Auras
A New Beginning
May 31st, 2001
They were after me again. I needed a place to stay, a hideout, a safe place. But there was nothing nearby. The teens, after the older one got home, had come after me with a vengeance. I had suffered through school, getting beaten verbally and bullied, to try and go home every day without being beaten again, physically this time. With no friends to try and help, and no plan of my own, I had turned the corner to meet them off of school property, where they could harass me fully, and bowled right into them. One of the teens was a girl, about 16, and she had just been coming into her young womanhood. She got a bag in the face, laden with books, binders, and a 2 pound stone I had picked up that day. Needless to say, she had a broken nose.
The other two teens, both guys, were pushed apart, and one of them, a tall redhead, was kicked right in the crotch with my shin. He got a bruised testicle. I ran then, leaving one teen chasing me, two on the ground. The girl shook off her nose quickly, and helped the tall redhead to his feet. She led him on, while the last kid, a big 17 year-old with black hair and a huge build, ran after me. I had become fairly good at eluding them in crowded areas, but today, the way home was clear. There was a little bit of forest off to my left, which I could lose them in if I could find my way back. There was a creek to my right, cutting off that way. The only way left was a duck and weave through gravel and tall grass. I lived out in the flats of Saskatchewan, and there were little to no real hiding places. I ran, always tacking to a different direction, and saw my house in the distance, about a 2 minute more run. I wondered if I could run for another two minutes, when I heard a grunt behind me. The older kid had caught up enough to take a flying leap at me. And he bore me screaming down to the ground. Luckily, we were on the grass by then, and I didn’t scruff my face off. I did cut a bad cut on my left cheek, but nothing too deep. The older kid turned me around and was about to hit me when I screamed out “LEAVE ME ALONE!!” And to my amazement, he did. He just got off of me, turned around, and walked away. It was a moment later when his two friends came up to him, and turned away with him. I decided not to press my luck much further, and ran to the safety of my house. I got in, and was then berated for my cut cheek, which I passed off as a fall in the grass, which was a half-truth.
June 2nd, 2001
Nothing really new happened from then on. The bullies left me alone when I told them to, the older kids let me keep my money, and even my parents were kinder to me. I guessed I was because I was coming into an age where it was less easy to pick on me than younger kids. I was determined to stop it, to call a halt to all this nonsense. I tried to talk to every kid at school, but that was impossible. I couldn’t convince a teacher, not a single one, to let me go on the announcements about bullying, and I couldn’t even get a little piece in to the local newspaper about bullying at schools. It was then that what I had, my ‘power’ so to speak, came out and I fully understood it.
I tried once more to talk to my teacher about the announcement idea. It was an optional assembly promotion, to get kids who were well known bullies, or bullied, and get them together in a talk about why it hurt both of them to bully or be bullied. It was a good idea, yeah, but I had no other idea how to go about it. I just assumed that the teachers would help set it up. Which they did, but that’s getting ahead of myself.
I asked my teacher for the millionth time, “Why not? It’s a good idea!”
“Yes, it is a good idea. Just not right now. The teachers are bogged down with exams for the older kids, and the younger kids can’t be pulled out of class too often.”
“But, it would only be a lunch time thing! It would happen at lunch, and that’s all!”
“Well, if it’s at lunch… No, it’s still not enough time to get ready and done before exams start!”
“Ugh, this isn’t about exams, or tests, or last days of school! This is about bullying, which is a big issue!”
At this moment, that glassy stare took over the teacher, a well built young woman by the name of Ms. Catcher. We all had a good laugh about the name for years to come.
“Yes, a big issue.”
“Yes, it is. And we need to stop it!”
“Yes, stop it, of course.”
“Uh, Ms. Catcher, are you okay?”
“Yes I am. Why do you ask?”
“Never mind. So, you’ll help me. No questions about it, right? Give me the permission, help out, and everything?”
“Yes, of course.”
I waited for a moment for her to yell Surprise or something, but there was no fanfare, no balloons and streamers to let me know this was a joke. She shook her head slightly, and said in a defiant tone that was more like her old self,
“All right, we need to get started then. I’ll make an announcement to the teachers and the principal, and get them to see a small bit of reason. I’m leaving you in charge of getting your speech ready.”
I walked away from that meeting surprised with myself. If I got assertive, I got what I wanted. Huh, interesting. Did it work with others like that? I decided to try it out on a group of kids in my grade, who didn’t really hate me, but didn’t like me either. They ‘nothing-ed’ me. I walked to the edge of the group, and listened to their inane chatter about the teacher who looked like he was always confused and absently stroking his beard while speaking. It was actually quite funny. I decided to try out two different tactics. Asking them, and then telling them. See which worked.
“Um, could you get me a coke please?”
“No, get it yourself” was the general consensus. It was more verbal than that, but I’d rather not put it down here. So I tried the second approach.
“Jason, go get me a coke. Now.”
And with that, Jason left the group, went to the pop machine, and bought a coke for me, handed it to me, and went back to the conversation. I pulled him away for a second, and asked him “Why did you buy this coke for me?”
“I did it because it was the right thing to do.”
Oh. Oh! That meant that I had the ‘power’ to tell people what to do! This would be a better life for me, it would!