Nerds For Life

a tale of how the bullied become the bullies

She walked into her classroom as the bell rang, ending her lunch period. The rush of the other students had pushed her to the side of the classroom as everyone raced to grab their favorite seats.  She paused and instinctively pulled her books closer to her chest and glanced around looking for an empty spot. She found one next to the door and quickly sat down avoiding the glares of her fellow 5^th grade class. She re-tucked her white polo shirt into her green and black plaid skirt. She let her dark brown hair fall like a curtain in front of her freckled face. She hid behind it wishing she could just disappear. Being the new girl, from Colorado, the rest of the class had marked her as a loser. No one deemed it appropriate to speak to her. Then, she heard a pair of sneakers scratching against the gray carpet. She looked up and there he was, loping toward her desk.

“Hey,” he grinned. She smiled softly. He was so cute, like the guys that worked at Abercrombie and Fitch. He was tall and lanky, with his shaggy blonde hair falling into his bright green eyes. He was also the most popular boy in class. She turned apprehensive. Why was he speaking to her? He leaned his elbows onto her desk.

“So, how’s it going?” He locked eyes with her. Diana always hated being asked that question. How was what going? She didn’t understand, but she nodded and smiled like an animated bobble-head.

“It’s going good.” She answered. His smile widened when suddenly she felt a shock of cold rush down her body. Her hair plastered to her face as the bright blue Gatorade drowned her clothes and sent small trickles running down her legs. She looked around, not quite realizing what had just happened. She saw the two boys behind her, both holding empty two liter bottles, and laughing so hard they were crying. She frowned and turned around. There was James, his green eyes gleaming malevolently as his face contorted into a hideous laugh. Diana Brigg’s eyes filled with tears. She got up, her chair sopping wet. She looked at the sea of kids surrounding her, desperately looking for a friendly face. At one point their faces must have been sweet, nice, even normal looking. Now they all twisted into unrecognizable features as they cackled at her state.  She darted out of the room and hurried to the nearest bathroom. She felt the tears come then. She huddled down beneath the sinks and slowly brushed the silent tears away. When she finished she hefted herself up. She turned the handle on one of the faucets and splashed her face with the cool water. She kept wetting her face until it felt numb and frozen. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her face was bloated and red, her hair was already starting to dry and it felt sticky. She looked at the blue stains all over her clothes. She could picture her mother working at the stains with bleach, all the while demanding to know what happened. But she felt something toughen inside her. Diana vowed never to tell. Instead, she would make James pay.

                                                ******

“Okay,” Diana slammed her plastic “gavel” onto her friend Molly’s desk.  “Let’s call this meeting of Destroy James Carver to order.”

Diana’s other friend Amanda stood up. “Permission to make a statement, your honor.” Diana nodded. “Proceed.”

            Five months had passed since the Gatorade Incident. Diana pretended that it hadn’t affected her. She went to school, did her work, and was ignored by her classmates. James took her silence to mean he needed to up the ante, and his pranks became more brutal everyday. He super-glued her desk, tore up her homework, and put a dead rat in her locker. She remained silent. He believed she was passive, so he teased her for it. If she would answer a question in class, he would exclaim, “Holy cow she can speak!”

But her silence was anything but passive. While he tortured her, she and her two friends, Molly and Amanda, planned their attack. Molly and Amanda were in the 4^th grade, and James also tormented them. Molly was straight and unyielding as a telephone pole with stringy blonde hair. Amanda was rather plump and had round owl-like glasses perched atop her chubby cheeks. Together they formed their club when they met after one of James’s pranks. It had been a particularly nasty one, where he had tied them with a jump rope to the tetherball pole on the playground, threatening them with the ball while they cowered in fear. Eventually a teacher noticed and undid the knots, but James had vanished before he could be punished. Ever since then the three girls had shared their hatred with each other, and used it to take an offensive approach to taking him down.  Their club meetings took place in Molly’s playhouse, an old plastic life-sized dollhouse set up in her backyard. Molly had laid out maps and “battle strategies” all over the walls, trying to hide the bubble-gum pink and white moldings. She also raised a bright red flag on the little white chimney, it had DJC on it, which Molly told her mom stood for: Dancing and Juggling Club. Diana sat on a scratched red stool designed for five-year-olds but was too small for her tween butt, while Molly and Amanda hugged their knees to their chests on the floor.

