Firestarter

NOTE: This portion of the chapter is told through Adeline’s point of view, not Tom’s. Try not to get confused.

Basically, I was bullied my entire time throughout elementary school. When I got into middle school, it started getting even more severe. Kids were hitting me, stabbing me with pencils, one even choked me because I wouldn’t let him cut in front of me in the lunch line. Teachers were no help, some of them even accused me of making the whole thing up because supposedly, the girls who were bullying me were “good girls” who would never do anything to hurt anybody, even after I had shown them all the bruises and scars they had left me that proved they were more than willing to hurt people.

So this one time my day was awful and all I wanted to do was go home, when some snotty girls approached me. They began teasing me again, which I was used to, until one kicked me and ripped my backpack off of me. They opened my backpack, took out my journal full of my drawings and creative writing practice, and ripped it up. They ripped up every single page, laughing along the way.

“Oh, no, I’ve destroyed your precious drawings!” One girl said, laughing. “Now you’ll have to join society. That is, or kill yourself.”

“I think the latter is her best option.” The other girl said, laughing as I cried. “Someone as detached as her could never be as cool as us.”

I had some of those drawings since I was five years old. Some of them were dedicated to deceased relatives. As such, you could understand I was really mad. So I fought back one of them and punched her in the nose. The other girl tackled me and began punching me. I responded by banging her head against the concrete, where I ended up hitting her so hard she went unconscious. I was freaked out. I had never hurt anybody that bad before. I was scared I had killed her, but at the same time I was wondering why I even cared. I might’ve left her for dead if my conscience wouldn’t have gotten the better of me.

So we took her to a hospital, and the doctors told us she was in a coma and it was currently unknown if she would ever wake up. Her parents were furious at me – apparently they had no idea their daughter was bullying anyone and thought I was making it up. They said that karma would come into play for me, and I would suffer the same fate as their daughter did. They also screamed at my parents.

My parents just wanted to get out of that city, right then, right now. They found the cheapest house they could and basically ran out of that city, dragging me with them.

So, that’s my story.

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NOTE: The story now shifts back to Tom’s point of view. Again, avoid confusion.

I looked at Adeline in shock. “Wow…”

“I’m normally not a violent person, but she just enraged me and…” Adeline started. Wait, was she trying to explain herself to me? Did she want me to be her friend?

“No, I understand.” I said. “They must’ve made you really mad. I probably would’ve knocked her in a coma too, except I don’t keep a journal.”

Looks like the girl was far from normal. And I liked that. I liked that a lot. I need something interesting to fill this giant void that this town took away from me. And this girl was exactly the interesting thing this stupid town needed.