"Ugly freak!"
Other, bigger children kicked him as the little boy huddled in a corner. He was crying loudly, but to anyone who wasn't watching, it sounded more like the whines of a puppy than the cries of a human child. His white hair was caked with mud, the dog ears on top of his head as well filthy. There were bruises on his face from where his tormenters had beat him, and his arms and legs were scrapped. Even if they weren't much older than him, he couldn't fight back, not like he'd try.
He'd been treated badly ever since he'd first gone to preschool, but in kindergarten, it had only gotten worse. At least a couple of years ago, he'd been only ignored by other children, left to be on his own and treated as if he didn't exist. Now however, the older kids of the school were physically bullying him, beating him almost every other day, all because he was different. If only one of the teachers watching the playground would notice, he'd be all right.
"Little Doggy Daniel," one of the boys hissed, throwing more mud at him that splattered on his face. "Belongs in a pound, eating from the ground."
He whimpered, producing a dog-like noise that only resulted in more laughs and insulting jeers while someone got the idea to start throw rocks at him. "Stop," he cried as the small stones hit his body. "Just leave me alone!"
They only laughed at him, but when there was a sharp yell that caused them to scatter, he slowly opened his eyes to see the one thing that made him cry with relief. The young woman bent down and picked him up, noting the horrible bruises he's taken. "Daniel," she whispered while looking to see the boys who were running to get out of sight. It was the same group who had done this to him last time, except, when she looked to see one of the other adults watching the school yard, there was no way they could get out of trouble this time. She smiled and patted the five-year-old on the back while walking toward the school office, and thusly, the nurse's office inside. "What started it this time?"
Sniffing as he finally stopped bawling, the little boy named Daniel Stevens whimpered. "I was just talking to Lily, and Greg started beating me up, said a freak like me shouldn't talk to girls."
The young teacher sighed as she opened the office door and walked inside. Such events like this were all too common when it came to the poor boy. Not many children treated him anything like a human being, all because he had some strange dog-like mutation that gave him those odd ears on the top of his head. It was cruel and horrible, human nature at its worst, but sadly, it was something that extended not only to those bullies. As far as she's heard, none of their parents had really done much to punish the ones who'd been caught and suspended for this.
The school nurse was out, so, as she sighed, the woman set Daniel on one of the beds and opened a cabinet to search for some bandages and rubbing alcohol to clean the scratches and cuts on his arms. Once that was taken care of, she picked him up and carried him to a sink, where she proceeded to wash the mud out of his hair as best she could. "Little brats," she muttered while using a paper towel to get the caked in dirt out. "Why don't you ever fight back?"
He sniffed, resisting the instinctive urge to shake the water from his hair once most of the mud was out. "I don't like to," he whispered. His yellow eyes glazed at the teacher, then turned down to the ground. "If I try, they'll just hurt me more."
The young woman sighed, her mind realizing that this cycle would never stop if something drastic wasn't done. Daniel never gave the names of his tormenters, partly because he knew that if he told who had done this to him, they would do worse the next time. Few children at the school even stood in his presence, let alone talked to him. No doubt, the boy had a serious complex of feeling like he was inferior to everyone else by now.
"I'm calling your mother," she at last said, walking over to the phone that rested on the nearby desk and quickly dialing. She'd punched in this number so many times in just the first few weeks of being Daniel's teacher, she knew it by heart already. There were a few ring tones, and then, finally, someone picked up.
"Hello?"
"Grace, it's Janet Wiez at the school," she said into the phone, her eyes glancing over to Daniel while he sat down on the bed. After how many times she'd had to call his parents, she was very much on a first name basis with them, particularly his mother. "Are you busy right now?"
There was a sharp groan on the other end of the line. Grace Stevens knew what this was about. "Oh no, what happened now?"
"I think you should get over to the school as soon as possible," Janet replied. She sighed, knowing that the only thing they could do was going to severely hamper Daniel's social life, but with all the problems he had, there wasn't much choice. "We need to have a meeting about all this."
