The alarm sounded like a broken klaxon, drilling through his skull. Without even looking, he slapped a hand over the clock, silencing the damn thing. He dreaded days like these. Everyone knows what they are. The moment you open your eyes, you know that it’s going to be one of those days, one full of endless bullying and bullshit. And for him, these days seemed to come more and more often. And was it his fault? No! He couldn’t help who he was, or the fact that he was overweight. The doctors had told him it was a glandular problem, or some bullshit. Who knows. He had even tried going to the gym to work it off, but everyone there had snickered at him and whispered to each other. He hadn’t even made it fifteen minutes before storming out in frustration.

Sighing in defeat, he pulled his mind from the past and got out of bed. Joseph Stine was eighteen years old, and only a Junior in high school. Due to contracting bronchial pneumonia when he was a child, he was held back a year, as he had missed four months of school due to being sick. And who knows? He still considered himself a sick child. At five foot, six inches, Joe was a hefty three hundred and ninety pounds. The doctors had diagnosed him with some glandular problems, so he gained weight three times faster than he was able to lose it. Add on top of it the severe acne that never went away, his major overbite, and overall pudgy appearance, Joe was a prime target for the school bullies. And they never failed to deliver.

Trudging into the bathroom, Joe made sure that the towel covering his mirror was still in place. He hated mirrors. They only served as a reminder of how unattractive he knew he was. He climbed into the shower, the motion mechanical and automatic. His showers always took forever, due to his size, the special shampoo and soap he had to use, and his general hatred for his own body. But he did them anyway, knowing that if he didn’t, the bullies would have even more ammunition. After getting out and toweling off, he picked some clothes off the floor and put them on. It didn’t matter at this point which ones they were. Not much really mattered to Joe. His grades were failing, he had no resemblance of a love life, and each day was getting harder and harder to stomach.

As he packed his bag for school, he heard the unmistakable shrill of his mothers voice from downstairs. “Joe! You better not be sleeping, you lazy fuck!” She screamed. “If you’re not downstairs in five minutes, I’m going to leave your ass here and tell the cops that you skipped school.” Joe just rolled his eyes and considered the validity of his mothers threat. After deeming it empty, he finished packing up his bag and made his way downstairs. She was there, tapping one foot and eyeing him while she smoked a cigarette. “You know,” She began, taking a drag off of her cig. “If you even considered getting up on time, instead of sleeping in, maybe we could leave at a decent hour.” Joe eyed his mother with a disgusted look. “You know I get up at seven every morning, mom. I have to take a shower and that takes time.”

His mother snorted. “Maybe if you decided to lose some of the that weight off of you, a shower wouldn’t take an entire construction crew to do!” She turned and slipped her shoes on before snubbing the cigarette on the wall. “Your father and I, bless his dead heart, payed a lot of money to get you to lose weight. And what do you do?” She gestured with a razor sharp nail. “You drop out of the fucking program. So, now I don’t only have a fuck up for a son, I have one who weighs more than Saturn!” Joe tuned her out at this point. ‘Like I said,’ He thought to himself. ‘There is always ammunition for the bullies.” He didn’t hear her on the drive to school. At about the age of 7, he became a pro at tuning his mothers ranting out. She rarely had anything nice to say, and even if she did, it was always to get him to do something for her.

When they got to the school, he got out of the car without even acknowledging his mom. He ignored the “Have a good day too, you ungrateful fuck!” and walked inside. It was at this point that he had what he called his “armor” on for the day. It was a mental barrier that he built, one that allowed him to effectively ignore most of the rude comments hurled his way. He walked down the hall to his locker, his eyes on the floor, his mind somewhere else. As he spun the dial to his locker, a voice drifted through the fog that hovered over his brain. “Good morning, Joe!”

He turned to see Amanda Guira, one of the cheerleaders, beaming at him. Amanda was a rare breed. She had a cheerful demeanor, a patient hand, and a protective streak that would rival a nun. Her looks only added to the mix. At 5’6, she had a body that wasn’t too curvy, nor too thin. It seemed to straddle the line of perfection, while keeping a youth like look to it. Her face had the look of an angel, with glacier blue eyes, full lips and a cute button nose. Her brunette hair fell a little ways past shoulder length, and her breasts were between a B and a C cup. Joe, for the life of him, could never figure out why she even gave him the time of the day, but he smiled warmly as he shut his locker.

