Hero

It was the first day of high school for Daniel and his fellow freshmen. He had no idea what to expect from the new school, but there was one thing he did know. He couldn't let the same thing happen as had in middle school. He had been fairly popular in elementary school, but then sixth grade hit and all that flew out the window. He lost some of his closest friends faster than it seems possible. And things only went down from there.1

But this was supposed to be the best time of people's life. It was supposed to be awesome, as his mother had told him. But then again, she didn't know the kind of things he had endured all through middle school. He could never tell her.2

Getting on the bus last, he saw a friend of his from elementary school who had gone to a private school for middle school. She had just sat down at the back. Her name was Jaide. But there were no seats on the back of the bus left, so he would have to wait to talk to her.3

The ride to the high school was long, but the entire time, not one person said a word to Daniel. He had known these same people for years, so it would be a waste of time trying to change his standing with them. He would wait for his classes and meet new people to hang out with.4

Getting off of the bus, Daniel stood to the side and waited for Jaide. She came off talking to two other girls. Daniel guessed that she had just met them on the half-hour bus ride.5

"Hey, Jaide! Remember me?"6

Daniel saw a look of recognition on Jaide's face. He sighed with relief. He was right, she remembered him, and would probably be his key to making friends again. She had always been much better at that than he.7

One of the girls looked at him in disgust. She grabbed Jaide's arm and started to lead her away.8

"Go away. No one here wants anything to do with you, freak. Right, Jaide?"9

Jaide just looked at Daniel and then at her friend. She allowed herself to be steered away from the boy without as much as a backwards glance. He hadn't been expecting this. He watched her walk away, stunned into silence. He slowly walked the short distance to the stairs, climbed them and entered his class.10

Three periods later, and nothing had gone any better. Daniel found his way to the cafeteria. Leaving the line, his eyes swept the room. He saw many people who he recognized, but this wasn't a good thing. There would be no way those people would hang out with him. But then he saw Jaide and one of the girls from before. Not the one who had insulted him, the other girl. He headed in their direction. Setting his tray down, he pulled the chair out. And watched as the girl and Jaide got up and moved to a different table. He watched Jaide's back as she walked away. When she was seated with the jocks, he pushed his tray away from him and stared into the dry spaghetti. What had he done wrong? They had been friends for so long, what happened?11

A couple people at the table beside his began laughing loudly. And then one of them said, "Yeah, he thinks he's gonna be with her? I'll date her. And the freak won't have a chance." Daniel recognized the voice. It was Bill, the head football player. He was one of the most popular people in the school. And the only one Bill ever called "the freak" was Daniel. Daniel pulled his iPod out of his bookbag. He'd just ignore it. That's what always worked before. He hit shuffle and listened to the words, feeling them as he had so many times before: "The best years of our lives aren't as easy as they seem. But one day we'll look back and then we'll have to laugh. They used to call us names, now they want our autographs..." Joel Madden had the right idea. But it was harder than he made it seem.12

A tap on his shoulder. Startled, Daniel looked up into the face of the vice principal.13

"You are not allowed to listen to that during school. I'll have to take it."14

Laughter errupted from Bill's table.15

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know. I'll never do it again, please, I'll just put it away and won't take it out until I'm on the bus. Please?"
"Fine, but if I see it again until the last bell rings, it's an instant referal."16

Daniel shoved the iPod into his bag again, realizing just how different things would be, now that he was in high school.17

The bus ride home was as uneventful as the one to school. When he walked in his front door, he found a note from his mother on the kitchen table. He read "food's in refrigerator. Last night's food. me and Tony went out. be back late, go to bed by 10."18

Tony was his mother's abusive boyfriend. He never hurt Daniel's mother, but whenever she wasn't home, he beat David up. Which happened a lot lately. Daniel had tried many times to tell his mother about Tony's abuse, but she didn't believe him. She said that Daniel simply wanted all of the attention from her and was angry about Tony getting so much of it. Like she had given him any before they got together. But she refused to believe her son. At least he wouldn't be there either.19

Daniel didn't bother with the food yet. He threw his bag on his bed and logged in to check his email. There was one from school, listing all of the rules. Looking at the list of recipiants, he realized it was to all of the freshmen. He copied Jaide's email into his address book. He'd email her after reading the rules. He didn't want to get in any more trouble in only the second week.20

He began to type the email. He had no idea what to say to his old friend, now that she had already thwarted him twice.21

Hey, Jaide! Just wanted to say hi and to give you my email. Maybe we could hang out sometime? Would be fun!
Daniel22

