him out.

“Did you get held back? Is this your home room too?” David said standing his ground.

“You have gotten brave without me.” Leon replied, David heard him step closer but still refused to look at him. Seeing him would conjure up all sort of horrible memories, and David had not prepared himself for that. The nightmares he had in the weeks leading up to the start of the school year was terrible enough. He would wake up in a cold sweat after being chased by Leon and his buddies, or getting cornered in an empty hallway, no matter how much he tried to scream for help his voice wouldn’t work until he woke up screaming. What hurt most of all was the next morning when his father asked him about it.

“I heard you screaming, but you stopped before I had gotten out of bed, so I figured you were all right. Bad dream?” His father had asked him, but he was so mortified that he couldn’t think of a response. He just grunted and stared into his cereal watching it soak up the milk turning to mush.

“We can’t have you fighting back.” Leon said, pulling him back to the present with his breath hot on David’s neck. David winced, the warmth from his breath was entirely unwelcome, not only that but his breath smelled like he had eaten a whole onion for breakfast. A shiver ran down his spine, and he finally had the courage to turn to look at his aggressor, but Leon had vanished as if the encounter had only been in his head.

David glanced around the room; a teacher had entered. She was young, with short bouncy blond curls, and she was wearing a colorful skirt that fell below her knees and a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up her forearms. She deposited her armful of papers onto the desk and then the shoulder bag she was carrying across her body. She was a relatively ordinary looking woman, but David found himself unable to look away from her.

He watched her reorganize the papers she had put on her desk separating them into three piles, then she sat in her desk chair and pulled a laptop from the bag she had placed on the floor. She moved elegantly and purposefully, if she knew he was watching her she did not make it known. David knew that he should look away from her, but he found himself fixated and unable to avert his eyes.

David was only able to look away when a noisy group of girls entered the classroom. They were giggling happily, making David frown with annoyance. The one in the middle of them with long brown hair and big green eyes seemed to have had a chance encounter with someone they deemed ‘the hottest guy in school.’ Rolling his eyes David turned his attention to the row of cabinets on the wall beside him reading the tabs on them revealing their contents.

Beakers, test tubes, microscopes, all of these things told David that she was a science teacher. David reached into the front pouch of his backpack and pulled out a book he was reading, it was a fantasy novel that allowed him to escape from this world. It was a novel about revenge, and he could tell that the author wanted to get it across that revenge would never be the answer, but David knew better. He believed that revenge would feel good, depending on how bad the act was, of course.

David could identify with the main character in his novel, he thought flipping the soft cover open to the page he had left off. The character was always overlooked and bullied, but it had seemed he contained some sort of special power, and the king in the land was trying to keep him from discovering it by making him believe he was worthless. It gave David a sense of peace, that perhaps there was something good about him that caused Leon to bully him so relentlessly.

This fantasy series is what gave David peace on the nights he woke up from the nightmares that his bully had returned. David believed that if this character could persevere through the torment, which was much worse than what he was dealing with, then he could certainly survive middle school and high school. More students piled into the classroom and took their seats among the tables, and little to David’s surprise, no one took the seat beside him, until the last bell rang.

David felt eyes on him, and he glanced up from his book to see a boy with short black hair and dark eyes looking down at him. He had a thick layer of sweat upon his brow, and a very worried expression that told David his first day of school wasn’t going much better than his own. David nodded without speaking, giving the boy permission to sit beside him. He ignored the glances from around the room as it fell silent at the teacher’s request.

Homeroom continued without incident, and once the morning announcements had been made there was a few minutes of free time while our homeroom teacher handed out our new schedules for the year. She had introduced herself as Ms. Groves. I glanced through my schedule and discovered that the new boy sitting next to me had a very similar schedule.

“Looks like we are going to have to get to know each other.” I said showing him my schedule. Finally, some color seemed to return to his face. “I’m David Stuckey.”

“I’m Mark Lee.” He said timidly.

“Are you new here?” David asked, stuffing his fantasy novel into his backpack to get ready for the first class of the year.

“What are you reading?” Mark asked, ignoring David’s question.

“Oh,” David began pulling it back out. “ It’s a fantasy series I started reading over the summer. It’s great.” David said and noticed a peculiar look on Mark’s face. “Would you like to borrow it? I can bring the first one in tomorrow for you.”

“Really?” Mark’s face lit up.

“C’mon let’s get to our first class and I’ll tell you about it.” David was happy to have someone to talk to about the book he was able to find comfort in. The first day back at school was not what he had expected, it was a rollercoaster of emotions and events. Shifting the surprise meeting with Leon out of his mind, David moved onto his first class with his new friend Mark.

