Standing Up

Apollo stumbled into the nurse’s office right around lunch time, where he usually ended up every day. 

“Again?” questioned Floria, the school nurse.

“Yeah,” breathed Apollo.

Blood was gushing from his nose, and he looked like an alien with the amount of bruises on his body. 

“You really need to start standing up for yourself, or you know Marcus and his gang will 

keep beating you up!”

Marcus Freerider was the school bully, and he took great satisfaction in pushing around Apollo, to the point of bleeding and bruising at some points. 

“They’d beat me up anyway, knowing them,” he said. 

As Floria cleaned up his bloody nose, and iced his bruises, he started to take Floria’s recommendation seriously. The question was, how would he stand up for himself if he wasn’t physically able to match Marcus?

“You’re all good, make sure to ice your bruises through the night,” said Floria. 

Making his way back to class with blurred vision, he endured the rest of the school day until Mr. Scheazer stopped him on the way out of Calculus. 

“You don’t look so good, Apollo, is everything alright?” 

“Hmmm– o-o-oh yeah, I’m alright, everything is fine.”

Mr. Scheazer let him out with a questioning look. 

Riding the bus home, he endured harassment from fellow busmates, especially from Marcus, leading the charge while shooting spitballs at him from across the bus. Not that the bus driver would do much. His only work was to get the kids to and from school safely. 

Marcus’ stop was before Apollo’s, and as he walked off, he flicked Apollo’s ear and whispered, 

“Dingus.”

As being the last stop on the bus, he sat around for another fifteen minutes before marching off the bus with a curt ‘thank you’ to the bus driver. He had lots of Calculus to work on, and it would distract him from the pain resonating out of his bruises. 

Opening the door, he yelled he was home, then rushed to his room and pulled out his first sheets of math. A few minutes later, Apollo’s mom dropped in with sliced peaches and ice, and a quick thanks and three-minute snack break while sticking ice on his bruises led to finally completing his Calculus. 

It was the weekend, and he had absolutely nothing planned or to do, and plopped on his bean bag, turned on the gaming console, and grabbed his controller. After an hour, his dad shut off his console and told him to prepare for his Little League game. 

Apollo complained for a while about having to go, because he knew that he was playing Marcus’ team, along with the fact that a baby could probably play better than him. However, his dad dragged him to his car and they drove to the field. 

During warm-ups, his best and only friend, Kyle, who was their star shortstop, waltzed up to him.

“Ya want some pop-flys?”

“No.”

“Come on, you gotta practice if you wanna be good.”

“There’s no point, it's not like this is going to be a career for me.”

“Apollo.”

“Nope.”

“If you beat Marcus’ team then you’d probably have a comeback for whenever he beats you up for the next week.”

Apollo pondered on this for a moment, and then finally relented.

“Great, let’s get started.” exclaimed Kyle.

The game actually ended up being very fun to watch, as Apollo was always put in right field where he couldn’t do too much damage to the chances of their team winning. Watching ball after ball being hit then play after play being made was mesmerizing. Eventually, in the 6th and final inning, the score 5-6, Marcus’ team, Apollo nervously walked up to the batter's box with Kyle on 3rd base, along with two outs in the inning. 

Marcus was on the mound, grinning evilly at Apollo. He knew that Apollo was almost guaranteed out every time he batted. 

He sent a smoking fastball down the plate, and Apollo could hardly blink before the ball was past him. 

“STeeeeeeeRIIKE” yelled the umpire.

“Base hit scores a run!” called Apollo’s entire dugout.

Marcus sent another steaming fastball down the plate, and Apollo must have swung a couple years too late. 

Apollo didn’t even need to see Marcus to know he was grinning from ear to ear. He was going to catch fire from him if he didn’t hit something.

As he went into his wind-up for his third and most likely final pitch, Apollo started his swing. A split second later, he heard the incredible sound of the ball hitting the bat, and he saw the ball soar through the sky. 

He could only imagine Marcus’ face when he saw the ball fly past the fence. Running around the bases, his entire team poured out of the dugout and mobbed him when he stepped on home plate. All the parents watching were cheering, and Apollo’s mom and dad were clapping with tears of joy. 

At home, they celebrated with a special dinner and went out for ice cream dessert. 

Monday morning, he was a hero. His teammates went around exclaiming his incredible home run, and soon everyone was asking how he did it. It all changed when Marcus got up in his face while he was walking from English to Social Studies.

Pushing him around, he said, “You got lucky, moron!”

Kyle noticed and quickly made his way toward Apollo. 

“Hey, have you ever hit a home run?”

