Primary school can be a challenging time,
and a defining time, in one’s life. With that said, it’s no surprise that
primary school was particularly challenging for Wyatt. He had trouble making
friends, and he didn’t understand why. Neither did his parents. Neither did his
teachers. But sometimes people do have trouble in the social culture of our
world. In years to come, Wyatt may think back on his time and realise what he
was doing wrong, and how, with his later life experience, it would have been
easy to change things. But as a child he did not have this experience that
comes later in life. He didn’t have any friends, and because of this he was an
easy target to bullies. And because of that, people didn’t want to be his
friends. He was trapped in an unforgiving and troubling childhood. He would
even end up being shunned by his parents who were, deep down, just frustrated that
they couldn’t help.
Wyatt actually had a lot in
common with one of the children who picked on him; Lenny. Lenny also had
trouble making friends; but he had become the bully instead of a victim. He had
lashed out against other children. This, strangely, caused him to gain some
friends. Other children that lashed out against others, and some that just didn’t
want to be targeted. However, Lenny and Wyatt liked the same cartoons and
played the same games. They just didn’t know anything about each other and it
seemed unlikely they ever would. All Wyatt was to Lenny was a fun target to
torment. All Lenny was to Wyatt was the source of his pain.
These two seemed destined to
never learn how similar they were. Wyatt would grow up having had a terrible
and lonely childhood, however he may recover from it in later life. Likewise,
Lenny may end up growing up and learning that nothing is gained from bullying
and grow out of his ways. But instead of their paths diverging, the two would
end up being brought together one day by a strange coincidence.
Both children were unhappy at
home, and both of their respective sets of parents didn’t know what to do. But
as it would so happen, both sets of parents came up with the same idea on the
same day; to buy their child a video game they wanted. Because of this, they
would both end up in the same games shop on the same day, looking for the same
game. But there would only be one copy left.
Lenny had spotted Wyatt first,
but he didn’t dare do anything while both their parents were there. However,
the game he spotted in Wyatt’s hand came as quite the shock; Robots May Die 3.
That was the game he wanted!
“That’s the game I want!” Lenny
exclaimed to his parents, pointing at Wyatt. That was when Wyatt noticed that
Lenny was there.
However, Lenny and his parents
couldn’t find another copy on the shelf, so they que-ed up behind Wyatt and his
parents to ask at the counter.
“Oh how lucky! You’ve got the
last copy” came the voice from the woman at the counter joyfully.
“Aww dear, is there any other
game you want?” Lenny’s mother asked him.
Lenny was annoyed. Wyatt, the
kid who he normally made fun of, had taken his game away from him!
Wyatt, meanwhile, took all of
this in. He realised that if he took the game that Lenny wanted, he may end up
being bullied more. So he decided to take the safer course of action and tell
his parents he wants a different game. He handed the game to Lenny without
saying anything and he, with his parents, went to look for a different game.
“You should go and thank him”
Lenny’s father advised him.
“I go to school with him dad, I
can thank him tomorrow. I think his name was Wyatt” Lenny said, not wanting to
talk to anyone his own age with his parents there. That would be too embarrassing.
So it was that Lenny could get
to play the new game he had been looking forward to, and Wyatt wouldn’t. To
Lenny’s credit he did thank Wyatt for what he’d done, and stopped making fun of
him at school. However, in the days that followed, Lenny realised that he didn’t
have anyone to talk to about Robots May Die. He started to talk to Wyatt about
it, and they started to realise how much they had in common. Lenny even ended
up lending Wyatt the game after he had completed it. Both these children found
a friend in each other, and because of this they learned how to socialise a bit
easier and ended up making more friends. Lenny stopped being a bully; the
source of his frustration slowly ebbing away. Wyatt stopped being a target as his
own circle of friends grew. They ended up having a positive influence on each
other.
Friends can come from the unlikeliest of places. Not always. Not often. And situations like this may seem unlikely, perhaps even improbable. But in stories coincidences can be commonplace. The improbable can happen often. As was the case in this story written by Ashley Grayson.
“Ashley!
What are you doing? That doesn’t look like the work I gave you” came the
familiar voice of Ashley’s teacher; Mrs Rosa.
Ashley
sighed. He was in his final year of high school; and as such, teachers weren’t
quite as scary as they used to be, and certain lessons seemed pointless to him.
“I’m
writing a story, Mrs Rosa” he truthfully admitted.
“Are
you writing it in French, Ashley?” she asked.
“I don’t
know enough French to write a story, Mrs Rosa” he answered.
“Well,
perhaps if you didn’t waste time in this class at every opportunity then you would know enough French to write a
story.” She wittedly replied.
Ashley
paused at that. An interesting idea, but….
“Too risky. Even if I paid
attention in every French class there would be too much risk that I’d use a
word I’m unfamiliar with, you know, because I’m not French, and completely ruin the story… Far too risky!” he
passionately replied. Everyone in the class had stopped to enjoy the exchange.
This had started happening often where Ashley was concerned, ever since he’d
suddenly started writing stories.
“Right.”
Mrs Rosa angrily replied, realising that they were disrupting her own class. “Well,
you know where this leads. Headmaster’s office. Go there and tell him why you
won’t pay attention in my classes.”
Ashley
sighed, and started packing up his things while Mrs Rosa hushed the rest of the
class quiet and pretended he wasn’t there. He didn’t actually want to get into
trouble, but… he had finished his short story, so he wasn’t too disheartened.
He left the classroom pretending to look admonished and regretful, but once he
was outside he couldn’t hide the smile and sense of achievement from managing
to finish a story in an otherwise uninteresting lesson.
On the
way to the Headmaster’s office, however, he came across a particular staircase
that stood out compared to the rest. One he’d never paid much heed to before.
This leads up to the library….. I’ve never
had a look to see what novels they have there…. I might be able to learn a
thing or two.
He didn’t make it to the
Headmaster’s office.