A sigh, and the woman on the other end of the phone-line breathed in while the noise of her moving about could be heard. "I'll be down in about fifteen minutes." There was a click, and then the empty tone that signaled she had hung up.
Janet set the receiver back on the cradle of the phone, then sighed and walked over to sit on the bed next to Daniel. "You don't deserve this kind of punishment, kid. Why do you let them just do this to you?"
The boy was quiet. He didn't want to answer, because it was stupid to say, but it was the reason. Plain and simple, he was smaller than the children who bullied him, and he was scared of them, because most of them were bigger and because they always ganged up on him. Fighting back, as a result, would be futile.
While he sat there, Janet stood up and walked toward the main office. "I'll be right back," she said. Daniel sighed, knowing that she was most likely going to the principal. His ears picked up almost every word of the conversation, especially when it got very heated from his teacher's side.
He hated being the source of so many problems, for his teacher, who he adored, and for his parents. Only five years old, and he'd already been the focus of twelve parent-teacher meetings since starting kindergarten. Granted, he wasn't the one causing trouble, but all the same, his presence was a disturbance for how many problems the other children caused in response to him. This latest round of torment was actually rather tame in comparison to things that had been done to him in the past. Physical wounds healed far too easy for him, never a question of that, but the mental scars from all the other things were the things that never went away. A lot of other students treated him like an animal, trying to make him fetch sticks, dumping dog food in his lunch as they walked by, and even worse. Just last week, someone had tied a rope around his neck like a leash, then told the teachers who'd caught them that they were taking Daniel for a walk.
He heard footsteps coming. Looking up, Daniel could see that Janet Wiez was not in a good mode, but there was still a trace of triumph on her face. "This is gonn'a stop, kid," she intoned while sitting down and opening the folder that was in her hands. "I'm just sorry that this is the only way it's going to stop."
Half an hour later, in the otherwise empty classroom, Daniel sat quietly as his teacher was talking about everything that had happened. His mother, Grace, looked very upset that it had even come this far, while the principal looked like he'd heard it so many times, he didn't care anymore. All because I'm a...
His thought halted. He didn't want to admit it, because it's exactly what all those bullies said, but, compared to them, he was. He was so different that it was no wonder people avoided him, but did it have to be like this? So dog-like, not only in his looks, but in how he acted as well. I'm a freak...
And the worst thing was, he knew it had nothing to do with his parents. He'd long known that he was adopted, left on their doorstep when he was an infant, but it had never made any difference to them. They'd loved him just as much as if he was their real son. And Miss Wiez looked on him as an actual human being, even taking the time to explain to him why he wasn't an animal, just a very extreme case of mutation. He didn't really understand it all, but what he did get was that he wasn't the only one who had animalistic features, and had seen pictures of other people who had similar conditions. His was just a very advanced and odd case of such.
But, no one else really cared much about all that. As far as most people were concerned, he was a freak of nature, and was to be treated as such. Not many children could get around his looks, and even fewer adults would be humane enough to not treat him like an animal who only looked like a human. And sadly, Principal Waldman was not one of those people.
"So what are we supposed to do?" the man said after Janet had explained all the details of everything that had happened to Daniel. He sighed and tapped his left hand on the table, looking quite bored. "Honestly, he does cause such a problem that it's no wonder those children react this way."
"Cause a problem!" Janet hissed, now slamming her own palms against the table. "For god's sake, he just talked to another student, and they beat him! I don't even need to go into the details of when Greg Harris tied that rope around his neck and dragged him halfway across the schoolyard!" She breathed heavily, trying to calm down as best she could, but it was obvious Waldman was trying to be on the side of the majority instead of taking action that would actually do something to help. "We have accounts from ten eyewitnesses of what happened this time, including myself and another teacher, and you're accusing Daniel of causing trouble?"
Again, the principal just shrugged, then took off his glasses and began cleaning them. "Children will be children," he said flippantly. He let out a breath on the lenses, then rubbed them again and slipped his bi-focals back on. "But it's obvious that Daniel Stevens is the source of these problems. Clearly, he must be doing something to incite such reactions from his fellow students."
