Consequences

NOTE: This was for a grade 11 writing class. I am now 22. This was meant to be an exaggerated example of bullying.

“Oh Elmer,” sang the rather happy mother of Elmer, “time to go to school!”

”Oh great,” sighed Elmer, “the worst damn thing to hear... Ever!” It was now time to face that dreaded place where only nightmares are created. Elementary school was always seen as an innocent place where kids grew up and made friends. Elmer never understood why it was seen as such, because all he got from that place was pain and hatred pressed upon him.

When he had packed his lunch and started for the door, Elmer’s mother gave him a big hug and a wide smile. “Enjoy your day,” she said, merrily.

Elmer gave her a minor glare and murmured, “not likely."

--

The sun was out today, and because of Elmer’s weight ‘condition’, he was forced to go slow so he wouldn’t sweat so much. As was the normal routine of kids passing him by, they gawked and snickered behind his back, giving him insults that had been so overused that they had lost their meaning. His mind drifted to fantasy worlds, where he was KING, and the only comments he heard were loving and comforting.

”Watch it, lard ass,” was the last remark on his journey to school.

In his classroom sat different social groups of kids; mainly the popular to one side, and the ‘less’ popular to the other. Elmer quietly entered the room and took a seat near the coat racks, ignoring the glares of ‘certain’ people. He sighed, buried his face in his folded arms on the desk, and whispered to himself, as he did day after day, "I’m gonna be free some day."

Recess came and went fast enough, as did the class after, but when the dreaded lunch bell rang, Elmer ran for the bushes on the other side of the schoolyard. When safe behind a wall of the thick brush, he peered out and saw a group of give approaching. They had evil smiles on their faces, and when they spotted Elmer, those smiles grew even wider.

”Hey there, what’cha up to there Elmer?” This guy, going by the name of Phil, was a grade above Elmer, grade five to be exact. He spoke with happiness and cheekiness.

”N-nothing. I’m just sitting h-here.” There was no hiding the fear in his voice.

The five split up, surrounding Elmer’s hideaway. “C’mon…Come on out and play!” They each took their turns repeating that, almost like a chant.

”I-I’m fine here. Go away!” Elmer slunk deeper into the bushes, carefully eyeing everyone around him.

Elmer felt a kick to his side - the speaker of the group wasn’t sounding so playful anymore. “Alright. If you’re going to be like that, then we won’t play nice!”

Elmer closed his eyes and went to his fantasy world.

--

“Good god Elmer,” exclaimed his teacher, “what on earth happened to you?”

Elmer first looked at the ‘popular’ kids, then to his cuts and bruises, and finally to the teacher. “I-I was trying to climb a tree and…I fell into a bramble bush.”

The class burst into laughter, with random comments bursting out like “good one you moron, did you break the poor tree,” and, “didn’t your fat break the fall?”

When the bell had rung. and Elmer had started off home, he felt a sense of relief. The end of school was always the best part of the day. Of course, all kids loved the end of school, but for Elmer it was like leaving all of his troubles behind.

--

Upon reaching his home, his fortress of solitude, Elmer heaved his bulky body through the door. The air conditioner wasn’t on, so the heat was unbearable. He sighed in annoyance and thumped his way down into the dark and cool basement where his room was located. No one was home, so he pulled out his lunch and ate it on his bed in the dim light of his room. He didn’t eat at school because of the constant insults, stares, and physical abuse he always endured.

It was about 6pm when his mother pulled in the driveway. Elmer shuddered, knowing she would just dance around the house, with no inkling of the problems Elmer was suffering from.

She walked in through the back door, snuck up on Elmer, and spoke with a curious voice, “soooo, how was your day.”

”Oh…Just fine, Mum. Learned a lot….” He didn’t attempt to sound happy or anything positive.

”Good good. Well its Friday tomorrow,” she said cheerfully,” maybe you, me, and your father can all go out and do something.”

Elmer, who was now watching TV, didn’t turn his head, but just cycled through the channels and spoke plainly, “sure, sounds good.”

One more day to suffer from, then I get to sit around getting fatter over the weekend. Oh joy. Some reality show appeared on the TV screen, and all Elmer’s’ thoughts were pushed away for an hour or so.

The next school day once again gave Elmer the empty and painful feeling deep inside. Insulted as usual, he entered the big white building that brought all his enemies into one room. He almost felt like his legs were going to just give out from the fear and memories.

