Waking up to the sun shining in my face, I got up, stretched, and went to the door, feeling the tiredness of the morning go away.

Leaving my room, I could see Mom was sitting in a chair, reading from a book as she drank from a bottle of water. Dad was nowhere to be seen, he probably had left for training. Mom noticed me as I went over to the wooden couch and sat on it.

"Good morning, sweetie." she greeted. "Are you ready to help me deliver berries to our neighbors?"

"Yeah Mom." I replied. She got up and went through the chest to pick out last-minute items, and then looked back at me.

"Let's go." she said, and I got up and joined her as we headed out into the morning sun.

We stopped by a few different neighbors, Mom only taking a brief moment to greet them and delivering the berries as gifts, before we reached the house of my second best friend, Emily. When the door opened, a young girl wearing a cyan blue dress was standing at the entrance. Her face glowed upon seeing us.

"Hey Emily." I said with a shy smile.

"Hi David!" she exclaimed. Soon, her aunt came to the door.

"Well, look who it is." her aunt said, her voice stern upon seeing Mom. Mom put on a smile in response.

"Hey Susan. David and I spent yesterday gathering berries, and we wanted to show our appreciation for having such lovely neighbors." she complimented. Emily's aunt didn't look amused as Emily looked up at her.

"Auntie, can we please go check out the new school?" she pleaded eagerly.

"David's mother needs to be fine with it." she said, and Mom nodded in permittance.

"We're almost done anyways." she replied. I spoke up.

"Um, do we have to go to the school? It might not be a good idea..." I said nervously.

"Nonsense, David. I think it's a good opportunity to know the place before it opens up. Just be sure not to break anything." Mom pointed out. "Now, be a gentleman and escort Emily. Go have fun, you two!"

"Sure thing, Ms. Stonefield!" Emily grabbed my arm and we headed off.

"Are we sure we want to go to the school?" I asked Emily, feeling uneasy.

"Of course! Maybe we'll even get to meet the teacher!" she exclaimed. I was worried. Because I knew that they would probably be there...

I tried to talk to her, talking down the idea, but she kept insisting. Before long, we arrived at the massive schoolhouse.

Made almost entirely out of bricks, the schoolhouse contrasted with the wooden buildings of the rest of the village. It had recently been built sometime last week. I remembered when the people came from out of town to build it, it had been very loud construction. Emily pulled me to the wooden doors.

"Come on, let's go! I'm excited to see how the inside looks." she said as she opened the door. The two of us went inside.

Whereas the outside was made of brick blocks, the interior had a lot of wood and cobblestone making up the flooring and the walls. There was a long hall going straight ahead, and was lit up with lanterns hanging from the roof, each with moving flames visible. There were four doors that led to different rooms, with a fifth room at the end of the hall. Curious, the two of us went towards the nearest one on the left and went inside the room.

For most of the room, there were four rows of five chairs and tables, each being a block separate from each other. On the wall away from us, there were several windows letting natural light in. On another side of the room was a block(I believed it was called a lectern) and it was in a space further in front of all the chairs and tables, with stone slab blocks on the corner of that side with an empty clay pot on top of them, making up a desk which had a wooden chair block behind them. Behind all the chairs and tables were a row of bookshelves at the opposing side of the room, with a few paintings hung up.

"This must be one of the classrooms." Emily pointed out. "Wow, so cool." She looked back at me, her blue eyes beaming with eagerness, "I've never been to a school before. I can't wait to learn!" We went to the room on the other side of the hall and found an identical-looking room. Then, we moved onto the next room and found it had a locked iron door, and checked out the fourth room, which was a much smaller room with two large chests stacked on each other. It appeared to be a closet of some sort.

Moving onto the last room, it looked to be an office of some kind. Maybe that was where the principle would stay? It had a crafting table with a few chests, and a stone slab desk in the center of the room. There were no windows, but a lantern was sitting on the end of the desk.

"No one's here yet." Emily noted, and turned to look at me. "Oh well, we'll get to see them soon! So, what do you wanna do next?" she asked. I rubbed my arm anxiously.