There was no way she could swallow it. Hard evidence in his face, and Waldman was still trying to blame the poor boy for all the problems he'd suffered. Janet knew trying to make changes was pointless, but she still had to give the effort. However, since the school principal was unwilling to help, it left them with only one other option. "I'm sorry that I wasted our time trying to discuss this with you," she said at last. When the principal stared at her, offended, she made to attempt to apologize. "Yes, our time. At least between the two members of school staff here, I actually care about this poor boy, while you seem more content to say it's all his fault and let those responsible for his injuries walk away without any consequences!"
"Well, obviously if these problems center around him-"
There was a deadly gleam in Grace's eyes as she glared at the man, and Waldman quickly went silent. "I've had enough of this," she snapped angrily. "Ever since he was in preschool, Daniel's suffered ridicule. He was called horrible names, treated like he wasn't human, ignored by everyone, and now, it's only gotten worse." She reached into her hand bag and pulled out a can of dog food that had a messily scribbled note taped on, obviously written by a child from the fact it was in crayon. "I found that on our doorstep yesterday afternoon. Just last week, that Harris boy dragged Daniel around by a rope around his neck. I had to take my son to the doctor because he could barely breathe after that! He was choking to death, and you have the gall to say it's his fault!"
He was silent, trying to figure out how to respond. "Well, I suppose that-"
"That what!" she snapped. Grace was furious, at all the things that had happened in the last six months to her son, at the horrible children who did this to him, the parents that did nothing to their children who did this, and most importantly, at this sorry excuse for a human being who was trying to shirk his responsibility and shove the blame all onto a five-year-old boy who's only crime was being different. "I am sick and tired of excuses and blame, Mister Waldman. I want this to end, and I want solutions now!"
"What do you expect me to do!" he finally yelled as he lost his temper for a moment. Waldman regained his composure, then sighed. "Missus Stevens, there's nothing that can be done. So long as your son attends this school, or any other, for that matter, this will follow him."
Janet bite her lip. Yes, what Waldman was saying was true, and she'd known it before she'd even called Daniel's mother. But she'd tried to hold on to hope. It seemed that such optimism was futile, though, since there really was nothing that could be done here. "There is one other option," she said while glancing from her folder to Daniel's mother. "As much as I hate to say it, he's right. No matter where Daniel goes, he's going to face this in the public school system, and most likely in private schools as well."
"So what are we suppose-"
She held up her hand, getting Grace to stop before she could finish those words. "He can't stay here, or things will get worse, I won't even try denying that. You have to pull him out and get him schooled at home."
There was a snort from Waldman. "Please," he retorted disdainfully. "Do that, and he'll have no way to interact with other people."
"Like that would be any different from now!" Janet hissed. "His own classmates treat him like an animal, and the few children who are willing to be around him are scared to death of the ones who beat him. You should have seen Lily Bennett crying her eyes out after she was told to stay away from him last week when Greg put that rope around his neck, afraid of the threats she has to put up with all because she wants to be Daniel's friend."
Waldman was silent, and for once, he had no response to Janet's facts. He looked at Grace, then was sorely tempted to turn away from the angry glare she was giving him. He knew that it was true; he had done nothing to try and solve these problems, all because it was only one little boy. But if there were indeed enough people who would complain, there was no way to avoid trouble. "Then it is out of our hands," he finally whispered. "If Missus Stevens removes Daniel from the school system, then we are no longer involved."
He stood and left, leaving the two women to stare in shock at his words. What he had said was unbelievable, completely offensive, and showed that he really had no concern at all in this matter.
But the whole time, little Daniel has sat quietly in the corner, saying not a word. It was bad enough with this whole meeting being about him and everyone yelling at each other because of the problems his simple existence caused. He had no desire to make it worse by getting anymore involved. And so, he sighed softly, trying to keep anyone from noticing that he was there. His right ear moved slightly, starting to itch.
