Storytelling Week 9: The Bully

Image on Flickr

There once was a young boy named Archibald. He was naughty and a nuisance to his fellow classmates, so they never wanted to play with him. Archie, however, was bigger than most of the other children and bullied them into letting him join their games. The other children never wanted to invite the bully to their birthday parties, but since Archibald’s parents were important government officials, the children’s parents always felt obligated to invite the naughty boy, too. Archie’s parents ignored their son’s rude manners and allowed him to do as he pleased, further encouraging his bad behavior.

One of Archibald’s classmates, Ginny, was set to have a fantastic birthday party on Sunday afternoon. Ginny never let Archibald around and told her parents that she would simply refuse to go to her own birthday party if he was to be invited. Ginny’s parents were aware of the officials’ poorly behaved son and agreed to exclude him from the invite list. With this, Ginny was much pleased. One of the other students, however, happened to mention the party within earshot of the mean boy.

Rather than ask Ginny directly why he had not been invited to her birthday party, Archibald went straight to his parents and whined to them that he could not imagine why he did not receive an invitation. Archie’s parents told the boy that it must be a mistake and that, of course, every child would want Archie at their birthday party. Instead of contacting Ginny’s parents and asking if there had been a mistake, the boy’s parents dropped him off at the party on Sunday afternoon.

Ginny was most displeased to see Archibald at her birthday party, and her mood immediately turned sour. She went straight up to the boy and demanded, “Why are you here? You specifically weren’t invited.”

Archibald was not ignorant of his rude behavior towards his classmates. He knew why the other children did not want him around, but he usually did not care. Ginny, however, scared the boy so much that he could not respond to her question. Pleased by the effect her interrogation had on the bully, Ginny continued, “Well, your parents already left. I guess you’re stuck here. Try not to ruin my day even further.” With that, she turned on Archie and went to find her friends.

Feeling bummed by his encounter with Ginny, Archie sat at the back of the living room while the girl was opening her presents. Ginny was very popular and well-liked by the other children, so opening her gifts was going to take awhile. Seeing this and becoming bored by the lack of attention he was receiving, Archibald left the living room and wandered around until he happened upon the kitchen. In front of him, he saw a giant chocolate cake. Knowing that it was a bad thing to do, Archibald stuck his finger into the icing thinking that no one would notice if he was careful not to leave a big mark.

Archibald, however, liked the taste of the icing so much that instead of simply sticking his finger in again, he grabbed a whole handful of cake. Telling himself that the damage was done and that there was no way to hide it, he continued eating the cake with his hands. He was halfway through when the party made their way into the kitchen. Expecting a glorious chocolate cake, the party instead found a fat, tired Archibald with chocolate icing smeared on all of his clothes.

Ginny, angry, but not surprised, went directly to Archibald and punched him straight in the eye. The boy began to cry so loudly that all of the children that he had bullied began to laugh in his face. Ginny’s parents called Archie’s parents and, though making Ginny apologize for hitting Archie, told them how disgraceful their son’s actions were. From then on, Archibald found it impossible to pick on his classmates. Although he was not invited to anymore birthday parties that year, Archie did not argue. Instead, he sat at home by himself while all of the other children were having fun.

Author’s Note: The inspiration for this week’s story comes from The Monkey King (Asia) unit. In particular, I wrote off of the section in which the Monkey King eats all of the Queen Mother’s peaches of immortality. He had been given the task of watching over the peaches as a method for getting him out of everyone else’s way. Finding out that the Queen Mother was planning a banquet that he was not invited to, the Monkey King disguised himself as one of the guests. Obviously, my story is very different than that. My aim this week was to take some key aspects of the Monkey King unit and make a completely new story out of it. Usually, I do not write about people unless they are specific characters from the stories that I have read from the course units, so this type of storytelling was an experiment for me. Archibald in my tale has the same disrespectful personality as the Monkey King, and he is a bully and a problem for others. He forces himself into situations where he is clearly not wanted instead of trying to change his behavior to be more likable. Both Archibald and the Monkey King greatly annoy me, and I hope they annoy you, too.

You can read the Monkey King unit here: link.