My Kindergarten Days

I remember the most significant thing that happened in kindergarten. It's when Bart and I met our good friend Giovanni.
It was the first day. We went around the class to introduce ourselves and something about ourselves. Bart and I revealed that I played violin, and he played cello, and we both had our bows with us. Well, it got around to this one kid who was too shy to even speak. That was a red flag to me, this kid was probably going to need help making friends. He would go and sit alone by the fence at recess, and it did seem to bother him. Bart and I always went and just kind of hung around somewhere close to him, hoping he'd muster up the courage to come talk to us, and we'd make it easier for him to make friends. No such luck for the entire first week. But we did find out his name when the teacher went to talk to him. We found out his name was Giovanni.
The next week rolled around, and we were in our usual place, but then this group of older kids playing kickball, their ball rolled over to him. They were the school bullies. The leader, who had the worst name I've ever heard, Dudley Snard, said "Hey, twerp, give us back our ball." Giovanni said very shyly, "Uhhhhhh.....could i.........maybe join you?" At which moment, they all started laughing at him, making fun of his big feet and him being really short, his big nose, and funny walk. He was about to cry, we were going to go to him, but the bell rang, damn it. He stifled his emotions, and went on with the day. Every recess, those bullies would go to him and verbally harass him. For four days, this went on, three times a day. Until one day, Giovanni was telling them to leave him alone, but when he said go away, that made them mad. Dudley pinned Giovanni's head to the ground, punched him in the face,while the other four kicked him in all sorts of places, and tied his hands together behind his back. From a distance, we could hear his screams of pain as we watched in shock, and when he yelled for help, Dudley said shut up and punched him again. That's when we decided enough was enough. So he yelled for help again, and just as Dudley was about to say, "I said SHUT UP!" And punch him again, Bart grabbed Dudley's arm and twisted it. So what he ended up saying was, "I said, OWWWWWWWWWW!" Bart said stop or he'd twist harder. They didn't stop, so he twisted harder, until Dudley called them off. That's when I pointed my bow at them and said, "Back away from the boy!" They obeyed. As Bart shouted at them, I got down on my knees to comfort the poor boy. When I got down, he said in a very scared way, "Oh no, no please don't hurt me!" He must have been really scared if he thought such a gentle person like me would hurt him, especially when he'd already taken quite a beating. Anyway, I said, "Oh, you poor kid." So I got him off the ground and, much like a father would do, let him lean on my shoulder. In a way, kind of a hug to calm him down. As I got him off the ground, he was saying, "Oh no, no, please no!" Thinking I meant harm, which I meant the exact opposite of. So I just said, "Shhhhhhhhh. It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." When Bart was finished shouting, I shouted at them next. Dudley said, "You can't stop us." I said, "maybe not. But he can." So I pointed up, and they looked up to find the principal looming over them, very angry. He took them all into his office, while we stayed outside and examined Giovanni's wounds. To do so, we had to lift his shirt. So after that, he said, "Oh, please d-d-don't pull my pants down!" Which we didn't. I told him there was no reason for me to. Anyway, so we laid him down in the ground very gently, and got him some wet cloths to put on his eye and to clean up the blood. His mom then came, and I said, "Back away from the boy, lady." She was about to say something, so I said, "I said back away!" "I'm the boy's mother." "Oh." Giovanni then told his mom he didn't want to come to school anymore. His mom said that wasn't an option. So I pitched the idea that he could hang around us, and we'd keep him safe. His mom said, "it's a good offer, honey." "It's all up to you, Giovanni." "Wait, you know my name?" "Yes." "Wow, the two coolest kids in our class know my name." "Wait, we're the coolest? When did that happen?" "On the first day, when you told everyone you're musicians." So Giovanni accepted my offer, and went home. Bart said, "do you think he took us seriously?" I answered, "no, I don't. I think we're going to have to remind him tomorrow." Which we did. I caught him by the back of his collar, and said,"where do you think you're going?" He started to panic and beg for mercy, but I said, "I told you to find us at recess, and we'd keep the bullies away." That relieved him to know it was us. And from there on, we kept him safe. Except a few instances.
First one, he somehow got separated from us, and the bullies found him. When we noticed he wasn't with us, we thought, "uh-oh." And rushed outside, and found the bullies had taken his shirt, and were making him jump for it, and then they said, "Oh wait, you're too short" that's when I snuck up behind, snatched the shirt, and said, "but I'm not. Oh, did you forget about us? Here, Giovanni, put your shirt on and go inside. Now I'm warning you, stay away from Giovanni. As long as we're around, you'll never win. May as well give up now."
Second time was much worse. They found him first, and the tallest one hung him by his shirt on the tetherball pole, and we watched from a distance, waiting for the right time to stop them. So, there he was, hanging off the tetherball pole, and then Dudley took his pants, which took the next layer as well, and they'd already taken his sandals, so he was hanging almost naked off the pole. That's when I got Dudley in a headlock, and demanded he give the pants back. Instead, he ripped them in half. So I squeezed tighter, and said, "THAT IS NOT WHAT I SAID TO DO!" So the principal came out and said, "okay, what's going.......where are his pants?" I replied, "ask the fat one (Dudley). He's holding ripped pants." The principal told them all to go with him, and as they were leaving, one of them sliced open Giovanni's shirt, and he fell out of it and face-down on the ground, stark naked. So Bart and I went to see if he was okay, he was, then I said, "do yourself a favor and cover up down there." He did, and Bart said,"Giovanni, you know your butt is still showing, right?" Giovanni whimpered, and said, "help me!" So I gave him my coat, which was a longer coat, and he was shorter than me, so it worked. Then his mom came, so we explained what happened. I let him keep the coat until he got some clothes. He lived on the same street as Bart and me. So he could easily return my coat.

To this day, bullies piss me off so much. I get so mad every time I see bullying.