"I can get you in touch with a friend of mine who works as a home tutor," Janet began. She was talking to his mother, but her eyes were on Daniel. "I've told him about Daniel before, and he's willing to help out." She sighed and pulled out a card from her pocket that she handed to Grace. "I also suggest you get Daniel enrolled in some self-defense classes, because he's going to deal with this kind of mess for most of his life, if not the rest of it."
She nodded, for a moment not able to say anything. "Anyone in particular you suggest?"
"Wolf's Den Martial Arts," Janet replied. "It's a studio just downtown, run by Kouga Ookami. My nephew goes there, he says it's the best place to get real training."
Grace nodded her thanks and started packing up her own belongings. "I just wish it hadn't come to all this, but..." She sighed and glanced to Daniel, who only moved to scratch his ear, but said not a word. He was far too obedient and well behaved for his own good sometimes. "I only hope to God that this finally ends."
With a sigh, Janet Wiez got up from her seat. "It's never really going end," she said while Grace stood. "He's got to face it someday and deal with it. This is only going to solve things for a short while, because he can't be cut off from the rest of the world for the rest of his life." She paused, glancing to the little boy. Only six months had she been his teacher, and it already hurt to know he was going to leave her care. "I just hope that he can be readied to go back to school before he's old enough to graduate."
The ride home was quiet. Daniel sat in the front passenger seat, not saying a word while his mother drove down the highway. In his mind, it was all his fault. If he weren't so different from everyone else, none of this would have happened. His parents wouldn't have to go through so much because of him, he wouldn't have caused so many problems at school, and he wouldn't have to be dreading whenever someone walked over to him. All that wouldn't be so if he had been a normal person.
He looked over at his mother. She was angry, so very angry, at the school system and everything that had put him through such torment. She couldn't be angry at him, because it was not Daniel's fault, no matter how much he would insist it was. He'd been treated like this for so long by other children than he'd pretty much convinced himself that it was his fault he was treated like an animal, and she was very lucky that he had yet to be convinced that he was just an animal. That was going to change.
"When your father gets home," she said, finally breaking the odd silence, "I know he's going to have quite a few things he'd like to have said to that man."
Daniel only nodded, choosing to remain silent.
"I can't believe the nerve of that creep, trying to lay the whole thing on you after your teacher even gave him the proof that you haven't done a thing to deserve this!"
Again, he only nodded.
Grace looked to the boy, then sighed as she saw that he wasn't going to say anything. "I'm sorry," she continued somberly. "You're not like everyone else, and I know I can't really know how you feel, but you are no less a human being than anybody else, Daniel, remember that." She sighed again. "You deserve the same respect and dignity as any other person in the world."
"It's not your fault," he whispered. "My real parents couldn't stand how I was born, why should anyone else."
There, again, was that inferiority complex that had been beat into him by all the school bullies and hateful parents who saw him as little better than an animal. "Don't say that," Grace stated while she made the turn at the off-ramp. "You don't know why your real parents left you on our door, and neither do we."
Daniel remained silent. He was only five years old, yet he'd already learned more about the world which hated him than even the people who treated him like an animal. Even if his young mind didn't understand everything, he understood something important about it all of how most people saw him; he was an unnatural glitch in nature. He'd been born this way, with white hair and ears like a dog. It wasn't his fault, but people seemed to place the blame on him all the same. There was no way to find out who his real parents were, since he had been left on the doorstep of his adoptive family five years ago, and thus, no way to find out if this was some kind of random condition or something hereditary.
"They probably had no way to take care of you," she continued. "God knows there's enough unfortunate people in this world who are in that kind of situation." Grace noticed then the depressed expression on her son's face. She wasn't helping to lift his mood, that much was for sure. "Look, I'm sure that your real mom and dad wanted to keep you, but had no other choice."
He nodded. Deep down, Daniel knew that, from his real parents, there had been nothing but joy at his presence. He couldn't remember their faces, but the hazy memories of infancy still clung to his mind, little more that feelings and emotions. It was enough, though, to let him know that he had been loved by his parents. But still, then why had he been abandoned? The only thing he could distinctly remember were terrified screams, and then, nothing else.