David and Mark went through most of the day without coming into contact with Leon Oyler until after lunchtime it seemed Leon was looking for him. He was stalking the halls quacking like a duck. Fear made David’s heart skip a beat and his stomach drop. Mark noticed the look on David’s face, but before he could ask what was wrong, David pushed Mark into an empty classroom. David let the door close on its own and he led Mark by his shoulders up against the wall out of sight of the door.

“Stay quiet. He can’t find us.” David whispered panicked. Mark didn’t question him and stayed quiet. The pair were silent for several minutes, waiting for the quacking to subside. Finally, the hallway grew quiet, and they looked at each other unsure if the coast was clear. A bell rang in the distance, a warning bell for class about to begin. A quick glance at each other and they knew what they had to do. Simultaneously, they bolted from the classroom and ran down the empty hallways and burst through the door of their classroom just as the last bell rang.

“That was close boys. Take your seats.” Their math teacher said, and they took the two empty seats in the back of the room. David sat heavily in his desk chair without bothering to remove his backpack. He had sweat on his brow again, but that didn’t concern him. His hands were shaking, he gulped trying to calm himself and take a deep breath. He could see Mark looking at him concerned, but the teacher was talking at the front of the class, and she would not tolerate any disruptions.

Mark had taken out his notebook and pencil and began writing the notes the teacher had been writing on the board. Adrenaline was still running too thickly in David’s blood for him to hear any of the words she was saying. He held his head in his hands staring blankly at his desk trying to calm himself. He had let his guard down. He made one friend, and the happiness made him feel invincible, until he heard that quacking sound. What would Leon have done to Mark if he had found out they were friends? Would Mark still want to be his friend if he knew the terrible things Leon was capable of?

David was angry at himself. He let someone in, and it made him vulnerable. He closed his eyes and words from the fantasy novel was reading entered his mind. ‘My friends make me strong; they are the reason I fight!’ The character had said. David’s breath steadied. That’s right. He thought to himself. He is an evil villain that needs to be stopped. David thought to himself. His hands stopped shaking, and he looked around his classroom finally seeing it for the first time since he had walked in.

The desks were in perfect rows, he wondered if his math teacher had used the cream-colored tiles on the floor as a grid to make them perfectly inline. David realized he was still wearing his backpack and turned to remove it, he noticed Mark was looking at him with a worried expression on his face. David nodded with a meek smile to let him know he was ok. He noticed that Mark had two notebooks on his desk, and they appeared to have identical notes written on them. David looked at them puzzled, and Mark returned it with a smirk and quickly tossed one of them onto David’s desk.

David looked at him with disbelief. Mark had been taking notes for him. David caught himself frozen in shock, but this was a different kind of shock, someone had done something kind for him without him asking. Mark was going to be the true friend that he needed to defeat his villain, David smiled.

“What’s going on back there?” The teacher called from the front of the room bringing David back to reality.

“Just needed to get my pencil sharpener.” David said quickly reaching into his backpack to pull out a pencil and sharpener. The teacher’s eyes lingered on David for a moment before she continued her lecture. David glanced through the notes Mark had written for him, there were almost three pages of them. Had he really been out of it for that long? David was impressed; Mark was able to write so neatly keeping up with the teacher’s lecture and writing double the notes.

The lecture only lasted a few more minutes before their teacher handed out a packet for them to break off into pairs to complete. Of course, David and Mark pushed their desks together, David owed him an explanation.

“What was that all about? You turned white as a ghost; I was afraid you were going to pass out.” Mark blurted out once the room had gotten noisy enough with chatter that they wouldn’t be overheard.

“That was Leon Oyler.” David sighed. “He has been bullying me since the third grade when he discovered my last name sounded more like ducky to him than Stuckey.” David paused a moment waiting for Mark to laugh but he couldn’t have held a more serious face. Pride welled in David’s chest, he couldn’t have been happier to have found a friend like Mark, so he pressed on. “I had a year off from him while he moved up to the middle school, but now we are back in the same school, and I’m more terrified than I thought I would be.”

“This year is going to be different.” Mark replied. “You’ve got me now. We won’t be victims to his bullying.”

The pride David felt with his newfound friend had him feeling elated for the remainder of the day and they skated through the rest of the school day laughing and telling each other all about themselves.  The school day was only minutes away from being over, and David, for the first time in his life, didn’t want to go home. The day had started out pretty rocky, but thanks to Mark, it turned out to be a pretty good day.

However, when the last bell rang, the two friends looked at each other, knowing they would see each other tomorrow. They packed up their bags and headed out to the buses that waited for them patiently at the front of the school.

