Jaxson

I am the underdog, everyday never seems to belong to me. I am that weirdo no one likes, and everyone picks on. I might be getting picked on but I manage to get through it. I am that kid everyone hates just because they can.

“I know! With his big ears, he looks like an elephant!” I over hear some girls talking about someone, making awkward eye contact with me. I can’t help but think the person they’re talking about is me.
“Watch it!” some stuck up jock says to me as I crash into a nearby locker. I wish it was my locker. Then I could have just squeezed right in and waited there until everyone was gone. 
“Uh oh! Is the little baby gonna cry?” he jokes with me. But the jokes aren’t funny. They never are. But his gang stands and laughs at my despair, he then grabs my science textbook and rips out all the pages.
“Hey, stop!” I knew yelling at him wasn’t gonna make a difference, but I had to try.
“Hey stop!” he mimics me with a high pitched, annoying voice. His friends grab my already ripped paper on the ground and shreds them up even more. The world closes in around me. I can’t do anything now, it's too late. I walk into the bathroom to recollect myself. The gang went to class, and the bell had already rung. I was going to be late, again.
I walk into my science class unprepared. All of the jocks are staring me down like I was a dead animal and they were vultures. I hear snickering in the back of the room. Brooklynn Sugar.
“There he is!” she lets out an even larger giggle and points her skinny, polished and ringed up finger at me. I grab a seat right next to Ms. Carter's desk. I sit here because the bad kids sit all the way on the other side of the room. This is the safest spot.
I glance at my arms. Bruises crawling up and down my body. The usual. They say being in high school is way different from middle school. It’s really not. When you have classes with older kids, it’s a bigger bullying target. I’m a ninth grader at  Fisherman High School in Minnesota, nothing exciting.
After what seems like an eternity, Science finally ends. Logan, the boy who was beating me up in the hallway, makes his way over to Kaycee. Kaycee is a nice, pretty girl, and is probably the one person who hasn’t done anything mean to me. I’m trying to collect my stuff, as I hear Logan open his big mouth.
“Hey pretty girl,” he blocks the door with his arm, not letting her through.
“Look, Logan, I’m not interested,” Kaycee says.
“I don’t care if you’re not interested. I’m Interested. I mean, that's all that matters. Keeping the man happy,” Logan says with the biggest creepy smile, and the weird eyebrow thing he does.
“You’re not a man. A man has respect for ladies.” Kaycee pushes his arm down as he almost falls.
Logan chases her out of the door, no one has ever done that to him before, and he didn’t seem happy. I walk fast to my locker, and Kaycee’s locker is 3 over from mine.
“Yo, Kaycee. You need to chill. Look I’m just looking for someone who wants to hang with me, and you know, looking for action…” He leans in for a kiss. Oh no, here comes Brooklyn, his girlfriend of two months (That’s really long for Logan).
“Kaycee!” She stops running in the hallway and everyone looks to see what’s wrong.
“I can’t believe you, you, low living brat!” She grabs Logan’s arm. He’s flexing for Brooklyn, and he gives Kaycee the don’t worry, I’ll be back look.
“Kaycee?” After what happened I don’t know if it's a good idea to talk to her, but I think I should try to help.
“Yes, Jaxson?” She says to me as she looks over her locker with her huge, innocent eyes. She’s one of the only other ninth graders in my classes. We both take 11th grade classes.
“I was just wondering if you were O.K?” I say accidentally dropping my backpack. I start to pick up my stuff when she offers to help me. It was like one of those cheesy movie scenes were you bump heads and it’s all cute and romantic. Just so you know, it’s not romantic. It hurts.
“Oops, I’m sorry.”
“It’s cool. But yeah i’m fine. I just hate being treated like i’m nothing. I’m not a trashy girl. I call those girls the ‘Trashies’”. She’s right. She’s not trashy. She’s a beautiful girl, with an awesome personality.
“Hey, I’m sorry they put you through that mess. If there’s anything I could do for you, let me know.” She hands me back the rest of the things I dropped. I was kind of flattered and too nervous to say anything, so I gave her a head nod, grabbed my backpack, and left school.

