1st Grade

The cries of a little girl blast through my ears. She's around the same height as myself, and her hair is done in several beautiful long braids. My attention shoots over to her, she seems to have fallen off of the slide. There's a bit of blood on her dark skin as she wails and holds her knees in front of her. There's another girl behind her, slightly taller, blonde, and as pale as the white chalk we're given to draw with every recess. She seems to have a mischievous look in her eyes, like she sees herself as dominant compared to the rest of us.

I drop my bucket at my feet and sprint out of the sandbox. The girl at the top of the slide has now been joined by her other friends. Second graders. That explains why they think they're so cool and better than the rest of us.

I manage to reach her just as the teachers notice the commotion. Snot starts to flow out of her nostrils, and her tears soak her clothing. I drop by her side, placing a careful hand on her back. Even when she's crying in pain, she still manages to be beautiful. Far more beautiful than any of those second grade girls that still continue to stand above us, laughing.

"Knox," She weeps, wiping at her face with her arms, though it just spreads the germs even more. Her voice squeaks as I check out her bloody knee, there's dirt and gravel in the wound. Is she going to die? I've heard my parents talk about how dangerous it is to have dirt in a wound, and none of it sounded good. I don't want her to die! She's so kind! None of the other girls in the class are as amazing as her. All they care about are cooties and playing with their dolls. I don't want her to die! Her and I have had so much fun playing house and building sand castles together!

"It's fine," My voice squeaks, tears pouring out of my eyes. "Just please don't die!" I wrap my arms around her, pulling her close and listening to the sounds of the teachers running over.

"I don't wanna die!" She whimpers, wincing as a piece of my clothing gently touches her bloody leg.

"Knox, get away from her!" My teacher shouts, her voice making me feel guilty for coming to check up on her.

"I swear," The assistant teacher pipes up, kneeling beside me and the girl, gently trying to pull us apart. "I knew he was a bad kid."

"I told you so," My teacher speaks with haste, her hands shake as they come into view. The assistant teacher adds more force and prys both the girl and I apart from each other, revealing our tear and snot soaked faces to the rest of the playground. A few of the other boys with action figures notice and join in on the pointing and laughing with the rest of the girls. About half of the playground starts to shout 'cooties' and 'Knox and Deka sitting in a tree.' "We're going to have to call his parents," My teacher rolls her eyes at me. "Something like this will not go unpunished."

Tell my parents? Unpunished? B-but I didn't do anything. I was just checking up on her. Am I going to get in trouble for something I didn't do? Am I going to prison? No, I can't. I'm too young to go to prison!

"But I didn't do it!" I cry, fear striking my voice. My arm shoots up, pointing straight at the girls still standing at the top of the slide, "Samantha did it!"

"No she didn't!" Her friends yell back at me, furrowing their brows and granting my demise.

My eyes shoot between the girls, the teachers staring at me disappointedly, and Deka as she tries to speak up but fails. I cry, "They're lying!"

"No we're not!" The girls lie with a defensive tone. "You're such a liar!"

One of the girls begins to weep and the others comfort her, "Why do you hate us so much? What did we ever do to you?"

One of the teachers let out an aggravated exhale and stares me down, "Knox, go to the office."

"But I didn't do it!" I cry, my tears soaking the gravel below me.

"Knox!" The teacher shouts, sending waves of pure fear through my body. This is it. I'm going to prison. I'm going to spend the rest of my life rotting away in a stone-cold cell. "Office. Now!"

"But-"

"Office!" The assistant teacher points towards the school, a few of my classmates laugh quietly around me, some even whisper about how ugly I look and how I'm such a crybaby.

My breathing is ragged as I get up to my feet, glaring at the girls crying behind me, "You guys suck!"

"Knox Akins!" The teacher gasps and continues screaming at me as I stomp off towards the building. Shock riddles all of my other classmates' faces, as I angrily tread past them and hit the wheelchair button to open the door.

"I'm not talking to anyone ever again," I mumble to myself, continuing towards the office. "Girls suck, guys suck, everyone sucks! I hate everybody!"

I get into the office, the secretary at the front desk is watching me with consoling eyes, somehow slightly lifting up my mood a bit. "Is everything okay?" She asks me, her voice soft and sincere.

"Please!" I break down in front of her desk. "I don't want to go to prison! I didn't do it!"