He reread the letter three times before clicking the send button. He ran to his window and looked out toward Jaide's window. She was on the computer! He hastily pulled the curtains closed and slowly treked into the kitchen to reheat the leftover lasagna.23

Back in his room with his food, Daniel checked his mail again. Nothing from Jaide yet. But maybe she simply hadn't checked her email yet. Yeah, that would have to be it! She wouldn't ignore him. Would she?24

The next day went just the same. Only difference was, Daniel didn't try to talk to Jaide. And so life was simpler. Until lunch time again.25

Daniel went to find an empty table. He found one easily enough and, sitting down, realized that it was a table fairly far from the people harassing him the day before. It seemed the perfect area.26

After eating, Daniel went to dump his tray and to leave. Approaching the trash can, someone called his name. As he turned toward the voice, the speaker shoved him and the tray clattered to the floor, spilling its contents all over the polished tile. The vice principal, hearing the noise, hurried over to the scene and asked what had happened. The boy was gone. Daniel claimed to have tripped, so as not to cause more trouble for himself. And the rest of the day consisted of him being tripped by other random people and being slammed into lockers.27

A week later, Daniel saw his opportunity. He was in the library, checking out a book for a report he had to write. And Jaide came in alone. He hadn't seen her in a while, so he thought he'd go say hello. He had no idea how bad of an idea this would be.28

"Hey, Jaide!"29

She looked up and immediately back down at what she was writing.30

"Hey, um... Did you get my email? I haven't been online in a while and..."
"Yeah, I did."31

He didn't know what to say. He checked his email every morning and hadn't gotten anything from her.32

"Oh. Okay, I'll check it tonight."
"Don't bother. Hey, David. You might want to... Well, Bill and I... He's coming. Go. Trust me. Go."
"What? Bill and you what?"
"Daniel, go!" A look of worry crossed her face.
"Jaide, did he hurt you? What's going on? Is everything..."33

He was cut off by a fist hitting him in the side of his face, sending him crumpling to the ground.34

"Well, well, well. What have we here? Jaide, he bothering you again?"
"No, Bill. I'm fine. Really."35

Looking up, he saw Bill's face contort in anger. It wasn't the answer he wanted.36

"Come on, freak. Get the hell up." Daniel didn't move. He was frozen by fear. "I said, get the hell up!" Bill roared, moving forward. Where was the librarian? Bill grabbed Daniel by the arm and dragged him to his feet. He began pulling him toward the doors of the library.37

Daniel looked back toward Jaide. She was watching the whole thing, doing nothing. When he caught her eyes, she looked back at the page she was working on. His heart broke.38

Bill pulled him into another building, Daniel fighting him the entire way. Bill was saying something, but Daniel couldn't hear the words past his own thoughts. Past the picture of Jaide looking back to her schoolwork while he was being tortured. It kept replaying in his head. How could he have been so stupid as to think that he, Daniel, the freak, could have gotten someone like Jaide to care about him?39

Bill reached the midpoint of the hallway. Keeping hold of Daniel's arm, he twisted the combination into the locker door. Opening it, he grabbed Daniel's free arm and twisted him into the locker. It was a tight fit, with Daniel having barely enough room to breathe past the sweaty football uniform and text books.40

"Good luck getting out of there, freak! Try messing with my girlfriend again and it'll be worse." The locker door was slammed and then hit by a fist on the outside, to which Daniel flinched. And, upon trying to open it, Daniel found the door locked. As in padlocked. Meaning he wouldn't be getting out until someone who knew the combination came. Meaning he'd be missing class. All of this was because of her. He hadn't known that Jaide was Bill's girlfriend or he would have avoided her like the plague, like he did Bill and the rest of his gang. He never would have bothered trying to become her friend again.41

He was sick of their constant harassment, his constant embarassment and humiliation. Sick of the abuse he got from them all every day. And did anyone ever say anything to them to get them to stop? To make them leave him alone? No. Mostly they all joined in, sometimes just walked past doing nothing, usually laughing. He passed many people just now, them laughing at Bill's stronghold grip on Daniel.42

He saw someone coming down the hall. He recognized her as Kelli, one of Jaide's new best friends. Of course. She was clearly in too much of a hurry to notice the face peering out at her through the grate on the locker. He banged on the door and called out to her. She jumped and looked around. Seeing nothing, she shook her head and kept walking. He called again. She realized where the voice was coming from and walked over to Bill's locker.43

She twisted the dial, forming the combination, releasing the door. Thank God that these people all share combinations! Once opened, she walked quickly away, calling over her shoulder for him to be sure to close it behind him. He watched her walk the rest of the way down the hall and turn into a classroom. He went to the restroom at the end of the hall and waited there for the rest of the period. He was crying much too hard to go to class. He refused to let them see what they were doing to him. What was so different about him that no one could stand to look at him without being repulsed? The bell rang as he wiped his eyes and made the decision. He wouldn't take it any longer. He couldn't handle it. It was him or them.44

