Ted the carrot head

That day was a life changing moment for me. I remember like it was yesterday. I ran out of the school feeling angry and with tears in my eyes. I sat in the the floor right in front of the fence near the playground of my elementary school where a boy in my class had said very offensive things to me. I curled down, and put my head in between my legs to cover my shame.  My orange hair had brought the attention of everyone in my class. They had a special chant for me: “Ted the Carrot head”.
         It all started with a new student that came from Arizona. His name is Daniel, and he was very mean. He was very popular amongst our classmates because of his ability to come out with great insults. The best of his work was mine.
          But he had gone overboard this time. While I was eating my lunch, that day, he came and shoved it in my mouth. I couldn’t even scream, and I choked a little.  After I recovered, he started chanting the usual thing: “Ted the carrot head”. That’s when I started to run.
         As I sat there, my anger grew bigger and bigger. So many awful things went by my head. Then I noticed  a pointy rock that was lying about. I stared at it for a while, thinking about what I would do with that rock. I decided to pick it up. The rock was smooth, I could tell by the way it was pressed tight against my finger. I walked over to where he was  celebrating my defeat.
         “Hey Daniel!”, I shouted with confidence and anger in my eyes. “Eat this”, then I threw the rock with all my strength. In all my anger I had completely forgotten how bad my aim was. The rock hit the window behind him.
         There was a silence that followed. I had just challenged the biggest bully in my school. I could already picture the bruises, and the explanation I would have to give my mother.
         He seemed furious, you can tell in the way he was staring at me. He got another rock that was in the playground. I was much afraid, he was one of the top baseball players in the school. Known, of course, for his aim. Running was no longer an option, this is a war now and I wasn’t going to take no more of his insults. Some way of another I was going to fight back.
         “I’ll give  you 3 seconds to run carrot head”, he said defiantly.
         “3”, I stared in silence. “2”, he said as he griped the rock as if it was a baseball. “1...”, he positioned himself. By now, I had changed my mind. I wanted to run again, but I had lost all strength in my legs. I closed my eyes and waited for  him to say zero.
         “Who threw the rock through window?!”, interrupted a teacher. Apparently the rock that I had thrown had broken a window. It was a perfect moment, he had the rock in his hand. He tried to throw rock to the side, but it didn’t go unaware to the teacher’s eyes. Now he looked more incriminated. The teacher hastily walked up to him and grabbed his arm.
         “ You are in big trouble mister”, said the teacher.
         At first, I thought :“Finally justice”. But as he walked away with the teacher, he seemed so vulnerable. There was great fear in his eyes, I truly never seen him scared.  A great amount of pity and guilt haunted for a couple of seconds until finally I said out loud:
         “He didn’t do it”, the teacher turned around in amazement. I nervously repeated: “ He didn’t do it. I did it”.
         “Yeah is true, he did it”, Daniel affirmed.
         The teacher looked at both of us, trying to discern what exactly was going on. He gave up and said: “Both of you come with me”. He took us to the room where the rock had left a hole on the window. 
         Then the teacher sat us down next to each other. I was not attempting to make any eye contact with Daniel or the teacher, so I looked straight down. My mind was full of regret, if I just would have been quiet I wouldn’t be in all this trouble. I should have just let him take the hit. So what if he didn’t do it, it’s about time someone punished him.
         “I don’t know who is responsible about the window, but it looks to me that you guys were in a fight. We don’t tolerate that in this school. So your both getting detention”, he explained.
         “Oh great”, I muttered.
         He looked at me with compassion: “ I am going to go call your parents now”.
         “Your telling our parents too”, protested Daniel.
         “Like I said this behavior is not acceptable”, he responded. Then he walked away.          
         Silence filled the room. Daniel seemed uncomfortable. Not that I would blame him, there was a high amount of awkward  in the air.
         
         “You didn’t have to do that, you know”, said Daniel.
         “I know”, I replied quickly.
         There were a couple of more minutes of silence, until I finally asked: “Why do you hate me?”.
         He had a surprised face. “ I don’t hate you”, he answered.
         “Then why are you so mean to me”, I asked.
         “I don’t know... I guess is just fun”, he said in disbelief.
         I sat thinking about that, how could he think it was remotely fun for me every time they chanted, every time I was put down. I didn’t have any friends, because no one wanted to be friends with ‘carrot-head’.  Is not like I had cooties, or something. Apart from name calling and heated arguments, this was the longest conversation I had with Daniel.
         “I got this new We-Cube. If you want, after this we can go and play at my house”, I offered. He slowly nodded it in approval.
         My father walked in the room.
         “ Daddy”, I said.
         “Theodore Benjamin Williams, in what trouble have you gotten yourself into”, he asked.
         “Ummm... I kind of got in a fight. Hey Daddy, can Daniel come after school to play with the new We-Cube?”, I asked cutely.
         “Wait, you want to invite the kid that you fought with for a play date?”, he asked confused.
         “Is that wrong”, I wondered.
         “No, not at all”, he put his hand in his forehead and massaged it for a bit. “ I don’t know  if his parents are going to let him”.
         “My mom won’t mind”, said Daniel.
         Then the teacher interrupted us and call my father over. He said something in private to him. He came back, much more positive than before. My dad told me it was ok for him to come. So that day he spent the entire day with me,  and he got to sleep over.          
         After our little incident, they recommended a therapist for Daniel. Eventually they found out that he was living under hostile conditions with only his mother under his care. To top it off, his mother was an alcoholic with a good record of mistreating Daniel. By then, Daniel and I were really good friends. So when social services came to the house of Daniel, my parents asked if they can adopt him.
         This is how I met my best friend and brother, Daniel. Now we go to school speaking against bullying and the abuse of children.           

Word Count: 1258 words