Syn- 5

An autumn morning in the sixth form common room of a secondary school. It is the start of break so there isn’t that many people in the common room. Shane, late teens is dressed in dark jeans, a stripy scarf and a deep blue jumper; is sitting with some friends. The group of friends are dressed similar to Shane with jeans and shirts that are of lighter colours, then the dark colours of Shane. They offer him to go to the café with them, but he refuses by saying ‘I can’t, as I’ve go work to do.’ They respond ‘Shane… you’re so boring, you never socialise with us. What’s wrong?’ Shane replies ‘I’ve… I’ve just got lots of work to do… sorry maybe another time.’ Shane gets up, walks outside the common room and upstairs. However, as Shane walks through the doors at the end of the corridor he gazes around at the people and through some shrubbery he notices a small year 7 boy being bullied by older boys on the piazza. The group of older boys have short ties and their shirts un-tucked form their trousers, whereas the small year 7 boy is smart dressed with a full tie and jumper and black trousers. Still hidden by the shrubbery, Shane freezes as he hears threats by the older boys. As he continues to listen new voices delivering even more violent threats fill his ears. He watches on in distress focusing mainly on the older boys. He slowly edges forward towards the bullies, muffling something underneath his breath. The smaller boy keeps looking at Shane, whilst backing away into the distance. The older boys’ attention is drawn to Shane, as he approaches them. The group start walking towards Shane shouting ‘Oi… What are you looking at?’ Shane responds saying ‘what did the year 7 do that deserved him to be bullied?’ The boys move closer to Shane. Other students begin to gather around the argument to watch. The group of boys are now really close to Shane who asks them to stop bulling someone who is younger than them; they refuse. Face to face within inches of Shane, they shout at him to move out the way. Shane stands his ground. The boys start pushing him whilst shouting out him to move. Shane turns as if to walk away… there’s a moment’s pause and then he turns back and hits the leader of the group. Everyone around looks on in shock, whilst Shane stands there and looks at the boy on the ground and then up to the younger year 7 boy.