Standing Up to Life

Chapter 1:

He had brought his own group with him to make a formidable gang of kids. As far as I could tell their entire goal in life was to see how miserable they could make other people. I was easily on the top of their list of targets.

I could hear Lucas snickering to Matt how he had caused me to cry already that day. They were more than ten feet away, but I could hear them very clearly. I had developed very good hearing as a result of my torment – it was a defense mechanism. I'd learned early on that being able to tell when someone was going to bother me was the best way for me to avoid trouble. I saw them point at me just as the bell rang and I tried to hurry to my locker before anything else happened.

As I got to my locker I opened it quickly and grabbed my books, putting them into my backpack as quickly as I could. I closed my locker just in time to turn around and stare at Matt and Lucas right behind me.

"So I hear Baby Brandon made another appearance this morning. Maybe baby needs to go back to day care instead of Middle School?" Matt sneered at me. As he did so he grabbed my arm and shoved me into my locker. I landed on my good arm, that hadn't been bruised, right on top of one of the locker dials. I was instantly in tons of pain, and I knew that I had a new bruise to match my other one.

I did my best to try not to cry – I knew that was what he wanted, but then he punched me in the stomach as he walked away from me. I was crying as I walked up the stairs to my first class. As I walked in Mr. Krantz, my teacher saw me.

Mr. Krantz asked, "Brandon why don't you go to the bathroom and wash your face?"

I nodded, "Thanks," and sniffled at the same time as I headed for the bathroom. I managed to regain control and went back to class... This was not going to be a good day.

When I went back to class and sat down I relaxed a little. At least I was in a sanctuary of the classroom now. This class was biology – my favorite academic subject of the day. Mr. Krantz was by far the hardest teacher I had ever had though. A point that was going to be made clear today.

"Morning everyone, I want to give you a chance to see what your grade is going to be when it comes out on your report cards Friday. I'll call you up one at a time to show you."

I sat there waiting as he went through the names until he got to the J's. "Brandon, you're next." As I looked down at his paper I almost fainted... A C?!?!?!?!?!?

"Is that a mistake Mr. Krantz?"

"No Brandon, it looks like your vocab notes are what knocked your grade down. Make sure you write neatly next nine weeks so we can get that grade up."

To say I was miffed would be to put it mildly. I could clearly see I wasn't the only one, and I was sure that nobody was getting an A in his class if I wasn't. I had been a mostly A student since second grade... A C did not sit well with me.

"Psst... Brandon." The girl next to me, Amy, said. "What did you get?"

"A stupid C..." I said as quietly as I could through my anger, trying not to lose it again. Thankfully I was too shocked to cry. "What did you get?"

"A B-, I had an eighty percent exactly. Laura got an eighty-eight over there. She's got the highest grade I've heard of so far." We were going to keep talking but Mr. Krantz gave us the teacher glare, so we both shut up.

A couple minutes later Mr. Krantz stood up at the front of the class and started talking. "Many of you are no doubt shocked at your grade, indeed some of you I was worried that you might faint." The jerk smiled as he said that... "In my class I take very literally the meaning of the names of the grades. An F is Failing – I handed out five of those in this class. He started graphing the numbers. A D is nearly failing, I handed out seven of those to this class. A C is average, I handed out thirteen of those in this class. A B is above average, I handed out two of those in this class. And finally an A is excellent and superior. I did not have any A's in this class, this nine weeks."