Shanti, Virginia was a friendly town with a diverse community. Shanti was home to the Shanti High School Badgers, a wealthy high school with many sport facilities. They were most known for their football team, the Shanti Badgers, who have been reigning state champions for the past four years. Shanti was home to many families, including the Calloways. Jane and James Calloway have two kids, a 16 year old, Sam Calloway, and a 15 year old, Becket Calloway. Sam was going into his junior year and was a captain of the football team and the math league. On the other hand, there was Becket. Becket was going into his sophomore year. He did well in school and was another member of the math league. He was also a member of the football team, but he did not play too much. He usually just got water for his fellow teammates and cheered them on while he was standing on the sideline. He was a short, scrawny kid who no one really gave attention to. Becket did not have many friends, so he sat with Sam at lunch. High school was a rough time for Becket, but he was trying to keep high hopes for his sophomore year.

It was the first day of school at Shanti. Sam drove Becket and himself to school that morning. As they answered the school, Sam quietly said to Becket, “Alright, my friends are over there. I'll see you at lunch”.
Becket replied quietly, “Ok, fine. I'll see you there”. Becket was not very sociable, so he kept his headphones in and went to walk to his first period class, but he was stopped by Anthony and his jock crew. They always messed with Becket. They were star players on the football team and they made fun of Becket because he never really played.

“Where you going?” asked Anthony in a harshly.

“I'm just going to class,” Becket mumbled under his breath. Becket tried to go around them but they would not let him through.

“What class you going to buddy?” Anthony said with his hands locked on to Becket’s shirt.

“Just leave me alone,” Becket mumbled, now with some anger. Anthony then ripped the sleeve off of Becket’s shirt and walked away, hysterically laughing with his jock crew right behind him. Becket picked up his sleeve and continued walking to class. He was so used to Anthony and his crew messing with him since he has been dealing with it for five years. When Becket entered the classroom, he was ecstatic to finally find out that he had math. Math was his favorite class and he was also part of the math league, so he was good at it too.

It was finally lunch, so Sam and Becket found each other and sat at their same table that they have always sat at. “What happened to your sleeve!” Sam angrily said in shock.

“It's nothing. Don't worry about it,” Becket quietly replied, not wanting to start a scene.

“Was it that kid Anthony again?” Sam said while his face started to turn red with anger.

“Just leave it,” Becket whined.

“I'll go talk to him right now,” Sam growled.

“Stop starting a scene. I'm fine. Just leave me alone,” Becket replied with a tear running down his face. Sam saw how upset Becket was getting, so he left him alone. They both finished their lunch in silence.

After school Sam drove Becket and himself home. They were still mad at each other because of what happened at lunch. When Sam and Becket arrived at their house, Becket immediately went to his room like he always did. When Sam saw Becket go to his room, he went to go talk to his mom, Jane, about what happened at school today.

“Mom, did you see Becket’s shirt? Some kid ripped off his sleeve,” Sam said quietly so Becket would not hear him. Jane gasped and did not say another word. She quickly walked to Becket’s room.

“What happened at school today?” Jane asked already knowing the answer.

Becket already knew that Sam had told Jane. “Nothing mom, just leave me alone!” Becket yelled. Becket got up and closed his door. He started to cry on his bed. Becket was so upset with his life and how people treated him just for being a scrawny, short kid. He has been bullied everyday since seventh grade and he hated it. He was so upset that he punched the wall in his room as hard as he could. A clock fell and hit Becket in the head. Becket then fell and blacked out for a few seconds. All he could see were a bunch of times and clocks just spinning in his head. He then got up, thinking he was fine, and spent the rest of the night upset, now with a huge bump on top of his head.

Sam drove Becket to school the next day. They still did not say a word to each other. They arrived at the school and they went their separate ways. This upset Becket because he knew that Sam was his only friend. As the day went by Becket’s depression stayed. Sam still sat with him at lunch, but they remained silent. At the end of the day, Anthony confronted Becket again.

“Hey Becket,” Anthony said with a grin, “Where you going?”

“Home,” Becket murmured.

“I don’t think so scrawny.” Anthony obtained a strong grasp onto Becket’s backpack.

This made Becket furious. He was so sick of everyone bothering him every single day of his life. He was so sick of going home and crying. Becket had had enough. He closed his eyes hard in anger. He then opened to see that everything was frozen. Time had stopped and he did not know how. He immediately took Anthony’s hands off of his backpack, but he did not stop there. He pushed Anthony on to the floor and kicked him right in the stomach. Becket was now satisfied and time unfroze. Anthony started grunting in pain and Becket laughed hysterically. Anthony then got up and walked away. Becket had stood up to the biggest bully he had ever known. He then walked out of the school and into Sam’s car with a smile on his face. “Why are you so happy?” Sam asked.

“No reason,” Becket said with a grin. When Sam and Becket arrived at their house, they both had smiles on their faces, so their mom just smiled and kept cleaning their house. The next day Becket woke up and tried to use his newly found power, but it would not work. He also realized that it was still the morning of the first day of his sophomore year. It had all been a dream. This made Becket feel powerless. He went into his brother’s car and they both drove to school together. They arrived at the school and Becket made his way to his first period class until he was stopped by Anthony. “Where are you going?” Anthony asked with a grin. Anthony shoved Becket into a locker and he fell to the floor in pain. Becket then thought back to his dream and how he stood up to Anthony. He thought that he would never be able to do that again, but maybe he could. He thought to himself that maybe Anthony was not so tough. If he stood up against him in his dream, maybe he could do it for real this time. “Anthony, get off of me!”, Becket screamed for the whole hallway to here him.

“Why, what are you going to do?”, Anthony asked roughly.

“I will fight you right here right now!”, Becket screamed. This startled Anthony. He did not want to fight Becket in the middle of the hallway for everyone to see. He did not want to get in trouble, so he walked away.

Everyone stood there in awe as they saw that Becket stood up to Anthony. They could not believe it. Becket then walked to his first period class, feeling better then ever.

After school ended, Becket was still extremely happy about how he finally defeated Anthony. His confidence drove him to believe that he could do it, and it worked out for him. It was the first day of football and Becket was not too excited. He had never been good at football because he was so short and scrawny. He just played to fit in with the kids at his school. Once practice started, Becket was still extremely confident, so he decided to implement his confidence into football. When the team took their laps to warm up, Becket was in front of everyone by a great distance. This made him feel like he could actually be of use to the team this year, so he kept the intensity up. This made the coach wonder who was this kid that was ahead of all his captains. Once he realized that it was Becket he was shocked. He did not know that Becket had that in him. Once the team started their offensive segment, the coach yelled out the starting team for the week, and the first thing he said was, “Becket, get out there! Let me see what you got!”

“Yes coach!” Becket replied with excitement. This made Becket light up with joy. He quickly sprinted out to the field and got ready to play.