Standing Up to Life

Chapter 1:

Part I:
The Beginning

September 1994

I WALKED UP to the bus stop, hoping maybe today would be better. Maybe today wouldn't be one of the bad days I had so often. For instance the day before... the day before was a terrible day. I had come home crying again. My name is Brandon, and at the time this all began, I was eleven years old. I was just barely old enough to be in the sixth grade. I attended Holden Middle School, where I was everyone's favorite kid to pick on. My town is just about twenty-five minutes away from Albuquerque, NM. Close enough to go in if we want to during the evening, but far enough away to be away from the smog and other city troubles.

I had hoped when I moved up to the middle school to have a new start – perhaps losing the problems I had before in elementary school, but they'd only compounded and gotten worse. All of this was going through my mind as I walked the block to my bus stop.

As I arrived I watched cautiously to see if there were any plans in action that I needed to be aware of. The bus stop consisted of a dirt lot that had a volleyball court from a neighboring church in it. It's really just the standard dirt lot you see all over the southwest, with plenty of weeds and rocks. It definitely wouldn't have been a destination for me other than it being the bus stop.

I looked down at my watch and saw that I had arrived about five minutes before the bus would arrive. Looking around further I saw Luke had gotten to the bus stop already... not good. As I saw him, he turned around and gave me a narrowing look before heading over my way.

"Well if it isn't little Brandon. I'm surprised you came back to school today after yesterday. I see your arm is starting to turn a nice purple today... Maybe we can make your legs match it!" He said laughing, a couple of his friends came up and started to taunt me together. "You know on a lot of guys your spiked hair means they shouldn't be messed with. But on you it really doesn't do you any good!" Joe, another guy taunted.

The bad part was that Lucas was actually just a lieutenant in the group of guys that gave me trouble. If these guys were already getting on my case it would only get worse. I could tell this was about to get out of hand real fast. Joe started to make a grab for my arm about the time that the bus pulled up – thankfully it was early that day.

"What are you kids doing? Do I need to write you all up?!?" Our bus driver Miss Amy screamed at us. They instantly let me go, but I knew that this story would get to my mom (another bus driver) before I got home. Great... another day of hell all around. So much for today.

As I took my seat my eyes started welling up – I couldn't help it – I'd dealt with this nonstop since I was in first grade. It seemed like no matter what, there was always another bully to make it their personal mission to torment me. I didn't do a very good job of dealing with it either, so it just kept happening.

It didn't help that I wasn't big enough to come off as a threat to anyone. At four-feet-two-inches, and seventy-five pounds, I was the smallest boy in my class. There was one girl, Nikki, who was shorter than me, and kept me from having the honor of being the shortest in the entire class of a-hundred-and-eighty kids. I was also a year younger than a lot of the kids since my birthday had just fallen inside the deadline for my grade level. My parents had wanted to keep me from entering kindergarten that year, but the preschool I was at insisted that mentally I was ready. They were right on that part – I was one of the smartest kids at the school – but emotionally I was a baby in comparison. Something the kids always enjoyed reminding me.

By the time the bus pulled up to the school I had regained some control of my eyes and wiped them dry. I got off the bus and took my instrument into the band room storage closet. Then I waited outside the main door to go in for the day. I could feel the stares of the other kids burning in my backside. I was scanning around the waiting area for anyone that might give me trouble. That's when I noticed Matt had joined up with the group of guys that had been with Lucas. Matt was the leader that I spoke of earlier.