It was a scorching-hot day, Kurtis gradually trudged down the street ,sweat pouring down his face as the sun relentlessly assaulted his back with wave after wave of heat. His black shirt drenched in sweat he slowly made his way down the spindly path, eagerly anticipating the moment he would arrive home and be able to relax in his air conditioned room. Dragging his feet with an obvious lack of energy and motivation Kurtis turned down a side street ,his brain half-heartedly registering the gradual change in surroundings and houses. Before, the streets and houses had been ,although organised and decent; aged, weary ,average sized and heavily sprinkled with litter, the trees and bushes lazily scattered amongst miles and miles of concrete and bricks. However, in heavy contrast with the previous scene this street was -similarly to before- organised, but dissimilarly ,clean almost pristine with more modern and much larger houses, the trees adding to the scene of snowy White and cream coloured houses a splash of vibrant colour with their green and occasionally red and orange leaves. The scenes heavy likeness to a work of art clearly signalled Kurtis' arrival into the wealthy part of Keshford City. Having noticed his near arrival home Kurtis subconsciously picked up his pace, he began shuffling rapidly, his dark blue house coming into clear view sticking out like a sore thumb among the pale, grey and cream coloured houses.

"Kurtis? Is that you?"

"yes mom" grunted Kurtis closing the door after having just entered the house.

"Are you alright? You left early this morning and its a Sunday, what's going on?" His mum inquired shuffling into the entrance hall from the kitchen. She had an oval shaped head, her burgundy coloured hair held back in a pale pink bandana tied at the front, she had stunning pale ice coloured eyes adorned with sleek long eyelashes and slender brown eyebrows along with a petite nose and small but plump lips. This ,matched with busty moderate curves made it impossible to deny her beauty. The only thing preventing her from appearing almost perfect was the fact that her right arm was in a solid White cast. She wore a long dark brown cardigan with a Black shirt and loose blue jeans.

"Nothing" insisted Kurtis pushing past his mom and making his way towards the carpeted stairs at the end of the entrance hall, opposite to the door leading to the kitchen, pausing halfway there.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes mum"

"You know you can always talk to me about anything that could be happening at school"

"There's nothing happening right now"

"What happened to all your bandages and the cast on your arm?"

"I took it off"

"Why?"

"Because it was annoying"

"But its there to help your injuries heal faster, why would you take them off?"

"I don't care, its not that deep mum" replied Kurtis, his foul mood plain as day

"Well, I'll come up to talk to you about it later" insisted Kurtis' mum

"Whatever" he responded as he began to make his way towards the stairs

"By the way, the Mr Lawrence the lawyer will be coming to pay us a visit, he says he needs to speak to you. Something about testimony and stuff like that"

"Okay" Kurtis grumbled in response

"Well, dinner will be ready in around 15 minutes!" His mom shouted after him as he began up the stairs and out of view.

*Slump*

Kurtis landed on his bed face down (being extra careful to make sure he didn't land on his left arm) arms outstretched. After all that running his broken rib coupled with his wheezing lungs made it impossible for him to stay still, causing him to continuously twist and turn in an attempt to find a position that didn't make him feel like someone was furiously jumping on his chest. Initially intending to relax and watch Netflix to take his mind off of the events of that morning, he instead remained like that for a bit in the silence only interrupted by his shuffling and rustling noises. Before he realised and could stop himself tears began to trickle down out from his eyes as he suffocated against the soft comfort of his duvet, tempted to never come back up for breath again. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally.

'I've had enough!' he desperately thought to himself, his chest tightening ,no longer able to control the onslaught of tears as he sobbed uncontrollably into his duvet slowly forming two wet patches on either side of his face that soon combined to form one large one.

Speaking of faces, Kurtis was ugly, no putting it lightly ,quite shocking considering his mothers almost unmatched beauty. He had a weirdly rectangular shaped head unceremoniously crowned with messy dark brown hair paired with large oval Black eyes ,supported by square nerdy glasses, and rough Black eyebrows. The only semblance to his mother he had was his small nose, which had a red line across its bridge where it had been broken rendering it crooked, and lips which only served to make his face more odd, not to mention he was covered in black and purple bruises and was on the chubby side. In all he was ugly but not unbearably so, minus the bruises and the broken nose he had recently received, he was a solid 2/10 as insisted by the girls in his year at school.

