Chapter Eleven : Bullying – A New Level
Three years after they first met, Elliot and Sylvia were eating lunch in the school canteen when Derren Blanchflower, and two of his comrades, Jay Tomasson and Leiv Erdinger all approached them.
Since Sylvia came along Derren had not been bothering Elliot much at all. They had been amongst the best years of his life. The only thing that disappointed Elliot about Sylvia was that she didn’t seem interested in him as an item. She never really flirted with him or gave off the impression that she wanted to be more than friends. Elliot was afraid to raise the subject, both for fear of rejection and out of fear that it would tarnish their friendship.
“There he is. There’s the changeling,” Derren stated aloud as if he were addressing the entire canteen. “Jay here, saw him in the toilet. He’s a changeling. I always knew you weren’t human Tomkins.” As he said this Derren held a mobile phone aloft.
Elliot was embarrassed. He didn’t like being the centre of negative attention. Changelings in society were viewed as the lowest life forms in society. To be accused of being a changeling was both humiliating and degrading. The timid teenager was conscious that the whole canteen was looking at him. Even though he did not quite follow what Derren was saying, he immediately became embarrassed.
“Stop telling porkies Branchfoot,” Sylvia countered in an angry manner.
“Well, we’ve got a video right here that shows Elliot here is a changeling. Would anyone like to look at it, he said with a smile on his face. I always knew you were odd Tomkins but this really takes the biscuit.”
Derren who had been toying with his mobile phone as he spoke, turned it around to show a video so that some of the canteen could see.
The video appeared to show Elliot enter a cubicle, but as he did so he briefly appeared to change to an alien form for a split second before changing back once more to human form.
There were gasps from those who saw it.
Elliot couldn’t feel any more humiliated. He might as well have been stripped naked in front of the entire canteen. Such was the evidence, that even he doubted himself. He couldn’t understand it
Sylvia was unflustered. “That’s a camera trick. There’s nothing wrong with Elliot. If anything or anyone is a changeling it’s you,” she said angrily to the school bully.
“Spoken like a true changeling. Changeling’s stick together don’t they. The evidence is conclusive, Sylvia or whatever your alien name is.”
Before Sylvia could respond, there were chants around the canteen of “Changeling, Changeling,” repeatedly.
Even the normally calm and confident Sylvia Bannister was intimidated by the rest of the canteen shouting abuse amongst phrases like “Get out,”, “go back where you came from” and “sod off “. It became too much for Sylvia who left the room. Harold and Alec had departed at the first mention of the term “Changeling”
Sylvia was no more popular at school than Elliot and he didn’t fully understand why. She was attractive, kind, intelligent and had a sense of humour. He could only guess that she was seen as something of an outsider and a newcomer. The timid teenager could understand why she abandoned him at this difficult time. He knew what would happen if she stood by him now.
Elliot didn’t know which hurt more, the abuse of his fellow pupils or his guilt for what Sylvia had to endure, all because she called him friend. In a way he was glad that she left the room. The adolescent male didn’t want her to suffer because of him. He was however intimidated by what was happening and what might happen in the coming days. If he was a changeling he would have been aware of it by now. There had to be some way, he thought, of exposing Darren Blanchflower and his video but he didn’t know what.
“Yes. That’s right. Leave the changeling alone,” Derren said in a devious manner. “He might get hungry and eat off your hand or whatever it is that these monsters do.”
“This is a stunt Derren. You probably made that video yourself and doctored the image,” Elliot replied.
Derren held the phone in his hand and twisted it in front of him. “What do you call this? How do you explain this?”
The remaining few hours of school were like Hell for Elliot. Everywhere he went people scowled at him, called him names and told him in no uncertain terms to go away. Some said he should be locked up. On one occasion a Science teacher tried to ask what was going on. One young girl named Tallulah said defiantly, “he’s a changeling Miss.”
Elliot was trying not to cry as he stood up and declared, “I am not a changeling,” but the words he said were barely audible and he was mocked for his response. The teacher decided that it wasn’t her place to intervene or she would end up being called a Changeling sympathiser or come under scrutiny for being a Changeling herself.
Elliot tried to remain calm. He tried to tell himself, get through today and tomorrow will be easier, but it wasn’t any easier. The following day Elliot endured abuse for a longer and more sustained period. Many mocked him, making him out to be the lowest form of life. They laughed at him and humiliated him. Others were simply hateful and said nasty things about him. When Derren bullied him it felt as though he had the full support of the school behind him. At least on previous occasions when he was bullied, Derren was the least respected pupil in school but now he was seen as the hero.
