I went to my classroom, and as I walked in, I could feel everybody staring at me. I sat near the front and ignored all the murmuring. The bully didn’t seem to want to talk about it, but his buddies were not happy at all. They tried to get me after school on the way to the bus stop. “Hey Monroy! We are not afraid of your brother” they said, as they ran after me. I ran but they caught up with me in no time. One of them shoved me against the wall. My books flew everywhere, getting bent up and soiled. I felt very angry. I was always careful to keep my books clean and thought of all my mom had gone through to get them for me.
For the first time. I was not afraid of them. They put their books down and started coming toward me. Pulling my sling shot out, I hit one of them on the chest with a steel ball bearing. He screamed in terrible pain as he fell onto one knee crying. Moving away quickly, I tried to reload but another boy knocked me down. I laid there flat on my back. I tried to reload as I kept on kicking at the boy who was trying to sit on me. It was no use, the boy grabbed my leg and was dragging me through the dirt. I lost my slingshot!
By now a circle of boys had gathered to watch the fight. I thought everything was lost but somehow I managed to stand up and charged the kid with all I had. He punched me in the mouth and I felt the taste of blood instantly. I kicked him where it counts and although it hurt him he seemed to get more enraged. As I stood there, with my fists clenched, he was coming back at me, I knew I was no match for him, but I was determined to fight him to the end. Just then, Armando who had been there all along stepped in and polished the boy right up! Armando in the meantime had beaten one of the other boys and chased him off. Then he had joined the crowd to watch my fight just to keep an eye on me. Back on the bus and on the way home, I asked Armando why he waited so long to step in. He just smiled and said “Because you were doing just fine.” Then putting his arm around me he told me he was proud of me and pointed out that I was getting to be a big boy and how I was catching up to him in height. “They will never bother you again, because now they know you mean business“.
He was right! The bullies would say nasty stuff about me but never to my face and never again did I have to run from them. When everything was said and done, my shirt was ripped, my buttons where gone and I had a fat lip but I felt it was worth it.