"Well, I'd like to get out of here to be honest. This place is kind of creepy without any adults around." I told her, noting the silence around us.

"Agreed!" she said with a surprisingly happy expression. The two of us went to leave the schoolhouse and its haunting silence.

The moment we stepped outside into the relaxing midday sun, I heard a voice call out to us.

"Well, look who we have here." the voice said from the side of the building as three kids wearing black leather coats appeared. I bit down hard, it was the Bad Bats, a group of bullies that picked on kids they thought were lame. I gripped Emily's fist and could see that her smile was gone, replaced with irritation.

"Let's go..." I told her. She nodded and we moved past them until we were stopped by their fourth member, Ralph, who towered over us. He was built like a cow, with big muscles and a scowl on his face.

"Where you guys going? You're on our turf, remember?" the leader of the Bad Bats, Drake, said. I turned to look back at him, a worried look on my face.

"I see you still have your cow." Emily replied. Ralph let out a low growl in response to the insult.

"Well, I thought it might be a good idea to bring him, since that loser seems to really like animals." Drake chuckled, pointing to me. I tried to think of some way I could get out of this situation, but nothing came to mind. I looked back at him.

"Drake, please. We were just leaving. We don't want any trouble..." I promised him. He noticed me holding Emily's fist. Upon realizing, I immediately let go of her.

"Why were you holding her fist, loser? Does David have himself a little girlfriend?" he laughed.

"No! W-we're just friends!" I stammered, my face turning red. Drake's friends started laughing at me. I looked back at Emily and then back at them.

"David has a girlfriend! I bet they were making out where no one could see them in the schoolhouse!" one of his friends taunted.

"David and Emily, sitting in a tree," the other mocked, "K, i, s, s, i, n, g!"

My face was flushing hard. I tried to move away, to do anything I could to get out of here, but Ralph wouldn't let me past, even as he was howling with laughter.

"Hey guys, it's obvious we're not in love. But of course you guys wouldn't know that, given how stupid you are!" Emily laughed. They all stopped laughing and looked back at her.

"This is coming from the girl who still sleeps with her creeper head." Drake countered. I knew immediately how angry he had made her as I watched her smug face change into a sudden defensive one. She felt really insecure about still sleeping with a mob head. Instantly, Emily tried to surge at him, but Ralph grabbed ahold of her and wouldn't let her go.

"Get your fists off me!" she yelled, flailing wildly.

"Wow, you're so pathetic! Maybe I should teach you an early lesson, since you seem so eager to learn?" Drake mocked as he started approaching her. She thrashed against Ralph's grip, to no avail. I stood by, helplessly looking around for someone, anyone, to come by and interfere, but there was no one in sight.

"If you weren't such a loser, you'd fight me fair and square! But you won't, because you're afraid of losing to a girl!" she hollered. He stopped right in front of her.

"Nah, I just don't respect you." he said with a grin, right before he slammed his fist against her stomach, causing her to briefly flash red. She winced in pain, but quickly put on a straight face.

"That's... it? That's the best you've got?" she grunted defiantly, then spat in his face, causing him to step back as the water particle hit him square in the face before vanishing. He clutched his face and wiped it, an angry look in his eyes.

"You really are an idiot." he said as he struck her again with his fist. I felt myself shuddering in anxiety as I listened to her grunting in pain. Seeing him attacking my friend when she was helpless, I knew I had to do something. But if I did, then he would attack me...

"That's... nothing... You really... aren't that tough..." she groaned, struggling to push down the pain.

"You aren't fooling anyone, idiot." As he raised his fist again, I felt my legs move as I charged at him. Letting out a yell, I slammed into him and knocked him to the ground, jumping on top of him.

"Get away from her, you scumbag!" I yelled as I began punching him over and over, his body flashing red with each hit. His two friends were quick to come to his rescue, and I was only able to get four punches in before I was lifted off of Drake. I was then pushed to the ground, and Drake got back to his feet, his eyes filled with rage.

