One and Zero

I've been told that ever since I was born I was always smiling. I have also been told that with smiles come happiness. I guess that is true since my life up until now has been perfect, I was happy, I had a lot of friends, good grades, loving mother and a cute little sister.

I was also told by someone special that my smile is spreading happiness everywhere I go so I promised that person to keep smiling no matter how hard things got.

it was easy.

that is up until a few months ago.

I dont know what made her start but since starting highschool the most popular girl in my class, April, started bullying me and since she was very popular, very beautiful, very rich and very social everyone at school joined in. she probably had some influence over the school since the teachers turned a blind eye even when I complained.

even my so called friends from middle school either ignored me or bullied me as well.

the bullying got pretty rough as time went on. I always wondered why she even bullies me. maybe she gets some weird kick out of it?

at the start it was mainly childish stuff like shaming or filling my bag with trash. now it escalated into physical abuse as well.

however I continued smiling. whether it was because of the promise that I made or whether it became a habit since that has always worked up until now.

I mean I'm not stupid I know when stuff like this happens you should stop it as soon as possible but ever since my father died my mother has been working extremely hard to raise both me and my sister so I wont bother her with such things.

well some people have it way harder I thought as I was finally forcing myself to get out of my bed. looking at my phone it's about 7 am.

time to make breakfast I guess. thats right since mom is working the entire day I have been taking care of daily necessaries like cooking, cleaning etc, basically everything a house wife would do. I bet I would make a great bride ah. just as I finish making breakfast I hear noises and a minute later my mother shows up looking tired as always.

"ahh, thank you for the breakfast honey. sorry that you have to deal with that".

"no problem mom, enjoy yourself. I will go wake sister up".

"oh good luck with that", she said grinning.

its a pain to waking her up, since it always takes at least a few minutes and she sometimes even throw punches mid sleep. although I have gotten pretty good at avoiding those.

well my sister is extremely cute so I will forgive her.

as I got to her room to my surprise my sister, kana was already up.

today might be a good day.

"good mowning onii chan!" she said getting cut off by a yawn. still looking half asleep and her brown hair was the definition of bed hair. my little kana is cute.

"good morning to you too, since when youre up this early?"

"shut up.. I decided that from now on you wont need to wake me up anymore. I can get up by myself!".

"so how many alarms did you use this time?"

"..."

"..."

"..seven...".

"thats less then I thought. ah by the way mom is still home so if you run you ca..".

"mom is still here? why didnt you say so sooner, move!". she pushes me and runs toward the kitchen.

there she goes looking energetic all of a sudden. yup she is cute.

usually mom is already on her way to work when my sister wakes up and when she returns its already pass midnight so we rarely get to see her.

as I hear my sister and mother talking in the kitchen I go back to my room to get ready for school.

as my hair is pretty long I have to brush it everyday. its a pain but its comfy, especially in the winter so its a good trade off if you ask me. as I finish wearing the school uniform I hear a loud sound from the living room.

I guess mom is already gone.. well looking at my phone its already 7:20 am so that makes sense.

as I go back to the kitchen I see that my sister room is closed. as the kitchen is empty, I'm guessing she went to get ready for school.

it seems like she working hard to be ready earlier than usual so I wont be late because of her again.

yup today will be a good day.

its decided I will go buy some ground meat and make hamburgers for dinner.

thats my mother and sister favorite food after all.

since father died we dont have the luxury to eat out and we usually dont get to eat meat at home since its pricey however I have some savings so I can use those today for the meat.

"onii chan I'm ready!".

shit I was thinking too much and I didnt even get to eat any breakfast. I grab a piece of toast and run to the front door.

soon after she shows up and we go to school as usual.

she is a first year in the local middle school. ever since we moved the area around our home can be a little dangerous so I'm always taking her to and from school.

I'm pretty short and I have been told I look like a freshman middle schooler rather than a high schooler so I guess I'm not very intimidating.

still I'm actually pretty good at fighting since from young age I have been practicing almost everyday at my father's dojo. that is up until 3 years ago when our father passed away and we had to sell it.

I'm still in a good shape as I'm on the track team, since my favorite thing after my family is running. I'm not very fast but I like the feeling of the wind in my face as well as my muscles aching after I tire myself out.

running always helps me forget about the bullying and it somehow makes me feels alive.

once again I think to much as we are already at my Kana's school.

"bye onii chan!. ah can you pick me up later today? I have some plans play with my friends. if its a problem I..".

she looks like she really wants to go..

and its not like I have any plans after school as I have no friends so why not.

"sure. just text me when you want me to pick you up. just not too late tho all right?".

"sure thanks! hehe. love you" she says and hugs me tight.

yup today is without a doubt a good day.

After twenty more minutes of walking I finally arrive at my school. I look at my phone and it shows that I'm indeed not late.

when I get to the classroom as usual my desk is full of marker writing like "loser", "go die", "its better if you were gone" etc. nothing new today, sometime someone gets creative and write something different than the usual stuff.

I also always have a water bottle in my bag just in case someone is nice enough to put flowers on my desk.

another thing I always have in my bag nowdays is cleaning spray and a small towel which I pull out and starts cleaning my desk.

from experience showing it to a teacher wont work as they just simply either ignore it or pass it as games between kids.

well weirdly nowdays I was never really bothered by it anyway.

suddenly the class goes a little quieter. I already know what it means as a beautiful tall girl with a long black hair tied in a pony tail, blue eyes and perfect curves enter the class together with two other pretty girls.

"hi April!".

"how was your weekend?"

"wanna go shopping after school?".

"..."

yup thats April the most popular girl at school and the person that bullies me everyday.

as she pass by I say hello to her smiling as usual.

today is a lucky day as she chose to ignore me.

usually at this time she replys by swearing at me, saying stuff like "gross, go die", "disgusting, dont talk to me" or something of the sort. sometimes if her mood is especially bad she will even take my bag and throw it out of the window or even kick me with full strength. that girl can seriously kick btw.

why am I greeting her than? well perhaps I hope she will see that I'm a good guy and she will stop the bullying. maybe its my way of dealing with it.

even if she is popular making this much of a scene every time she walks into the class is a bit much.

as usual almost the entire class gather near here seat, trying to talk to her.

thats understandable I guess. not only she is pretty but she is nice to everyone, other than myself of course. she is also the top student of our school basically having perfect scores in every subject as well as being the ace of our school national level volleyball team. and she is rich. you can say she won the lottery when she was born.

me on the opposite, I'm short and while my hair is bright its not blonde bright but rather something between dirty blonde and light brown so nothing special. my eyes are dark brown and even tho I'm in a good shape it doesnt show as I dont weight much as well. as for my grades they are just mediocre not good not bad. I'm a completely normal guy which is why I have no idea why she bullies me.

my dad used to say that there are two types of peope in the world, the normal everyday people are zeros and the normal people that manage to do extraordinary things and become special are zeros that turned into one's.

if that is the case April was definitely a one and I was a zero.

the rest of day went on and surprisingly I wasnt bullied. then something unusual happend, before the last class of the day.

when I opened my locker to get my english books I found a folded paper, opening it I found text written in a cute hand writing. it had a name on it with a little heart on the side.