“I’ll bring you the first book tomorrow.” David promised Mark before stepping onto the bus and Mark walked the line of buses until he found his and ascended the stairs. David found a seat in the middle of the bus at this point he was feeling elated, and Leon Oyler was the furthest thing from his mind for the first time in a long time, until David saw him walking beside the buses laughing with a girl he held under his arm. She must be his newest victim; David couldn’t help but feel disgusted by Leon. He really hoped he wasn’t as horrible to those girls as he had been to David.

Leon, as if he could hear David thinking about him, turned his head to look at David through the bus window. Leon had the biggest grin on his face, and an evil look in his eyes. David still felt brave, however, so he glared back down at him. David let his face show all of the anger and hate he had felt toward Leon for the last three years flow through his veins. His heart raced, begging to be released from its cage, his hands gripped the handle of his backpack so tightly, his knuckles sheened white, and his nails beckoned the blood in his palms. The bully looked at his victim, releasing the young girl from under his arm. Leon looked at David, bemused.

“Why so serious?” The bully said loudly towards the window of the bus. His smirk did not change, he still felt so powerful against David, but Leon didn’t know what the little devil inside David’s head was telling him to do. Seeing the plot come to life in his head David grinned a grin that matched his bully’s. This time Leon faltered, he looked at the boy confused and shook his head returning to the girl he had under his arm. No doubt she asked him what that was all about, because David could see Leon shake his head, obviously not telling her what had just happened.

David’s body was buzzing, is this how Leon felt when he acted the bully? David looked down at his fist that had been clenched around his backpack. His heart was still hammering in his chest, he opened his hand, the impressions of his fingernails showed on his palm like an art project. David shook the moment out of his mind and reached into his bag to get his novel out, turning to the page he had left off.

The words did not register in his eyes, David was staring into the book, he knew what he needed to do, the pieces were falling into place in his head. He had just gained a new friend, Someone worth fighting for, David thought to himself. Within a few minutes the bus started to move, David continued to stare at the pages of his book, his mind working without him like a clock that had just had its batteries changed. It ticked until it struck midnight, tolling in acknowledgment of the plan that had been formulated in his head.

David blinked and closed his book; his bus had come to his stop, and he slung his bag over his shoulder standing from his seat and exited the bus. David held his novel close to his chest, mulling over the events he was about to execute in his head. It needs to be done. David thought to himself. There is no other way. I cannot be a victim forever.

Turning the key in the lock, David entered his home and ascended the stairs to his bedroom. He closed the door behind him, not that it mattered, his parents would not be home for a few more hours. David dropped his backpack near the door where his desk was, he had homework to do after all, then he walked over to his bookshelf and selected the novel he had promised to bring Mark tomorrow and brought it over to his desk.

David looked at the cover of the book while sitting at his desk. The main character was a young boy who was frozen in time forever on the front cover of the book running from an erupting volcano. What a fitting depiction, David thought to himself. The terrible trials this boy had to face were just as relentless and unstoppable as the flow of lava he was running from. David knew better though, eventually the lava would stop, and it would cool allowing you to tread upon it without danger.

David did not want to face a terrible trail every day for the rest of his school years, he had to put a stop to Leon. David bit his lip worried about his plan but sighed and put the book he had promised Mark into his bag and pulled out his homework, he needed to finish it so that he could put his plan into action.

A couple hours later, David heard the front door open and the voices of his mother and father echoed through the hall and his closed door. Their voices were muffled he couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it didn’t matter, they rarely ever took the time for him. His homework was almost finished, and he would be able to finish his preparations for tonight. He no longer lived with fear.

It took David another hour to finish his homework, his stomach grumbled as he put his books back into his bag. He opened the door to his room and descended the stairs, the welcoming smell of dinner hit his nostrils when he got about halfway down the stairs. At least they remembered to feed him. David thought to himself with a bemused chuckle.

“There you are!” His mother said cheerfully when David entered the kitchen. “We didn’t want to interrupt your studying. You are just in time for dinner.” David looked down at the at the table, their plates were nearly empty. His father looked at her with a strange look, but David ignored it and turned to get himself a plate. David ate at the table and continued to pretend to read his book as he slurped the spaghetti.

Spaghetti was usually a food he would look forward to, but tonight the flavors escaped him while he continued his plan in his head. He only looked up a couple of times while his parents happily cleaned up dinner. David shook his head at them. Why were they so happy? He crunched his garlic bread and chewed irritated that their contagious happiness was impeding his plan making.

It didn’t take David long to finish his dinner, he put his dishes in the dishwasher and left his parents in the kitchen to be the happy, blissfully ignorant fools that they were. David plopped himself down on his bed to wait until it was just starting to get dark. Since summer was still here, he waited for a little more than an hour for the sun to begin to set. David changed into his darkest clothes made his bed look like he was sleeping in it, just in case his parents looked in his room.

