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"A nice deck you have here." Michael said as he admired my brand new cards in their box.
I stood, my head faced to the ground trying to hold back my tears at my newly bought but now lost cards.
"Hey hey hey, is he crying?" One of Michael's cronies asked, pointing and laughing at me.
Well I wasn't crying before he said it but as he pointed it out and the rest of the gang came closer and started laughing...
"Well I had to start the water works."
My cheeks felt hot with the held up rage and embarrassment.
I looked in frustration as the tears fell to the ground of the sidewalk.
Now I wondered as to why I decided to take this lonely way home and leave before the ending bell. All the homes were empty as the adults were still at work and most kids hadn't returned from school.
Not that it mattered if there were other kids, they were all afraid of Michael and his gang anyway.
"Hey, are you crying?" Michael asked with no hint of amusement in his voice, in fact it sounded as though he was disgusted.
"I-I-I'm not crying." I stutter trying to hold back the sobs..
"I see" he walked up and raised my face up.
It was a sorry sight, his cronies started laughing and one even brought up his phone to take a picture.
I quickly backed up and cleaned my face on the sleeve of my jacket.
"Jeez, if the cards mean so much to you I'll give them back." Michael said, chuckling nervously...
I couldn't help but tear up again, I shuddered at the height of nerdiness I reached at that spot...
"If you want the cards back", Michael began holding back his laughter and pointing to a screen. "All you have to do is say please to this..."
"Leave him alone!!" Michael was cut off by the sight of a screaming boy running down the hill where my house was.
Everybody turned to look at the sight and everyone had different expressions when the interrupter joined us.
Michael was shocked, his cronies were amused, I was horrified...
For the person that ran down the hill to save me was my 6 year old younger brother, Daniel.
"Leave my brother alone." Daniel screamed as he stood in-between Michael and me.
Michael just looked down, still shocked.
I looked at the 13 year old bully, 1 year older than other 12 year olds in my class.
He bent down and addressed my younger brother.
"How old are you?"
"I'm six" Daniel replied, flashing his teeth with one tooth missing.
Michael laughed out loud..
"He's 6!!", Michael said, holding his head laughing.
"Hey boy I'm 13", Michael said pointing at himself.
"I know you can't do the math, but that's 2 times bigger than you." Michael pointed his finger at Daniel.
Daniel bit his finger and I couldn't help but laugh out loud. It seemed like something out of a comedy script.
"Quite nice of you to laugh while your little brother is fighting your battles." Michael said as he sucked on his bitten finger.
"Of course I would fight for him, I'm the King." Daniel said proudly.
"King?" Michael laughed and his cronies echoed.
"Yes, a king." Daniel said again.
"And as your king, I demand that you give me that pack of cards." Daniel pointed at the card box.
Michael waved his hand and the box was handed to him.
"Do you need this box?" Michael asked, holding the box tauntingly in front of Daniel. As Daniel went to collect the box, Michael raised it too high.
"Don't worry guys, I've got this... You all should go home, we will meet up tomorrow."
Michael laughed as he sent his cronies away.
"I can't reach the box" Daniel shouted crying out loud.
Michael began laughing but it was cut short for out of annoyance Daniel kicked him between the legs.
I laughed out loud again as Michael knelt down holding his sour spot.
Daniel rushed to the cards and grabbed it smiling and laughing.
"Why you..." Michael cried as he ignored his pains and picked Daniel up.
"No...." Daniel began screaming and before I knew what I was doing, I had tackled Michael to the floor and started punching him.
Courage and strength that I hadn't known in my life before held me tight that day as I held down the bully.
We rolled and exchanged punches, with the encouragement and help from Daniel.
I managed to land a solid hit on his face, then the impossible happened.
The infallible, immovable Michael Troy began crying, he cried and cried.
He left me on the ground and began running away with his hands on his face.
He stopped and turned back, "This isn't over!" He yelled, eyes red as he held his cheek with a hand.
Daniel blew raspberries at him as he walked away. I smiled at the absurd cheekiness of my lil bro.
He looked at me and frowned..
"You better clean up before mum comes home." He said as he went up the hill
I look at myself and notice how dirty my uniform was from the fight.
I walked back home with pride, even though I did taste some blood on my lips.
Later that night, Daniel, my Dad, and I sat down round the table to play cards.
Well my Dad and I played while Daniel just took whatever card he saw and shouted 'all in!', no matter the game we're playing.
Since I was losing, I noticed Daniel was staring at a particular card and grinning wildly.
He saw me looking at him, flashing his one tooth missing smile, he showed me the card he was holding.
"A King", he said smiling.
"Yep, that's you lil bro." I replied laughing out loud, remembering the battle in the afternoon.
