E is for Evil Envy
Don and Charlie in their early teens in School.
Unbeknown to the brothers, they were the envy of a certain group of boys whose leader was the teacher's son, and he had a huge grudge against Don.
Barty and his friends were sitting at their table when Don came in with a group of his friends, mostly girls. They were laughing and were at easy camaraderie with each other.
"Don, you want a drink? I am going to get me one?" one of the girls asked.
"Sure, thanks Cindy. Anything available will do."
Cindy walked passed Bart and he stared at her, "Hey, how about getting me one too, darlin'"
Cindy walked past him, totally ignoring him and his friends who were smirking, some at her and some at Bart. Bart got angry with his friends.
"What does she see in him? Some idiotic J..W?"
One of his friends got alarmed." Bart, no name calling. I don't want to get in trouble with the Head."
"I don't care. He's a prick. How come the girls all go round him like flies stuck on a sticky pad?" He spat maliciously, and then he spied Charlie walking alone towards them.
"Here comes his nerdy baby brother. Let's have some fun. Hey Eppy Nerd!"
As soon as Charlie saw Bart and his friends, he knew he would be the crux of their cruel jabs. He knew his brother would come to his defense if Bart went on and on, but he wanted to be alone so he took off to another section.
Bart started laughing loudly. "See Nerdy Eppesy is scared to come near." He had the group with him laughing. He called loudly, "Hey Nerdy Eppes, yes you, what is 345678 times 999 divided by 123 , times you know….1..2…3…4…5…?"
"And do you know the answer?" suddenly Don was standing beside him.
Barty was busy laughing and teasing Charlie, and he did not see Don coming right at him.
Barty quickly stood up and went face to face with Don.
"I am asking that nerd, I…I'm not asking you."
"That nerd is my brother, and he has done nothing to you. You want to pick on him, you have to go through me!"
"The answer is two million, eight hundred and seven thousand, five hundred and seventy nine point eighty-five (2,807,579.85). Donny, it's alright. He just wanted to ask a math question." Charlie came to pull Don away from Bart before they erupted into a name calling session.
He knew Bart was jealous of Don. Don was popular and had many friends, especially girl friends. He played and was good at a variety of games in school.
Bart, on the other hand, was a well known bully, and he only had a group of friends because he was rich, and his father was one of the school teachers.
What Charlie didn't know was that Bart made use of these so called friends to do his bidding. They stuck to him because he was the rich one, the big spender, and not because they liked him.
"You pick on my brother again……" Don pointed a forefinger at him, "I'll tell the teacher what you did in class."
Don had caught him swapping books with another at one time and copying during a test. He knew that Barty had one or two of his so called friends to do his homework most of the time, and he suspected that Barty paid them too.
That kept him quiet. Don walked away with Charlie.
"What did he do, Don?"
"Nothing, just forget it. Hey squirt, can you please not come to these public places? Go to your library if you want to read in quiet."
"Sorry, Don, but I know how to defend myself. "
"How? Shoot them with your numb3rs and equations? That fart will keep on and on and make everybody around laugh at you just to annoy me.
So can you please ……OK just be careful of him. He's not one to forget."
"Yes Don, I will be careful. I'll see you after school."
"Yea, yea, don't be late. I've got practice later. I want to finish my homework before practice."
"Yes, Don, see you." Charlie said and ran up the stairs to the library as Don had suggested.
Bart was starring after the Eppes' back. He was furious. He will get back at him, he will.
tbc