4. Bully

‘I’ll call your father if you keep this up,’ she continued.

‘If he had one,’ Samantha mocked from the back of the class, starting a much louder roar of laughter from the class.

‘Yes, we all know Brendan is adopted, Miss Patricks now can you please shut it!’ she snapped.               

The bell rang for everyone to dismiss and Brendan took his books and walked out of the classroom. Susan Raymond, one of his classmates joined him as he was making his way out.

‘Do you at least know his name?’ she asked him in a concerned voice. Susan Raymond was a thumb shorter than Brendan and the brown and black extensions in her hair were too obvious to miss. She had suspicious looking eyes which hastily gave away her gossip talent.

‘Who’s name?’ He pretended to be surprised.

‘I mean your father, duh! Do you know his name?’

‘No I don’t and I don’t ever want to find out,’ Brendan responded quickly and harshly, getting furious with her for mentioning his biological father who had nearly killed his mother. He managed to throw a sideways glance at her. Apart from gossip, he noticed that her expression was that of a person who had no worries at all. Her small pebble-like nose actually made her look conspicuous. Brendan regretted sharing the same classroom with her and Angus and Samantha, his worst enemies, but he could say that Susan was neither a friend nor a foe. The only thing he hated about her was her gossiping habit and her relentless inquisitions. 

‘I don’t want to even imagine his name or what his ugly face looks like,’ he finished the conversation with a snap. Almost everyone in the school knew about what his biological father had done.

As he walked through the corridor, he heard his name being called. He started looking behind him in different directions from where he was standing but he could not see the person responsible. There were too many people walking and running out of their classrooms which made it difficult for him to spot the culprit calling his name in such a tone of malice.                            

‘Hey, Eriksson!’

There it was again. It was not the voice of Angus the school bully. It was not that deep, so whose was it?

‘Eriksson. That’s your name, isn’t it?’

He jerked his head violently to his right as if trying to break his own neck.

The boy was African GEMian (black), the exact same height and probably the same age as he was. The difference was in the muscle which was in favor of the stranger. He had a black bandana on his head, which was against the school uniform. He was dressed in such a scruffy way that one would think he was raised in a cave. His belt was unbuckled and his shoes were unpolished. ‘Go find out what I did to your locker. Dat is if you’re interested.’ 

The boy had such an annoying arrogance and tone that reminded him of Samantha. Even his smirk was irritating. 

He grinned and continued his way through the hall, bumping his shoulder into Brendan’s in an obvious attempt to provoke him.

‘His name’s Thomas Bradley. He’s new here,’ Simon informed him as they walked towards Brendan’s locker. ‘He was kicked out of his previous school for alcohol and d… abuse,’ he gulped. Simon despised the word “drugs”, only because his mother was abusing them too. Brendan made sure he tried his best to avoid mentioning this when he was with him because he knew it made him feel uncomfortable. Despite his stern appearance, Simon was very sensitive. Brendan though, welcomed this personality that his best friend had without any complaints.

‘He told Principal Johnston that the school was full of racists but I think that’s just a lousy excuse to get accepted into Bradwield High,’ Simon added. 

Simon and Brendan were in the same grade but they learnt in separate classes. Simon was in the first eleventh grade class and Brendan was in the last where, unfortunately, his worst enemies, Angus and Samantha, who got a kick out of tormenting him every day, were. 

When they got to Brendan’s locker they found that it had been slammed in with something which could have been a sledgehammer or a heavy brick. It had been caved in so much that using the code had become pointless. 

‘Oh my…’ Simon began, his mouth wide in bafflement. ‘How could he do this? Not even Angus would or could do something like this. Brendan, you should tell the principal about this,’ he advised him.