Troubled little youth. Old version.

Tony.

Ashila's P.o.v

"You know, you're a very blunt person although you kind of do it in a subtle way... does that make sense?"

"Um... sure. Yeah. Okay" I say letting out a laugh as Ameia struggles with her words. She looks up from her fingers to me and smiles.
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Walking towards the cafeteria I hear the sound of soft groans coming from a hallway off the one I'm currently in. "Can you hear that?" I ask Ameia. We turn of onto the hallway and as the sounds get louder I realise it's someone in pain.

"Oh my..." Ameia gasps as she see the sight before her eyes. I turn only to see the boy, Tony, the one that belonged to the two other boys... Sam and Shaun. Tony was on his side, holding his abdomen and grunting in pain.

I noticed three other boys hovering above him hitting and kicking him. "HEY!" I shout running towards Tony with Ameia. "Piss off and leave him alone you low life son of a... Are you okay?" I stop and change the topic as the boys run off and I notice just how bad of a conditional Tony is in.

I kneel down and touch his shoulder the slightest only for him to finch back. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you." he noticeably relaxes but only for a second until I ask him "Who did this to you?" Tony looks at me, blink back tears that I can only imagine are from the immense pain he's in.

"Nobody. Leave me alone." he looks away trying to sit up however failing and falling back down and grunting. I examine his frame and notice his dark skin and black frizzy hair.

"Why did they do this?" I ask trying a different approach. Ameia kneels down next to me with the same sad look written across her face.

"Look at me." He whispers still lying on his side. "Look at me." He repeats. He shakes his head and lets go of a tear.

"I am." I reply, I see him, I see nothing wrong but he sees himself and he sees everything wrong. It's life, we focus on the wrong things for to long and they become everything.

"NO!" He shouts. "Look at me." he whispers. "Why! Why can't I be like everyone else" he speaks out softly. "It's their fault. it's THEIR fault." He shouts now.

"Life will knock you down but you are the one that chooses to get back up or not" Ameia speaks up from beside me.

"It's because of my skin colour. They beat me up because of my skin colour!" Tony begins to sob quietly. Ameia doesn't say anything and neither do I because what are you meant to say to someone about something so deep.

"Look kid, the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, you understand?" I say trying to remember what speech Rocky gave to his son in that movie.

I continue "Racism is a big issue, it's wrong and no one should have to be a victim of that but you need to know that the way to beat them is to keep getting up, to show that what they think means nothing to you. It's not about how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.. It's how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Show them that they're wrong. Show them that they're opinions of you and your skin colour are wrong. Show them how great you are. "

"You're worth more than what they make you out to be and you need to realise that so you go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not point fingers and blame other people. Cowards do that and that's not you. You're better than that!" I finish raising my voice.

Tony looks up at me a shyly smiles. "Why do you see the best in me when I only see the worst?" He questions while shaking his head. He struggles to get up whilst both Ameia and I help him.

"Because that's what I focus on." I reply with his arm over my shoulders and his other over Ameia's. "Because that's what everyone should focus on".
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"You'll be okay now? Right?." I ask Tony as the nurse checks over his rips making sure nothing is to badly broken.

"Yeah, now that you've talked some sense into me, I'll be okay... Thanks Ashila." he says occasionally squinting or grunting due to too much pressure the nurse had put on his stomach.

"Seriously though... Thank you."