Prologue
I ran as fast as my lungs would permit, heart hammering in my chest, head pounding. The playground beginning to ripple and smudge as tears welled in my eyes. I could taste my nose running down the back of my throat as I sniffled- I felt so pathetic and scared.
'Where you going Hamster Boy?'
Daniel snarled after me, and his friends started chorusing, 'Hamster Boy! Hamster Boy! Hamster Boy!'
Louder and louder- they were closing in. Feeling a sudden jolt of panic, I realised I was never going to outrun them.
'Hamster Boy! Hamster Boy!'
The entire playground was chanting it now. Even Sarah- so quiet and shy… We'd just worked together in art. Even she didn't want to be seen with me after the class was over. How quickly she'd ran off to find her friends and left me all alone again- waiting for the inevitable… the usual… Daniel and his gang.
Every lunch time I'd try to hide before he could find me. I hadn't made it to my little refuge today- curled up between the bush and the fence, behind the P.E. hall…
No one argued with Daniel- not unless they wanted to become his next victim.
The sound of the gang's footsteps were pounding on the concrete louder and louder, closer and closer. I couldn't see anything anymore- my vision was a complete blur. Stumbling blindly forward until I simply fell flat on my face, my nose taking a direct pounding from the ground. I could taste blood. Great.
Someone's shoe belted me in my side and I recoiled, whimpering.
'Leave me alone! Leave me alone!'
Another kick, and another… I couldn't tell how many people had joined in now, I just curled up as small as I could, shielding my head in my hands. Not the glasses, not the glasses…
Someone was forcing my hands away from my face. I was easily overpowered. Sure enough there was Daniel, my wrists in his tight grip.
'Get up!'
It was a demand I had no choice to resist, as the bulky boy hoisted my limp form of the ground and close to his snarling face.
'Why ya run away, huh, Hamster? You got a problem with me? Think you're better than me? Huh?' I could feel his venom spatter on my face. 'You're so pathetic. I bet your mummy hates you- do you still call her mummy? Bet she wished she had a proper boy…'
The air was thick with laughter, I could feel my face turning red.
'I-I-I..'
'No one likes you. Not even your stupid hamsters- why do you think they keep dying? YOU DON'T DESERVE ANYONE TO LIKE YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE STUPID, AND USELESS! YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!'
He dropped me and I fell to the floor in a heap, my glasses skated across the ground away from me and I grappled after them in a panic.
'Looking for something?' he jeered, 'oh wait, you can't even see can you? Ha! Even God hates you!'
The bell rang, signalling the beginning of my next brief respite.
'Pathetic…' he muttered once more, before I heard him scamper away laughing crudely with the others… but not before I heard the all familiar, deliberate and exaggerated crunch of shoe meeting lens….