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What's The Difference?
Meet Abel, a 14 year old boy from Toronto. He comes from a rich family, and lives in a good neighborhood, in a school in which only rich people can afford, far from any dangers and hardships that could plague a poor neighborhood. Or so you would think. As we go more and more through Abel’s life, we begin to understand more and more how his life was anything but perfect.
Abel started his life and grew up mostly just like a normal child; he would go to school, be an ace, go home, do his homework, and sleep. Abel, however, always had a problem; he had no friends, for two reasons. The first reason being his parents were very strict, and they did not let him hang out at all. The second reason is that he is an introverted person, which meant that he had a hard time opening up with people, and generally did not want to stay around a lot of people. However, when he entered 8th grade, that was when Abel’s life took a turn, for good or for worse…
Jordan was a 15 year old boy whose father was once a correctional officer, but left his job in order to become a drug trafficker, due to economical issues. Because of his father’s newfound economical advantage, Jordan is now a spoiled rich kid, whose father gets him whatever he wants. He only wears brand name shoes, and is a pretty handsome kid. However, the main thing going for him is his popularity. Wherever he goes, he always is respected by everyone he sees, because from the first moment you see him, he commands authority. Jordan and Abel meet together for the first time when Jordan is moved to Abel’s school, and is put in the same class as him…
Until the moment in which Jordan stepped into his classroom, Abel, while not happy, was content with his life, and saw it as being “good enough.” However, everything changed after Jordan entered his life. Since the second day of school, he was constantly abused by Jordan. At first, all he did was throw insults at Abel, but Abel was already used to that. After that, he started talking trash about his family, which hurt Abel immensely, but he would not show it to anyone. However, things got very serious after the first month of school. Because Jordan saw that even though he bullied Abel and made him suffer, he never got his satisfaction, because Abel never showed his pain to him. So he decided to take it one step higher. Jordan then started to punch Abel for no apparent reason, and push him into lockers. However, there still was no reaction from Abel; he only ignored Jordan and just moved on, trying to act as if nothing ever happened. On the inside, he felt like there was no hope for him, as if he would be a loser for the rest of his life, and he would keep being bullied forever…
One day, Abel finally tried to be brave, and he felt like he had the confidence to finally stand up for himself. When Jordan came up to harass him, he finally retaliated, and pushed him away. Jordan punched Abel, but to Jordan’s surprise, Abel punched back. For a moment, Abel really thought that he could beat Jordan, so he fought with every last energy and knowledge he had inside of him. However, all this managed to do was anger Jordan even more, and he finally got serious. He beat Abel so horribly that he filled him with bruises, and he also broke Abel’s arm in the process. All Abel could do, was lay on the floor of the bathroom, all alone.
While Abel was very hurt physically, he really didn’t care; his physical pain was nothing compared to his emotional pain. The inside was where he was truly hurt; every little spark of power that he had felt within himself before, was completely gone by now. He felt truly powerless, useless, a loser… every bit of confidence that he felt within himself, just disappeared. What he felt within himself, was true chaos. This is one of the few cases in which you can call a person truly broken, inside and out. This was the moment, in which he finally could hold it no longer. He felt his eyes becoming hot, then tearing up. Before he knew it, his tears were flowing like a river; it almost felt as if everything he had endured, was taking the form of tears...
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