"Prison?" Her voice is laced with shock as her eyes go wide then back to caring. "Knox, sweety, tell me your side of the story?"

"M-m-m-my side?" I stutter and struggle to breathe because of the crying.

She steps away from her desk and gestures for me to take a seat among the lineup of chairs, then takes one two down from me. "Yes, your side of the story. I've seen you and Deka play quite frequently, you both get along amazingly. So I really doubt that you'd ever hurt her. So, what happened?"

A smile spreads across my face as I take a struggling breath of relief. "S-so I was playing in the sandbox, a-and," Another breath flows in and out of my lungs. "Then I heard Deka crying and ran over to check u-up on her."

"Well that's very caring of you," The secretary smiles and hands me some tissues.

I blow my nose and continue, "She had dirt and gravel inside of her wound, is she going to die? I don't want her to die!"

The secretary chuckles slightly, "Don't worry, sweety, she's not going to die. Just a little bit of rubbing alcohol and a bandaid and she'll be as good as new."

"B-b-but my parents were talking about how dangerous it is to have dirt in a wound though," The tears start pouring all over again.

"Knox," Her voice is kind and grabs my attention instantly, completely pausing my flow of emotions. "Yes it can be dangerous, but no, her knee didn't get cut up enough for it to harm her in any way." She gives me a few seconds of silence then continues. "She will be perfectly fine in no time, trust me."

"O-o-okay," I stutter again, finally able to take a breath of air. "But I promise that I still didn't do it."

"Do you know who may have?" She asks.

"Well, well, well," The principal steps out of his office, giving me a look of disappointment. "It's no surprise that you're here."

I notice a split second of the secretary looking shocked but her face immediately goes blank once more. "We were just talking about-"

"I'll have him tell me what he did wrong himself," The principal smiles and holds out a hand to gesture me into his office. "Thank you though."

"He didn't do it," The secretary quickly adds as she rushes back to her desk and I step into his office.

"I'll decide that for myself," He grimaces then shuts the door behind me, locking me in. As he marches over to his desk, he asks, "So why did you push her, Knox?"

"I didn't push her!" I cry, making sure that my voice is loud enough to be heard from outside of the door.

"Oh really?" He rolls his eyes, laying his hands on his desk in front of him. "How about you tell that to both your parents and her parents?"

Fear strikes through me at the thought of how angry everyone will be of me. What if my parents give me up? What if everyone abandons me? "I didn't do it," I mumble, staring down at my feet.

"Whatever," The principal glares at me with a sickened gaze. "Go wait in the waiting room till your parents get here, since you clearly are too immature to tell the truth!"

"It is the truth!" I shout, my voice cracking.

"Who do you think you are yelling at?" The principal shouts, hurting my ears with his booming voice. The way he glares at me makes me feel terrified, like he's about to attack me for no reason. "I'm the principal and you're seven, watch your tone!" I gulp back my fear and silently stare at him with terror. "Get out of my office!"

I rush to the door and attempt to open it, promptly realizing that it's still locked. The lock is too high up for me to reach. The hairs on the back of my neck shoot up at the sound of the principal's booming footsteps stomp closer. This is it. This is where I die.

He unlocks the door and flings it open, nearly hitting me with it. "Get. Out."

I sprint out of the room and take a seat closest to the secretary's desk, she makes me feel safe. I'm sure that she'd protect me. The door to his office slams shut once more, the lock being smashed into place. I silently sit on the chair, doing my best to calm my racing heart beat as my eventual doom grows closer with every passing second. I want to talk with the secretary but I'm too scared of the principal coming out and yelling at me, so I stay quiet. I can also sense that she wants to say something to me too, but may also have the same fear.

After a few minutes, the principal steps out of his office just as my family and Deka's family walks through the doors. Her mother and father are surprisingly thin, and the expressions on their faces show more confusion than anger.

My father glares at me with a fiery rage, as the principal greets them with a smile. "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Akins, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Adan. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience but there seems to have been a rather unacceptable occurrence on the playground."

"What did my son do?" My mother asks with a surprising lack of patience. "We had to leave work for this."

"Well I-"

"Get to the point," My father orders, cutting the principal off. His large muscles flex under his clothes, adding more of an intimidation factor to his already large height and serious expression.