Kaycee
I wish Jaxson would have stayed because he’s really cool, and he kind of stumbled out of the hallway and walked somewhere. I grab my cheerleading bag and head outside for practice. It’s early April, and the weather is surprisingly beautiful. I lace up my crappy white shoes with little specks of mud splattering up my shoes. I throw up hair in a high ponytail and my natural blonde streak shines in the glimmering sun. I look around to find the rest of the team. No one's here… Maybe they’re coming. I tell myself that. I also tell myself if they’re not here in the next 15 minutes, I’ll start walking home.
I don’t want my brother to pick me up. I don’t live with my parents because they died when I was 4. The only memory I have is of them sitting outside while I ate my popsicle. Then they would sit there and sing songs and joke about my brother. My brother at the time was 17. I’m 14, and my brother is now 28. He’s a doctor and has 1 child, a wife, and is expecting a son this May.
I glance at my phone and see it’s been 15 minutes. There’s no sign of life. I text Johnny, my brother, and tell him don’t bother picking me up. I walk home in the last few hours of sunlight left, and run into someone I was hoping not to see when I cut through the park.

Jaxson
I can’t drive yet since I’m only 15. But I’m gonna start learning how to drive within the next few months. Until then I walk home.
We get home and I decide to go for a walk down to the park. I’m going to take my youngest brother with me and play some catch. Our foster parent, Missy, also gave me a 20 dollar bill for ice cream and whatever else we wanted. My youngest brother's name is Luckas, but we call him Lucky. He’s probably the cutest 7 year old on the face of earth.
“Jaxson,” he says as we stroll out of our driveway and find the football laying on the ground. “Why do you have bruises on your arm?” Oh no. I think to myself. Missy must have seen too. But what does she care?
“Well Lucky, I ran into a locker today. You know, Clumsy me.” I can tell he knows I’m lying. His eyes grow with concern.
“O.K.” He says when his feet scuffs the ground with this bright blue sneakers. We get to the park and toss around the ball. Then at about 5 o’clock, we get some ice cream, and sit down at the playground bench.
“Oh no.” I slowly let the words out of my mouth as I see familiar faces. I hear the voice of Logan and his gang of idiots.
“What’s wrong?” I forgot Lucky was there.
“We should start heading home.” I grab Lucky’s arm and motion for him to stand up.
“Why? We just got here…” He’s right, we did just start enjoying ourselves.
“Missy texted dinner’s ready.” Oops, I lied… again.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Let me see.” He grabs my phone unexpectedly.
“‘No new messages’ it says. You lied.” He looks up at me confused.
“Alright but can we just go?”
“Hey Dufus.” Logan walks over to me as I start to nervously back up.

Kaycee

Logan. Gang of Idiots. But there was one person I was glad to see, Jaxson. He must have had his cousin- no, wait, brother, yes, brother with him. I walk over to see what was happening, but I was in for more than I thought.
“Logan.” I say as I scrunch up my nose at him.
“Hey babe, what’cha doin’ here?” He puts his arm around me but I block him. I walk to stand in front of Jaxson”s brother because I don’t want him to see this.
“Why the attitude Darlin’? Just trying to talk.” He tries to touch me again.
“No. Go away.” I say as I motion and slightly push Jaxson and his mini him off to the side to walk. Then Logan grabs me and Jaxson by our shoulders and turns us around to face each other. I notice a scratch on his nose and cheek, and arm...
“Kaycee.” Logan says as he whirls me around to now face him. He then grabs my shoulders and whips me to the ground. I look up for one last look before I see him punch logan with all his force. Logan hits the ground like a water balloon and pops. Gashes re-open on his arms and he starts wincing in pain.
“You want that little piece of crap? Have him, but you’ll have to wait till I’m done.” It all happens so fast. No one else is in the park, which is terrible because we need someone to help. Suddenly, Jaxson’s brother pulls out change and tugs on my shirt. It was about $16. But I also remember that I had $40 from my job at Starbucks left in my bag. I understand what he wants to happen. As I take the money from him, I look at Jaxson. So many bruises that will turn into scars, so many scars that won’t leave.
“Hey! Take this and leave!” It wasn’t much but it was all we had. He takes it, throws one last punch and turns away. Stumbling to his feet, I notice he has a little bloody nose also. “Make sure when you go home ice your bruises, and put medicine on your cuts so they don’t get infected.” I look at his little brother and smile to let him know everything’s gonna be O.K.
“Missy won’t do that. She’d rather spend the money on alcohol.” The little boy looks up at Jaxson. He has a biggest blue eyes on earth.
“How about you guys come over, my brother will fix us some dinner, and we’ll fix up those injuries. O.K?”
“Ok.” They say as Jaxson grabs the football.
“Say, kid, what's your name?” I look at Jaxson’s little brother.
“My names Lucky.” 