“Good morning, Amanda. How are you?” He asked as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. “I’m doing good, Joe!” Her warm smile remained, but she put a concerned hand on his shoulder and lowered her voice. “I heard your mom screaming at you a few minutes ago. Are you doing ok?” The look of pure concern in her eyes made Joe uncomfortable. He could never quite accept the fact that someone could even remotely care about him, so he just shrugged as nonchalantly as he could and said “Yeah, she does that every so often. It’s no big deal.” Amanda stepped in front of him to stop him, her hand moving down to his arm. “Joe,” she said, her voice soft and caring. “I know the tone she uses. It’s the same tone my dad used before he beat the shit out of me, and it’s not ok.” She leaned in and gave him a big hug. “If you ever need to talk to someone, you know I’m here for you.” She added a motherly peck to his cheek before stepping back. “How about you meet me in the courtyard for lunch?”

Joe was about to decline, but she was already walking away. “Just make sure you aren’t late, Joe Stine.” She hollered over her shoulder. “It’s not nice to stand a lady up.”

xxxxx

When lunch came, Joe almost didn’t bother to go outside. He was sure that it was some sort of trap, a guise for the bullies to come out and kick his ass. But he did anyway. He grabbed an apple and some milk before making his way out to the courtyard. There she was. Amanda sat on the grass under one of the trees, a book open on her knee, a sandwich in her hand. She had a look of pure concentration on her face as she read. Joe stood for a minute, admiring her. He was faintly jealous of the way that she casually, but coolly, flicked boys off that tried to flirt with her. They weren’t even in the same realm as her, he mused. And why would they be? She wanted nothing to do with a bunch of wannabe jocks. From what he learned of her, she was devout in her studies, loyal in her friendships, and an overall good person.

After a couple of minutes of observing, Joe made his way over to where she was sitting. As if sensing his presence, she looked up and beamed at him. “Joe!” Her voice was full of enthusiasm as she got up to hug him. “H…hey Amanda.” Joe’s uncomfortable feeling persisted, but he awkwardly hugged her back and sat in the grass next to her. His school’s lunch program had it going from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM, with the belief that the kids needed a long lunch break to break the monotony of the school day.

Amanda chattered away at nothing in particular, as she could sense his uncomfortable demeanor. She was determined to get those walls down and find out what was wrong with Joe. She knew he was constantly bullied, and she also knew it wasn’t his fault. Rumors had swirled around the school of him being a cocktail of medical issues, so she had an understanding of what was wrong. She could tell that he had a hard time with life, and she had made it her goal to get him to open up to her. Amanda had been the victim of abuse most of her life, and hearing his mother scream at him in such a profanity filled way had appalled her. No wonder this poor boy was so shut down all the time.

After about fifteen minutes, Amanda noticed that he started to relax a little. Having almost a sixth sense for these sort of things, she decided that now was a good time to push. “Joe, about what we talked about earlier?” Her voice stayed soft and soothing. “Why does she talk to you like that?” Joe shrugged, a jerky motion that seemed mechanical. “She’s always been like that, since I could remember. She used to be better, but then my dad got cancer when I was seven. The doctors gave him three months to live. He beat them and made it six.” Joes lips curved in a small smile at the memory. “My dad was an amazing man. He was always supportive, always wanting to help. He told me ‘Son, no matter how you look, or how you think others perceive you, never give up on yourself.’ He would tell me that every day.”

His eyes were unfocused now as his mind wandered into the past, so he didn’t notice how Amanda smiled softly at him. “After he died, my mother seemed to do a 180.” He continued. “She got meaner and more vindictive towards the world. She went to blame me for my fathers death. She would always say ‘If you had gotten your fat ass into shape, we would have had more money for your fathers treatments! But no, you had to stay fat and stupid, didn’t you?'” His fingers tightened on the empty milk carton now, as if he could crush all of the memories within it. “She would beat me. Use anything that was handy, like a shoe, belt. Even the pots and pans in the kitchen.”

He paused when he heard a soft growl, and he glanced over to see Amanda’s blue eyes afire with passion. It calmed him more than his anxiety meds, and he smiled at her. “Yeah, it was tough. Being a bigger kid though, and with my medical issues, I have a high pain tolerance. It didn’t hurt that bad.” He let his eyes drift off into the distance again. “Now, she just yells and screams at me. I’ve learned to tune it out. But it gets harder and harder to get up each day.” He flicked a glance back at her. “To be honest,” he continued, “I have no idea why someone like you would even bother with someone like me. You’re so pretty and popular, while I’m just the fat kid that is the mayor of bully city.”