"Your son pushed a girl off of the slide, she ended up crying and bleeding," The principal explains with a slight bit of fear.

My mother gasps and I notice the secretary stop herself from speaking up. My father's eyes burn a bright fire as he stares into my soul. Deka's parents are silent, glancing between each other, the principal, and myself. But their attention quickly shifts to someone coming from outside of the office, making their faces light up with joy.

"Deka!" Her mother cheers, carefully wrapping her in a hug. Her father smiles lovingly nearby, taking in the bandaid and wet clothes. "My sweet princess, are you alright?"

"Mommy!" She smiles, returning the hug gracefully. They break the hug and I can feel her smile lift my spirits up. "Yup, I'm perfectly fine, mommy."

"Such a strong little girl," The father smiles.

Deka comes into the office, a small, pink bandaid on her knee and a beautiful smile on her face, spreading from ear-to-ear. My father's expression seems to have softened a bit, more professional than angry. The principal continues to smile as Deka takes a seat with her parents not too far from me, and a hint of confidence starts to rise within me.

"Are you okay, Deka?" I whisper to her, and her parents still don't show any sort of hatred towards me.

She grins kindly, making me feel even better, "Yup, I'm perfectly fine."

"So, Deka, do you mind telling us what happened?" The principal asks with a kind tone. "It seems that Knox wasn't telling me the truth earlier, so it'd be much better to hear your side of the story."

Deka smiles and clears her throat, "Well I was playing amongst myself at recess and looking for Knox. I then saw him playing in the sandbox and quickly ran to go down the slide. But as I sat down Samantha came behind me and told me to get out of the way. But when I said no, she pushed me off of the side of it." Deka takes hold of one of her braids, "It even felt for a moment like she grabbed my hair too, but I probably was just sitting on my hair."

The entire atmosphere of the room shifts. The secretary holds back her laughter. Deka's parents look between her and I with heartfelt expressions. My parents' faces turn to stone-cold anger as they slowly turn to face the principal who looks dumbfounded.

He slowly turns to look at me, raising an eyebrow, "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I did," I respond blankly, sitting back in my seat.

My parents don't blink as they continue to burn a hole into the principal with their eyes. "You made us drive all the way out here," My mother breathes, speaking intimidatingly slow. "For something that our son didn't even do?"

"He didn't tell anyone otherwise," The principal shrugs, sweat dripping down his forehead.

"But he did," Deka speaks up. "He told the teachers, but they believed the girls' word over his."

"I also told the secretary, but you told her to stop talking," I add, and her parents peer over to the principal with astonished expressions. "I also tried telling you, but you just yelled at me."

"Quiet down," The principal smiles menacingly. "The adults are talking."

"You yelled at my son?" My mom shouts at the top of her lungs.

"Ma'am, please calm down, we're in a school," The principal holds his hands up in front of him like that'll protect him.

"Don't speak to my wife like that!" My dad fires back, a growl mixing in with his vexed tone.

"Sir I-"

"No, no, no," My dad cuts him off. "You blame my kid for something he didn't do, you won't let him explain what actually happened, you yell at him! Seriously? He's fucking seven! Then you call us in, all cocky and shit, thinking that your bullshit won't backfire! Then you tell my wife to calm down! First, not only is that dangerous on it's own, but you also said it to her when she's already in a bad mood!"

"Oh, why are you in a bad mood?" He asks, glancing between my parents.

Every single person facepalms, even myself and Deka. My father is unamused as he growls, "Because you called us in for no fucking reason you fucking idiot."

"Sir, please stop swearing," The principal speaks low and calmly. "There are children here."

My dad points to me and I gulp back a sudden bit of fear, "He's heard far worse. So shut the fuck up."

The principal glances towards the secretary, "Please call the police, he's being a danger."

My dad's jaw drops, along with Deka's father's. "A danger? Oh I'll definitely show you what's really dangerous."

"Sir, please get out of my school before I have you arrested," The principal takes a step back.

"Honey," My mother speaks softly, placing a hand on my fathers chest to hold him back. "We can contact the school board later, let's just take Knox home."

"Fine," My dad growls after silently glaring at the principal for a good minute. "Come on, Knox."

"I'm really sorry," I whisper to Deka and her parents as my dad drags me out of the office.

A tear rolls down Deka's face as she whispers back, "Bye, Knox."