At the end of the day, while walking down the hallway toward the bus pickup line, Bill and his friends caught up to him.45

"How the hell did you get out of there? Hey freak! I'm talking to you!" Bill grabbed the handle of Daniel's backpack and, yanking him backwards, shoved him into the wall. Daniel heard laughter surrounding him. He tried to push Bill's hands off of him, but it was worthless. No one would have been able to push the star quarterback's hand off themselves, yet alone Daniel, who had never practiced sports in his life. All he succeeded in doing was getting the guy angrier.46

"He thinks he is gonna push me off of him. Really? You think you can manage that, freak?" He shoved Daniel to the ground and everyone began to walk off, all of them laughing. He had fallen into a puddle of muddy rainwater.47

Daniel's breath caught in his chest from the fall. For some reason, he hadn't expected this last part of the attack, though it was Bill's style. He pulled all of his energy together in order to stand when he looked up and saw that Kelli was reaching her hand out to him. He took it gratefully and started to stand up. She pulled her hand from his grasp and he fell, causing even more laughter. He felt the tears coming, but refused to let them out. But they were coming, this was certain.48

Another girl came over and, glancing up, he saw it was Jaide. She reached her hand to him, glaring over at the others. But he knew better this time. He started to get up on his own, but his knee was hurting so badly from falling on it twice that he stumbled, again followed by laughter. The girl grabbed his arm, preventing his fall, and helped him to stand. She released his arm the second he was steady on his feet. The laughter subsided quickly.49

Daniel looked at Jaide, surprised that she had helped him after doing nothing earlier that day. She said nothing, and walked back over toward where Rachel and Kelli were waiting for the bus to pull up. He came a little closer, just close enough to hear their discussion.50

"Jaide. What the hell was that about?" Rachel was angry.
"What? I helped the guy out! My boyfriend's a jerk, Rach, you have to know that. He didn't need to do that. And Kelli?" She turned to the other girl, "that was stupid. Why would you do that?"
"Uh, Jaide. Just to let you know since, clearly, you haven't noticed. He. Is. A. Freak. Who cares? He'll get over it. It's not like I did any worse to him than Bill already did!" Kelli was just as angry at Jaide as Rachel was.
"Kel, it was wrong and you know it."
"Okay, both of you shut up." Rachel clearly wanted the attention back onto herself. "Jaide, unless you want to be friends with the creep, don't 'help him out.' Trust me. He'll start stalking you like he did me. You remember, I hope, that I stuck up for him a few times way back when? And then he wouldn't leave me alone. Remember? He'll do the same to you."
"Yeah, I remember. Sorry, Rach." The girl looked over at the approaching buses and away from Rachel and Kelli.51

But Daniel had heard enough. She felt sorry for him. She didn't care about him, she only wanted to ease her own conscience. A lot of good that would do after tonight. His mother wouldn't be home until late tonight. What could possibly be a better time than now to get out of this hell of a life? He put his earphones into his ears and allowed Daughtry's words to wash all other thoughts from his mind: "Now that it's all said and done, I can't believe you were the one to build me up and tear me down, like an old abandoned house..." The words were all he could hear now. A single tear fell from his eye. No one cared enough to notice.52

The bus was here. Daniel, as usual, was one of the first onto the bus. That way, there would be fewer people already poised to trip him on his way to his seat. The three girls sat together in the row beside Daniel. Rachel glared at him as she went to sit down by the window. Kelli filed in after her, completely ignoring him, and, then, the last to sit, was Jaide. She sat beside Daniel in the row across from him with the others. Daniel, as always, sat alone. Jaide avoided looking in his direction the entire ride.53

Sitting down, he replayed the song over and over again. "like an old abandoned house... like an old abandoned house..." These words caught into his soul like daggers, tearing the care about life from him.54

Their stop was approaching. He shoved his iPod into his bookbag because of the rain. Which was when Daniel told himself that he had about ten more minutes until it would be over. He would have to do it the second he got home. Just to make sure his mom wouldn't get home too soon. He followed Jaide off of the bus. Kelli had stopped to let him pass in front of her, which surprised him, but he had a bad feeling about this. And of course, Kelli tripped him from behind, just as he was stepping down onto the ground from the bus steps. Jaide turned, saw him fall, and started to turn away. But a second later, she had turned back and reached her hand to him again. This time he took it, as there was no way he could stand up without help. She pulled him to his feet. His clothes were stained from the mud and wet grass. She tried unsuccessfully to wipe the dirt from his arm. He pulled away angrily. Jaide glared at her friend and Daniel took this chance to walk swiftly down the street toward his home.55