“Your honor,” Amanda continued. “Molly and I have come to a decision. Before you can take down James, you must target his lackeys.”

Amanda was speaking of James’s minions, Tom Mason and Jerry Kingsley. They followed James everywhere and like any good minions they did his dirty work. That way James avoided suspicion and was never sent to the Principal’s office, while Jerry and Tom were all too happy to take the blame. They were in fact the two boys who had poured Gatorade on Diana, which thusly had earned them two weeks detention. Diana nodded. “The decision is approved. Have you drawn up a plan of action?”

“Amanda and I have agreed on taking down Tom first. He’s the weakest.” Molly offered. She munched on some cheeto’s from a bag she’d brought to share. “He goes to the bathroom every two hours like clockwork. We think you should confront him then.”

“Alright. We strike tomorrow at recess.”

                                                **********

Diana paced back and forth on the pale tiled floor. She was in the boy’s room, waiting for Tom. She scratched the white painted walls. She read the writing and carvings: Dan has small balls, Julie’s number: 670-3912, and I just took a huge crap. She rolled her eyes. Boys were such simple creatures. This should be easy. But she was a not a naturally assertive person and it was hard for her to stand up for herself. She braced herself when the door swung open. Tom walked in, and his eyes widened when he saw Diana. Tom reminded her of a mole every time she saw him. He squinted all the time as if it hurt to look at the world. His hair was dark and he was a pale sickly color. His pointed noise twitched whenever he got agitated. She would’ve had more sympathy for him if he were a nicer person. He crossed his arms and sneered, his eyes squinting even more.

“What are you doing in here? Can’t you read? This is the guy’s room.”

“I’ll make this brief.” She knew she couldn’t fool Tom, so her only option was blunt honesty.  “I’m planning to takedown James. And I want you on my side.” She crossed her arms and leaned on the sink.

“Excuse me? You think you can beat James?”

“I can if you’re on my side.”

He scoffed. “I’ll pass.” He tried to walk out the door then, but Diana blocked his path. She knew it wasn’t necessary with Molly and Amanda standing guard outside, but it was a good display of dominance.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” She pulled a nerds rope out of her backpack. She took off the wrapper. “We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

“Please.” He put his hands in front of him. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“I don’t either.” She said calmly.

“You know if I can’t eat sugar because of my diabetes!” His voice was getting raspy with asthma.

            Tom walked out a few minutes later, the nerd’s rope wrapped twice around his neck. He looked a little green. Diana followed him out the door nodding to Amanda and Molly, who let him through. She took a note out of her pocket and taped it to his chest.

“Go give this to your master.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm. “And tell Jerry he’s next.” She smacked the note on his chest for good measure. He nodded numbly and walked away. Diana slumped a little after he left. “That was harder than I thought.”

“You have to keep going.” Molly said. “We’ve only made a small dent. If you want to end James before summer break, we have to move quickly.”

Diana nodded. They targeted Jerry next. Jerry was a stocky boy who moved at a sloth-like pace. He was much dumber than Tom, but Jerry was James’s right-hand man. Which meant he’d be harder to convince with his loyalty at stake. Diana cornered him in art class when they were making clay pots. He sat on his stool, the lumpy remains of his clay smeared on the table, his face, and his white polo and khaki pants. Their teacher, Ms. Dallin had stepped outside to argue with her husband on the phone. Diana looked around to make sure everyone else was preoccupied. She parked herself on the empty stool next to him. He looked up, rolled his eyes, and turned back to his clay.

“Hi jerry.” She smiled.

He turned his back to her.

“Fine. Ignore me. I’m sure Tom has already told you what I’m planning. And I’m sure James informed you about the list.”