Jaxson

We walk to Kaycee’s house. Man, it's so embarrassing to get beat up in front of a beautiful girl. As we’re walking, the sun starts to set. The last bit of sun paints Kaycee’s hair. Her natural blonde streaks glimmer. She has a look on her face likes she's determined to do something. Most beautiful, gorgeous, lovely person on earth. “Hey Kaycee, thank you.”
“Oh no, don't thank me. I feel like there's so much more I could have done. But I'm super determined to do something to get him in trouble. I mean, he gets away with anything. Bullying you at school, bullying you out of school. No one cares to help. But I'll find a way for you to get on with your life without him being here to screw up your chances.” Kaycee is determined now to change my life. She really wants to help me. I can't be anymore thankful.
“Alright. We’re here. Let's get you inside.” She walks into a beautiful mansion. She whips around the front door, and Lucky and I try to catch up.
“Wow! Smells like-”
“Steak’s ready. Come and eat!” That must have been Kaycee’s dad. No, no. Way too young. Brother? Definitely.
“Hey Johnny, I brought some friends over. They might stay for awhile too.”
“Alright that's cool. What's their names?”
“Jaxson, and uh, Lucky? Yeah, Lucky. But first I'm gonna fix up Jaxson's scratches. Where is the first aid kit?” Me and Lucky are still untying our shoes, and adjusting to a house this size. But Kaycee's already running around the house like a chicken with its head cut off. On the wall, a picture of a woman, a man, and a girl. I recognize the girl. It looks like a wedding picture. This picture seems to be taken 3 years ago, because Kaycee looks like she’s 10 or 11 years old.
“Ah, here we are. Come on Jaxson, I have the medicine you need.”
I hear Kaycees voice travel out of the nearest bathroom and I follow her voice. I sit on the counter as she gets out the things i’ll need.
<...>  
For the next few days, it was the time of my life. I brought a small bag of clothes to stay at Kaycee’s house. She lended us the guest room, and that’s where me and Lucky stayed. We had good meals every night, I wasn’t getting bullied as much, and everything was just better. She also told her brother and his wife about everything that’s happening and they’re very understanding people.
“Jakson, Lucky, come on and take a seat now.” Johnny says as he takes his wife's hand and takes Lucky’s hand too.
“Alright, what’s up?” I say nervously thinking he was gonna kick us out.
“We understand you guys live in a foster home, and we were thinking about moving to Florida.” He looks down as his hands. Here it comes, they’re kicking us out. Wait, wait. Moving to Florida? Yup, here’s the end for us.
“We wanna adopt you guys, and Kaycee says she’s ecstatic. Well?” Silence. Wasn’t expecting this. Lucky and I look at each other, and we know this is the perfect opportunity to live a normal life.
“Thank you! Thank you! We’d love to!” mine and Lucky’s voice sync together in excitement.
“Oh we’re glad you’re excited. Start packing boys!” Says Johnny wife, Susanna.
<...>
A few months pass, we now live in Florida. A new baby boy was born in May, and they named him Aiden. I don’t get bullied at all anymore. In fact, me and Kaycee basically run the school. Isn’t it funny how this always happens? The underdog always wins.