“Like I said, he got lucky,” spitting in Kyle’s face.

Wiping the spit off and throwing it to the ground, he retorted, “Mhm, he also hit it off you, the supposed ‘best’ pitcher in the league.”

“Hmph.”

Marcus stormed away, and Apollo could almost see the storm clouds on his head.

Apollo couldn’t remember a time he felt better.

“How was school today?” asked Apollo’s mom as he walked through the door.

“Great!”

“Huh, somebody’s chipper,” said his dad.

“Marcus can’t touch me now.”

“Isn’t he the bully in your school?”

“Are you being bullied?”

Apollo considered telling his parents, and thought that now Marcus had nothing against him, he decided to let them know. 

“Well, he was the bully in the school, and he did pick on me, but now he can’t do anything to me because of the home run I hit off him the other day.”

“I always thought that was sort of a luck-”

“Yes, Apollo, that was a wonderful hit, right?” elbowing Apollo’s dad as he recovered from being cut off.

“Oh, yes, yes, it was really wonderful.”

Apollo gave his parents a I-know-that-you-thought-that-my-hit-was-lucky look. Eventually, he went to his room to work on his homework. 

Thirty minutes into his English essay, he got a text from Kyle asking if he wanted to hang out around the basketball court. Perking up at the word basketball, he decided to put his essay on hold and rushed out the door while yelling that he was going to play basketball. 

“Hey,” heaved Apollo, out of breath after sprinting to the basketball courts from his home, which was about a mile’s distance.

“Hey, I got a five versus five game going with Marcus on the other team,” winking at him mischievously. 

“Marcus? Are you crazy? He’d probably bulldoze me after hitting a home run off him and putting him down at school!”

“Chill out, if anything happens, I’ll be there to set him in his place, which is probably a wood shack under a bridge.”

“Phew, okay.”

Contrary to baseball, Apollo actually was good at basketball. His jump shot was nearing perfection, and his step-back was nasty. However, when it came to physically moving other people for a lay-up or close two-point shot, he always found himself on the floor. 

The game was close, with Apollo’s team leading by three, and with a minute left on the clock, Marcus called a timeout and they huddled to make their game plan. 

Kyle took charge of their time-out, and told them to play around the basket.

“They can’t shoot a three for their life, they’ll try to put the ball for two. Joshua, we need you to stay near the basket for the rebound, and everyone else, make sure to be focused on the ball and assist when needed.”

The whistle sounded and Marcus passed the ball in. they passed back to him, which was odd, because they usually had James take the ball up. Kyle stepped up to defend him, but Marcus managed to get past him and suddenly Marucs was barreling toward Apollo. Apollo did his best, but Marcus was too strong and fast.

crUNCh

A flaring pain coursed through his entire leg. His vision blurred, and he felt himself falling to the floor. 

He woke up in a hospital bed.

Surrounded by his family, he noticed his left leg was in a cast. Medical staff were talking to his parents, with worried faces. When they noticed Apollo was up, they quickly changed into optimistic and cheerful.

“Hello, Apollo, you’ve suffered from a broken leg, and this sort of fracture is very normal, with at least a six-month healing period.”

Apollo couldn’t believe it. Marcus had intentionally stepped on his leg which led to a six-month healing time. 

“Why don’t you go back to sleep, so the grown-ups can continue to talk and so your leg can heal quicker!”

Drifting back into a sleep, he was plagued with dreams of bones snapping and Marcus laughing at him. 

He woke up with bleary eyes and with his senses dulled. He caught the words, “critical condition,” “ER,” and worst of all, “surgery.” 

He felt a mask being pressed to his face, and he drifted into a nightmarish sleep again. 

“Apollo?”

“Apollo?”

“Apollo!”

“APOLLO!”

“W-w-what? Wh-where am I-I?”

“Apollo!” screamed his mother. 

“Son, you’ve just undergone surgery.”

“SURGERY? I thought it was only a fractured bone!”

“Turns out it actually broke completely, and they had to perform surgery on it.”

“MARCUS BROKE MY ENTIRE BONE?!!?”

“Yeeeeah…”

“I’M GOING TO KILL HIM!”

Driving back home, Apollo fumed in the backseat, and he texted Kyle on an update. He was just about as mad as Apollo was a swore to beat him up on Monday. 

“How’s the leg, idiot?” Marcus spat at him in the hall.

Apollo turned red in his vision. He charged Marcus down with a speed he probably couldn’t manage without a cast and crutches. Marcus momentarily looked frightened, but it quickly ended when Apollo slammed the crutch into his face.

“How’s the FACE?”

“APOLLO!”

