12 year old John Watson walked stiffly to his locker, ignoring the mean names and comments being called after him.
"Teacher's pet!" "Twat!" "You're a dead man walking!" "Watch your back kid!"
He somehow always managed to convince himself he didn't care about the insults, but he knew deep down it was a lie. No one had ever said anything remotely positive or encouraging to John. Not his teachers, none of his classmates, not Harry, not even his mother (his father died years ago, but John always wondered if his father would say anything positive to him.) He wished for the thousandth time he had a friend. And on that particular Tuesday his wish became reality.
He began rummaging around in his locker to grab his things for algebra class. He grabbed his book and notebook and was about turn around, but he began to tense up a bit when he felt dark shadows being cast over him. He slowly turned around and was not very surprised to see Eric Hawren, Tony Wincy, and their leader, Carl Powers creating a semi-circle around him. John knew he didn't stand a chance against the three 13 year old boys. However, John was sick of doing Carl's homework and this time he decided to stick up for himself. He looked around and sighed as he realized there were no teachers in sight.
"Right then, I've got homework that needs to be done, Johnny, I'm sure you wouldn't mind doing it for me, right? Carl said staring down at John.
"I've got plenty of my own right now and-"
John gulped and tried hard not to show he was scared as Carl grabbed him by his collar and held him in midair. All of a sudden he threw John hard onto the floor. Eric and Tony grabbed John's algebra book and notebook and flung it across the room.
John had landed hard on his back and he could feel his head start to spin. He struggled to get up, but Carl wasn't finished with him. He grabbed John's soft sandy brown hair and yanked hard, John yelped in pain and quickly Eric came up behind him and covered John's mouth with his hand.
Carl leaned down close to his ear and whispered, "I think you've got the message, Johnny, homeworks due tomorrow. Give it to me no later than-" Carl stopped mid sentence and his normally angry expression turned to one of complete surprise as he felt an arm slide around his neck. Eric stepped away from John and joined Tony as John slid to the floor.
Eric and Tony watched as the boy who had grabbed their leader began punching Carl in the face. Finally, Carl managed to get away from the blows and the three bullies began running down the hallway.
The mysterious boy crouched down John who was curled up in a ball. John looked up in surprise to see a boy with black hair stare back at him. John was naturally defensive as he was regularly bullied,(he had not seen the boy punch Carl to save him) and he flinched the closer the other boy got to him.
"Please, I'll do your homework, ju- just please don't hurt me..." John could feel tears threatening to roll down his face.
The boy stared back, "I would never hurt you, and I certainly hate seeing others harm you which is why I gave that bully a beating."
John looked up with surprise, and a hint of suspiciousness, nobody had ever said something like that to him before, "Really?"
The boy nodded and handed John back his algebra things, "James Moriarty. I will never hurt you, and from now on I'll make sure no one hurts you when I'm around….. I promise." John's eyes widened, he had never ever had someone promise him something. He was just used to getting hurt by anyone who didn't ignore him.
"John, by the way, John Watson." John replied timidly, with a tiny smile on his face. He didn't even worry about what kind of lie he would have tell his teacher about why he was late to class.