The Outsiders, The Bully and The Treehouse

As soon as I noticed that Will and I walked the same way home from school, I knew I had to know more about him. We were just eight and I was the new girl in the third grade at Saint Michael’s. I spent that first day just observing the other kids who were mostly friendly except when they teased and bullied William Murphy.

William was a small kid with reddish brown hair that was always a mess. He kept to himself and was almost always reading. I felt like an outsider myself too. I wasn't just a quiet girl that looked pretty much the same as every other girl in my class, I was terrified of talking to people.

“She’s just shy” had been what I had to hear all the way up until I left my last school. I still hear it now, but not as much, it had become my identity and I wanted nothing more than to help a fellow outsider like William Murphy.

Maybe, I thought, he’d let me be his friend and people wouldn’t call me “just shy” anymore. We might not fit in, but we’d have each other, I hoped.

It took me a whole month before I could even get him to say anything. The first month, I just followed him and watched. He looked miserable with his heavy backpack and often another armful of books he held close to his chest. He walked straight and fast though and I usually lost sight of him when I’d stop by the creek alongside the road to check for tadpoles and smooth colored rocks.

The following month, October, was when I decided to quicken my pace and forego my stops at the creek to keep up with him. We walked side by side mostly, otherwise, I was right behind him. He never spoke though and for about a week neither did I. He seemed nervous as if I were only there to play some mean trick on him and I couldn’t blame him. The teasing and bullying had gotten even worse when he showed up at school with his new eyeglasses the week before. By the end of that week they were broken in the schoolyard, knocked off and stepped on by Bobby Courter, the meanest of the bullies.

Finally, the ice was broken when he dropped his small pile of books and I leaned down to help him pick them up. I read the title of his book, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe before I handed it back to him.

“That’s one of my favorite books,” I said as loud as I could, which wasn’t terribly loud at all. That little sentence is something I’ll never forget.

“Really?” He asked, raising his eyebrows and widening his eyes then quickly turning suspicious, he narrowed them and lowered his eyebrows.

“Well yea, it’s a good book I guess,” he said taking it from my hand.

“Thank you,” was all he said after that and began walking again with me by his side.

When I got home from school that day, my mother, as usual, asked me how school was.

“It was good,” I told her, “I talked to someone.”

“You did? That’s wonderful, I knew you would.”

I hadn’t spoken, at least not to anyone other than my family and a few teachers at my old school ever since I started. The doctor said I would talk eventually, and I did well in school otherwise. Mostly the kids were nice there but when I started getting teased and called names, my mother thought that a Catholic school might be a kinder place or at least a fresh start.

“Who did you talk to?”

“Well, just a boy that walks home from school with me.” I told her as if it were the most normal thing for me because that's what I wanted it to be.

I didn’t tell her that I was the one trying to walk with him, I didn’t want her to know that I hadn’t really made any new friends yet or that William was just an outsider like me. She so wanted me to fit in with the other children and just be normal. She never said so, but I was sure that was what she’d hoped for. I wanted that too.

“Well, that’s great, I’m so proud of you.”

The doctor told her not to be too pushy, so she left it at that and told me to go upstairs and change out of my uniform. That night she told the rest of my family, which was my stepdad and my little half brother and half sister. They were all happy for me, I was embarrassed that she told, but it was okay, I guess.

William never told me to leave him alone although he never spoke to me, I think he liked the company and not having to drum up small talk with someone he barely knew. So, we walked and as time went by, we talked. Then we talked at school and when he got his new glasses, we began to eat lunch together and hang out in the schoolyard. We talked about The Narnia books which honestly, I only just started reading or other stuff like wizardry and witches or just about anything. Other times we’d have mock sword fights and when the other kids saw him hanging out with his new friend, they began leaving him alone more and more.

“Do you want to check out my treehouse?” He asked me one day.

“You have a treehouse! That’s so neat! I want to see it!”

“Alright,” he said, “I mean it’s no big deal, but I have some cool posters.”

“How about after school on Friday? That way we won’t have to worry about homework, and it’ll give us a chance to ask our parents!” I told him.

That was Wednesday and as we walked home that day, we talked the whole way and I even got him to slow down and stop at the creek with me to look for tadpoles and pretty rocks. Will was starting to relax quite a bit especially around me, but also at school. Yea, we’d still get picked on now and then, but we’d get picked on together and that was much easier to handle than being picked on alone.