His back stiffened. “What list?” he asked, his words oozing out of him at a snail’s pace.

“Oh he didn’t tell you?” She asked, feigning surprise. “It lists all the kids in the class who have sworn allegiance to me.”

“I want you on my side as well. You’d be a useful ally.”

He slowly shook his head.

“I thought that might be your answer. So I brought along something I think you’ll want to see.” She pulled a small photograph from her ankle sock. She held it over his shoulder so it was at eye-level. He gasped and grabbed the picture from her hand. It was a photograph Diana had taken earlier that morning, of her and a goldfish.

He spun around. “You kidnapped Sir Templeson?!”

“Yes. Don’t worry, he’s safe. For now.”

He started sniveling. “Don’t hurt him please! I’ll do anything you ask!”

She smiled. “I just want you on my side. When James falls, I want you to be my second-in-command.”

He nodded. “I’m with you.”

“Tell James I expect to see him at recess. And he better be ready for a fight.”

                                    ***************

With careful precision she estimated when would be the best opportunity to kick him in the balls. She chose the moment Ms. Caldwell turned her back on the Saint Paul’s middle school children to light a cigarette in the muggy June air. She sprung at her attacker and kicked him with full force in the crotch. With a small whimper his face turned white and he sank onto the slate-gray asphalt that covered the playground. The circle of 5^th graders surrounding them let out a war cry as Diana swung her arms like a champion above her fallen victim, James. Diana had a bloody nose and her left arm felt numb, but she thought she had finally proven to the boys in her class that she was not to be messed with. Ms. Caldwell looked up from her Danielle Steele novel when she heard the cheers, and with her eyes glued on the circle of kids she put out her cigarette. She dropped her book when she saw the blood and raced toward the tetherball pole where fights always took place during recess. She pushed her way through the throng to the center. James was lying on his back with his hands placed protectively over his injured area, making choking noises as he tried not to cry out in pain. The cheering died down when the students noticed Ms. Caldwell, and like ghosts they silently vanished from the scene. Ms. Caldwell glared at Diana.

“Diana Briggs, the office. Now!” She barked. Ms. Caldwell grabbed Diana by the arm ignoring her protest

“ Ms. Caldwell it was James that started it”

“Quiet.” Ms. Caldwell growled at her. “I would keep my mouth shut if I were you.”

 “But it wasn’t my fault.” Diana murmured. Ms. Caldwell didn’t hear her. She instead motioned to another teacher to go over and help James, where he would then be taken to the Nurse. Diana just glared at him. She knew what she had done was wrong, but she had come to a turning point. Now that she had beaten him, he would no longer torment her. She had finally won. Diana looked up at Ms. Caldwell as they walked through the hallways. They were a motley pair. Diana was pale with dark brown hair and only came up to her teacher’s elbow. Diana thought Ms. Caldwell was a tall imposing woman, but she had recently put on a lot of weight after her divorce was made final.

They passed the nurse’s office where James was lying on a bench, an ice pack held gently in his lap. She stared him down as they walked past. He looked up at her and winced involuntarily.  She smiled to herself. Now he knew what it felt like to cry.

Author's Note

this is a little reflective of my elementary school life. it is fiction though, this never happened to me.

Reviews

[McKenna]

Parts of this reminded me a bit of matilda, if you've ever read it. It's a great story of creative revenge. This was a fun and engaging read! The Diana and her friends seemed very intelligent for their age and had some clever tricks up their sleeves! I went to Catholic school right up until college (though I'm not catholic myself) and I have a few memories of my own like this! I also loved that James's lackeys were called Tom and Jerry. All that said, I have only one criticism: I thought maybe Diana would have had a more creative twist up her sleeve than a fist fight. Blackmail maybe? A fight was a good way to wrap up a short story without leaving loose ends, but James seems to me the sort that might seek some revenge of his own after this. I think these characters would be great in a children's series!

[Jaslin K]

This was very nicely done! I like the little girls pretending to be in a court, so adorable. I didn't find any faults with this, it was just too cute. great work!
and I like the revenge part :)