Amanda felt the pity rise in her, a ball that clutched at her stomach. “Because our past experiences aren’t that different, Joe.” She said softly. “My dad would beat and rape me every chance that he got. Nobody would believe me, not even my mom.” He watched her hand ball into a fist, tap lightly on her leg. “She would look the other way, pretend it wasn’t happening. It wasn’t until the neighbor caught him on top of me in the garage that something was done.” Amanda smirked now. “Between the cops and the neighbor, he had to be carried to jail. I suppose it’s the small things in life.”

“And you’re mother?” Joe asked. “She got arrested, too. Child endangerment, child neglect, conspiracy to sexual abuse. Haven’t seen her since. Got shacked up with my aunt, who’s actually a really nice lady. Been fighting through life ever since.” She turned those glacier blue eyes on him now, and he felt his heart do a slow flop in his chest. “You’re a nice guy, Joe. And I can see the pain that you go through every single day. I want to be that one light, that one person that’s able to he-” Her words were cut off as a shadow fell over them both. Joe didn’t have to look up to know who it was. Derrick Teen had made it his personal mission to harass Joe every day since freshman year, and it looked like he wasn’t going to disappoint today.

“Look what we have here, boys.” He said with a sneer. “A fat little Jojo talking to sweet Amanda. What are you doing with fatso here, Amanda?” He crossed his arms over his beefy chest. Amanda didn’t even break a sweat. “Derrick, why don’t you take your testosterone filled, idiotic nature somewhere else?” Her tone was cool and boring, a dash of ice on his brazen heat. “I can feel my IQ drop every time you’re near me.” Derrick’s friends whooped and hollered at this, and he bared his lips in a snarl. “Listen here, you bitch. I asked you a goddamn question.” He thrust a finger at Joe. “What the fuck are you doing with this loser? You could be doing better things with your day, such as keeping me company.” Now he smiled, a full tooth smile that showed some chipped teeth. He grabbed his crotch in invitation. “You know I could show you a good time.”

Now Amanda looked at him, and Joe thought that if Derrick had any sense of sensibility, he would stop while he was ahead. “I didn’t know your mother raised a pig for a son, Derrick.” Her tone had gone sharp now, a whiplash that intended to draw blood. “How would she feel if you grabbed your crotch at her? Who knows? Maybe she’d like it.” Her lips curved into a smirk, and Derrick’s face went bright red with rage. He reached a hand out and shoved Amanda on the shoulder. “You don’t fucking talk to me that way, you stupid bitch.” He snarled, and shoved her again. Joe got as quick as he could to his feet, intent on protecting the one person who actually cared about him.

“Take your hands off of her, Derrick.” He said, his tone low and calm.

“Or what?” Taunted Derrick. “Fatso going to steam roll me? Oh no, I’m shaking in my boots.” He turned and laughed, his friends joining in with him. Joe didn’t think, didn’t even calculate. He stepped forward and, with both hands, gave Derrick a mighty shove. The push caused the big football player to lose his balance, and he went down with a thud onto his ass. The laughter stopped now, and the entire courtyard seemed to hold it’s breath. All eyes were on what was about to unfold.

Derrick’s stare had gone cold, and he got to his feet slowly and deliberately. “So, little piggy actually has some balls, huh?” He nodded, almost deceptively calm. “Alright, little piggy. You wanna play, let’s play.”

Joe didn’t even see the blow coming, and before he knew it, he was laying on the cool grass. His head throbbed like a heartbeat monitor, and he could dimly hear someone yelling. Through the haze, he watched as Amanda gave a solid, well placed kick into Derrick’s groin. The young man didn’t even make a sound as he collapsed, as if someone had pulled his bones out of his body. The other boys advanced on her but, before they could do anything, she placed a kick to the first ones stomach. This caused the kid to bend over and wretch, and then he too was on the ground. The second kid didn’t fare much better as she took him down with a leg sweep. His head bounced solidly off the ground and he was out for a nice little nap. The third kid knew when he was beat and he back away slowly, his hands up in front of him in surrender.

Joe watched all of this as if it were a dream. He had a nice moment of thinking “Wow, she’s really pretty.” Before he decided to join kid number 2 in dream land.

THE END