His less then pleasing looks was a contributing factor to why he was currently crying. Being 15yrs old he was a victim of endless merciless bullying at school. Day in day out he was bullied, having to endure anything ranging from insults to damage of his belongings, being beaten up and constantly spat at. There is only so much a boy of his age can take and today had been the last straw.

It started on the Monday of that week. What he would always remember as the worst week of his lives:

...

6 days before current time of story:

It was morning and Kurtis was currently seated in his seat at the back of the classroom when suddenly he felt a sharp burst of pain in the back of his head. Turning to its source, he immediately regretted having come to school that morning.

"Move you prick' sneered Joden Charvey ,his hand positioned next to Kurtis' head ,ready to deliver another slap If defied.

Kurtis noticed that he had a unusualy frustrated and moody look on his face already.

"but-" began Kurtis before being interrupted by a slap to the face

"You heard him, move!" Intervened one of Joden's friends with a malicious smirk on his face as he stood to the right of Joden. His name was Blaise Zallo, he was fairly tall with Black flowing hair cut in a low skin fade and dark blue eyes with thick eyebrows and thin lips, his skin a light peach colour, he stood tall and proud. He was without a doubt Joden's right hand man and best friend and understandably so since they had known each other since they were born ,having lived as next door neighbours their entire lives. If there was one person Kurtis hated almost as much as Joden it was Blaise, weird since Kurtis and Blaise were cousins. Blaise was his cousin on his mum's side (the son of his mum's sister, Kurtis' auntie). Kurtis had never met his dad but it was obvious that looks were only on his mum's side and Blaise was proof of that.

"I'm not gonna ask you again you fat shit" said Joden "move or I'll punch you in your face you pussy"

Kurtis never understood why Joden insisted on calling him fat, yes he was on the large side but that made hardly a difference considering there were students way fatter than he was in their year and he never called them fat, including possibly the largest person their age they would probably ever meet, Denku midori, who always glanced sheepishly at Kurtis whenever someone called him fat.

*whack* Kurtis received another slap, this one more painfull than the last.

"I - I'm moving" stuttered Kurtis reluctantly lifting himself from the seat " bu -but Mrs Hedge w-will probably tell you t-to return to your seat a-anyway"

"yeah yeah whatever, just move" said Joden while purposely barging into Kurtis as he shuffled past him, making him stagger, to the cruel amusement of the class.

Kurtis then stood awkwardly beside the table ,unsure of what to do with himself since no one wanted him sitting next to them.

"hah! look at this fat fool" goaded Blaise while recording Kurtis on his phone " I'm slapping that on my main story". Joden however sat silently in Kurtis' seat, a brooding look on his face.

' Huh, he's definitely not in a Good mood' thought Kurtis

Jorden was quite easily what you would call 'the most popular' at their school and the best looking. He was mixed race, boasting light caramel coloured skin with normally chaotically curly hair that have been conquered into medium-length dreads that reached down to just bellow his fairly flat nose and were constantly covering his impossibly light brown eyes and thin eyebrows with two slits on the edge of the right one.. He boasted lean and muscular build with perfectly White teeth and was 5'10.

"Sit your fat ass Down somewhere you tramp!" Chimed in Bella Latina. Yes ,that was her name, translating directly to beautiful Latina -strange considering she wasn't a Latina. She was American with tanned skin and sea green eyes slender eyebrows and small nose coupled with thin rosy pink lips and long elegant golden brown hair. She was 5'7 with a Curvy and attractive body and small feet.'

She was considered Joden's unnoficial girlfriend because they were always together and with Blaise, together all three of them formed the unholy trio primarily responsible for making Kurtis' school life a constant misery.

"He's probably looking for where his dignity went" chimed a goading voice from from one of the countless faces for which Kurtis had not bothered to remember the names of. This comment however, hurt, causing Kurtis' chest to tighten and his face to droop, for the second time already today -and lessons hadn't even started yet- he was laughed at by everyone , his obvious sadness and reaction to this only incensing the laughter.

"Alright that's enough, Mr Charvey ,back to your seat, Mr Balliol sit down, Mr Midori, stop eating. Everyone be quiet and listen, take off you coats, hats and gloves of , make sure your uniform is up to standard, if you don't have some of your uniform make sure you have a note from home or from Mr landred your head of year - you understand Mr Zalo?" Instructed Mrs Hedge ,bustling hurriedly into the room carrying a large pile of folders and without even looking up.

