The bully

Billy Wheeler seemed to be a very removed pupil. To his teachers and fellow pupils he seemed withdrawn. He had few friends, with the exception of Richard Head, who himself was seemingly secluded from other pupils. But not in the extreme, like Billy. Richard had some other friends including two twins, Ben and Ilene D’ Oveur.

Billy was often problematic towards his teachers as he was always in trouble. Whenever any incident arose, Billy was either at the scene of the trouble or it was just assumed that he was the cause of it. Due to his unacceptable behaviour and the lies he told in excuse, teachers for a long period of time concluded that Billy was a handful. They often believed the reason of this to be problems at home. It wasn’t until a series of unexplainable events occurred in which Billy was involved but could not be blamed for and similarly neither could any of the other pupils, that everybody began to question this belief.

The day everybody began to question all his or her explanations for Billy’s behaviour began fairly normally, as the bell for first registration rang. As normal everyone rushed in from outside, knocking Billy to the floor as they went. This was a regular occurrence at St Birtrude’s Academy, so as normal Billy just stood up and began limping towards his form room.

When Billy arrived he slumped down into his normal seat at the front of the class and prepared himself for a long and ordinary day of endless insults. Registration seemed to drag on and Mrs Banks, his form mistress’ voice droned on infinitely in the background. Finally after what seemed like hours the bell for first lesson rang. Mrs Banks kept Billy behind because he seemed troubled and when he finally entered the corridor it was deserted. As he walked to his next class he felt a sharp shove.

” Thud” a door slammed behind poor Billy Wheeler followed by the turning of a key in the lock. He turned to realise he had been locked in a dark cupboard some where near the year seven classrooms. Billy reached his hand up his back to rub two sore areas that the rough shove had inflicted. After soothing this pained area he began to shout and thump on the door at which time he came to notice what sounded like a held back chuckle. Billy began to thump and shout louder with no effect.

After about one minute of what seemed to Billy as pointless actions, he stopped and found an old rusty bucket to sit on. After about twenty minutes or what seemed to Billy as an hour, he heard footsteps walking past the locked broom cupboard and he started to thud on the locked door. The footsteps stopped and began to get louder as if approaching the locked door. Billy heard the turn of a key and the door was yanked open. There stood young Miss Gladwell, the Deputy Head, looking displeased.

” What happened here Billy?” she solicited.

” Some one pushed me in and locked the door.”

” That’s impossible only teachers and cleaners have a key to in here, and I doubt very much one of them locked you in!”

” I swear,” protested Billy,

” Well that’s rather odd!” exclaimed Miss Gladwell. As she had no explanation as to why Billy had come to be in the cupboard, she could not continue any further and had no choice but to let Billy go, as the bell for break-time sounded.

This event troubled Miss Gladwell and she decided to consult the other teachers on this matter. However she received few suggestions because all the teachers never received an image of Billy being bullied. She decided that she should further consult with Billy to see who else was involved.

Meanwhile after the event Billy went to his only friend, Richard for advice.

” I don’t know what to do, who could it be, I didn’t even see them!” Billy gasped, as he quickly explained what had happened and all his fears in one breath. Richard looked puzzled as he tried to understand his distressed friend.

” Did you see anything at all?” he questioned,

” No but he seemed too strong for a child!”

” Then who could it be?” Billy, who now was sitting down, went into deep thought. As he was doing so a voice from behind startled him,

” It could be one of the older kids,” suggested Ben, this was closely followed by

” No they would’ve been at lessons” argued Ilene as the twins appeared from behind a bush.

” Then who could it be!” shouted Billy as he grew increasingly frustrated.

” I bet it was one of the teachers,” said Ben,

” Or even the Head Master” joked Ilene, as everyone began to chuckle. Suddenly everyone but Billy stopped laughing

” The Head that could be it” he said in mid-laugh. Then he stopped as he came to realise the Head Master was towering behind him.

” I would like to see you in my office Mr Wheeler, NOW!”

Billy stood in the large, dark, burgundy space, which was more commonly known as Mr Ashton’s, the Head Master, office.

” I hear you’ve finally figured out who’s behind your torment Billy.”

” Not…” Billy suddenly froze as he realised the truth, he tried to back away but found he could not move.

” You mean…. You…