A Heart of Gold

It is 3 weeks more to summer holidays but to most of the students of Hidshgen Middle School it feels like a year. It’s because of the grade bully Michael. He had been terrorizing the students. By either pushing people into lockers to do his homework or shooting spitballs when they are presenting some or the other work. He had no friends as he always badmouthed the ones who tried to initiate contact with him. He also used cuss words against students,teachers.

Ajax was the newest kid to school and had never experienced bullying. The previous school was child friendly and didn't have bullies. That day was Monday. It was Ajax's first day at his new school. The campus was huge. It had swimming pools , a stadium, a running track and more. The thing that fascinated him the most was the lockers used retina scans to open. Unfortunately he got caught in Michael's daily patrol in search of somebody to trouble. Michael was elated because newbies are the easiest to trouble. Michael thought he would go with the usual electric handshake. He made his way to Ajax unfortunately he was too late as Ajax walked away into a class. Michael was very angry because he had a track record of always bullying the people he was aiming at. Ajax was the first person to break his record. Ajax had immediately become the target of Michael on his very first day. Luckily in his first class his class teacher had assigned Ajax to a buddy. His name was Jack. He was already subjected to Michael’s torture and knew the tactics to stay away from his pranks. But forgot to mention any of them to Ajax

The next day Michael was impatiently waiting for Ajax to come to school, ready with his electric handshake. As soon as Ajax entered Michael walked up to him, wanting to make sure he does not miss this opportunity. He introduced himself to Ajax politely and offered to shake his hand as a gesture of welcome. Ajax also put his hand out and shook hands and that is when he figured out that there was something in Michael’s hand. Before he could remove his hand, Michael zapped his hand and an evil grin came on Michael’s face and Ajax’s face turned pale , he dropped to the ground screaming in pain. Before anybody understood anything, Ajax passed out. It turns out that Ajax has really sensitive skin and gets hurt easily. So when Michael zapped him his skin opened up and the shock was released in the veins which caused excess bleeding. Luckily Ajax survived thanks to a massive blood donation. His hand was put in a heavy cast.

After a few days of recovery the school’s officials came to investigate the incident. Surprisingly Ajax did not implicate Michael.Instead he said that he was playing with some electrical items at the janitor's closet and had carried one of the items to his locker and got shocked by it near the entry hall. Michael at the other hand was waiting for the officials to knock at his door. He didn’t get the knock for a few days. By then it was Thursday of the next week. At school Michael didn’t see Ajax anywhere. He for the first time started feeling guilty. He decided to go to Ajax's house to look him up.

When he arrived at Ajax’s house there was no one in the front yard so he walked up to the door and rang the bell. It was Ajax who opened the door. Michael expected Ajax to slam the door on Michael's face or call his parents. Instead Ajax invited Michael to come in. Michael was stunned for the first time he was treated with some decency and not shooed away. His eyes swelled up with tears. Ajax led Michael to his bedroom. He ensured Michael was seated in a bean bag and walked out of the room. He was back in a couple of minutes with 2 cups of hot chocolate. He passed one cup to Michael and took a sip out of his cup. And the first words he uttered to Michael was “ welcome to my house ” Michael was stunned by Ajax’s behaviour and responded by thanking him for inviting him into the house. Ajax was an artist, and had a big collection of his his paintings at home. He showed Michael some of his painting. Michael was amazed by Ajax's paintings. Then they both chatted about comic books, stories and favourite super hero characters. Michael started feeling at ease in Ajax's company.

Ajax slowly started asking Michael questions about “ why he was doing such harmful pranks ” and “ how did it all start ”. Michael hesitated a bit but later broke down and started sobbing. He told Ajax that on the day before his 9th birthday, he broke his front tooth and the next day at the birthday party his best friend Jack had shamed him in front of all kids calling him a monster and made all the kids run away from the party. Since then he vowed that he would trust no one to be his friend. Ajax softly patted Michael’s back with his cast arm trying to calm him down. Michael finally contained his emotions and mustered the strength to ask Ajax whether he wanted to be his friend. Ajax asked Michael how he could be trusted that he won’t prank him or anyone else again. Michael said that the only assurance he could give was by making a promise to Ajax, and it was up to him to trust him or not. Ajax agreed without hesitation. This made Michael very happy that he promised that he not only would give up his pranks but also stop abusing people and stop being pessimistic about everything and instead be more optimistic.

The next day he announced his commitment to the whole school. They rejoiced that day and danced in joy. It finally turns out that Michael has stepped out into sunshine.

The End