My name is Mike Schmidt, at least that's what I've been called for my entire life. I don't remember if I had parents or not, to be honest, I'm not even sure if I have a family of any sort. I've lived in foster care for as long as I can remember with no memory of my late father or mother, sometimes, I was even neglected. The school was never kind either, I was constantly bullied, beaten up, had no friends, and was always put into bad situations all the time. My teachers at this point just chose to forget about me as if I was some sort of ghost. One particular kid named Judah was the biggest asshole ever. He thought he could do anything he wanted just because he was the principal's son. He'd always push me around, blame me for pranks he had done, and he'd pick on me. He once cornered me in the bathroom and stuffed my face in toilet water. One day, I just snapped. I was walking to chemistry class when I saw Judah across the hall.
"Hey!" Judah shouted. I ignored him and quickly tried to get out of his way but unfortunately, he was quick enough to reach me.
"Look at what we have here, little ol' Mikey!" Judah said, grabbing my backpack and throwing me to the lockers.
"Can't you just quit, Judah," I said, coldly. I was squirming as much as I could to get out of his grasp.
"Aww, is Mikey going to cry for his mommy and daddy? Oh, wait! You don't have any! You pathetic loser." Judah said, tightening his grip while laughing up a storm.
I completely lost it and punched Judah in the face, hard, so much so that he fell on his ass. I followed him down on the floor and continued to punch him even more. We were soon separated by the vice principal.
"Hey! Break it up you two!" He said, furiously. "Principal's office! NOW!" He shouted furiously.
In the office, I was sitting. Waiting for my foster parents to come. "I wonder what punishment I'll get this time," I thought.
"What did he do this time?" my foster mom said, barging into the room. She looked beyond furious due to the fact she had to leave work early to pick me up.
"A fight broke out between the two boys. To my understanding, Mr. Schmidt here claims he was insulted about his parents and then punched Judah but Judah is saying he is innocent and he hit him out of nowh-."
"You know that's not true!" I shouted, interrupting the principal and standing up from my chair.
"Watch your tone Mister!" my foster mom snapped back.
"As you can see Mrs. Turner, I'll suspend Mike for two weeks and Judah will be put in detention for 5 days." The principal continued.
"That is ridiculous!" I proclaimed angrily. "You fucken gave him detention and me a suspension?!" I yelled.
"I understand your frustration Mr. Schmidt but we do not tolerate inapprop-."
"Oh, but you'll tolerate your degenerate of a son?" I said, barely able to contain my anger.
"That's enough kid, you have caused enough trouble for me!" Mrs. Turner scolded. "I am sorry Mr. Steinbeck," she said. Mrs. Turner turned towards me and grabbed my arm "We are going home, NOW!" she roared. "You wait until your father hears about this!"
As we were walking out, I saw Judah. He smirked as I was dragged out of the office and forced into the car. "Later loser," he said provokingly.
Later, I was found face-to-face with my foster dad. He looked up from his newspaper with disappointed eyes. I waited for his response, but he never said anything, it was quite awkward. Then, he began to speak.
"I just don't know what to do with you kid." He said while exhaling. "It's always you and that damn Steinbeck's kid getting into some sort of trouble. Whether it's you supposedly being blamed for releasing frogs in the classroom or putting a sharp object in the teacher's chair."
I sat there in silence, dreading over the fact that I had never done any of those things yet somehow, I was always blamed for it. My foster Dad put his newspaper down and looked straight at me.
"And here we are again, you punched someone repeatedly." He spoke. "Honestly, I don't care what you have to say because, at this point, you're full of shit." He said.
"Of course, you don't care, you'll believe me when pigs fly. Which is never, not you or Angelica." I said coldly.
"Watch your tone around me, you're on thin ice right now!" He said, fist angrily pounding the table.
Without saying another word, I got up and started walking to my room. "Nothing new here, just parents who could care less," I muttered to myself.
"Get back here! I'm not done talking to you!" my father said with his voice booming. "You live under my roof! And wear the clothes I provide!" he added.
I ignored him and closed the door behind me.