Elbert’s trouble

Elbert Chase was most worried about lunchtime.

And he was right. Elbert had been just another kid standing in front of a cafeteria of unfamiliar students. It was not like he didn’t have any friends, but it was that he's new to Kevin's Academy. Elbert was thirteen with short black hair and light brown skin, but with a chubby body, and two round glasses with a thickness of an inch. He was thirteen years old, 5 foot 1, and Elbert had short legs that could barely support him to run; he barely had any muscle because he had a weird disease that made him gain a lot of weight. He wore a plain Nike T-shirt that said: “Just Do It” and his pants were black in color with three strips of white lines running down the side. Elbert tried to keep his expression natural as he unsurely scanned the tables. People were playing video games, reading books, talking, eating, and walking around in the cafeteria. And Elbert was just standing there in the middle searching for a seat to sit in. Elbert scanned around his perimeter for choices and he found the first group as a bunch of girls, he immediately canceled that option, then he found some nerds with glasses on the other side, Elbert thought that it could be a choice, next was a table of video gamers, Elbert doesn’t play video games so that’s the last table he wanted to sit in. 

“Oye, loco, come here,” at first, Elbert thought that the person who said that was talking to someone else, but later, the person called again. “Hey, fatty I am talking to you,” Elbert searched for the source and found a boy with fair hair, toned skin, and some muscles, calling for him. Elbert didn’t know that guy but what he did know is that he got a free seat. The boy’s friends were snickering viciously. That's trouble.

Those people were the “cool” kids.

Elbert shrugged and then went there and took a seat, now the table was full. He got out his lunch box silently, noticing that everyone at the table was looking at him. “What’s your name, boy?” A guy with his hat worn backward, short hair, and also a golden necklace scorpion around his neck. “Elbert,” he said without looking at them in their eyes.

“Yo, this kid right here just went like ‘ElBART’,” There were more snickers and then this other person, a bodybuilder, with barely any hair and ugly face asked, “What you eating, fatty, you better give me some before something bad happens,” The bodybuilder crushed his knuckles and sharply looked at Elbert. 

Elbert knew better not to say anything like ‘none of your business’ or ‘go away, noob’, so he said, “I have… Uh, some pasta, fruit drink, and a... banana.”

“Give me the fruit drink.”

Elbert hesitantly tossed his favorite drink toward the ugly mean kid. The bodybuilder opened the cap and drank it quickly. Elbert swore that he could see the purple juice falling from the guy’s lips. Then this short and thin boy who gives people a goofy feel about him commented, “if you drink too much you will be as fat as this kid here.” The bodybuilder then pretended to get fat by putting his hands on his belly and made a weird face, then every cool kid laughed. The kid with golden scorpion said, “Look at this loser, so fat and so weird.” 

Damn. Elbert tried to ignore the people and kept on eating his pasta. “He eats like a pig!” “His mama is a pig.” “HaHa!” “I bet he can barely run.” “He is not even talking! Are you deaf?” Elbert covered his ears and tried to stop his tears from coming out. 

“Everything all right here?” A female teacher asked. She had an oval face, a small nose, very thin lips, and almond-shaped brown eyes. She had shoulder-length, straight, black hair. She wears obvious makeup, vivid blush, complimentary eyeshadow, black eyeliner, and subtle lipstick.

Elbert was about to say no when a brown-haired guy interrupted, “It’s all right Mrs.Yu, we are trying to comfort our friend because he’s depressed about his test scores in a math test.” 

Elbert was screaming in his lungs that it was not true, but the bodybuilder’s gaze made his throat dry. The brown-haired boy sounded true and he made the teacher believe in his lies. “Oh, that’s very nice of you guys, you will be awarded once you get back to your class.”

When the teacher left, the torture continued, “How many pounds do you weigh? 500?” asked the fair-haired boy. Elbert didn’t answer, but he knew that he weighed around 200. “Our man here should go for the world record for the fattest teenagers.” Some snorted loudly and then the goofy kid got out his basketball and then faked throwing it into Elbert. Elbert flinched and almost got scared knocked out of the seat. “LOL!” the goofy kid laughed, “you got the recording? This will get at least 300 likes in ticktock and YouTube.” The brown-haired boy nodded with a malevolent grinned, “I think it will get more than 5k views and 1k likes. Mr.Piggy will be famous!” 

“If there’s ever any Pepa pig live show, he should play the daddy pig.” Elbert had enough of the nonsense and bullies. He felt a wave of heat rising from his body, willing to explode at any moment. 

“STOP IT,” Elbert almost shouted. 

All the boys stopped insulting him and the Most-muscled guy out of all of them rose and then pressured against Elbert’s confidence. 

“What did you say?” 

“I said… Stop-p.. ittt.”

If there’s one word that Elbert would describe the fearsome bully, that is “Ferocious”. 

“Gonna call your mommy pig?” The bully asked as he gestured his hand to the cafeteria exit. He laughed along with everyone else. Then, his evil laugh turned solid, “You better not. You son-of-a-”

That’s it. Elbert punched the bully in his face as hard as he could. With his anger deep inside him. That’s the wrong guy to punch. The ugly giant touched his red face where he was punched and then stared at Elbert with inferno rage and raised his fist. Then, all Elbert remembered was darkness and pain.

---------------

Elbert felt weightless when he woke from the school nurse’s room. The nurse puts a bag of ice onto his eyes and nose. “Next time, don’t get yourself evolved into a fight,” said the nurse. “You got knocked out because you attacked someone first. That’s what the principal assistant told me.” Then Elbert closed his eyes again, unblurring his vision and feeling the pain that will probably leave a stain on his face forever. Elbert heard the door closed and opened. Someone walked in. The principal assistant. 

“You are in big trouble,” she began. “According to all the teachers and students, the people you attacked were trying to comfort you and help you, but then you just went raged and punched Luke in the face.” (So that bully's name is Luke. What a loser) 

“You will be suspended for a week. I will inform the teachers to send the homework to you through email.” (What!? That’s not fair!)

 Elbert wanted to argue, wanted to say how unfair it was. Wanted to tell the truth. But all that came out was a sand-like voice. The principal assistant raised her hand and said, “Nope, I don’t want to hear your excuse, the academy had already made their decisions, and also you need some rest.”

With that, she left. Leaving Elbert in the void of emotions.

Elbert looked blankly at the ceiling and burst into tears. 

His trouble is endless. He is truly alone.