Super Badass
Jesse’s got a gun! It’s the beginning of the new school year and Jesse Ant has positioned himself outside the playground with his gun aimed at Todd Bennett, a bully, who has tormented Jesse since second grade. As Jesse’s anger grows, his finger slowly presses upon the trigger, he…
Super Badass
Jesse Ant brought three pistols to the playground. A sinister looking smirk, similar to The Joker, a comic book supervillain, rose upon Jesse’s gaunt face as he positioned himself like a sniper on the outside of the flimsy chain link fence. A protective wall hastily installed last year, meant keep wandering students in and curious trespassers out, was the only thing that separated Jesse from his archenemy.
Jesse’s Grandma Yancey—a sassy, pipe smoking, former beauty queen with cloud-like white hair—had warned him that this world was no place for a sensitive boy with a fondness for rabbits. “Nowadays, you gotta be a mean son of a gun to survive in this world,” she often told him. Over the years, he’d taken her advice and tried to toughen up. When he walked around his elementary school, he tried his best to mimic the mannerisms of the bad boys he’d seen on TV—tight jaw, eyes serious and focused, fists balled, ready for trouble. But he fooled no one, the kids still picked on him.
Jesse knew that what he was about to do was wrong, but he had run out of options. For despite the pledge taken on the first day at his new school by every single Pioneer Middle School student to make their school a Bully Free Zone and despite the stern lecture given by Principal Dawson regarding how he personally would not tolerate bullying on his campus and despite the sea of colorful cartoon posters plastered around the school as a reminder that bullying was wrong, Jesse already feared for his life.
As he gripped the gun, his hand stopped shaking, somewhat. Using the back of his other hand, Jesse brushed away a few tears. His breathing was heavy, at times he was wheezing as if he had asthma, which always happened whenever he became overly excited.
He’d been pushed to the edge. The way he saw it; this would end in one of two ways. He would be killed or he could kill…Todd Bennett.
2 Responses to “Super Badass”
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Great story. This kid needs help and a friend. It’s sad that we allow bullying to happen in our schools. Kids need to be taught that bullying is seriously wrong and it is their responsibility to report it whether it is happening to them and especially when they witness it happening to others. Silence can be deadly. Also, when it happens the bully should be punished. Far too many bullies just walk away with barely a slap on the wrist.
Very well written & powerful comment… you can feel the pain of this sad & lonely boy. Its a mind provoking statement on the conditions children have to face in their everyday lives. I don’t condone what he did but you can’t help but feel for him. There needs to be a change in the educational system so children don’t have to face these types of choices.