Liam was around 5ft tall, your normal, average guy with a small face and spiky light brown hair. Liam was the type of guy who always had a smile in his face. He wasn’t the cutest or the ugliest, nor the smartest or the dumbest. In any type of situation he would always smile to you as he passed by. It didn’t really matter if you did something to him he would never ignore you. He had the personality that was friendly with everyone; he could have been surrounded by many friends if it weren’t for the teasing and the bullying that tormented him on the daily basis. Liam was always getting pushed and shoved and tripped, also he was always getting called mean names. Liam never stood up for himself; he just took it all in, then he would just walk away with tears in the edge of his eyes. He always tried to keep all the pain inside him till he was next to Josh, his only true best friend since childhood, the one who always stood next to him.
Everyone bullied Liam but the ones who constantly teased and pushed him around consisted of three boys that were in our class. The “leader” of this trio was Aiden, He was around 5’6 ft. tall with a big head. He was funny but in a mean way, he also his personality was a little rotten. He had way too much pride, was a snob, and he looked down on others a lot, he was the meanest of the whole trio. His right hand-man was ben, he was one of the smartest kids I knew, and he was quiet but had a mean glare. He also had a lot of pride but less than Aiden. Ben looked at almost everyone as if they were stupid but he was a lot nicer than Aiden. John was the one who completed the trio, he wasn’t cruel or rude but if provoked then he could be mean, normally he was kind. He was taller than Aiden and Ben. The trio had been friends since childhood. Whenever Aiden and Ben did something he would also do it but with a compassionate look in his face, he was the softy of the trio. Everyone else teased Liam but this trio did most.
I didn’t understand how Liam’s bullies could push him around when they all knew that Liam had poor health; he had asthma, the bad kind. In an incident before Liam had broken a finger caused by the trio. Though that happened no one stopped bothering him. I was no angel I had done more than enough of my share to bullying and teasing the previous year. I had bullied a girl to the point that she moved schools at almost the end of the year. I tried to tease those who hadn’t done anything to me but almost everyone else was fair game to me. I had also teased Liam before but when that incident with that girl happened and realized I had done wrong and taken it too far I regretted it and stopped completely. I had learned my lesson, so why couldn’t they?
Though I thought all this I never did anything to stop those who teased Liam. Liam was mostly teased and pushed around the worst in breaks, lunch, or PE; it was when he was tormented the most. I saw it every time it happened. Even my friends would call him names like; like stupid, moron, fag, idiot, crazy, and many other names. It annoyed me that Liam wasn’t even able to have a moment of peace to eat without the trio or anyone else bothering him. I would usually sit with the trio and my other friends. When my friends teased Liam I would occasionally interrupt, “Quit it already, I’m hungry so let’s go,” with annoyance hinted in my voice, and star walking away quickly. I never straight up said “STOP!!!”
One Thursday afternoon in our PE class the little trio took it too far. The lesson in PE that day was basketball, since it was the season. Since I was in the girls’ basketball team with my friends they put us to play with the boys that were in the boys’ team for extra practice, the trio was in the boys’ team. While we were waiting for the coach to tell us to begin and bring another person that wasn’t on the team to practice, to complete the teams for practice. The boys were fooling around and shooting hoops, when we all saw Coach Owen walking towards us with Liam right behind him. We didn’t expect Liam to be the one chosen to practice with us, for he was one of the weakest in our whole PE class. I was still completely dumb founded and questioning hat was Coach Owen thinking, if he was stupid, being ignorant or just didn’t care when bringing Liam over to where we were knowing he couldn’t possibly keep up with us. Also all the teachers knew that Liam was every bully’s easy target but they just simply didn’t do anything and ignore it, and now it was like if they were offering him to the wolves.
“Liam will be practicing with you guys today, so you better not be too hard on him,” ordered Coach Owen with an obvious warning and cautious look in his face, when he heard another student call him. He left to go see what the other student wanted. When he was leaving I saw a big smirk I Aiden’s face. “Something is going to go wrong with these idiots, I’m sure they are going to do something really stupid and it isn’t going to be pretty,” I thought with a long sigh.
When the coach left, we picked the teams, the teams were separated by gender to be a “challenge” to the girls. Liam was put in our team with John to “help us out”, we didn’t complain for john was a good player but we couldn’t say the same for Liam. I noticed everyone was playing like if it was a real tournament. Liam didn’t know how to play well, broke many rules, but also Aiden and the rest of the boys’ team weren’t going easy on him. He was constantly getting tripped and bumped into. When suddenly Aiden a really cruel, childish, and stupid thing; he pushed Liam when he was in midair making a shot. It all happened too fast, one minute Liam had the ball and was making the shot and the next the ball was rolling away and Liam was in the floor by Aiden’s feet twitching and screaming in pain with his eyes completely white.
Our team had the just stolen the ball from one of Aiden’s team mates and was passing it between all of us. We were behind by one shot and were trying to catch up and surpass the boys’ team. When one of my team mates passed the ball to Liam who was completely open; he hadn’t gotten the ball in the whole time that had passed since we had started. To our miracle Liam catches the pass, dribbles all the way to our opposing team’s hoop. We all knew that he had a chance to make a shot, he realized it and got ready to make an attempt and jumped to make the shot. In the middle of the jump Aiden catches up and also jumps, while both Liam and Aiden are in the air Aiden pushes Liam. Two seconds later you hear something hard hit loudly on the dirty gym floor followed by Liam’s screech.
Everything after that goes in a blur. Liam is on the floor yelling his heart out in pain with his eyes rolled back and is his body is twitching. Meanwhile, Aiden is kneeling besides him panicking and freaking out. Everybody is freaking out yelling to him franticly, “Are you okay?!” or “Where does it hurt?!” Finally, Coach Owen snaps out of it and orders a student to quickly go get the nurse.
A minute or so later, Mrs. Rames the nurse comes running through the gym doors pushing a wheel chair in front of her and the student who was sent to find her right behind her catching up carrying Mrs.Rames’ tools. Mrs.Rames a little shorter than 5 ft. around 4’11 ft. She had a small body frame. She was a half Scottish and half Italian, 32 year old lady with a small round head. She had big round sapphire eyes and dirty blond short hair. “Alright everyone give him some space to breathe so step back,” Mrs.Rames ordered with a booming tone and a stern look on her face. She checked his back and neck to see if anything was broken. Then she put him in the wheel chair to take him to the infirmary.
She calls Liam’s mother to tell her of what happened and to take him to the hospital to get his head checked. Later on it turned out to be just a minor concussion, a couple bruises, and a bump in his head. Aiden got scold and a huge lecture about playing more safe and of the “what if’s” from the teachers, principle, and his and Liam’s parents but nothing bigger than that. After the incident and the huge scare that the trio and everyone else got they all apologized to Liam also they stopped bullying him. Though it all ended I was left with little regret of not being able to speak up for him before that big incident happened like it did. I felt ashamed. After all that happened Liam got to find more friends close like Josh. Even the trio became very good friends and it all turned out alright. I believe even to this day the trio and Josh are good friends with Liam.