stephen

Steven Paster Period 5-6 B Short Story

Today would be the last Saturday I would ever spend in my house again. We were moving this coming Thursday. I despised my parents for making me move. I will have to reorganize my room, make new friends, meet new teachers, learn in a different school, and deal with being the new all over again. You see my parents are both engineers. Whenever they finish one project we simply pack our things and move to our next home. Tomorrow we start packing my room. I will pack my clothes, toys, books, trophies, and everything else within the confines of my room, besides my bed. My father is too cheap to ship everything before we leave and stay in a hotel, so he makes us stay here instead. I love my father. He is an intelligent, caring man, but sometimes he takes this “cheap” thing a //little// too far. When he sometimes gets on my nerves I remind him of how miserly he is being. My mother is like no other. She is so sweet, hardworking, and is able to keep a smile on her face all the time. She works part time with my father, but otherwise she stays home and cleans, does the dishes, runs errands, and prepares dinner. She always likes things to be neat and proper. She too can be miserly, but not nearly as close as my father. I am the combination of my parents. I work hard in school, get good grades, and work hard to succeed. I do not however want to be an engineer for I do not want to move every 2 or so years. I would never want to do to my kids what my parents did to me that I hated. My goal is to become a doctor. The other kids at school sometimes give me a hard time about that though, not because I’m always the new kid, but because of my size. I am not too overweight, but yes I am tall and a little on the chubby side. What people don’t see though is my strength. Oh yes I may seem chubby, but most of it is actually muscle, and my fat seems to lie on top of it. I won’t deny that I have more padding than other folks, but I’m not as “big” as I may seem. “Watch where you’re going” and “is that a new kid?” are just some of the remarks I received while shuffling through the halls attempting to find my classes. It is very hard to come to a new school, be wondering through the hallways trying to find your way around, and have kids snickering behind your back all at the same time. I try to ignore as best as I can, but it always seems to get under my skin. The year was beginning to go by and everything seemed to be running smoothly until the day we returned from winter break. There was another new kid that had just joined our class. He was quite a nerd I must say. Short, thin, big-rimmed glasses, the whole thing, but I began to talk to him in hope to make his transition easier to this school. I remembered how I felt when I first came, so I figured why not try to help someone and make a friend at the same time? As I began to talk with him I found that we both shared some of the same interests. We discussed video games, our favorite sports teams, how bad our families were and things of the sort. Things seemed to become better for me, I wasn’t getting picked on as much anymore. A couple weeks went by and I became very comfortable in school. I was not being picked on I had made several new friends. Unfortunately my new friend, Andy, was the new kid and was getting picked on; although I did not know it and he did not tell me about it. I found out one day when I stayed up during my lunch hour to finish a project and on my way down to the cafeteria I found him getting repeatedly kicked on the floor. I approached the guys that were beating him up only to find myself between a rock and a hard place. Now they were not only kicking Andy, but were hitting myself as well. I decided not to fight back and let them take the blame. As soon as the bell rang the beatings came to an abrupt halt. I didn’t see the bullies running away since I was on rolling on the floor gasping for air, but I heard the patter of feet that got softer and softer as they ran away. When the teacher had found out about the confrontation she immediately pulled Andy and I from class, as well as the bullies that had hurt us. We each took a turn talking to the principal and explained our side of the story. Andy and I told her our side of the story and that I had seen Andy getting beaten up, that I tried to stop it, and that they had beaten me up too. I’m an unsure what the bullies’ side of the story was, but whatever lie they told the principal didn’t buy it. Their punishment was a suspension for two weeks. I must say I felt bad for being a little tattle-tale, but they deserved what they got. They looked really angry on the way out of the principal’s office though and snarled at us a little. The two weeks went by and the bullies returned to the school, only to be angry and now believed they had a “valid” reason to pick on my friend Andy for getting them in trouble. This time I saw them throwing blow after blow to Andy’s stomach and decided they should have a taste of their own medicine. I couldn’t restrain myself any longer. I had seen my friend beat up too many times and I myself had my fair share of beatings. I lost control. I charged the three bullies and tackled two of them right onto the scorching asphalt outside in the parking lot. The other one I grabbed by the arm and twisted it until he fell to the ground. They got back up and attempted to take both of us down. I don’t know how but I somehow managed to raise my fists, knock one of them down, kick the other one and knocked the wind out of him, and pushed the other one onto the ground before they could reach Andy. They still managed to get a few punches in on me, but I recovered. When they got tired of fighting they fled. They were scared. They ran into the school and told what I had done to them. Again we were all sent to the principal’s office. “Now Eric this isn’t like you at all to hurt someone. You’re a straight A student and have never gotten yourself into trouble before. What happened?” “Well you see those three were hurting my friend, like they have done in the past, and I just seemed to have lost my temper. They have hurt me and Andy so many times before and have pushed us around so much that I lost control of myself. I dragged them off of Andy and they came back to hurt us again. I continued to fight them off until they fled and came to tell you. I understand if I get in trouble. Fighting them was the wrong thing to do, but I could think of no other course of action to take at that moment. I know what I did was wrong and am willing to accept responsibility for my actions.” The room was eerily silent. The principal seemed to be frozen in her spot. She contemplated the situation and understood. Finally, she spoke, “Well it seems to me that you were standing up for yourself and your friend, and did not fully think before you did.” My heart sunk. I was hoping I would get off easy and only take a detention since I thought I did the right thing. Her tone of voice made it sound like she was going to suspend me for a long time. “However I can see the how your reaction was your way of helping your friend. You felt like if you didn’t do something then and there he would be hurt, and so you took action. Not the best choice, but one that succeeded in defending yourself and Andy. Just between the two of us… I would have done the same thing if I was as strong as you are. Now the administration will disapprove but I am going to let you off the hook. You have done nothing wrong to them in the past, but yet they still picked on you and Andy. Unfortunately I cannot penalize them either because then it seems foolish to punish those that got beat up and not punish those that hurt them. You’re a good kid, Eric, and I admire you for standing up for your friend even though you knew you would get into trouble, possibly even get beat up. You are free to go.” I was so relieved I had not been punished. I suppose Andy had told her his part of the story and told her I was trying to defend him prior to my conversation with her. I felt like a two-ton weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I was happy that I stood up for my friend, even though some others may think it’s wrong. Today I have learned something, stand up and fight what you believe in even if there are consequences. The consequences of not taking action may be larger and more severe if you do not do the right thing.