It was a few more minutes before Grace made the turn into their neighborhood and dove into the driveway of their home. Daniel sighed while unbuckling from the seat, then got out and walked to the back door on his side to open it and get his backpack out of the rear seat. As he gently shut the doors, he slipped his backpack around his shoulder and walked to the front door, waiting for his mother to unlock the door.
"Stop sulking," she said while she fumbled with the key and opened the door after a moment. "I want to see my little boy happy, not like this." She followed him inside and set her keys on a rack holder before glancing over to Daniel as he took a seat on the couch. "You know very well you're not in any trouble, and none of this whole mess is your fault, so stop acting like it is."
As he looked to his mother, Daniel's eyes were watered over, expressing a sadness that was about ready to explode from him. "I just wanna be like everyone else," he finally exclaimed. A moment later, he pushed away from the couch and ran to his mother, burying his reddening face in her shoulders when she knelt down to hug him. Tears pour down his cheeks, bitter tears of rejection from almost everyone around him. "I just wanna be like the other kids, why can't I be normal?"
There was a soft hushing sound from her lips as Grace calmly picked Daniel up. "It's going to be all right," she whispered into his ears. "Forget about what those children say about you, because if those horrible bullies are what's normal, then you don't want to be like them." She smiled and wiped the tears from his eyes, noticing that heart melting puppy-dog expression in his eyes. She knew that for such a young child, he had suffered too much already. Treated like some common animal by many of the other children since preschool, now physically beaten by many of those same bullies, and his self-esteem was horribly ruined already. The poor boy almost thought he really was just kind of animal because of how people treated him.
And then there were the few kind children who had the humanity to try and be his friend, looking past his condition. If there was anyone Grace now had sympathy for almost as much as for her son, then it was those few. She'd heard about how those children were threatened by Greg Harris and his gang of bullies. Little Lily Bennett was probably the best example. Scratching him behind his ears, bringing him snacks from home, actually liking to be around him; she treated him like a friend. She was such a sweet little girl, and it was horrible that Daniel would probably not get much of a chance to see her again.
"We're going to get you Miss Wiez's friend to be your teacher," Grace said, trying to get the little boy to smile. "And tomorrow, we're going to get you signed up for lessons so you can protect yourself if those terrible little boys try looking for you again."
He was still crying. Grace knew it was because he was going to lose the precious few friends he had. Maybe there was a way to remedy that. "Tell you what," she continued, now setting him in his feet and propping his chin up. "After we get you started in karate lessons, we'll go visit Lily at her house after she gets home from school, that sound good?"
A small nod, and she knew that he had finally come out of his depression a bit. Maybe there was a bright end to this nightmare of a road for his life after all. All that they had to wait for now was for his father to get home and get told the news.
I hate it when I can call these things so well, Grace thought despairingly while her husband was pacing about in the living room, obviously restraining himself from saying a rather lengthy string of vulgarities that were no doubt boiling about in his mind. As it was, he was about ready to go out and track down Principal Waldman just to let that man have a piece of his mind.
"He should have done something, anything, to try and fix this problem!" came the angry words. Ryan halted a moment, balling his fist and punching it into his open left hand. "One good knock in the mouth, that's all I'd need to give him."
She sighed. He didn't get upset like this often, but when he did, Ryan Stevens was a sight to behold. He got it from his own mother, no doubt about that, and it was a wonder he could keep himself under such control. Frankly, Grace didn't blame him, but, there were other things to consider. "Him and the parents of those brats who have done this to Daniel," she replied while keeping an air of calm. "But Janet was right, Daniel can't stay in the public schools like this. I already called the district office and had him pulled from the school, and Janet's having her friend come by tomorrow to start as an home teacher."
He breathed deeply, trying to calm down. At least there was some good news to all this, but still, it was all in all a nightmare. "That woman is the best thing at that school," he muttered while finally sitting down next to his wife. "She's probably the best thing outside this house to happen to Daniel."
