Life's Challenges (Chapter Ten)

Jiro walked to school with a dull look on his face. Hebe, who was behind him, couldn’t help feeling, well, helpless. She was very sad and troubled. Just on the first day of school, she had managed to get Jiro into trouble. Normally, he wouldn’t mind, but this time, it was the worst thing that could happen. It was only her second day, but Jiro was going to get beaten by the school’s worst person. She felt nervous. If Jiro did or did not retaliate, would Danson let him off? Or would he continue hurting Jiro until the Jiro was unable to come to school? How she wished she was the one getting hurt instead of her beloved cousin.

Jiro, too, was feeling nervous. Scared, rather. He couldn’t think properly. He remembered seeing many of Danson’s victims getting admitted to the hospital, due to injuries. He knew his life was going to get worse everyday, starting from that certain day. But that was not all. He wouldn’t mind if only he was getting hurt. After all, it was just physical injuries. But Hebe was going to be hurt too, mentally. How was he going to protect her if he was injured. Could he depend on Arron? He didn’t think so. Arron didn’t really care about anything. Speaking of Arron, he had forgotten to go to his house so that they could walk to school together. Forget it, Jiro thought. After all, it was better if Arron was not there. What if Danson appeared? Arron would be getting hurt too. And that was not helping anything. What he needed the most now, was someone to protect Hebe when he was going to be injured.

Both Jiro and Hebe walked on, feeling numb. They couldn’t imagine what was going to happen the moment they set foot on the school grounds. As they got nearer to their school, their hearts got heavier. From where they were, the school was just about ten metres or so away. Jiro stopped, causing Hebe to bump into him. He muttered a sorry and she answered with a shake. He looked up into the sky and smelled the air.

Then, he looked back onto the remaining steps he was going to take to reach doom. He took Hebe’s right wrist in his and walked, conscious of every single step he took. When at last, he was one step away from his horrifying destiny, he let go of Hebe’s hand and took a deep breath. He then put a foot onto the school compound and continued walking, pretending he wasn’t expecting anything. As he was half way through, he felt a hand holding his left shoulder.

He closed his eyes and opened them. He turned and...

WHAM!

He felt a punch go across his left cheek. He fell onto the ground. He could sense everyone’s eyes on him. He touched his face and realized there was already a few drops of blood trickling. He tried to stand, but was immediately pummeled back onto the ground. He could feel the blood, his blood, flowing slightly on his face as he was continuously punched and kicked.

Hebe, feeling guilty, pushed her way towards the gathering crowd to Jiro and tried to stop Danson and his gang. Despite her courage, she was slapped across the face by Danson and fell back. Danson stopped hitting Jiro but he commanded his other two members to continue. He walked to Hebe with a smile on his face. “Do you want me to continue that?” Danson pointed to the badly beaten Jiro.

Hebe immediately shook her head. Danson continued smiling. “Then be mine. And I’ll stop it.”

Hebe’s heart stopped for a moment. Indeed she wanted to save Jiro, but she didn’t want to be Danson’s. Who knows what he would do to her. What should she say? What can she do? She was terrified. Danson went nearer to her and she could hear Jiro groaning in pain. She shut her eyes. She was afraid. She couldn’t decide.

Mustering the rest of her courage, she slapped Danson. It was so silent, the slap could be heard everywhere. The other two members stop hitting Jiro and stared at her with eyes full of anger. As they made a gesture to move towards Hebe, Danson held up his hand to stop them. He touched his cheek and smiled again. He pulled her up. Hebe knew she was dead meat. He was going to hit her in front of everyone and she would be helpless in everything, especially helping Jiro. As Danson raised his hand, as his palm was only centimetres away from her face, someone stopped it.

Everyone gasped. All eyes were now not on Jiro or Hebe, but on Arron. He had appeared on time to stop Hebe from getting slapped again. He and Danson looked at each other with eyes that could kill. Danson pushed Hebe down onto the floor and swished Arron’s hand from his. He was smiling no longer. Never had anyone retaliate against him. Never anyone had the nerve to stop him from doing anything. Never, and that was not going to change, he thought.

He lunged towards Arron with a fist that not many could have avoided. But Arron merely dodged and stuck his leg out, tripping Danson in front of the whole school. More gasps could be heard. The other two, seeing their leader falling, went towards Arron with fists as dangerous as Danson’s, but once more, Arron dodged and with a swift kick, managed to land them on their faces.

Not satisfied, Danson and his other two buddies attacked Arron but again and again, were thrown onto the ground. They were getting tired, it was obvious, but looking at Arron’s face, no one could tell that he just fought. He looked the same as usual. All the girls in the crowd were wearing soppy looks on their faces, as if Arron was confessing to them.

Hebe, as soon as the two bullies left Jiro’s side, scurried to him. Jiro had blood on his face and countless injuries on him. Hebe immediately took out her packet of tissues to wipe them off. But there was too much, the tissues couldn’t do much. Suddenly, Jiro fainted, his head on her thigh. Hebe looked around to see of anyone could help her to bring him to the nurse’s office, but no one was looking at them at all. Everyone was paying attention to the fight that was happening between Arron and the other three. She was surprise at how supple he was. He was moving and dodging the attacks easily and continuously like he could predict them and didn’t seem in the least tired.

The other three on the other hand, were obviously exhausted from their attempts to hurt Arron. None of the attacks seem to be able to touch Arron at all. After long last, Danson stood up with his body slightly bent, indicating that he was hurt. He looked at Arron and threatened him. “You’ll regret this. You just wait and see. You’ll regret this.”

Arron merely looked at him with the usual empty eyes, “We’ll see.”

The three bullies staggered away. Everyone made way for them. Although they were beaten badly and lost pathetically, everyone was still afraid of them. After they were gone, Arron walked to Hebe and Jiro. He grabbed Jiro’s arm and put it over his shoulder. “Follow me,” he told Hebe, who nodded in an instance.

He carried Jiro all the way to the nurse’s office and laid him on the hospital bed available there. The nurses panicked when they saw him and quickly took out the tools needed to heal him. They started wiping off the blood and treating his injuries. Hebe sat down on a chair and was given a damp cloth to wipe her face, which was very pale, she looked like she was ill. Arron stood at another corner, staring at the nurses efficiently looking after Jiro.

One nurse went to him and Hebe and passed them new sets of uniforms to change into as theirs were quite bloody, from bringing Jiro. They took them and went to change. They came out at the same time from the changing rooms and stopped. After a while of silence, Hebe spoke.

-brenda-