"Problem" Child

Little Damien Kruger sat atop the roof of the playhouse watching young Charity Moore play with all the other boys and girls. He had an affinity for her, but was to shy and backwards, and too much of an outsider to go and talk to her. 1

"She wouldn't like you anyways." he mumbled to himself as he threw a rock at a stray cat that walked by. 2

Of course, he knew this was true. You see, Damien, he is not like other children. He is very precocious and does excellent with his studies, but is also somewhat of a "delinquent", as his teachers would put it, because he gets in a lot of trouble. Now he isn't a bad kid, he just liked the attention he got from doing something wrong, even if it wasn't the right kind of attention. But you must know it is the only way he gets attention, especially when he goes home to the orphanage. Damien is the only nine year old child at his school that is an orphan. This makes him an easy target for the other children to pick on, because he really doesn't have a home, or friends to defend him. His parents were avarice and when they had an upstart they left him on the doorstep of the children's home. He has been there ever since; no one will adopt him.3

As Damien climbed down from the playhouse, because it was time to go back inside, he was shoved to ground. 4

"Hey look everybody, it's little lonely Damien." a boy said. 5

Everyone pointed and laughed, except Charity, for she had already gone inside. 6

"Shut up." he snarled getting up. 7

"What was that? Did the loner say something?" the boy asked laughing so hard his face was turning red. 8

"I said shut up!" Damien yelled running over to the boy and punching him in the face. 9

The boy screamed, and Damien smiled. He knew he had broken the boy's nose, and he would be punished, but he would also be the center of attention. His smile widened at this thought. He would be noticed.10

"What is going on here." Mrs. Camb asked while moving the children out of her way. 11

She looked at the boy, and then straight at Damien, who still had that grin plastered on his face. He had been caught implicating. The boy's blood was on his knuckles. He could not deny that he hit him. The teacher helped the boy up and sent him inside, then she grabbed Damien by the shoulder and dragged him inside. 12

Sitting him a chair, in a secluded room, she said, "You, Damien, you have done it again! I cannot protract your stay at this school any longer. Either you straighten up and desist your awful behavior, or find a new school. We will not have delinquents, such as yourself, at this fine of an institute. Your intellegence will only get you so far." 13

Damien merely nodded and smiled at her. He would not be exclusive and lie, but he also would not admit to his mistakes. He would just stay silent. 14

"Now go and clean your hand, Damien." Mrs. Camb said pointing towards the bathroom.15

"Yes, mam." Damien replied as he walked out of the room and into the bathroom. 16

Damien was deluged. He would be getting so much attention when he went back to class, and when he got home. He would be the talk of the school, the talk of the children's home. He had never been this overjoyed. He turned on the faucet and put his hand under the water. He let the warm water run over his knuckles for awhile, watching the water turn red from the blood. Then he pulled his hand out from under the water, and dried it off. Walking out of the bathroom, he seen the boy he had hit sitting on the bed in the nurses office. His nose looked awful, it was prodigious. It had grown from the swelling. Damien laughed quietly to himself. 17

"That's what you get for making fun of me."