His Life

• Annabel Juchau, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

MAX
I wish I had his life. Zac Evans has been my relentless tormentor for years now. Every day, I wake up, go to school, and get made fun of in the expected cruel way any teenage boy would be made fun of, in the form of unyielding mockery.

I have a usual routine after getting home from school. I mean that's what happens when you're just a mindless zombie, everything just seems to end up being the same. I get home feeling miserable, but my parents are always bugging me with the stupidest questions. "How are you Max?" and "What was your day like?". The answers; terrible and even more terrible. Who needs supportive parents when you could have power like Zac? That feeling of being in control must trump any level of supportiveness you could get. I just wish I could swap places with him. His life must be so easy. Going to school and having everyone scared of you is easier than being the weird smart boy that nobody has ever heard of. “Max who?”, they always say. “Oh, Max Keller, isn’t he that smart one in the band?” Yes, that’s me, the nobody…

The fear I feel when I see Zac walk around the corner of the empty corridor is real. He has a smirk on his face. I can tell it’s going to be brutal…


ZAC
Even after putting that nerd in his place, I don’t feel complete. The feeling of being in control is fleeting. It’s a temporary solution. I walk through the door at home to see dad's wheelchair positioned in front of the TV. Having a paraplegic dad with cerebral palsy certainly doesn’t make life easy for me and Mum. She’s working 2 times as hard just to keep everything stable, and when it all falls apart, it comes out on me. “ZACHARY” calls my mum. “Stop blocking your father’s view of the TV and just go upstairs, it’s not like you're any use down here.”

I’m tired of everyone thinking of me as just a mindless zombie. The bully who is so bad at school that the only thing he can do is make other people feel bad. No one understands what it's like to take care of someone that can’t move or speak by themselves, constantly on the lookout, waiting for the next thing to go wrong. The only thing I can control is my school life. I can make myself seem strong even if it's the furthest thing from the truth. Look at Max Keller with the perfect supportive parents, always here to watch him get awards, always here for the community meetings, always here for the parent nights, always here looking proud of their boy, always here… If the unthinkable happened and I got some sort of award, my mum would probably be too busy looking after my dad to notice. Max is perfect and I’m just the jealous monster. I wish I had his life.