The next two days were a whirlwind for Finn as he hustled to get caught up on the schoolwork he missed as well as preparing to be gone for another few days. When Xerena confided in Frankie all that Finn had said about violence not being the answer to bullying, Frankie listened in silence, stroking his beard.
“Xaena, he’s right, you know.”
“What?! Then why did you tell me learn how to defend myself … like in physical altercations?”
“That’s easy. Cuz I’m an idiot. Finn’s the one with all the answers. Annoying to have someone younger than you be so much more mature than you. Even more annoying that he’s too darn humble to be annoying about it. Yep, he’s annoying in a lot of ways.”
“So what do I do now? I feel like nothing I try works.”
“Kind of like how Gary Cooper felt in High Noon.”
“Exactly!”
“I love old movies like that.”
“Me too! I watch ’em at home every chance I get.”
He turned to regard her with a warm smile. “Kid, you’re all right by me. Aside from that annoying Finn character, you’re one of the people I enjoy most. You’re all heart, no hidden agenda.”
“I don’t really know what a hidden agenda is, but I’m gonna take that as a compliment.”
“Good! Now, what can we do while Finn is gone to fix this bully situation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but ever since the debacle in line at Connie’s, bad behavior is on the rise. Scuffles are breaking out all over the place. And Kadra, well she’s been on the war path. If I had a ducat for every person she’s made feel bad about themselves this last week …”
Xerena groaned. “It’s all my fault.”
“Piffle. It was already a powder keg. You just lit the match.”
She offered him a sad smile. “Well I am Ignin.”
“Touché. All right, let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with to stop the bullying behavior once and for all … without stooping to violence. Deal?”
“Deal!”
Dear Diary,
Looks like combat is out. So we’ll just have to win this war another way!
~ space inserted here to give young readers a break ~
* * *
“What exactly are you two up to?” Delphine asked when she saw Xerena and Frankie whispering animatedly at lunch.
Frankie explained their desire to end the rampant bullying on campus.
“I want in!” she said. “It’s really gotten out of control. You can’t go anywhere without people being on edge or messing with someone. The other day I saw a kid being harassed for the way he tied his shoes. Bullies need to pay!”
The three spent the entirety of the evening holed up in Frankie and Xerena’s Familial Forum to come up with their grand plan. They even skipped dinner to do so. Correction: they didn’t go to the Gnook. Instead, Frankie sweettalked their Frond’s Galleymaster into whipping up some tapas for them.
“Our goal is to give the terrorizers a taste of their own medicine,” Frankie explained. “That way, if they see how awful it feels to be treated like that, they won’t want to do it to anyone else.”
“That’s brilliant, Frankie!” Xerena cheered.
“Makes sense to me!” Delphine said. “So what’s the plan then?”
They threw out dozens of complicated ideas—everything from flying a glider through the Gnook to dump a vat full of hot sauce on Kadra and her cadre, to giving them all upside-down wedgies. After hours of haggling, they come up with an idea that was simple and elegant in its effectiveness. It required a roll of butcher paper, a couple of big paint brushes, and a lot of paint.
Dear Diary,
We have a plan. And it’s a doozie!
~ space inserted here to give young readers a break ~
* * *
Frankie, Xerena, and Delphine elected to exact their revenge during dinner when the bulk of the student body was assembled. Each skipped their afternoon sports period to set everything up in the Gnook. They then waited outside on a bench where they would be able see Kadra approaching.
As they sat, searching for Kadra among the sea of faces entering the dining hall, Finn bounded over to them, giving them a thumbs-up gesture. “I’m back and it all went great! Looks like I’ll be a hydrofarmer yet!”
“That’s fantastic, mate!” said Frankie. “We have some news too.”
“Oh?”
“Follow us in. You’re gonna love it. In fact, come sit with us.”
“But, Frankie, he’s a Nitrin,” Delphine said under her breath. “Our table’s reserved for Ignins only.”
Frankie put a friendly hand on Delphine’s shoulder. “There’s a good chance our Ignins will survive having a Nitrin in their midst. Besides, I want to see Finn’s face when he views our handywork.”
“Here she comes,” Xerena rasped, nodding toward Kadra who was nearing the entrance to the Gnook.
Frankie, Xerena, and Delphine scurried to beat Kadra and company into the dining hall. Finn hurried along behind them.
Hanging from the balcony, surrounding the entire room, were banners painted with quotes of horrible things Kadra had said to people, as well as mentions of cruel things she and her goons had done to others: “Loser … Did your parents have any children who lived? … What happened? You hit yourself with the ugly stick? … You give the word stupid all new meaning … You do know nobody likes you, right? … Why don’t you do us all a favor and end it all?
“What in Tohobohu?” Finn said in disbelief as he surveyed the two dozen or so banners.
“Ingenious, isn’t it?” Frankie gushed.
Finn slowly lowered himself onto the dining bench in silence.
As part of the plan, Xerena climbed up on her bench and called out Kadra and company. “How does it feel, meanies? What’s it like getting a taste of your own medicine?”
“Yeah!” the crowd echoed, many of whom had been on the receiving end of Kadra’s vexing.
Kadra let loose a tirade, calling Xerena a string of foul and brutal phrases laced with obscenities.
“Takes one to know one,” Xerena returned.
The crowd applauded.
Finn pounded his fist on the table and got to his feet. “Enough! This has gone too far!”
“You mean you’re on their side?” Frankie asked in astonishment.