It was a seemingly normal day. At lunch, however, the kids were pressing their aggression on Elmer more than usual. He attempted to speed-walk down the hall after the lunch bell, but the kids kept following and attacking him. At first it was only the usual, less hurtful sayings, but then they started to push and slam him into walls. Elmer kept walking down the hall towards the main doors, not attempting to stop them, for it would only lead to a bigger conflict. Near the end of the hall, the doors opened up to a flight 20 steps, and Elmer burst through them and rushed out. He figured he might be able to lose them in the crowd of kids still wandering about, deciding what they were going to do. Before he could descend the steps, however, Phil dove out from beside the doors. “I got him!” he yelled with a fiercely happy voice.

Phils rush had not been quite on target. He managed to smash Elmer over, sending him down the stairs, but he himself crashed into the guardrail, cracking his jaw. He rolled around screaming on the stairs while Elmer bounced, bumped, and banged down the stairs without the slightest hint of pain.

When everyone in the area had gathered around to see what had happened, Phil was still screaming at the top of the stairs, while Elmer lay face down in concrete at the bottom. A widening pool of blood spread from Elmer’s head, and all the kids slowly backed away, wide-eyed in shock. As the puddle of blood grew bigger and bigger, all eyes went to the group of kids that had appeared at the top of the stairs. These kids knew they had been a big part of this, and all the witnesses looked up to them, some with anger and some with fear.

Soon enough teachers arrived, and then the paramedics. All was in chaos as the children were herded back into the school. Hardly any words were spoken, however, and the lively spirit of all those children seemed to have suddenly been ripped out.

Days and weeks passed, and the children soon came back to school after some psychological therapy. The rift between the 'popular' kids and the more 'rejected kids' grew larger from the incident, gaining more faces with each passing day. Schoolyard fights broke out more and more, and some of the kids who had sometimes talked to Elmer before had started to develop into coordinated groups that roamed the schoolyard together, eyeing the murderers.

One group in particular was the cause of most of the fighting. They had all been in Elmer’s class, and so they felt that they had the biggest attachment to him. As in all groups, a leader had risen among them. He went by the name of Shawn.

”They should die. They killed Elmer!” Snarled one of the fat kids, going by the name of Robert.
”But how?” replied Shawn,”All the popular kids stay in a group over near the playground all the time.”

“We just get rocks, surround them, and hit them as hard as we can,” plainly said George. George was one of the kids who were kept in a special needs class, on account of his violent behavior. No one knew much about him, but respected his hard stance.

For children this young, the idea brought up by George is a little on the radical side, but with the words spoken; all the children went quiet and nodded in silent agreement.

Yet more weeks of fights and tension ensued until one day when Shawn and his group were ready. The other smaller groups merged with Shawn's, and at lunchtime it was time to strike.
The 'popular' kids grouped up at the lunch bell, and made their way to the playground. They passed a smaller playground that they let the smaller children use. Once past there it was almost a completely open field to the larger playground. Before they could reach it, however, Shawn’s group rushed from a nearby corner of the school, and took action.

”Hey!” Shawn roared, letting the anger and despair of Elmer’s death take over his mind.

Turning around, Phil and his group squinted at them with curiosity and confusion. “What do you want?” he said with caution.

”You guys killed Elmer…we’ve decided it’s only right if you die to.” For a chils in grade 5, Shawn sounded deathly serious while saying that.

The 'popular' kids’ eyes widened, with Phil’s face not changing at all. “Oh that. It wasn’t on purpose. I already have to go to some counselor guy every week.”

George pushed to the front of the group and screamed, “that’s not good enough!” With that he charged forward, a fist-sized rock held tight behind his back.

Phil took a defensive stance, getting ready for a childish fight. George smacked away Phils' outstretched hands and arched his arm around, smashing the rock into Phils' face with such a force that it sent him straight into the ground. Phils' group stood there completely shocked and scared, while Shawn’s group was amazed at the fact that this whole plan actually went through.
George didn’t stop at the first blow. He went on, and on, and on, until a teacher came screaming out the door, tearing George away.

Once again teachers flooded the area, along with paramedics not so long after. Everybody knew that this second shedding of blood would mean this school would be lifeless for many days to come.

--

This time school didn’t restart for two months. Many children were transferred to other schools in the district. The two rival groups weren’t reformed when the school finally was back in some resemblance of order, but the tension remained. All the children that formed the two groups rarely talked to each other again. Their traumatized minds took some of them to mental institutions, and others to crime, drugs, alcohol, and a number of other ends, even suicide. The community was slowly shattered by the events over time, and 'friendly' neighborhoods didn’t really exist after a few years.

A domino effect, simply from some common bullying; the fragile minds of those young kids were twisted and bled, until a good and happy life wasn’t in sight at all. There was rarely a light at the end of the tunnel for most of them, and no psychologists could help. Too much violence, too much ignorance, too many unrestrained kids, and too many violent minds were the founding cause.