Bullies

   

‘We have to do something about that freak!’ gasped Steve. The freak in question had just attempted to strangle Steve with his school tie. Steve’s face was beaming like bad sunburn. Some how he managed to looked angry and embarrassed at the same time.

We had been waiting at the bus stop, minding our own business - when along came the freak, AKA the poison dwarf; our name for him but to his face it was Evo- if you wanted to live.

‘Yeah!’ I agreed. I felt guilty relief that, thanks to the arrival of the bus, I ‘d escaped  Evo’s attention – this time.

‘What you got in mind?’ I said.

‘Dun’no - but we have t’do something’ Steve had lost his embarrassment; he was just angry now.

Evo wasn’t like the other bullies at Bankhead high school. He was smaller, meaner and a total psycho. To tell the truth, he made the others look like a bunch of light weights. He was too psycho for them; they had nothing to do with him. He wasn’t part of any gang – unless you counted the kids from the children’s home. Even with them he kept to himself; a total loner.

But that all changed on the day that Big Eck came to our school. He was new to the children’s home and the new boy at school – so he should have had that special new boy welcome: a head flushing in the toilets; courtesy of ‘Tank’, who was sort of the official bully-the bullies bully; no one ‘messed’ with him. But big Eck didn’t know that and he wasn’t the type to be messed with either. He knew the ‘ropes’; he‘d been to lots of schools and as a new boy he had a simple strategy: strike first; beat-up the biggest, meanest looking kid in the school.

Tank was totally unprepared for the unprovoked attack. He was just getting into his banter, sounding out Big Eck (the inevitable crowd were starting to gather), when wallop! Tank’s flapping mouth was slammed shut with Big Eck’s meaty fist. There was none of the usual squaring of - the typical boxer posturing. Big Eck just tore right into him; one blow after another; wallop, wallop, wallop! KO! Tank never had a chance.

The crowed were strangely quiet; there was none of the usual shouting and cheering; I think everyone was stunned into silence by the one sided violence of the attack. Everyone except Evo. He had the strangest expression on his face: It took me a moment to get it. He looked happy! Ecstatically happy; he could hardly contain himself. He shifted on his feet, swearing loud enough to attract critical looks.

After the fight was over Big Eck stood back, totally unfazed - if anything he seemed bored by the whole proceedings. He looked around as if daring anyone to say anything. He didn’t utter a word; he didn’t need to; his violence was eloquent enough. There was not a mark on him. He turned and walked away.

I watched as Evo followed him and I had a sense of trouble: maybe we would have to do something about Big Eck as well as Evo…a nightmare situation.

After that Big Eck and Evo seemed to be inseparable – we called them the gruesome two-some and tried to stay out of their way as much as possible. And we weren’t the only ones; the whole school seemed to be avoiding them. Big Eck and Evo just needed to enter a room or an area of the grounds at break, and it would start to clear out.

 When Tank finally came back to school he was a harsh reminder for everyone; his wickedly bruised face declared: Don’t mess with Big Eck and right beside Big Eck was Evo, with his demented grin like an evil Cheshire cat. What bothered me was the thought: if he was the cat, who were the mice?