By Sienna Wright (Form 8A1)
Innocence. He was alone while walking home. He had done nothing to anyone. Dev Periera – a Christian, 13-year-old boy from a Christian family. In this world, he felt like nothing but an outcast. He had fine, brown hair with ill-fitting and unkempt clothes. His face was slim and miserable in the midst of the recent cyber-bullying he had been facing. Comments like “go back to where you came from” and “go kill yourself” would flood his Flitter social media account daily. He was abandoned.
Grapes. That is what Dev was eating when it happened. A tall, broad boy approached him with an intimidating death stare. Mony Arkanj. 14-years-old. His hair was dark and neat. His clothes were clean and fashionable. His voice- confident and clear. A crystal tear raced down Dev’s bright red cheeks as he knew what was going to happen.
But he kept walking.
“Why you crying, Christian boy?” Mony questioned Dev.
No response.
“Are you that stupid you can’t understand? I said why you cryin’?” he further interrogated
No response.
It didn’t take long for Mony and his four other friends to drag Dev aggressively into the nearest alleyway, over-run with anger. Mony harshly ripped off his cross necklace, which had been on display the whole time. Wasting no time, one of his friends suffocated the necklace with his foot, stamping on it with no mercy. Seeing this made Mony smirk as Dev was watching in tears. He suddenly landed an intrusive punch on Dev’s wet cheek, which caused him to fall to the ground.
“Let me remind you of something little Divvy” he asserted while lifting Dev up by the collar, “you don’t deserve to be in this country, not with your beliefs. You ain’t even seen Jesus with your own eyes”.
And he was gone, leaving Dev with a crushed religious necklace, an unbuttoned school shirt and an arduous bruise on his cheek.
The following day, Dev was seated on a playground bench by himself. He was anxious as a result of what had happened the previous day but his parents were extremely ignorant towards the bruise on his cheek. They even reprimanded him as soon as they saw the broken cross in his quivering hands, thinking he did it.
“Surely they won’t hurt me in school” Dev repeated in his head.
This was until Mony approached him. Again.
“You done cryin’ then Divvy?” he joked. “I had fun playing our little game yesterday; wanna play again?”
He swung his leg rapidly towards Dev’s vulnerable stomach but was stopped immediately by someone’s hand. It was Aila. A transgender girl that had recently had her M to F transition.
“Carry on”, she challenged, “cause I know you have a Christian Mom and Dad. I wonder how they would feel if they knew you were bullying a boy because of his religion”.
Mony hesitantly ran off, leaving nothing but shame behind him.
“Th… Th… Thank you” Dev whispered with a shaking voice.
“It’s fine, just never let anyone dominate you like that. You are just as important as anyone else,” Aila smiled and like that, she was gone.