The School Yard Bully
by Natalie Hogan

She was known all around the schoolyard. She had a mean face, one that would spit, punch, kick, anything. She was feared by everyone. The strange thing was that the guys, and the biggest and toughest of the school thought she was evil. She had a long neck and large shoulders. She even had a moustache. Not a large bushy one but it was noticeable. We all thought she looked like a pit bull. That’s how she got her nick name; The Pit Bull Bully or just The Pit Bull.

The Pit Bull was walking down the corridor, no, not walking, strutting down it, like she was the best in the world, throwing evil glances at anyone that would pass, preps or grade sixes, it didn’t matter to her. Maybe she’d throw a punch if she felt like it. People jumped out of her way when she passed. She did not care for the teachers either. She’d swear, not do any work, but now the teachers didn’t care anymore. They’d tried! God they tried! But nothing could stop her. Our school was the only one she had not been expelled from in all of Banyule. But anyways, I’m babbling, and loosing track.

It was lunchtime, and she was, as I was saying before, walking down the corridors to get her lunch. As she passed me, she spat at me and it fell on my freshly unwrapped sandwich. It was my favourite too. Ham and Lettuce with Mayonnaise. I don’t know why, but I think she’s always had something against me. When she came on the first day of term 2 in grade 4, she was allocated to be my friend. I hate it when teachers allocate friends. People can make their own decisions. I had my own friends. But I did it anyway. I told my friends to be nice to her. They took one look at her and decided they didn’t like her, and I couldn’t blame them. But I pleaded with them, and they got down eventually.

At recess I said hello to her and introduced myself and my friends. I was sooo nice to her. I let her have one of my mum’s top secret recipe choc chip cookies with the gooey ooey choc bites inside. That’s what I used to call them anyway. Now I just call biscuits. She didn’t seem so bad after all. Then, one day, she just dumped me. I don’t know why. And ever since them she has been horrible to me. And it really upsets me.

Now I have had enough. She has been tormenting me for two long years and now it’s time to stand up to her. I threw my sandwich in the bin and strode up to her, stranding not half a metre away from her sweaty repulsive face. I really noticed how truly ugly she was at that point. I only then really knew why we called her a pit ball. Tearing her lunch to bits like a dog, spitting every so often and drawl coming down the side of her mouth, it was horrible. But I didn’t care. I was going to tell her how I felt.

“Listen to me,” I said to her suddenly, and as soon as I said that I saw that it was a mistake. I knew she wasn’t used to be talked to that way, but I refused to stop. “Don’t you ever spit on my sandwich again, or steal my food or lunch money, or punch me in the stomach, or my friends, or act like you own the world, or stop anyone else from enjoying their life just because YOU don’t!”

I was out of breath. I looked in her eyes for a moment to see shock on her face. I then focused on a mole on her forehead. I was terrified, I thought I was going to die, I was so scared. “Don’t you EVER speak to me like that again, not EVER”

I started to breathe deeply, my heart was humming it was going so fast and then, I looked up and she was gone.

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The next day The Pit Bull Bully didn’t come to school, or the next or the next. Maybe I had hit the truth. What happened to her, I’ll never know. Some people called me a hero. But I have a strange feeling that she’ll come back one day and on that day, hell will surely come. Pit Bull’s never just leave, especially this one.