As we approached my house, Will said, “don’t forget to ask if you can come over Friday, right after school!”

“I won’t forget,” I said, “I can’t wait!”

On Thursday, I got an invitation to a birthday party for one of the girls in my class, Sophie.

“I hope you can come,” she said as she handed it to me.

“Thank you,” I managed to say out loud.

She smiled and began handing out the rest of her invitations.

Wow, I thought to myself, I can talk to anyone now and nothing awful will happen.

I felt freer than I ever had and began talking to other children and even raising my hand to answer questions. It felt great, like a huge weight had been taken off me. At recess, the girls asked me if I wanted to play jump rope, but there was Will so I told them I would if Will could play too. They shrugged their shoulders and a girl named Rachel said, “if he wants to I guess, boys don’t usually play jump rope though.”

I walked over to mine and Will's usual spot by the fence, but he wasn’t there. I looked around the playground and I saw him. He was playing dodge ball with some of the other boys. I was happy to see him not being left out anymore, so I went back to the girls and began playing jump rope with them. When I looked over at Will again, I noticed that he wasn’t playing dodge ball with the boys anymore, a couple of the boys were taking turns throwing the ball at him hard. The other boys were just standing there and watching. I left the jump rope game and ran over to him.

“Oh, your girlfriend’s here to save you.” Bobby Courter teased.

“That’s right, I am his friend and you and your stupid friend are just bullies” I yelled as loud as I could.

I couldn’t believe it, I yelled, and it felt remarkable. My heart was beating like crazy and my whole body felt afraid like it was ready to run away from me. My hands shook as I picked up Will’s glasses before Bobby Courter could stomp on them again and stood next to Will hiding my trembling hands behind my back.

I didn’t know, but the girls stopped their jump rope game and walked over to see what was wrong. They came over and stood next to Will too. Suddenly, my fear turned into exhilaration. 

“Aww poor William, has to have the girls fight for him,” Bobby said laughing and walking over to his friend Kyle who was laughing too.

The boys looked at each other, then one of them, Patrick Kelly came over and stood with us, Bobby had picked on him a few times as well. Bobby had picked on all the boys and even some of the girls, but none of them got it as bad as Will. Patrick’s best friend Mark followed him over and stood with us.

“Nobody is going to let you keep bullying anyone else,” Patrick yelled at Bobby as he reached out his hand to help Will up.

“Oh really,” Bobby said. “I guess you want me to tell everyone about how you still wet your bed.”

Patrick’s face reddened and he went over to Bobby and pushed him down. Patrick was the biggest boy in the third grade, and everyone waited with bated breath for him to punch Bobby good. He didn’t though, he knew better, and he also saw one of the playground monitors coming over to see what was going on.

Just then Bobby got up and began punching and kicking Patrick. Another boy, Sean tried to stop him just as the monitor got there. Bobby got sent to the principle’s office and after he left, we all cheered, even Kyle.

I walked over to Will and handed him his glasses.

“My mom said I can come over to see your treehouse Friday” I told him.

“Awesome,” he replied. “Oh, and by the way I’m getting contacts soon, my dad finally gave in.

“Either way, you’ll look great.” I said and went back to the jump rope game with the girls.

Will stayed with the boys and I was so happy for him. He was finally fitting in and so was I.

We all went back to our games and talked about how much trouble we thought Bobby would get into and how cool it was that the new girl was the one who finally got everyone to stand up to Bobby, the meanest bully. I felt proud about that, but I didn’t tell anyone but Will on our way home that day.

Friday afternoon I finally got to see Wills treehouse. We spent the whole afternoon talking and playing. He showed me all his cool posters and the whole set of The Chronicles of Narnia books he had stored in the treehouse. When it was time to leave, I asked him if he’d help me build a treehouse.

“Sure,” he said. “And I’ll give you one of my posters to make it look cool inside.”

“Awesome.” I told him.

“Will and I stayed friends and we still are to this day so remember that when he comes over tomorrow and make sure to show him the treehouse we built and remember, nobody likes a bully.” I told my two children Meghan and Justin.

I tucked little Meghan in then I got up and took Justin’s hand and turned out Meghan’s bedroom light. I tucked Justin in next and then went downstairs thinking of all the great times Will and I had, I also couldn’t wait to meet his family and for him to meet mine.