Insignificant

Hana leads a hard life. Scorns and sneers follow her everywhere she goes. People are constantly pointing their fingers and laughing in her face. They can’t possibly know what it’s like and yet they continue their jeers.

Hana doesn’t understand the hatred everyone points at her because of her disabilities. People take advantage of her ignorance. They think just because she’s autistic, they’re allowed to bully her.

I’ve been Hana’s only and best friend for longer than I can remember. She avoids people as much as they do her. She’s never really been one to hang out with others, but I’m always with her.

My parents divorced when I was very young and my dad refuses to see me. I don’t even know if he’s alive. My mom died a couple years after he left. After that, Hana and her mom, Edith, took me in and let me stay with them. Although they hadn't adopted me yet, we were like family.

Hana groaned from where she sat at her desk. Art was one of the things that she loved most. She wasn’t very good at it, but it helped her stay calm and collected. She got frustrated easily, but when she drew, it rarely happened.

I stood from my own desk and walked over to her. “What’s wrong?”

She pointed at the broken pencil thrown atop her work and groaned again. She’d always had a hard time speaking so she’d resorted to using as few words as possible.

I grabbed another pencil from the cup at the corner of her desk and handed it to her. “Here ya go.”

She snatched the pencil from my hand and vigorously continued the flower she was drawing. It wasn’t the best art I’d seen, but it was unique and original. She has her own style and she sticks to it.

I watched as she moved the pencil about the paper, slowly forming the design she was working to create. Sometimes, I spotted her with her eyes closed and pencil moving about the paper, letting her hands work of their own accord.

Some kids around them started to chuckle and point at Hana. It was maddening how they treated her. I couldn’t stand it.

“Isaac,” a girl—Eleanor, I remembered—tapped me on the shoulder, “come sit with us.”

“I’m perfectly fine where I am.”

Eleanor cast a disgusted look at Hana. “Are you sure?”

I felt my nostrils flare, but I tried, for Hana, to stay calm. “Yes. I’m sure.”

Art ended and Hana and I made our way down the hallway to the cafeteria. I was used to people teasing me for hanging out with ‘the weird girl’. I didn’t mind anymore. I tried to keep my temper in check for Hana. She had fits every time I got upset and she wouldn’t calm down for a long time.

When someone stuck their foot out to trip Hana, I tugged her away so she wouldn’t fall. When people called us names, I did my best to ignore them. When food got thrown at us, I simply flicked it away. Sometimes, she weaved off somewhere else and I had to follow her and make sure she didn’t get lost.

It can be really hard sometimes, watching Hana and keeping her safe, but I love her.

We sat at an empty table in the corner of the room after we got our food trays. Not long after we sat, a group of boys sat down at the table behind us. They were the eighth graders that picked on us the most.

Hana stomped her feet on the ground and whined at something.

“Hana, calm down.”

She pointed at the carrots and slammed her hands on the table right before I took them in my own.

I shook my head at her and looked at the tray. She’d never really liked carrots before and she hated when she got a lot of them. “You don’t have to eat them.” I slid the carrots onto my own tray and she watched as I ate them. “Don’t get mad about it.”

The boys sitting behind us snickered and one of them pointed at Hana and said something that made the rest of them laugh. Another boy got up and sat next to Hana.

“Hey. You’ve got problems, don’t you?” He motioned at his head.

Hana just kept staring at her food, it was like she didn’t even hear him.

He growled. “Are you listening to me?”

I bit back a laugh when Hana looked around the room but never looked at him. Her arm started twitching and she huffed.

“Hey!” He grabbed her twitching arm. “Don’t ignore me!”

Hana gave his hand a confused look.

“Hey!” He yelled at her.

Hana covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Leave her alone.” I stepped in.

“What do you care?”

“She doesn’t like that.” My breath quickened and I felt my ears color.

I heard more than saw more of the boys come move over to us. We were starting to draw attention.

Hana started peeling the boys fingers off her arm. When the boy threw her arm down, she squealed and started picking at her food.

“This freaks not worth our time.” One of the boys muttered as they all walked away.

Seventh grade had been really hard. We had just transferred here at the beginning of the year—which wasn’t all that long ago—and already, people were picking on us.