"No, that would have been Lily Bennett," Grace said in correction. She sighed for a moment. Daniel was no doubt listening from his room, despite her insistence he should close the door and play on his Nintendo. It couldn't be helped though. At least when he disobeyed his parents, Daniel managed to choose the right times to do it. "That little girl was Daniel's only real friend, and now, he's probably not going to see her again."
There was a pause from Ryan, but then he nodded in agreement. "I just can't believe that Waldman tried pulling this kind of stunt though. Blaming Daniel for everything's he's been through...it's discrimination, and he damn well knows it!"
"Ryan!" she hissed, now gesturing her head to the second floor. "He'll hear you!"
Again, he sighed. "I know, but..." He growled and stood up again, pacing for a few moments before turning to face his wife. "All the nightmare since we first sent him to preschool two years ago, it's not right. So he's different from everyone else, can't someone have the human decency to look at him as a person and not a freak!"
"Ryan, calm down."
"I can't!" he snapped angrily. "I've had enough of this! That boy never did anything to anyone in his life! Why do people have to treat him like some kind of animal!"
Grace lowered her gaze for a moment. "If you remember, you weren't so sure about Daniel when we found him on our doorstep five years ago."
He came to a halt. Then, he nodded. "I know," he replied, his voice carrying that embarrassment in it. "And if I could, I'd go back and kick myself for even thinking of saying no. I was an idiot, and I thank God that he gave me that look, made me see that he was just a human baby left all alone."
After a minute of standing there, Ryan finally sat down again, now holding his head. "So, we're getting him home schooled."
"Yes, and karate lessons," Grace added. When Ryan looked up at her, she sighed. "Janet suggested it, so that he doesn't just lay there at take these beatings like he has been since he started school six months ago. I'm taking him over to the instructor she recommended, a Mister, Ohka...can't remember how to say that name." She sighed for a moment. "Anyway, I'm going downtown tomorrow to get Daniel enrolled, hopefully this will all help, and someday, he can go back to school again and not deal with this anymore."
Daniel silently closed his door. He walked over to climb onto his bed, then buried his face in the pillow, his eyes filled with tears. He knew his parents were only doing what they could to help him, trying to make sure he wasn't treated the way he had been. But he still felt like it was all his fault.
Finally pulling himself from the tear stain pillow, his eyes wondered up where some of his drawings he had done in school were pinned to the wall. Miss Wiez had always said he'd had a talent for art, one that was incredible for his age. Most of them were typical daydreams of a child; knights in armor, dragons, mythical creatures, but something that tended to be the most often drawn was a large white dog, with three long and wavy tails. More over, that dog tended to have peculiar markings on it, such as three purple lines on each side of the face, and a crescent moon on the forehead.
And something he'd never drawn again was something that had been the only thing to scare his teacher when she had seen it. He's fallen asleep once, while doodling during some free time, and when he came to, Miss Wiez was standing over him, trying to wake him up. He's apparently been screaming out in his sleep, talking in a language that was not English, and sounding overall terrified. The picture he'd drawn, however, truly frightened him just as much as it disturbed his teacher; the image of a black shadow stabbing what looked like him and a girl with spikes that came from its body.
It was the one and only time his own actions had been the focus of a meeting, and it had been attributed to some kind of nightmare he must have been dreaming. But the part that scared him most was that, when he finally remembered it, it hadn't felt like a dream at all, but like it had really been happening.
Greg and his gang had only gotten worse once they'd found out. No matter how much they got caught beating him up, they always continued to do it, like they'd made it their goal to make sure that Daniel was miserable. Sometimes, Daniel wondered if that shadow in him drawing and his nightmares wasn't in fact supposed to be Greg.
But that was all over now. He wasn't going back to school now, and he would never have to deal with Greg and his pack of bullies ever again. But it also meant that he was probably never going to see Lily again either. And that was why he plunged his face into his pillow again.
He'd lost his only friend.