“There shouldn’t be any sides! We should all be on the same side. We’re all students here together. Do you know how few kids get accepted at the Ocademy? We should be treating each other like family. The infighting has got to stop!”
Xerena and Frankie looked at each other in shock. Delphine sank down on her bench and shielded her face with her hand.
Finn strode over to Kadra and gently put a hand on hers. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, then shook her head, then ran out crying.
Finn turned toward his friends and hollered. “Is that what you wanted? To make a fellow student cry, just like she’s done to so many others?”
“No, that wasn’t what …” Xerena stammered.
“She more than deserved it,” Delphine said quietly to Xerena.
“W-we didn’t mean to …”
“Don’t you see? What you’re doing is no better than what’s been done to you. You’re just perpetuating the same dumb pathetic behavior.”
It was Xerena’s turn to run out of the room crying, and when she did so, she didn’t stop until she’d passed through the portal that serviced her home dimension. The next day was her birthday, and she’d already planned on going home anyway; but she expected to do so on a high note, not in tears. She’d shed more tears since her arrival at the academy than in the last several years at home put together.
When she got to the house, she ran straight up the stairs to her room, flung the door closed, and threw herself on her bed to cry in peace.
I’m so sick of crying!
She instinctively reached for a pen to write in her diary, but she’d left the book in her drawer at school.
Just as well. I don’t want a written record of how bad things turned out and what a failure I am!
After a few more bouts of tears, she fell asleep.
~ space inserted here to give young readers a break ~
* * *
She ended up sleeping until late in the morning. When she awoke, her head was groggy, and her mouth tasted like fermented mothballs. Plus, she was still upset and borderline weepy. She took her time bathing and dressing, and by the time she went downstairs, her heartrate had slowed to normal and she thought she could breathe without reminding herself to do so.
“There she is,” her mother said quietly. “You had us so worried, firefly.”
Her father smiled kindly. “We sensed you wanted some alone time, so …”
“Thanks. Yeah, sorry I didn’t say hi when I got home. I just couldn’t really talk. Things have gotten terrible at school. Nothing I’ve tried has worked. I just keep making things worse.”
“Oh I very much doubt that, firefly.”
“No, it’s true. Believe me. I don’t know how things got so out of hand.”
When the front doorbell rang, her mother asked her to answer it.
“Do I have to?” she whined.
Her mother shooed her.
Xerena opened the door to find Finn standing on the front stoop. “How did you … What are you doing here?”
“Making amends, if you’ll let me.”
She turned back to speak to her parents. “A friend of mine’s here from school. We’re just gonna sit outside for a minute.”
“Of course, firefly. I’ll make us all something to eat. You must be famished.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Xerena and Finn sat on the front porch both perched stiffly, staring straight ahead as they made meaningless small talk. All at once Finn turned to Xerena and took her hands in his own. “Xerena. I wanted to tell you how truly sorry I am.”
She couldn’t bring herself to lift her eyes to meet his. “Why should you be sorry? You’re not the one who did anything evil. That was me and Frankie and Delphine.”
“But I do owe you an apology, for not explaining better.”
“Explaining what?”
He thought for a moment before answering. “Have you ever stopped to think about why someone becomes a bully? What sort of trauma or bad stuff has happened in their own life for them to make the decision to treat other people so horribly?”
“No, I guess not. I’ve never really looked at it that way.”
“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘hurt people hurt people’?”
“Yeah, but I never understood it. Not all people who have been hurt go on to hurt other people.”
“Very true. And I don’t think that’s what it means. I think it means that the people who do hurt other people do it because they have been hurt themselves.”
“Oh … that … that puts it in a different light.”
“Making an attempt to step into other people’s shoes and trying to look at things from their perspective can do more than all the negotiating in the world. At least, that’s what I believe. When you get all defensive and fight back with a bully, it just feeds their bad behavior. Then they dig in their heels even more. If you ask me, when bullies go on the attack, it’s really a cry for help. Either that or it’s to get attention – or both.”
“How do you know so much about this stuff.”
Finn gave her a weary smile.
She let out a tiny gasp. “You’ve been through this, haven’t you?”
“I have. By my cousin who came to live with us when his parents didn’t know what to do with him anymore. His father had bullied him, and then my cousin carried on the tradition by bullying pretty much everyone he met. No one could stand to be around him. And nearly everyone was afraid of him. He was just treating people the way he’d been treated.”
“Wow, I never looked at bullying that way before.”
Xerena’s mother came out to the front porch wiping flour off her hands.
“Mom, how is it you always manage to get flour all over yourself no matter what you’re making. You have some on your face.”
Her mother giggled and rubbed her palm across her cheek, unwittingly adding more flour. “Better?”
Xerena and Finn both suppressed a chuckle.
“Now, who’s ready for a little lunch, say grilled cheese sandwiches and red pepper soup?”
Xerena nodded.
“Ooh, yes, please!” Finn replied, rubbing his hands.
“Good! That should tide you both over until supper, which should be ready in a few hours … It will be an early one, if you two don’t mind.”
Xerena looked at Finn in surprise. “You’re staying for supper?”
“If that’s all right with you. Your mum invited me when I called a few days ago to see if would be okay to stop by and drop off something to wish you happy birthday. Tanna put me in touch with your parents. I hope you don’t mind me crashing in on you at home.”
She looked at her mother for confirmation.
“We invited him to stay for family movie night to boot!”
Xerena put a stray lock of hair behind her ear and giggled in awkward worry, a thousand possible mishaps and dinner disasters racing through her mind.
(The end of chapter 7)
