“That, right there, is Dick,” I said as I pointed towards him. Emily, the new exchange student, searched the school cafeteria for him.

“Is he the one with the glasses?” asked Emily, and I nodded. Dick was a short, skinny boy with round glasses and black hair. He sat at a table alone, reading his typical nerd books. 

“Is Dick his name or…?” she began, but I quickly answered her question;

“His real name is Dylan Karl, but if you say his initials together it sounds like…” I trailed off, waiting for Emily to answer the question. 

“Oh, I see it now. How long have you been calling him that?”

“Ever since the ‘Bathroom Break’” I responded, but Emily just looked at me with confusion. “A few years ago Dick was drinking some lemonade, and for some reason, he spat it all over me! He says it was an accident, that there was a bug in his lemonade, but it is clear he was just jealous of me. I then realized that his initials sounded like Dick, then some other things happened, blah blah blah, and now we call him Dick.” I looked at Emily, waiting to see her reaction. 

“And you think he is bothered by that? Is he okay with it?” she asked. I stared at her as if she was some type of maniac.

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks!” I responded ferociously, “Here at school, he means nothing. No one cares about him, and no one should.” Before Emily could say anything else, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. I turned around and walked towards my classroom. But as I reached the stairs I looked behind me and saw Emily talking to Dick.

“It’s like she’s asking for trouble,” I muttered to myself and walked up the stairs. 

“Last class, I saw you all bickering as I talked!” shouted Mr. Brendt, our math teacher. “You paid no attention, ignored all of my instructions, and answered the worksheets with pens! Here in math, we do not answer with pens, only with pencils!”
“Is he always this crazy?” asked Emily, and I scoffed.

“This is before he gets mad,” I answered, and Emily whistled. Emily was sitting just behind me, and Dick was sitting just to my right. The desks were arranged in rows, which was odd since Mr. Brendt usually sat us in groups.

“In fact,” I continued, “Mr. Brendt will get as red as-”

“AMLEY!” Shouted Mr. Brendt, interrupting me mid-sentence.

“My name is Ashley, you idiot” I responded. The entire class went silent, waiting for Mr. Brendt’s response.

“Thanks to Ashley, everyone will take the test right now,” said Mr. Brendt, followed by a series of grunts and complains.

“Are you kidding me!” I replied, but he ignored all of the complaints and began handing out the papers. I reached into my bag and pulled out my glitter pen, worth more than Mr. Brendt’s rent. In fact, most of the things I owned cost more than his rent. I could easily buy and sell his entire family with plenty of money to spare. It was one of the advantages of being rich, along with constant bribing and receiving everything you ask for. As Mr. Brendt handed me the test he stopped just in front of me.

“What do you want?” I asked him sourly.

“No pens.” He answered as he snatched the pen from my hand.

“What- no that’s-” I stuttered as I tried to complain, but he just stuffed the pen in his pocket and continued passing out papers. I looked for a pencil in my backpack, but there wasn’t any. I groaned in frustration as I searched my backpack, but I found nothing. 

“Hey Emily, you got a spare pencil?”  I asked.

“I don’t even have my own pencil!” she said as she searched her backpack. I turned to my left and asked Jimmy for a pencil, but he said he only had one. I sighed, looking for another way to get a pencil. Emma and Tiffany were too far away, and I was sure Mr. Brendt wouldn’t lend me one either.

“Thank’s Dylan,” said Emily, and I quickly turned around and saw Dick passing Emily a pencil. I stared at Emily, and she just shrugged in return. That’s when I realized that Dick, having plenty of pencils to spare, was my only option. I took a deep breath and turned towards Dick.

“Hey Dick,” I said to him, but he didn’t even look towards me. “I’m talking to you, Dick,” I said, and this time he looked at me sourly.

“Could you give me a pencil?” I said as I laid my palm open, awaiting the pencil. He looked at my hand, then looked at me, and finally answered;

“No.” After that, he continued working on his test.

“I’m sorry but I think you didn’t understand what I was trying to say, so I will rephrase my sentence; give me one of your pencils.” 

“No.” he answered again, this time not even looking at me. I couldn’t even believe that he wasn’t gonna lend me a pencil, and for what? He was just acting like an immature third grader.8

“Why not? Is there a reason for you to-” I began, but he interrupted;

“Yes, there is a reason. In fact, there are multiple reasons, so many that I could spend hours naming them all. You should know why I am not lending you a pencil.”

“It’s just a pencil! What in the world have I done…” I trailed off as suddenly I was flooded by memories up till the day I met Dick…

It was the first day of sixth grade. I remembered screaming with excitement as I saw my best friends Emma and Tiffany for the first time in a month. Everyone was excited about the lockers and the new schedules. I remembered seeing Dick for the first time, putting his things on his locker.

