Podcast 136 and 320 - Bully! (by M. A. Bilbrough)

A short story for students learning B1 level English

Story starts at 5:31

B1 short story - Bully!

You know, they say that bullies are cowards, and bullies are stupid. I'm not sure if that's always true. Ok, so first of all what is a bully? A bully is somebody who uses their strength or power to frighten or hurt weaker people. It's also a regular verb 'to bully someone'. Now, what is a coward? Well, the Oxford English dictionary says it's a person who is not brave enough to do the things most people don't find difficult. So, are bullies cowards? Are bullies stupid, unintelligent? If that were always true, then when somebody is bullied at school, he or she just needs to get their big brother and the bully will run home crying to his mother! Just like in so many stories in comics. If it were that simple, then bullying in schools today wouldn't be the huge problem it is. I've written a story about a school bully, who probably doesn't fall into that category of coward or stupid, or does he? Listen and you decide.

This is a B1 level podcast but good for B2 level students too. In fact, some of these words I'm going to explain at the beginning are B2 words. Here we go...

The first word to explain is 'form', for example, first form or second form. This refers to the year a child is in at school in British English. In American English the word is grade. So we say 'first form' meaning the first year of secondary school in British English or High School in American English. We have the expression 'to make fun of somebody', which means to laugh at somebody and make them look stupid. The word 'fear' again (as in my Vampire story, podcast 135), which, we could say, is the noun of frightened. There is the word 'mate', which is a colloquial word for friend in British English. Teacher's pet, which is a child at school who always tries to impress the teacher and so he or she is the teacher's favourite. The word 'cruel', a cruel person likes to hurt other people, to cause pain. The verb 'fight' (past tense, fought), which here means to hit each other by using punches, and a punch is when you hit somebody using your hand closed into a fist. The verb 'punish' means to make somebody suffer because they have done something wrong. And finally, the word 'stick', which is a long, thin piece of wood.

There is one expression that will help you understand this story better. It's: To have a good head on your shoulders. This is used to describe somebody who is clever and good at his/her studies.

The Story

When Simon saw Kevin Goodman and his mates at the school entrance, he suddenly felt a heavy weight in his stomach. Simon thought things would be different in secondary school. I mean, it was more serious than primary school, wasn't it? People changed. They grew up. They stopped being silly, didn't they? He thought the teachers wouldn't let this happen, but they did, or perhaps they were scared too, or they just didn't care. Nothing had changed, really.

It was a Wednesday, Simon had been doing a science project at school. He had stayed behind to finish his experiment in the chemistry lab. Simon didn't mind staying behind because he really liked chemistry. He was just half an hour late anyway. His teacher had phoned his parents so they knew he wouldn't be home at the usual time. But that meant all the other students had gone. The school was empty. Kevin and his mates had found out that Simon was staying late, obviously, and now they were waiting for him.

Kevin Goodman. Why was he called that? There was nothing 'good' about him. Kevin Goodman was in second form. He had bullied Simon at primary school. In fact, he bullied a lot of the younger boys. Kevin wasn't good at his lessons either. He was in what they called a 'remedial' group. That is, special classes for students who couldn't follow the normal curriculum because they found it too difficult. But Simon knew Kevin wasn't stupid. Kevin was in the remedial group because he hated studying and he hated school.

When Kevin had moved up to secondary school, Simon had felt so happy. The secondary school was on the opposite side of town from the primary school. At long last, he could enjoy school without the fear that Kevin would be waiting for him just around the corner. But now, a year later, Simon was in first form, and things were worse than before.

Simon's father was a teacher at the same school, and he taught the students in the remedial group. His father's name was Geoffrey, and he didn't like being called by the shorter name, Geoff, so the name seemed rather formal. Some students made fun of that. Being the son of a teacher in the same school is never easy, but with Kevin Goodman in the same school – life was terrible.

Simon looked at the group of boys, and thought about trying to escape by climbing the school wall into the field on the other side and getting home by another route, but they had already seen him. There was no escape. Like a lamb among a pack of wolves, Simon walked towards Kevin and his mates. Nowhere to run. No one to help him. Simon began to feel sick.

Simon could see that Kevin was smiling. He was always smiling, but it was a cruel smile. The eyes in his hard face were cruel too – small and very dark. He had black curly hair that was too long, said the teachers, and he should get a haircut. But Kevin never listened to the teachers, and the teachers didn't insist.

Kevin was not a lot taller than Simon, but his shoulders were very broad, his body hard and strong – always ready to fight. And he fought a lot. Nearly every week at school there used to be a lot of noise in the playground or on the school football field because Kevin Goodman had started a fight. He fought everybody, and wasn't afraid of the bigger boys. They say that bullies are cowards, but Simon didn't see it like that at all. Kevin Goodman just loved hurting others.