"tch" said Joden as he begrudgingly got up knowing trying to go against Mrs Hedge would not end well and making a show of again barging into Kurtis who was trying to sit down at his seat, much too the obvious disgust of bella whom he sat next to.

*ptooo*

Kurtis instinctively ducked as a gooey ball of spit flew past his head and landed on Bella's blazer sleeve, much to her disgust as she let loose an exaggerated scream of disgust, immediately grabbing everyone's attention.

"Why are you screaming Mrs Latina " sighed Mrs Hedge in an exasperated voice.

"Kurtis just spat on my arm" complained Bella with a slight smirk on her face as she glared at Kurtis.

"Mr Baliol ,how many times do I have to tell you, that's disgusting and unacceptable. Either apologise to Mrs Latina and get a tissue to wipe it off, or receive a detention after school, this is your last chance, next time its exclusion" dictated Mrs Hedge with a stern look.

Despite being framed Kurtis was happy and hopeful, an after school detention meant he wouldn't have to walk home at the same time as Joden, Blaise and their Lackeys so he could avoid getting chased and beaten. But exclusion? Of course! why hadn't he thought of that before, maybe it was because he was the smartest student in school and he showed academic promise but exclusion had never crossed his mind. If he got excluded he could stay at home and wouldn't have to see Joden, Blaise , Bella and everyone else, at least for a little. Changing school was off the table, King Henry The eighth was the best school in Keshford city and was a private school so he couldn't leave ,not if he wanted the best education -and he did- or get expelled.

"I'll take the detention then" he said without hesitation

Mrs Hedge looked at him much like everyone else in the class, surprised." I beg your pardon?"

"I said I'll take the detention, actually-" he turned swiftly around and gathering all the spit he could in his mouth, spat it at Bella, landing it right on her lips, some going in her mouth. He turned back towards Mrs Hedge " Can you exclude m-"

Before he could finish his sentence ,Joden grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the table and headbutted him causing blood to trickle down his nose.

Bella jumped up in disgust, her mouth hanging open, her head bent forward. Her face wore a look of utter revulsion."*Aack*" she gagged attempting to get the spit out of her mouth and off her face without touching it.

"what the fuck do you think your doing you prick!" Spat Joden, his face contorted in anger and one hand raised in a fist above Kurtis' face.

"G-get off me" rasped Kurtis, his nose was hurting and he was struggling to breath with Jodens fist pressed against his neck

He began frantically struggling as Joden began punching him over and over again. His face, his torso his arms. Pain surged throughout his body as he screamed helplessly, but no one came to his aid, Mrs hedge was frozen in shock at what was happening while the rest of the class watched on, laughing like a crowd at a comedic play. This was all regular entertainment to them, they were so used to seeing scenes like this that they thought it was funny.

Kurtis began clawing at Joden's face ineffectively with his blunt nails as Joden landed blow after blow ,his knuckles turning red with Kurtis' blood. The laughing students slowly stopped laughing, looks of confused shock taking the place of their smirks, maybe because it was the first time Kurtis had done anything in retaliation, to Bella of all people, but Joden was being extra hard for some reason.

Kurtis' nose was bleeding excessively now and he couldn't feel it anymore, the pain wouldn't stop and his arms slowly began to slump as he began to lose conscious. At this point the only people still laughing were Joden's lackeys .Blaise eagerly videoed it on his phone while encouraging Joden by saying " fuck him up" and " look at him, he's not even trying anymore" gleefully.

Meanwhile, Bella hurriedly ran out of the classroom while shrieking frantically in disgust presumably heading for the girls toilet followed closely by her own entourage of girls.

"Miss!" Shouted one of the nameless faces.

This seemed to work as Mrs Hedge snapped out of her shock and quickly made a beeline past tables and chairs towards the scene. "everyone get back, Mr Zallo stop recording now, someone go call SLT " she commanded shakingly " Mr Charvey! Release Mr Balliol right now, your already going to get excluded for this I assure you of that but don't make this worse by refusing to listen to a member of staff!

Still Joden continued to use Kurtis as a punching bag. Kurtis' vision began to get blurry. All he could feel was pain as his stomach received more and more blows. He felt a bone break in his ribcage as he saw Mrs Hedge put herself in between him and Joden only to receive a punch to her face causing her to stumble back as two teachers wearing bright red jackets came in, grabbed hold of Joden and dragged him off of him. ' hah, he's deffo gonna get in trouble for that' thought Kurtis as the the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was Joden's face, twisted in fury....