"You bastard! You really tried to pull one over on me!" he growled as he came over to me and kicked me right in the face. I felt the adrenaline fade as it was replaced with pain. "You guys can join in on this!" he said to his friends, and the two joined him as they began to kick me. After a few hits, I huddled into a ball, trying to lessen the damage from the barrage of attacks. It hurt, and I felt my body blinking red with each hit. A moment later, I heard a yell, and the kicking stopped.

"Let's scatter, boys!" Drake told his group, and I heard him speak to me. "I hope you're ready for school to open. Because we'll be finishing this in front of everyone when combat class starts." he threatened before he took off.

I looked up to see one of the adults, Ms. Goldsand, rushing over to us. Emily was on her knees, but was slowly getting up.

"Are you kids alright?" she asked, her voice filled with concern as she helped me up. It took a moment, but the pain soon subsided enough for me to be able to stand on my own. As Ms. Goldsand helped Emily stand properly, I wiped away the tear particles that had shed from my face.

"I'm okay..." Emily said through labored breaths, "David, are you okay?" I slowly nodded.

"That was awful what those kids were doing to you. You need to let their parents know." she said.

"It's fine..." I muttered, but she shook her head.

"They were attacking you. At the very least, let me take you two home." Ms. Goldsand offered, her voice full of worry. We didn't have a choice, as she held both our fists and began to guide us back. Along the way, I could feel my health slowly recovering, but now I was growing hungry as a result. The sun was slowly setting into the horizon.

We didn't really say anything else as Ms. Goldsand came to my house first. There wasn't really much to say. She knocked on the door, which soon was opened by Mom, who immediately knew something was wrong when she saw me.

"What happened?" she asked, straight to the point.

"I saw the two being attacked by a group of kids by the school. I immediately came over, and the kids ran off." Ms. Goldsand explained. Hearing this, Mom gasped and went onto her knees and hugged me tightly.

"Are you okay, sweetie?" she asked. I nodded. "That's horrible that happened. Come inside, you need food." she insisted urgently. I looked back at Emily, and she nodded in understanding.

"Have a good night, David." she said half-heartedly.

"You too." I replied. The door closed behind me as I went to the dining room to see Dad at the table.

"Hey bud, so what happened to you?" he asked with a sad expression. He must've overheard.

"I got beat up..." I told glumly him as Mom came in.

"Do you know who the kids were?" Mom asked.

"It was the Bad Bats..." I replied, staring at my food. Mom and Dad looked at each other. Feeling my stomach grumble, I grabbed the cooked steak and began to eat it.

"How can those punks be so cruel?" Dad spat angrily. "I'm gonna really give it to their parents." Mom was quick to respond.

"Now, now, Joseph. Don't get too worked up. We need to approach this with a level head." she stated with a calm face.

"But don't you see? This keeps happening, Maria. And it has to stop." he proclaimed, his face angry. "I'm not going to have my son get beat up by the other kids for not fitting in."

"Joseph, your heart is in the right place, but you're being too emotional over this." Mom told him, keeping her voice calm.

"Well, what do you propose then!?" Dad practically hollered.

"I am saying that we shouldn't be loud and angry when we approach the boys' parents. A calm behavior goes a long way in this kind of situation." she explained. He sighed.

"I'm not going to let this happen again, Maria. I... I'll let you handle talking to the parents. I guess I'll take David with me tomorrow... Help him learn to fight." he suggested. Mom nodded.

"That sounds like a good plan." she replied, then put her fist on my arm. "If they harass you again, let me know." Mom said in her gentle voice. I nodded as I finished the last of the food. My stomach felt nice and full, and all the pain from the beatdown was gone. I got up from my chair block.

"I'm going to sleep..." I said, and they both nodded in understanding as I went.

Back in my room, I sat down on the bed, thinking about the day's events. I hated feeling so pathetic around Drake. I wanted to be strong enough for him to not mess with me or my friends. Maybe Dad could help me with that? I knew he was a strong knight, and a lot of people seemed to respect him.

I started to look forward to tomorrow and laid down against the bed, feeling its relaxing softness draw the exhaustion out. My eye lids soon closed, and I drifted off to sleep.