David followed the shadows of his house to the kitchen where he grabbed the biggest knife out of the block on the counter. Then he crept out of the house as quietly as he could. Thankfully, the town they lived in wasn’t that big, and everyone at school had all grown up together and knew exactly where everyone else lived. David tucked the knife into the top of his boot so that he wouldn’t hurt himself, and he half jogged half ran in the direction of Leon’s house.

Nothing could stop him now. He was going to be the hero of his own story. Panting, David had finally arrived across the street from Leon’s house. It was a spectacular home, beautifully manicured lawn and flowers even in early September the house looked as though it was still in the prime of summer. The night was warm with a cool breeze that David was thankful for after jogging all this way. The house was surrounded by a simple fence, but David suspected they would have security cameras that would alert them to any movement. A quick glance at the house and David counted four of them on the front of the house, and probably more around the back too.

A small hiccup in his plan. David pulled his hood up over his face, so that even if he was caught on the camera there was nothing to prove it was him. He had thought this through. He walked by the house as if he was just taking a nightly stroll, and at the last moment, he dove into the bushes, the fence was on the other side of them, but he had made it this far, nothing was going to stop him now.

He followed the fence around to the side of the property, where he guessed there would be a very small gap in the cameras. He climbed over the five-foot-tall fence and pressed himself against the house. He listened for any sounds coming from the house, but it was well past nine now, and he suspected that they would be in bed. As David stood against the side of the house listening, he smelled something terrible. He had smelled it before but had never been this close to it.

Creeping closer to the back of the house, David’s heart thumped excitedly in his chest. Peering around the corner of the house, David spotted Leon sitting on the patio smoking a bowl. David pulled back and covered his mouth to keep himself from laughing out loud. It’s as if fate wants this to happen, how fortunate for David. The plan quickly changed in David’s mind; he was even more excited now. He pulled the knife out of his boot.

“Quack! Quack!” David did the best imitation of a duck call that he could muster. He heard something clatter on the wood of the patio and Leon cursed. Then there was silence, as Leon listened for the sound again, so David gave it to him. David heard footsteps in the grass, Leon had gotten curious and was checking on the sound. David kept close to the side of the house; he saw Leon’s shadow creeping closer to his hiding place. David held his breath, waiting for the perfect moment.

Finally, Leon’s figure emerged from the other side of the house and David took this opportunity to overpower his enemy. There was no turning back now. His heart pumped wildly in his chest, even a smile danced upon his lips. He was going to be free.  David grasped firmly around the bully’s wrist and pulled with all his might. The element of surprise was on David’s side. Before Leon could even make a sound, David had pulled him against the house and pressed the knife against his throat.

“Ducky?” Leon breathed, more surprised than scared.

“I hope it was fun for you,” David began, “because this won’t be.” He said and he pushed as hard as he could and slid the knife across Leon’s neck in a quick motion. No turning back. Leon’s hands sprung to his neck, trying to keep the wound from bleeding, but like a broken dam the blood gushed disobediently. Leon looked David in the eyes, unashamed fear reflected in his eyes, and he fell to his knees before David. Leon tried to grab David’s pant leg, but he stepped back out of his reach.

David stayed only a moment longer to see Leon fall on his face in the grass, and he followed his path through the bushes, tightening his hood around his face to make sure nothing would be seen or left behind. In the bushes he put the knife back into his boot, he knew he would have to sacrifice them, nothing could remain of Leon. Half running, half jogging back to his house, David went to the back of his house to let himself back in, but before he opened the back door to the kitchen, he slipped off his boots, pants, and hoodie slid them carefully into a trash bag he had left for himself and hid them beneath the other bags of trash.

The back porch light sprang on when David got a little closer and he checked himself and the trash barrel to make sure no blood could betray him. He kept the knife in his left hand so that he could open the door to the kitchen. It was almost dark inside the house and well past eleven now. He tiptoed to the sink and turned the water on until it was as hot as he could stand. He washed the knife down and scrubbed as hard as he could to make sure no blood remained.

When he was satisfied with his job, he dried it with a hand towel and carefully placed the knife back with the towel instead of his bare hand. An extra precaution, he decided, was necessary. After all, there’s no reason an eleven-year-old should be using a knife. David opened a cabinet and took out a snack, just in case his parents heard him coming back to his room, which was very unlikely.

David crept through the dark house and into his room, he replaced the decoy pillows with his own body and relaxed deeply into his covers. Finally free of his bully, David fell asleep with a broad smile on his face.

*I do not condone these actions. This story is all fiction and what is written here should never be acted upon. There is always another way. If you find yourself in this situation, tell a teacher, parent, or trusted adult to help you handle these situations.*