The School Bully (Flash Fiction Part 3)

This is the third and the last part of the story. The first part is here and the second part is here.

When Nali and Meiru came back to school two days later, they were asked to go to the administrator’s office immediately. Apparently Sulang and his mother had reported to the school that a gang of at least ten people pushed Sulang to the garbage pile, beat him up with tree branches, and robbed him of his school bag.

Nali and Meiru presented a different story, which they had rehearsed several times before. They had heard of Sulang’s abusive behavior at school and his questionable relationship with librarians who had allowed him to borrow three popular books at once. They stopped Sulang to investigate these accusations, but he looked very guilty and escaped their questioning, leaving his bag behind voluntarily. The girls brought Sulang’s book bag and handed it over, where the administrator found the three books and several pieces of paper, on which disparaging and derogatory poems were scribbled in Sulang’s handwriting.

Nali expected that she and Meiru would suffer certain penalty in school, and she felt very strange when the two of them were allowed to go back to class. For the rest of the day, teachers didn’t bother them at all. Although free of punishment from teachers, Nali and Meiru were on high alert since they were afraid of the reprisal from Sulang and his gang. The two girls had no plan as to what to do and how to defend themselves. Meiru said she would talk to her parents who were always ready to defend her, but Nali refused to talk to her own parents, knowing that they had no interest in child rearing and had tried as much as possible to ignore her existence. Nali suggested they should both pretend that they were sick and stay away from school for a week.

So Nali went ahead with her plan to pretend to have a fever. Her father didn’t care and her mother blamed her for not wearing warmer jacket. When Nali said she was wearing the warmest jacket, her mother said she should have covered her head with the hat her grandmother knitted for her. Nali hated that ugly hat. So Nali stayed home.

Three days later, Nali’s mother came back home furious. “Why didn’t you tell me what’s going on in your school.” She yelled. Obviously news had been spreading from the primary school to the university circle. Or probably Meiru’s parents, being new in the university, were asking other people what to do with the situation. People started to gossip. When Nali’s mother was eagerly questioned by other mothers, she was so embarrassed that she didn’t know anything. This was not the first time she was embarrassed by Nali’s not telling her anything. There had been many instances like this before and Nali understood that her mother was only concerned about her own embarrassment and ignorance in front of other mothers. Nali’s wellbeing was the last thing to bother her.

One week later, a surprising piece of news arrived when Nali came back to school. Sulang’s father, the head of the transportation department, was being suspended. Sulang’s mother, who’s the manager of the university dining hall, was also suspended. Sulang came to school every day as a deflated balloon. His gang was instantly disbanded and he sat there in such a sad gloom that Nali almost felt sorry for him.

After school, Nali and Meiru went directly to the library to ask for those popular fictions, which they thought they were entitled to. The two girls considered themselves heroes as they were instrumental in bringing down the “corrupt Sulang family”–they had initiated it, so they imagined. Now Sulang’s privilege was gone, they were surely going to be rewarded by an easier access to interesting books–or at least the waiting list for those books should be much shorter now.

To their surprise, the waiting list was just as long as ever. And soon afterwards, a new head of the transportation department came to replace Sulang’s father, and the new one was just as corrupt as his predecessor. Life went on as if nothing had changed.

“But we did change something, right? We did. We read three good books and we tried to stand up to a bully. And our friendship. Don’t you think? By the way, my mother asked you to come to dine with us Saturday night.” Meiru said.

“I can’t, because my mother would never invite you. She has never invited any of my friends before.” Nali said.

“This is so like you. You are focusing on the negative aspect of life. Let’s close our eyes and dream of a good life…” Meiru said.