Apollo was kicking him with his boot and beating him with his crutch as people tried to pull him away from Marcus.

“THIS IS WHAT YOU DESERVE FOR MY LEG!”

Finally, after four boys and a teacher, they were able to wrench him away. 

Marcus looked horrible. 

Blood was gushing from his nose, bruises covered his body, and his arm was bending the wrong way. 

Somebody called 911, and an ambulance showed up in front of the school. Marcus was carried to the ambulance on a stretcher, and was rushed to the ER. Apollo found himself sitting in the principal's office with his parents on either side of him twenty minutes later. 

“Apollo, this is absolutely unacceptable behavior from you, of all people,” seethed Dr. Deavens, the school principal. “Marcus’ family could press a variety of charges against you, I have no IDEA what you were thinking, beating him with your crutch!”

Apollo looked at his parents for help. They said and did absolutely nothing, because they couldn’t defend their son for such insane behavior.

So, Apollo decided to speak up for himself.

“The school didn’t do much when Marcus was pushing me around in the hallways all year.”

Dr. Deavens had nothing to say to that. 

“Apollo, you could have brought this to our attention.”

“I did, and you promised to do something, and the bullying continued!” Apollo exclaimed. “And after he broke my bone clean, don’t you think I was somewhat justified after he mocked my BROKEN LEG?”

“Apollo-”

He stormed out of the office, and Apollo’s mother quickly followed him. 

“I’m so, so, sorry about my son's behavior, please let the Freerider family know that I can cover their son’s medical fees, and our family sends our condolences to them.”

Dr. Deavens slowly nodded, then dismissed Apollo’s dad from his office.

“Apollo, this is crazy.” his mother said, trying to keep the anger out of her voice. “You need to apologize to the Freerider family and especially Marcus for what you did to him. Young man, you have no idea how lucky you are that the Freeriders have decided not to press charges immediately!”

Apollo’s dad unlocked the car, and the family got in.

“This conversation is not over, mister.”

Apollo didn’t say anything because he couldn’t. He knew his actions were crazy, and he knew that he shouldn’t have beaten Marcus, but he did it anyway. It wasn’t like him. 

There was a knock on Apollo’s door. 

“Can I come in?” asked his father.

“Yeah,” Apollo responded with a sigh.

He had been thinking of the incident the entire time he got back home, and now his dad brought a steaming plate of food up to him. 

Apollo had no appetite. 

“Can we talk about the elephant in the room?”

He was in no mood to talk, but nodded anyway.

“When I was a kid, I was bullied a lot too. Just like you, I eventually snapped and took out my anger on the bully. I got in a lot of trouble, and I worked out my punishment hard. Just like you, I was lucky enough for the bullies family not to press any charges, and I did eventually apologize from some nudging from guess who?”

“My mom?”

“The one and only. I just want to let you know, even after I apologized I still have memories of the bloody body. However, the massive weight that came off my shoulders after throwing myself to the lowest possible point and begging for their forgiveness was immense.” his dad said.

“You will not be able to live your life to its fullest without reaching ends with this burden.”

With that, his dad stood up, and left the room. 

Apollo thought about what his dad said the rest of the day. Without reaching ends with this burden. His dad knew exactly how to get to him, and Tuesday morning, he finally took those words and put it into action. He found himself riding to the hospital on his bike, then asking the secretary where Marcus Freerider was staying. She pointed him to room twenty-eight on the second floor, and he knocked, awaiting the door to be opened. 

Mr. Freerider let Apollo in, and Marcus locked eyes with him the second he stepped into the room. 

“Hi,” croaked Marcus. 

He looked much better than he had a day ago, bleeding on the floor, and Apollo responded with a ‘hello’ as well. 

“I’m–I’m sorry about my actions.” Apollo managed. “It was stupid of me to beat Marcus.”

He hung his head in shame.

Surprisingly, Marcus responded.

“Dude, it’s my fault in the first place that I bullied you. It was wrong of me to pick on someone, anyone, at all.”

“That doesn’t give me permission to beat you like that.”

“You beat me with the anger of all of those kids that I bullied, and I completely deserved it.”

Apollo didn’t know what to say to that. Mrs. and Mr. Freerider with both smiling warmly at him, and he had no idea what kind of impossible change Marcus had gone through to respond with such humbleness. He deserved to be thrown into jail for a couple years, then shamed for the rest of his life, instead he was treated with kindness by the family whose son had been beaten up by Apollo! 

“Thank you,” was all he could say.

“I’m sorry about the leg thing, too.”

“It's fine,” Apollo offered a smile.

“Cool.” Marcus smiled back.