“Hit him, David!”
“Yeah, knock him out!”
It was all so sudden; a big misunderstanding. But now 16 year old David Sanders finds himself with the futures of himself and another literally in his hands. It was all part of an ongoing conflict that had now become much, much, more.
David Sanders is a 9th grader at East Junior High School. His hair is dark and shiny, golden-brown like a polished leather shoe. It is a medium length of about a couple inches long on average and looks uncombed, and essentially ignored His eyes are of a similar color; golden-brown, but lighter, like a piece of lightly toasted bread. David’s eyes look tired, drooping down slightly on the outside corners, and heavy at the eyelids. Three years ago, a long series of struggle had begun that would be resolved this day; one way or another.
David had never been a very hard-working student. His teachers had seen potential in him, and had urged him to try to do his homework, and try to pay attention. But despite their efforts, David saw no point in attending school, other than to graduate after a 12 tedious years had passed. David rarely paid attention in class, and rarely did his homework; only working to maintain passing grades in all of his classes. On the rare occasions that David did do his work, he made no mistakes. New teachers—coming with school years—would always be amazed when first witnessing this behavior. At the end of David’s 2nd semester in 8th grade, his grade in English was so low to the point where he would need to score about a 92% or higher on his final to pass the class with a D-. Based on his performance throughout the year, his teacher was sure that he would fail the class, and be forced to retake it the next year. But much to the teacher’s surprise, David scored 104% on the final, answering every question correctly, including all four extra-credit questions. David not only passed the class, but brought his overall grade up to a C+. David went through his school career much like this, doing the bare minimum amount of work to pass his classes.
In terms of friends, it would be perfectly accurate to say that David had none. There were classmates that he would utter a few words to once in a while, and he had even had a few short conversations with people, but he had no real relationships with anyone. Although he was somewhat of a loner, David was by no means rude or cold-hearted; quite the opposite really. On a day to day basis, David committed many small, menial, good deeds. If someone dropped their books, David would help pick them up, or if someone had their hands full, he would hold the door for them. David consistently did these types of tasks, and was considered to be a very nice person. Several peers had tried to make friends with David, but he didn’t know how to go about doing it.

As for family, David’s father had left before he was born, and his mother had died when he was 8. This was perhaps where he began his poor performance in school. After his mother’s death, David went to live with his aunt and uncle, who did not have any other children. David’s aunt and uncle treated him well, like a child of their own, but he never could truly connect to them like parents. After these events, David began his lazy, carefree lifestyle, and was living on a permanent low.

In David’s 6th grade year, something happened that would eventually change David’s life, whether he knew it or not. A new student had arrived at David’s school, and as with most new students, David hardly acknowledged the fact that he was there. But on the day of the new boy’s arrival, David was walking in the halls to his next class, when he all of a sudden ran into something, and almost tripped. David would have fallen, if he hadn’t caught himself. When he had regained his balance, he turned around and saw the top of a person’s head. He looked down and saw a boy with short, bright blonde hair, staring up at him.
“Watch where you’re going, idiot” the boy said.
“You think you’re tough just because you’re tall?” he asked.
David was not only tall, but very tall. In only the 6th grade, David was six feet, three and-a-half inches tall, and he was still growing. He looked down and saw a very short boy. Short to him, but short even compared to the other 6th graders.
David didn’t know how to respond, so he said “Aren’t you the new kid?”
“Yeah, so what?” the short boy replied. “And my name’s Geoffrey, not “the new kid”, and don’t think I won’t fight you just because this is my first day.”
“Sorry for running into you, I wasn’t paying attention. And I didn’t mean to offend you either” said David, innocently.
“Well just stay out of my way” Geoffrey said. As he walked away, he gave David a small shove that made him budge a little, and then he proceeded to go wherever he was going. Little things like this had happened before, so David went about his day as he normally would, but at the time, he had no idea that he and Geoffrey would have numerous conflicts in the future.

Geoffrey was perhaps the polar opposite of David. He was four feet, eleven inches tall; but if you asked him how tall he was, he would have just replied “five feet.” His hair was buzz-cut and bright blonde like a ripe banana. His eyes were a cold blue, like the sky when it is about to rain. His eyes were large and his eyelashes were long, making his eyes the most prominent part of his face. His noise was pointed and defined.

Despite their differences, one thing that David and Geoffrey had in common was that neither of them had any friends. From Geoffrey’s first day at his new school, he was marked as somewhat of a bully, and as someone to try to avoid. Geoffrey seemed to always start trouble with people bigger than him, and since he was so small, this included just about everyone. No one ever really knew for sure why he was like that; perhaps because he was bitter about being so small, but whatever the reason, that was how he was.

Not long after Geoffrey’s arrival, he earned himself the nickname ‘Goliath’. A few people began using the nickname, and it wasn’t long before it stuck. No one used the name to address him, but it was fair to say that Geoffrey liked the nickname, and that it made him feel somewhat superior in some ways.

Even though Geoffrey sought after conflicts with many people, he seemed to target David more than anyone else. In the 7th grade, Geoffrey found out that David had to re-attend his 3rd grade year, since he didn’t demonstrate that he had learned the material. He began calling David things like ‘dumbass’ and ‘flunk’ and other names making him out to be unintelligent. David was very much a gentle giant, and could not do anything about Geoffrey. Being called stupid didn’t really faze David, since he knew that he was not. Therefore, David had a fairly easy time ignoring Geoffrey and did his best to not give him much notice. Either way, David managed to avoid any real trouble for the time being.