“I bet a puppy could beat him up,” said Emma.

“Forget a puppy, an ant would wipe him up,” responded Tiffany, making us laugh. I remembered coming up with an idea to make him look bad. I don’t know why I wanted that, I just thought it would be funny. I walked up to him and “accidentally” knocked over some of his books.

“Oh I’m sorry, I’ll pick it up for you, seeing that they are too heavy for you to carry,” I said to him, smirking at his face. I took his books and dropped them far away, leading to multiple laughs from almost everyone. I remembered seeing his face as he was humiliated in front of everyone, and I smiled as I saw him suffer. He never did anything to me, yet I attacked him for no reason…

It was the day of the final exams. We were about to find out if we were going to fail or pass sixth grade. Many students studied in the halls right before the bells rang. I remembered watching Dick pull out plenty of books out of his backpack. Instead of studying I walked towards him minutes before the bell rang and the exams began.

“Hey Dylan,” I said as I reached him, “What are you studying about?” I remembered seeing him think before he answered the question as if doubting if it was right for him to answer. 

“Math.” He answered.

“Can I look at the textbook real quick?” I asked, and he nodded as he gave me the book. I stared at the page for a while, then ripped a few in half. 

“What are you- that’s- stop it!” he stuttered. But I didn’t stop. I continued ripping out the pages until half of the book was ripped apart. I threw it into the trash can and walked away. I remembered him running to the bathroom with tears in his eyes. I didn’t feel empathy, yet pride… 

It was a normal day of seventh grade. The cafeteria flooded as the lunch bell rang. Everyone began buying lunch and sitting on the tables. The entire cafeteria was filled with chatter and laughs. I remembered the cafeteria selling lemonade that day. I paid for mine and took a small drink, but spat it on the bottle just as it touched my mouth.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Horrible,” answered Tiffany as she threw her bottle to the trash. I walked towards the trash can, but right in my path, I was suddenly spat by a bunch of lemonade. I screamed as half of my body became wet. The entire cafeteria went silent and looked towards me.

“Sorry,” said a voice quietly, and I quickly turned around to find Dick towards me. He looked down in embarrassment as he wiped his mouth.

“Dylan, you just spat lemonade all over me and you think that…” I trailed off as I realized something. I remembered smiling as a thought came to mind. “Dylan Karl, such nice initials. Kind of sounds like… Dick.” Everyone was silent. Then the entire room was filled with laughter.

“Oh my god!” shouted Tiffany, “It looks like he just peed all over you!” Everyone laughed even harder making me smile. Dick looked at me as if begging for mercy, but I just uncapped my lemonade bottle and poured it all over his head. His eyes were filled with tears of sadness and fear, but I just laughed right on his face. I remembered how everyone called him Dick, poured lemonade over him, bullied him on the halls. I hadn’t just made Dick’s life hard, I made it miserable…

“Time’s up!” said Mr. Brendt just as the bell rang. The entire classroom stood up and walked towards his desk. When I handed him my paper he looked at me curiously.

“It’s empty,” he said.

“I had no pencil, I’m sorry,” I responded. He just frowned and laid it on the pile of tests. I returned to my desk, grabbed my backpack, and quickly walked out of the room. It was the end of the day, meaning that everyone was in a rush to get home. I saw Dick walk out of the classroom and towards his locker. Ryan, one of the jocks, slammed Dick’s locker on his face. I saw Dick sigh and open again the locker. The same thing happened with Matt, another jock. I stared at Dick, finally realizing how much damage I had done to him. The hallways were almost empty, and just Dick closed his locker I realized what I had to do.

“Hey, Dick!” I shouted as I walked towards him. Dick ignored me and continued walking, but I didn’t give up.

“Dylan!” I shouted, and this time he froze.

“Dylan?” he asked as he turned towards me, and I sighed.

“I have something to say” I responded, and he looked at me curiously. “I haven’t been a good person, and not up till now have I realized that. All the things I did… I just wasn’t thinking. I thought that I was allowed to control people the way I did but I… am not. So that’s why I have to say that I am so sorry. It’s okay if you don’t forgive me, I just want you to know that I have found my mistakes and want to know how to make them right.” Dylan stared at me oddly, then frowned.

“I can’t just forgive you,” he answered, “you’ve done more than just hurt me. I can’t even think of how you could make this right.” He turned around and walked away, heading towards the exit. I let out a deep breath and somehow felt a little better. I smiled and realized that what I had done made me feel good as if it was something that I was missing to do. I looked at Dylan just as he walked out the exit, and realized that maybe, just maybe, I could make up for all I did. I just hoped that Dylan was willing to forgive.