Caring

Caring

“STOP IT!” a voice shouted and the whole campus  was staring in silence. There stood the sweet little bookworm from literature class, in front of the most feared group of the school and tried to protect this freak from the computer science class. It was nearly laughable… nearly but basically this was suicide! The girl was just five feet tall, while the bully was about seven feet. Even the boy she tried to protect was over one feet taller than her, but nevertheless she was standing there. 

Shaking in fear, her hands clenched into fists and the look in her eyes made more than clear that she herself did not know, why she did what she did, but there she was. Taking one more deep breath, she repeated it again. 

“Stop it!” Her voice nearly broke at the end, but still she stood there. “Why?” The bully, Joshua, ask with a wolfish grin leaning closer into her personal space, making her flinching violently. Some of those standing closely enough could see how her eyes grew comically and how she gulped in panic. “Because it is not fair!” 

Her fists still shock and there was still panic in her eyes, but now there was something else.  Courage! She took another deep breath and started talking. 

“He is the one who helped you every day after school with your homework. He is the one who learned every day before you write a test or an exam. He is the reason why you did not have to repeat last year and still you go on bullying him. How dare you?” 

By now her fists were clenched, because of anger and she was shaking furiously. Her burning gaze suddenly made the boy shrink and really uncountable. 

“He is so damn happy, every time when you let you guards down and let him help you and still you hurt him and humiliate him in front of the whole school. Still you play double faced and at the end of the day you go to him like nothing has happened. This game of yours it make me sick! You always call him a freak and an idiot, but in reality YOU are the freak! You are the one who is an asshole and you are the one who is using a damn good soul. You do not even understand how good he is! Did you know that Danny had a dislocated arm after you was finished with him? That I was the one who took him to the nurse and called his parents? Did you know how many bruises he had? How many injuries that are scares now?” She was crying now and Joshua, hell the whole school was staring at her in disbelief, while Danny slowly got to his feet and tried to get her away from Joshua. “Scar” he whispered. “Please Scarlet, stop it! It is okay!” She spun around to face Danny glaring at him angrily. “NO IT IS NOT!” She was crying and her face looked broken by now. 

“No it is not OKAY. I can’t stand it anymore! I can’t take you home injured anymore! I can’t continue telling your parents lies why you look the way you look! I just can’t stand it anymore to see you like this!” She shouted getting more and more hysterically with every sentence. Her whole body shacked with snobs and tears she hold violently back. Danny was looking at her with the same hurt look she had seconds before, while every other person was just looking in stunned silence and then he hugged her. 

“Thank you!” he said and his smile was soft and sweet. “Thank you Scar!” He said while she was crying against his breast. Holding his t-shirt in her fists. For several seconds Danny was just staring at the ground, but then he raised his gaze and looked at Joshua. The message in his gaze was easy to read: “Never dare to make her cry again!” and the boy, the bully looked away abashed and uneasy. 

Solidarity means to stand up for somebody. It means to stand up for anybody. There is no category to make you see who deserve it, because everybody deserves it. That’s what solidarity means to care!