Loyalty and Trust

Loyalty and Trust

It was a warm November day in New York City. I could feel the late afternoon breeze through the opened classroom window. I was in class at Middle School #158 with my friend Kevin Hong. As the bell rang at the end of our last class, Kevin and I went out to the playground to talk as we usually did before heading home. We would talk about lots of things: big news at school, personal issues, or what we were hoping to get for our birthdays. It was the typical small talk friends would have in the hallways on the way to different classes.

After sometime, Kevin told me that some people in school were bothering him. They were showing random acts of aggression towards him. I asked him to tell me more about what was happening. He told me two older kids were teasing him and pushing him in the hallways between classes. He was getting frustrated and said we should confront them.

"Maybe we should wait and see where they are taking this. Sometimes walking away from a situation that can be avoided is the best thing" I said.

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"I guess your right" Kevin concluded. At this time, a car pulled up to the curb by the entrance of the playground. "That's my ride, see you later", he said as he made his way off the slide.

As I walked home I underestimated the seriousness of the situation Kevin was in. I was in my own orbit, like most of the kids at my school. I thought about the typical transitions between classes where we all come buzzing out of our classrooms like bees coming out of a nest. Everyone was in a hurry always having somewhere to go.

As I got home, I wondered how Kevin would react if the people bothering him continued to bully him. From my Elementary School experience with Kevin at PS #31, I knew that he was slightly aggressive and didn't take lightly to people pushing him around. However, be was not impulsive. He was cool headed which is why I had faith in him doing the right thing and thought he would probably walk away.

The next day at school, I heard from classmates that Kevin was starting to get angry at his aggressors. He was thinking of fighting them. This made me worried, that Kevin might get hurt or suspended. After school, we met at the same place on the playground to talk. He told me that tensions were rising and that we would have to confront his bullies.

"We'll if that's what has to be done, than that's what we'll do" I said, assuring him that he had made the right decision.

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"All right" he said. "We'll meet with them on the handball courts tomorrow after school."

Yet again,