We could just be homeschooled. I thought to myself. When I’d suggested this to Edith, Hana’s mom, she said it was a good idea but Hana needed to learn to be around people and not overreact. It didn’t seem fair that she had to work on her emotions and nobody else had to.

The teasing continued for months—mainly from the boys from lunch I later learned were Josh, Michael, Ryan, and Seth—until one day, I was walking home from school with Hana. She’d had a rough day and was likely to snap at the simplest of things. It didn’t help that the same group of boys was walking behind us and throwing insults left and right.

I couldn’t stand it. I was having just as bad a day as Hana and I was already mad about lunch. Not only had they thrown food in her hair, hit her, called her infuriating names, and shoved her around, but they had also threatened her.

It wasn’t in the usual ‘stay out of my way’ threat. No. It was horrible. I shuddered thinking of the morbid way they’d threatened her.

If I have to see them again, I might not be able to hold back anymore. I glanced over at Hana. Her gaze kept switching from her shoes, to the houses around us, to me, and back down to her shoes again.

A hand on my shoulder spun me around right before a fist connected with my nose. Pain lanced through my head and my eyes immediately began to water. Ryan stood in front of me laughing maniacally.

“What is wrong with you!” I yelled.

Hana gasped and started twitching.

“I’m sorry, your head is just such a big target. It must be swelling from all the time you spend with that freak.”

“Leave us alone.” I growled. I felt blood dribble down my upper lip.

Hana saw it and moved forward to wipe it away. Then she gave Ryan a confused look.

“You want one too, Princess?” Ryan threatened.

I stepped in front of her. “Leave her out of this.”

The other three boys stepped up beside Ryan. They were intimidating together. Not to mention, they were a grade above Hana and I.

Michael grabbed Hana and covered her mouth to abruptly cut off her scream. She bit his hand in response and he cursed. That’s when her fit started.

I tried to grab her away from Michael but he shoved her behind him. “I told you to leave her out of this.” My fists clenched, my nails digging into my skin.

“Why do you care so much?”

“Because I do.”

“Do you really?” Seth intercepted. “If something were to happen to her, would you really care?”

The threat was clear.

Their voices bled together and I forgot about my bruised nose. There was a faint ringing in my ears. I’d never been this mad before, and Hana was reacting to it. She was stomping on their feet and grabbing at their faces with her nails.

“Let. Her. Go.” My nails broke the skin on my palms.

“Or what?”

I was about to lunge at them but Josh put a hand on Hana’s arm and his knuckles went white as he squeezed.

“What’s wrong, Isaac? Afraid?” That was the first time he called me by my name.

“What do you want with her?”

He ignored the question. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

“Really? Really? Then why punch me? Why show up just to throw us around like we’re ragdolls? Why do you hate us so much? What have we ever done to you?” I was screaming now. My throat squeezed and I blinked rapidly trying to hold back the tears trying to push their way out of my eyes.

“I have no control over what my comrades choose to do, but I can choose what I do.” He looked like he was about to shove Hana back towards me but then thought better of it. “Then again, you’re acting like she belongs to you. She’s a human, you know?”

I laughed. Oh, he was really being a hypocrite. “You’re telling me that? You’ve done nothing but treat her and me like trash since we got here. Do you have nothing better to do with your lives?”

I regretted nothing I said, even after he punched me again. The impact rattled my skull and I was sure he’d fractured—if not broken—my nose.

“Shut up.”

“Why? You never do?”

He glowered at me and opened his mouth to say more but a voice interrupted him before he could get anything out.

“What’s going on here?”

I was relieved to see Edith walking across the street to where we stood on the sidewalk.

Anger crossed her beautiful features when she saw the blood on my face and my swelling nose. She looked at the boys who immediately let go of a still screaming Hana who ran to her mom. She embraced her daughter in a tight hug and motioned for me to come to her. I did.

Her gaze switched to the boys and she said in a low, deadly calm voice, “I’d advise you four to leave now. I will be contacting your parents about this.”

I’d never seen four eighth grade bullies look as scared as they did. I bit back my laugh and looked at Edith.

She wrapped me in her embrace and rubbed my head. My blood dripped onto her shirt and I wiped it but it kept falling.

I felt Hana’s warmth against me and released a heavy breath.

“You’re lucky Hana’s screams travel so far so fast.” Edith gave me a soothing smile. “I think it’s about time you two got homeschooled.”