Simon was slimmer compared to Kevin. He wore glasses and usually looked serious. In fact, even his friends often called him ' serious Simon'. He wasn't good at sports like football or rugby but he was quite good at long-distance running – at the school they called it 'cross-country' running. In winter, they had cross-country running every Friday. It was an eight kilometre race, and Simon usually came second or third.

But Simon lived with fear in his heart. Since first form at primary school, Kevin had bullied him, and Simon didn't know how to fight back. He never got used to it, but he accepted it, and didn't know how to change things. A lamb is always a lamb, and a wolf is always a wolf. Lambs don't fight wolves, do they?

'Well, well, well!' said Kevin. 'What have we here? It's a Geoffrey!' Kevin was standing a couple of metres away from the other boys. He was holding a long stick in his hands. Simon wondered what he was going to do with it. 'Hello, Geoffrey!' The other boys laughed while they smoked. There were four of them. Andrew Benton, Steve Wallace, Mark Stafford, and Dave Riley. All of them in the same remedial group.

'What sort of Geoffrey is it? Oh, it's a small Geoffrey, isn't it?' More laughing from the other boys – their cigarettes moving nervously in and out of their mouths. Sometimes Simon thought all this was a kind of show. Kevin was the showman, and his mates were the audience.

'Big Geoffrey was nasty to me in class today. Did you know that, small Geoffrey?' said Kevin putting his face close to Simon's. Simon couldn't look into his eyes, so he looked down at the ground.

'No... No, I didn't,' Simon said, playing his part in the show. He didn't want his body to shake but it was starting to.

'Oh, didn't you, small Geoffrey? Well, Daddy Geoffrey punished me because I didn't do my homework. He called me lazy. Do you think I'm lazy, small Geoffrey?'

'I... I don't know!' said Simon confused and frightened.

'Wrong answer, small Geoffrey!' said Kevin, and he turned to his mates standing behind him. 'Am I lazy?' he asked them with a huge smile on his face.

His mates laughed. 'Nooo, Kevin!' they all shouted together.

Kevin turned back to look at Simon. 'Now that was the right answer!' Kevin was shouting now and the smile had gone. 'Now, isn't that funny, Simon Geoffrey?' His face was very close to Simon's now, so that Simon could smell the school dinner on Kevin's breath. 'Now, isn't that funny?' he repeated. 'They're stupid and they got the right answer, and you're clever and you got the wrong answer!'

Simon knew it was coming, and then it happened. Kevin punched Simon in the stomach. It wasn't a hard punch, and it didn't hurt very much. There was something worse than the pain. Something about this person being allowed to do what he liked with him.

' Not only that,' said Kevin, but Mr Big Geoffrey said to me “Kevin,” he said, “Kevin, you haven't got a good head on your shoulders, boy.” ' Simon said nothing. He was still breathing hard from the punch. He waited to see what was coming next. 'But little Geoffrey has, hasn't it? Clever little Geoffrey with all its chemistry projects. Little teacher's pet, isn't it? Little Geoffrey has got a good head on its shoulders, hasn't it?' Kevin's mates smiled from within a cloud of cigarette smoke, enjoying the performance.

'Do you know, small Geoffrey?' Kevin continued, standing back a little now. 'Daddy Geoffrey wanted to hit me with his stick!'

Simon, now really scared, looked again at the stick in Kevin's hand. This had all been planned, hadn't it? He wouldn't use that stick, would he? There were limits to these games. Even Kevin Goodman would be afraid to pass those limits, wouldn't he? The boys behind Kevin suddenly stopped smiling. Was Kevin going to get them all into trouble? There was silence for a moment.

It was Simon who broke the silence. As he spoke, he looked worriedly at Kevin's stick. 'My dad doesn't have a stick,' he shouted with tears in his eyes. 'He wouldn't do a thing like that. He's not allowed to do that anyway!' Simon suddenly realised how stupid he'd been.

Kevin's eyes opened wide, and he looked down at his stick. 'Oh, the small Geoffrey thinks I'm going to hit it with my stick, doesn't it?' And all the other boys laughed, happy to know, at last, that wasn't Kevin's plan.

Then Kevin did a strange thing. He turned his back on Simon, and looked towards the group of boys then took something from his jeans pocket, but Simon couldn't see what it was. The boys stopped laughing and looked at Kevin, their mouths open with surprise. Suddenly, Kevin turned around quickly with his right hand held out towards Simon, his eyes bright and cruel. A knife was pointing at Simon's throat, shining in the cold afternoon sun.