As time went on more and more people heard about and saw Derren’s video. Nobody sat with him in the canteen or in class any more. Even Sylvia, instead of sitting with him, she sat fifteen yards away by herself.
The one thing that kept him going were people like Sylvia. Even though she no longer interfered, he sensed that she wanted to but the situation had gotten out of hand. Unfortunately he felt as if he was also dragging her into an unnecessary battle that was not of her choosing. He didn’t want her to go through the same difficulties. He knew that she would be called a Changeling herself. He didn’t want her to suffer like he did.
The sanctuary of his home was the only place that Elliot could feel safe from taunts. Even walking down the street it seemed like he was famous for all the wrong reasons. It was however inevitable that his parents would find out. He wondered how they would handle it. He wondered if they already knew. Elliot knew that his Dad would be the gentleman he always was and not look upon his own son any differently. His mother however might possibly feel ashamed and embarrassed. She was a good person but in the most difficult of circumstances he wondered how she would react. He was afraid that Charlotte’s friends might abandon her because of her adolescent son.
Going home was the only part of the day he looked forward to now. While at school there was nowhere he could go to escape the abuse. There was nowhere he could feel happy or at peace. On a frequent basis he was the victim of taunts, jeers, people rolling their eyes up to heaven and people making unpleasant hand gestures. It was relentless. Part of him wanted his life to be over but he would never just quit of his own volition.
On the third day after getting off the bus, Elliot found Sylvia waiting for him near his house. He could predict what she was about to say. Elliot tried to make Sylvia go away. He wanted to make her leave him alone and to make her hate him. Elliot found however that this was not second nature to him. He wasn’t good at being rude and offensive.
“Elliot I really want to help. If there was something I could do to make things better I would.”
“Please go away,” he said. “I don’t want you. I don’t need you. I don’t like you.”
“You don’t sound very convincing,” Sylvia responded. “even my grandmother sounds more menacing than you.”
“You don’t have to play both sides. I know you care but I understand if you make the safe choice like everyone else. You don’t have to ruin your life because of me. You have a choice between doing what is popular or standing up for the school outcast and becoming another school outcast. It’s not difficult. Why don’t you take your opportunity? All you have to do is what everyone else does.”
“Why don’t you stop resigning yourself to defeat. There must be a way you can outsmart Derren. It’s not like he’s a rocket scientist. There must be some trick that we are missing.”
“Are you sure that I’m not a changeling?” Elliot asked aloud, part hoping for her to go away but part hoping that she would stay. “What if I was and I didn’t know it.”
“You would know if you were. It has to be some kind of camera trick or something. There has to be a logical explanation.”
Elliot felt a warm glow inside him. He badly needed a true friend to support him. He couldn’t expect Sylvia to stand in the line of fire, but the fact that she wanted to help him made him feel ten feet tall.
It was then that Reggie Gothwaite approached them from behind a tree and taunted Elliot. “If it isn’t the Changeling scum and his Changeling girlfriend. I hear they’re coming for you tonight. The Reapers are coming for you. Sleep tight.” Reggie was in Elliot’s class. He was of average build for a teenager of Elliot’s age. It was like he derived some sadistic pleasure from Elliot’s lack of popularity. It was as if Reggie saw the opportunity to make him feel good about himself while doing the opposite to a “loser” like Elliot. Reggie had probably been hiding behind that tree for twenty minutes just waiting for an opportunity to jibe the timid young teenager.
Sylvia fell silent. It was like as if a cold chill hand run straight down through her body. Part of her cared greatly for Elliot but part of her didn’t want to be referred to as a Changeling. She had heard of what happened. She had heard stories. Elliot wasn’t the first to be called a Changeling and he wouldn’t be the last. Even at school there was a loner. Most people didn’t even know his name but she remembered. Charlie Verney. His dad was an outspoken Blue Party representative. He said something in the immediate aftermath of Governor Callahan’s arrest. Within twenty four hours the whole family were rounded up as Changelings by the Reapers. Sylvia didn’t want that to happen to her.
Reggie followed the two teenagers for the best part of a minute, in an attempt to get on their nerves and entice a reaction. Better still, he was hoping that some onlookers might join in and help him to boost his popularity levels. Thankfully for Elliot’s sake nobody did.
Although it helped greatly to have someone like Sylvia wanting to be on Elliot’s side, rumours about Reapers coming for him in the middle of the night did not help. He hadn’t slept a good night’s sleep the last two nights and something told him he wouldn’t sleep too well tonight either.