They circled Him

When I was in the eighth grade, there was a boy with me at school who was blond and fair-skinned. He was a grade younger than I was.
Wherever he went, the other students would harass him. He was absent a lot because of this. His father came in to complain more than once but to no avail.
Everyone, without exception, harassed him.

One day, as I was making my way out of third period, I saw, from the second floor, the entire school standing in a circle in the garden.
Someone was in the middle of that circle, and they were all wrestling to get at him.
I asked a friend of mine what was going on.

“That’s your friend in the middle”, he said.
They took advantage of the teachers’ absence and harassed him.
I see him around sometimes; he’s older now.

I don’t know why, but I feel like he leads a depressing life.
I don’t remember what I felt that day when I saw him in the middle of that circle, but I still don’t understand why they were all competing to get at him.

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