One of the Bullied | ✔

Chapter 2 - Welcome To PE, Your Own Purgatorial Experience

"I want you all into teams of four, now." Our PE teacher snaps. Why is sports even a subject? It's just plain stupid and no one that I knew back in England actually liked it. Here, though, it's another matter altogether. All the boys are obsessed. 

I look around, not even caring about who I end up with but just wanting someone to avoid getting into trouble. 

"Has everyone got a group?" The teacher looks around, spotting me alone. "Zoe, join the boys over there."

He makes a wild gesture before I see who he's talking about. "God, not the Zerd." Seth hisses softly as I make my way over slowly.

"I don't want any trouble from you three." The teacher says to the three boys now next to me, also known as the terrible trio, also known as Seth, Caleb and Luke. I despise every one of them, but they hate me more. "Now, you'll be in these groups for the rest of the term-"

"Or we can just change next time." Luke growls immediately. The teacher glares at him and he shrugs but doesn't say anything more. I roll my eyes. And these guys say they're seventeen. They act as immaturely as toddlers.

There's a few more minutes of the teacher droning on in which I just lapse off into another daydream, this time about the forbidden love and plot complications in I Capture The Castle. "Hey, Zerd, catch." Caleb spits before kicking a football hard, towards me.

It hits me in the ankle and as an instinct I bite my lip, not even bothering to kick it back. It rolls past me and I lean down, rubbing my ankle in pain. I stand to the side while they start kicking it between them.

"All of you doing it now, no one standing to the side." The teacher snaps as he walks past us. Seth rolls his eyes, passing me the ball, and I kick it back without even caring. It continues like that for a few minutes until we're called to try and start practicing shooting.

I don't even care about PE - I'm actually okay at football and sports in general but no one's willing to even give me a chance. I would like to participate now and then. For the next fifteen minutes, I stand into the goal daydreaming and letting them kick the ball, whether past me or at me. It doesn't even faze me anymore.

"Join up to make eights in the groups you are now!" The teacher shouts. Caleb rolls his eyes - he's pissed that he's stuck with me, but how does he think I feel? These are the guys that torment me, day in, day out. Does he really think for one second that I want to be anywhere near them?

We join up with four more guys who all look disgusted to even be near me. I don't care anymore. Let them act like six-year-olds if they want to. "Come on! Move up! Get into your places - haven't you learnt anything this year?" Mate, you can shout all you want but no one is going to listen.

The teacher starts blowing his whistle excruciatingly loudly and finally the teams move over into the positions. I'm defense together with Caleb, who is good at it and which therefore means I can get away with not doing anything and just generally trying to go unnoticed.

Luckily for us the opposing team get to start with the ball, and they kick it automatically towards our goal. Caleb jogs up, kicking it away. A sudden nervousness starts to creep over me and I gnaw on my thumb nail anxiously.

Luke sees me, mimicking the action with a contemptuous face before kicking the ball away. I just roll my eyes. They always take the piss out of me for biting my nails - my hands, I can do what I want with them.

"Don't forget to check your locker tonight." Another guy, Nate, says as he runs up closer. I roll my eyes at him. Suddenly the ball is at my feet, and I know right in this moment about four guys will be pounding towards me, thinking that if I kick it I'll magically fuck up the whole game. With my special nerd powers. I use them constantly, you see.

Just as Seth runs up to me I snatch it away, jogging up behind Nate and passing Luke who is glaring at me. I jog up half the field without anyone even getting close to me, then, without warning, I pass neatly to one of the jockeys on our team and he scores without even thinking about it.

There's silence everywhere: the team to my left, mostly made up of girls, has stopped playing, and the team to our right, who have just realized what happened, are also coming to a halt. I take a few steps back, because attention is the last thing I want, it normally just brings trouble with it.

Caleb starts striding purposefully over to me and I involuntarily take a few steps back. His face spreads into a grin which I don't like at all. He stops a few steps away from me.

"Sir, sir, a bee stung me!" A girl shouts suddenly from the other side of the court. The teacher starts jogging over, his posture making him look like he really doesn't care, that he's just doing his duty and that he probably wishes everyone in the class was stung by a million wasps.

"That was good Zerd. High five." Caleb says and I take another step away from him. This is too strange for it to be credible. He holds his hand up and I reach tentatively up before I see his hand curl into a fist and come smashing into my stomach. "Stupid fucking nerd." I hear him hiss under his breath.

I understand the bee thing now. And the high five thing. I groan, staggering back from him. It wasn't as hard as he would've done if he'd prepared for it, but it was hard enough. I feel the tears springing from my eyes but I immediately swallow them back.

When I look back up all the boys are jeering and laughing and Caleb is long gone, laughing with Seth and Luke and a couple of their evil minions.

Before the teacher comes back I need to leave. In theory I shouldn't, but I've done this before, and I got into trouble, but oh well, who gives a shit about PE? It's not like this is going to go on my permanent record or anything stupid like that. And that's not sarcasm.

I start striding away from the field and the jeering grows louder. I hear footsteps behind me, and I don't have time to react before a knee slams into the back of mine, sending me falling forwards. I land on my hands and knees, only just saving myself from smashing my glasses.

There's a laugh behind me and as I pull myself up I get kicked again, this time from the side, sending me back down. I cry out, not bothering to move until they're gone, whoever it is. I look up at Luke, pleading him not, to but he doesn't care, he wants to do this, and his heel slams into my stomach.

Whimpering softly, I curl onto my side and he kicks my back one more time before spitting on the ground next to me, letting out something like an evil cackle and jogging off again. There's shouting and laughing coming from the main pitch but I ignore it. I don't even move.

They don't often get physical - normally it's just the pranking, laughing and jeering that goes on. I'm not used as a punching bag that often, but when I am I get it bad. No, what am I talking about. I'm used as a punching bag day in day out.

It takes all my strength to get up, and more willpower. Sometimes, when this happens, I just want to lie here and become part of the grass and let people walk over me, like they do anyways. It's not like my life would be that much different.