The power of decisions

My name is Ryan Black. I'm a 16 years old average highschooler. Currently eating breakfast with my mom. She is my only family member after dad left. My mom is a librarian and her current salary is below average. Yes, we are a poor family. I can't afford expensive brands. I also always eating unhealthy stuff because that's cheaper. I'm a fatty thanks to this. Still, my mother tries her best and I'm grateful. Now, back to the topic.

"Son, you studied enough for school right?"

"Yes mom, you don't have to worry (All lie, I played City of Warcraft all night.)."

We finished with the breakfast and my mom went to work. I packed my backpack and left after a few minutes. My school is just a few hundred meters away. I have a special rule when I go to school. The special rule: Always try to be late. I don't have to deal with bullies in the morning this way. The teachers already knows about this whole thing and they allowed me to be a bit late. I arrived and saw two people standing near the school gate. One of them is Dave. Dave is one of the famous bullies. He already punched me a few times in the past and nothing will change today. The other guy standing beside Dave is the student council president Jack. This Jack is always there when someone bullying me, but never helped.

I take another step forward knowing that my fate is decided. Dave approaches me with an arrogant expression. The student council president is staying beside the school gate and just watching. Dave is already here.

"Yo pig, give me your money, we are friends right?"

I lower my gaze and trying to avoid him. Dave punches me in the stomach.

"Oy, where is the money. You have to pay me the entrance fee."

I'm already lying on the ground but Dave kicks my head and steals the money out of my pocket.

"This is all? What a poor loser."

What can I do? My courage and self esteem is nothing. The continuous bullying trampled on my life. I will lose even if I try to fight.

Thought like these started appearing in my mind not too long ago. I started doubting my abilities and I stopped believing in myself. I know it's not right, but my circumstances forced me into this situation.

I stand up and walk through the school gate. The student council president looks at me and I snapped in that moment.

"You, I hope it was fun to watch me getting bullied. How can you be the student council president? Aren't you supposed to help me?"

"You can't even help yourself and you want others to help you?"

Said the president and left. These words were like reality to me. Now that I think back. When did I ever tried to fight back? How can I fight back? How can I improve myself? I really never really tried to help myself. What a joke. How can I help myself when I'm poor, weak and fat?

Questions started bugging me after the student council president left. Why did he even said that?

I decided to stop thinking and just walked straight towards my classroom. I found my desk and sat down on my chair. Almost everyone looked at me like I was some kind of disgusting animal. I lowered my head like I usually did when someone stared at me. What I saw there almost made me cry. My desk was full of writings. My classmates wrote things like: pig, fatty, disgusting trash.... on my desk. The most painful was that everyone wrote their signatures on my desk. I started reading it in a shocked state. Tears appeared on my face.

"Disgusting trash - Noah"

"Fatty - Hailey"

"Disgusting pig - Dave"

...

"Few decisions can change your life." - Jack the student council president."

What is this? Writing something like this when everyone hates me. Is he giving me advice?

"Few decisions can change your life."

I repeated this sentence multiple times inside my head. I also remembered the thing he said in the morning. Something about helping myself. Hours quickly passed and school was over. It was actually the last day of the school and now we have a lot of time before the start of the next year. I walked back home and luckily no one found me. I got beaten up 3 times today. Luckily, this is the last day and I can have a peaceful life for 4 months after this day. No bullies, no worries.

My mom came back from her work. Her gloomy mood never changed ever since dad left. Probably because life became harder. She looked at me with worried eyes. She knew that I got bullied again, but what can we do? Transferring schools is also money. I walked up the stairs and closed my room. Started playing the games I usually play and started eating chips. I was about to grab a piece of chips when I remembered something.

"Help yourself!"

"Few decisions can change your life."

Change my life. That's right, I have to change my life. I remembered Jack the student council president and his words again.

"Few decisions can change your life."

"Help yourself!"

I processed the meaning of these words and...put the chips back.

Everything started with this.