Blaze of Glory.
It was a bright and sunny summer day. Neil was walking home alone from school. He didn’t have many friends. Only a few, all of whom could be counted with one hand. There was Bob, the school’s head boy. Then there was Quake, the math geek. These two boys were very well-off and had the privilege of having their own chauffeurs, so the need for them to walk home never really existed.
Neil was the ordinary student, a nerd, really, and he came from a medium class family. He walked to and from school. His house was not that far away a distance from the school he attended so it was never really something to fuss about. He did not mind the walks.
In fact, he loved them. They gave him time to think by himself. Isolation. Every intellectual being needed that. Neil often found himself dreaming of accomplishing big things; like stopping global warming, improving universal healthcare and even finding the cure for cancer. He would have loved them even more if not for the fact that he would get attacked everyday by the local neighbourhood bullies. These bullies were from a different school and they were in senior year; meaning that there was nothing a freshman like Neil could do to resist their insults and attacks. They were of better build compared to Neil, a scrawny little 14 year-old boy. Neil took a detour instead of using the usual route back home in hopes of avoiding the bullies. He entered an alley and turned on his iPod. He was very sure that he would not cross paths with the bullies that day. His iPod was on full blast. He could not hear anything and as he danced to Annie Lennox’s ‘Sweet Dreams’, the bullies, Paul, Tim and Alex were sneaking up behind him.
They had been waiting at the school gates, waiting for Neil to leave school. At the count of three, Tim grabbed Neil by his belt and pulled him back with full force. Neil fell backwards on his behind. The bigger boys surrounded Neil and started laughing at his face. They kicked him around and took his money. All he could do was to cry and frown intermittently. They took his iPod and started fumbling with the controls. They laughed and sniggered at the contents of his iPod; music that was 20 years out of style 20 years ago. He cringed and winced at the pain and humiliation he was receiving. He felt so helpless and pathetic knowing that he did not even have the guts to take a stand for himself. Suddenly he felt a surge of adrenaline. He could not believe that he had allowed these big, lousy ruffians to push him around for so long. He rose to his feet and ignored all the pain that was rushing through his entire body. Those three boys were strong and they gave no mercy during sessions like this. Paul, the self-proclaimed leader of the group gave Neil a very displeased stare. He chuckled and the other two, Tim and Alex, followed suit like the very minions they were. Neil spit at the trio and lunged at Paul and started to punch the latter uncontrollably once he had him securely pinned down. He released all the hatred and anger that he had bottled up inside him for all those years. Alex and Tim stood rooted to the ground. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It had never occurred to them that Neil could have been so brutal and brave. Finally, after so many cries for help from their supposed leader, the two of them pried Neil off of Paul. Paul’s nose was bleeding and Neil’s knuckles were slightly bruised. The three bullies tried to grab Neil by his shirt but Neil, being younger, was fast and agile and had ducked just in the nick of time.
He sped off towards the suburban neighbourhood. He thought that it made perfect sense that the three older boys would give up on trying to chase after him as the neighbourhood was too much of a public location, with too many possible witnesses. He was right, as usual. He continued running home, sporting bloodied knuckles and a satisfied grin. He knew they would get him the next day but he was proud of the fact that he had managed to escape in a blaze of glory.
Your typical bullying story. with a not so typical title. Oh, well :P
It's better than the poem I'm listening to on Magic 105.4 radio about soccer, I can tell you that :P
Gonna send it in now. Thoughts?
1 comment:
That's a really good compo dude! :D i love it (:
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