"Hey! Daniel!" It was Jaide. She was running to catch up to him. This was unexpected.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah." He began walking faster again.
"Slow down! I can't keep up! Daniel!!!"56

Daniel stopped again, still looking toward his final destination. What was it with this girl? Her conscience couldn't be so bad that she would ditch her real friends to walk her freak-of-an-ex-best-friend home. But then again, she did live next door to him... But even so, they hadn't walked together since elementary school. And that was years ago. They were eight then, they were now both almost fifteen. He heard Kelli and Rachel throwing taunts his direction. He looked back at them and they laughed harder.57

"Hey, they're a bunch of assholes. Ignore them." But that was easy for her to say. She was friends with them.
"Go away."
"No. I'm really sorry about how they are to you. I’ve been trying to get them to stop, but they don't listen to me. About anything. Ever."
"Like you're so great at listening. I said "go away" how many times now?"
"I'm listening, I'm just ignoring you." She laughed a little at this. He walked faster again. "Hey, I'm kidding! I was actually wondering if... you wanted to study some with me today. I mean, you're a lot better at calculus than I am and I really need help with today's lesson. Slow down!"
"I've got to stay home."
"Excellent! I'll run in my house and grab something and be right over."58

Daniel looked at her in disbelief. Well, at least his body would be found quickly.59

They got to Daniel's house a second later and he turned into the driveway, walking quickly to the door.60

"See you in a second!"61

Rachel and Kelli were gone. It was just he and Jaide on the street. They must have been going faster than he had thought.62

He went inside and let the door swing shut behind him. He dropped his book bag in the living room and went immediately up to his mother's room. He knew she kept the handgun in her bottom dresser drawer. He replayed the day's events over and over in his mind, holding the gun in his hand.63

He knelt on the ground. Hastily, he scribbled a note telling his mother that he loved her, folded it and held it in his hand. He lifted the gun. A sudden noise shattered the silence of the house. 64

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~65

The front door slamming behind her, Jaide ran into the room just in time to see Daniel stuffing the gun back into the drawer. He couldn't do it. He kept seeing Jaide's face in his mind while she begged him to come study with her. She used to do the same thing when they were little.66

She ran from the door over to where he knelt on the ground. She had seen the gun. She threw her arms around Daniel, who now was crying uncontrollably. He yanked away from her, stood up and walked away, all the while glaring at her, angrily brushing off his tears.67

"Get off me. Go away. Now I'm serious." Daniel guessed that everyone at the school would know about this within an hour of her getting home.
"No. Daniel, please. Please don't do this. Please, Daniel. Listen to me."68

He glared at her. He hated her for coming in when she did. Now she simply pitied him more than before. And he despised pity more even than hate, if that was possible.69

"Daniel. Please." She shoved the drawer closed, blocking their sight of the instrument of Daniel's almost-suicide, stood up and walked closer to Daniel. "Come to my house. Come and hang out. We'll listen to music and play games, just like old times. You remember, don't you? Please?"
"Go, Jaide. Just go."70

Jaide sat back down defiantly.71

"Why are you doing this? I won't kill myself. I wasn't... I couldn't do it. Yeah, that's right. I'm weak. I couldn't even manage dying. Happy? Go. Home."
"In case you didn't notice, I have no intent on going anywhere unless you come with me. I. Am. Not. Leaving." Jaide was glaring back at him now.
"Fine. Stay. Who cares?"72

Daniel left the room and walked down the hall towards his own bedroom. Jaide got up and walked to the front door and grabbed both of their book bags. She carried them over to his bedroom and went inside. She dropped both of them on the ground and took her iPod and docker out of her own. She plugged it in, pressed play, and sat beside him on the edge of his bed.73

"Now that it's all said and done, I can't believe you were the one to build me up and tear me down like an old abandoned house. What you said when you left just left me cold and out of breath, I fell too far, was in way too deep... Guess I let you get the best of me...."74

Daniel looked up at Jaide. She smiled and slipped her arm around him. He pulled away slightly, looking away from her. She slid closer and slipped her left hand into his right. He looked up at her again.75

"You, you got me thinking it'll be alright. You, you told me,
'Come and take a look inside.' You believed me, in every single lie. But I, I failed you this time. And it feels like tonight.
I can't believe I'm broken inside. Can't you see that there's nothing that I wanna do, but try to make it up to you? and it feels like tonight..."