Change in Life

Chapter 4. Fight

Fresh air had never smelt so good or felt as comforting. There was still a big crowd outside the canteen waiting to get in, but not nearly as bad as inside. Blake had to get away from all of this mayhem. All of these people were making his anxiety go crazy. He walked off slowly inconspicuously. As he did, he could hear people snickering about him as he passed them. His actions that afternoon had not gone unnoticed. There was only one place left that Blake knew of where hardly anyone went. And if they did go there, it was only to play sport. The sports oval.

If there was one thing Blake appreciated about his school was its location. Although in the middle of the bustling city, the rear of the school grounds backed onto a park with wide open spaces with gravel walking tracks and huge trees of redwoods and pines. While the rare oaks here were tilling their leaves for the upcoming winter, the pines held theirs tightly. the contrast of golds and reds backed by a mat of green needles.

When he finally got there after an agonizing short walk, he looked for a decent tree to sit down under. Preferably one in the back away from the school were the trees were thickest. Strolling alone threw the middle of the oval, dodging the odd football, he found a perfect tree that no one had claimed. It was a big, wide oak with plenty of shade. Half of its leaves had fallen and had bedded the root thick ground with colors of red and yellow. He wandered over and sat down on the ground and started to think in the fresh air. The tree grew right on the border of the school grounds. Another step and he would be in the park. 

Blake sat on the moist leaves and sighed silently to sooth himself. He gazed at people playing their games and he began to think about Trent again. He had no idea where he was at this time. But this was a safe place. This tree did sat right on the border of the school grounds so unless Trent went out of school grounds and took a huge detour Blake would see him first and have time to evade. then again, when was it ever in Trent's head to play by the rules. Having not seen him in most lunch breaks during his entire time here, he had to have guessed Trent broke the rules and spent it just as Blake was doing and sneaking off to the trees. Blake did not want to think why he would. God knows what he did without supervision.

Being bullied was something Blake had grown used to. He had to deal with it in primary school and in his early years of high school. He learned to shake everything off and take it on the chin. There were always inspiring speeches given out by the teachers and the principal on bullying during the weekly school assembly. The notion that everyone had a right to be who they were in a time of life that was clearly dominated by popularity was the false dream which seemed to live in adults minds. It was not allowed, there for it does not happen. When it came down to the individual though, it really became a survival instinct of avoidance. Which Blake had learned in the harshest way.

Don't react. They feed off it.

Don't respond. You'll be blamed.

Don't sort help. They will retaliate.

This was different though. This time he felt scared from breaking his own measures that had gotten him this far without anything real bad happening. All the other times were verbal antagonizes instances. The only way now he felt this could be resolved was through violence. He had reacted. He had responded. And Mrs Hood had helped. Blake basically made a fool of Trent in front of his everyone.

As Blake lent back against the tree and sighed, he felt something sticking into his leg. He shuffled over only thinking it was a tree root only to have the  same thing poke him. He lifted his leg up to see what it was, but nothing was there. He sat back down again to only feel the prod again. Blake put his hand in his back pocket and pulled out what was irritating him. 

It was the knife Sky gave him.

With a look of loathing, the initial thing Blake thought about was of how many creatures this knife had cut open. The thoughts of Trent were soon out of his head and horrible thoughts of hunting came in.