Pop! Everyone was stunned. I could feel the frustration leaving my body through my hands and all the anger poured out with it. But with that I knew I  had opened up a world of new problems. I had just knocked out Drew Felix. You may be wondering who the heck that is. Trust me we’ll get there.

See I was the new kid in the beginning of eighth grade. I had just transferred schools because my mother found a new job. She figured she had to do whatever it took to support me since she had no help. Usually I am not interested in change but I was excited to start off fresh. Most of my friends had moved to another district due to a lack of funding so I was stuck in an old school with very few friends. I was looking forward to a new life and a new environment. But this all changed on the first day of school.

At my old school class started at eight thirty but in this new town the school starts at seven thirty due to the bussing schedule. I am not a morning person so I had trouble adjusting to this new routine. To make it worse my alarm clock didn’t go off  so I missed the bus. We had to rush to school so I had no breakfast. I was tired and hungry and not feeling up to school. When I walked into homeroom I noticed all of the kids were white and I felt weird because I was the only person of color in the room. But one of the kids made me feel welcome. He introduced himself he said “Hi my name is drew” he seemed like a nice kid so with my friendliest tone and smile I responded with “My name is James, nice to meet you.” What I didn’t t know then was that Drew would cause so many problems. I thought I should try to fit in with him and his friends. I had had two classes with him in the morning and he asked me to eat lunch with him and his group. It’s my first day so I figured I should do it. He seemed like a popular kid and I always wanted to be popular in my old school and I figured this was my chance. When lunch came around I looked for Drew. I noticed him and all his friends sat at a big table in the middle of the lunch room. All of his friends looked like jocks and he said they played football. I had never done a sport in my life but I thought football would be cool so I began to ask them about it. They told me that there was a meeting after school and that if I wanted to play I would have to attend it. I texted my mom to tell her that I would be home late and went to the meeting. At the meeting I was intimidated by the size of all of the other players. They all looked so big compared to me. I was having second thoughts on playing at this point. The coach noticed that and picked on me a little and that made me feel worse.

After the meeting I walked home with Drew. We talked about football he said “I noticed to looked uncomfortable in the meeting” I said “well yeah I was the smallest kid in the room” he tried to make me feel better “you can go to the weight room you’ll bulk up fast, you’re black.” That caught me off guard. I said “what is that supposed to mean?” “Well you know” he didn’t know what else to say. The rest of the walk was filled with awkward silence so when I got home it was a great relief. But I noticed when I was greeted by my white mother drew looked absolutely shocked. I had told my mom about this and she told me it was nothing to worry about so I didn’t sweat it. I carried on with my evening and went to sleep early to wake up on time the next morning.

The next day at school I was confronted by Drew’s group.“I didn't know you were adopted” said drew.   “ what?” I said “well you have to be adopted right? You've got a white mother.” Drew responded. This ignorant remark made me very angry. “No drew I am biracial!” I said  “Oh you're a zebra” drew said and they all laughed at me. They said I should be ashamed to be mixed and my white mother should be ashamed to have had me. That hurt me a lot, I was now upset for the rest of the day. I have never had something so mean said to me, but I still tried to blow it off and finish out the day. But I couldn't. Someone had posted the confrontation on Snapchat and now I had gotten the nickname “Zebra”. I tried to avoid drew and his friends for the rest of the week, but everyone was saying it “hi zebra” “zebra what's the homework?”  Zebra this and zebra that I was getting tired of it. When Friday came along I was so happy for end the week.my weekend was pretty uneventful. I just stayed home and thought about the situation. I thought that after the weekend the joke would have worn off. But no, it didn't. When I walked into school on Monday morning “Good morning zebra” It was drew. He had a sinister look on his face today. I ignored him. He wasn't very clever so he used persistence to get to me. “Zebra, Zebra, Zebra” I snapped and yelled “WHAT DO YOU WANT!” Drew said “meet me at my locker after school”. I didn't want to but I did anyway. He and his friends looked at each other than looked at me. They tried to shove me in a locker. I yelled for help but no one came. I went home so angry, I was heated. When I tried to tell my teacher he next morning  she said “boys will be boys”. I knew I had to take things into my own hands.

Lunch came around. I knew this was my chance to fix everything. I saw Drew and ran up to him. Pop! I punched him in his face in front of everyone. He got knocked down but on his way to the floor time stood still. Adrenaline was rushing through my body I could see my hands shaking and my eye started to twitch. I was so nervous. The security guard came and took me to the office. I was so anxious I had butterflies in my stomach. I didn't want this to be my first meeting with the principal. I thought I was getting into a great deal of trouble but the principal said  “we know”

“ know what?”

“What has been going on with you”

“How?”

“Darius told us”

Darius was another black child who had noticed that everyone was calling me zebra. When he found out why he went straight to the office to help me. I was so thankful for Darius. He had really helped me out and gotten me out of trouble. Drew, however was suspended for a month for bullying.  I was very happy about that. I thought Maybe this town isn't that bad after all. Me and Darius went on to be good friends, and I haven’t t been bullied since.