There was another incident in 8th grade when all the students’ parents were invited to the school one night to see their child’s progress. By this point in time, Geoffrey had long known about David’s parents. He had found out through his own inferring during other events like this one where parents could get involved with their students’ school life. When the students were informed about the event, Geoffrey went to David and said, “Hey David is your dad going to come?” This question was completely rhetorical and Geoffrey didn’t even give David a chance to answer.
“Oh sorry, I guess he can’t since you don’t even know him,” he said.
“Well how about your mom?” he continued. “Oh but I guess she can’t come either,” he finished.

These words stung David more than anything Geoffrey had ever said, but still, he didn’t react. He felt like crying, but he had no tears to use. David knew that he was easily beat Geoffrey in a fight; he was much bigger, and much stronger, and that was all that he needed. Regardless of his clear advantage, David didn’t want to start any trouble. So; David went about the way he always did, and acted as if nothing had happened. Time went on as it always had, for months to come.

It was the first day David’s 9th grade school year and he expected nothing more or less than the usual. He would meet his new teachers who would tell him what he needed for class, and he would avoid speaking as much as possible. Everything was going smoothly until lunchtime.

David had finished through the lunch line and was going to look for a seat with his lunch. He saw an empty seat and began making his way towards it. On his way to the seat, Geoffrey stepped in front of him and gave him a shove saying, “Welcome back, ya big bastard.”
Geoffrey had no intentions of starting any major trouble, but David dropped his tray, and he tried to catch it. When he quickly jerked forward to try to catch the tray before it hit the ground, he accidentally knocked Geoffrey to the ground, and the tray landed right on top of him, covering his shirt with pizza sauce and cheese. David was angry, but only to the extent that he had usually been. He still had goodness in his heart, so he bent over and grabbed Geoffrey by the arm to help him up. But by this time, people had already taken notice of the scene, and one boy yelled; “FIGHT!” and soon, others were joining in the chants. At first David was confused, but he quickly realized what the situation must have looked like, and he didn’t know what to do. Geoffrey was somewhat dazed from taking the fall, and it was then that David’s latent anger began to appear, and that he realized that at this moment he could completely alter his future.
“Hit him, David!”
“Yeah, knock him out!”

David knows that he has the ability to knock out Geoffrey. With Geoffrey on the ground, and in his hands, he could take revenge for all the insults and degrading words he has endured. He has no intentions of seriously hurting Geoffrey, but throughout the years, Geoffrey had earned himself a bad reputation with many people, so putting him in his place would earn the respect of those people, and maybe even lead to having some friends.

The benefits all seem so great, and there appear to be no downsides or consequences. Getting in a little trouble for fighting wouldn’t hurt David at this point, especially since it would only be a one-time occurrence, since everyone would be scared of him afterwards. He wouldn’t need to fight anyone else, and would stay out of trouble. And he doesn’t have any friends to lose; only to gain, so nothing could go wrong in that aspect. David had never found the voice to make any friends, and now one single punch could be the catalyst of his happiness. In one swift motion, he could not only make his life better, but he could make Geoffrey’s future miserable, just as Geoffrey had done to him for the past three years of his life. David’s next action would set the futures of himself and Geoffrey.

David looks down at Geoffrey and sees that he is bracing himself, with his eyes closed; expecting to be hit. Then he thinks to himself, if he’s prepared for it, I might as well just do it. He hesitates for a second, and then he raises his fist. As his arm rises, the chants and yelling grow louder, and the cheering continues. As he looks down again, he sees that Geoffrey’s eyes are open, and were staring up at him; half pleadingly, half tauntingly.

At that moment, one person yelled, “Do it!” Then David raised his fist higher, and Geoffrey closed his eyes tight. But at that moment, David hesitated again, and his thoughts switched to reverse.

If he did it, he would be just like Geoffrey. Geoffrey was just an obstacle; like a hurdle to be cleared. David’s job was to go around the obstacle; to go over the hurdle, not to run through it and then get in its way. It wouldn’t make sense for a runner to trip, and then turn around and blame the hurdle. The hurdles are to be expected, and you’re supposed to go over them, and keep running. The same way; it wouldn’t make sense for David to finally overcome Geoffrey, then turn around, face his problem, and run through it again. Doing that would only make him just as bad as Geoffrey. He would become Goliath.

So then, David slowly lowers his first, an inch at a time. The crowd boos and shouts, but the volume slowly subsides as people mutter disappointingly and return to their seats. David’s breaths are heavy, and his forehead is hot damp with sweat. He falls down onto his knees, relived of all the tension. He sits for a second, and then begins to stand up. He gets on his feet, and; still holding Geoffrey’s arm, he pulls him up to his feet. After that, neither one of them say a word, and Geoffrey awkwardly walks away to the bathroom to clean off his shirt. David goes back through the line to get another lunch, and the lunch shift continues as if nothing had happened.

After that day, Geoffrey never bothered David again. They were by no means friends, but they had no more problems, and Geoffrey left David alone. In fact, Geoffrey stopped looking for trouble with other people, and even began making a few friends. It took time, but a while after the incident, Geoffrey had changed to somewhat of a sociable person. As for David, at first he felt the same as always. But slowly, he too began to try to make friends, and he succeeded. David realized that if he had gone through with it on that one day, any ‘friends’ that he would have had would have only been with him out of fear. And any respect he would have earned would have only been temporary, and would have just faded away with the memory of ‘the day David beat up Goliath’.

David began making friends, he wasn’t popular, but he was where he wanted to be, and he was happy. He even brought his grades up, and his teachers had finally cracked him and brought out his potential. At home, David’s relationship with his aunt and uncle grew, and they became like a real family. Not a year after the incident, David’s aunt had a baby boy, and David felt that he could call him a brother. David’s life went on, and he always remembered the day he got around Goliath.