It was a normal day like every other day for 11 year-old Aquarius. His mom's high-pitched voice woke him up. Sluggishly, he opened his bright brown eyes. His mom's cold lips pressed against his forehead, her fingers ran through his silky dark hair and he brushed her off. She was still her usual self, a thin, long haired, sensitive single woman, whose eyes were always wet like she could break down crying at any moment. She was always over-worried about her son and it annoyed him to the point that he dashed out of the house as soon as he put his lunch in to his backpack, without saying so much as a goodbye to his mom, not caring about what she wanted to say more to him. For many other kids, living close to school is a dream come true. They can stay in bed longer and do not have to rush to the bus stop, worrying that they could miss the bus. Aquarius, on the other hand, hated living close to school. It was not that he didn't enjoying some extra time in bed; it was because he hated this house that he lived in, this road that he walked to school, the park that he walked past which had a broken swing, the dead tree in the middle of that park which never grew so much as a leaf. He hated every one of those things. They had been there as long as he could remember and they had never changed. It was why he hated them; they never changed. At first he found it convenient like every other kid would. Nothing'd ever changed; it was easy because he would not have to worry about unexpected things happening like kidnappings, murders or robbers his mom usually saw on the T.V in other cities or regions. For Aquarius, he gradually got bored and tired of those things that he saw everyday. Eventually, his boredom turned into annoyance and anger. Everyday, he would walk to school, passing by this park. He would go into class, fall asleep exactly an hour into the lesson, would be woken up by Mrs. Mars, but he would fall asleep again 15 minutes later. At lunch, he would take a stroll around the school, he would take Pesci's apple and candy bar and tell the poor boy what he wanted him to bring for the next day.

Pesci was a four-eyed, small, blond-haired boy. He was constantly being bullied by Aquarius, who was twice his size and seemed a bit mature for his age. However, Pesci didn't mind the bullying that he received. Aquarius would never hurt him, he would just take his lunch and sometimes kick his backpack if it happened to be on the floor. Moreover, Aquarius saved Pesci from a fierce pit-bull once some months ago at the park. Aquarius still had the dog's bite marks on his left forearm and Pesci felt in debt to him ever since. The thing only Pesci could see about Aquarius that nobody else could was the goodness hidden behind that face that never cracked a smile. Aquarius seemed distant to everyone and he always looked like he was thinking about something immensely. As far as Pesci could remember, he had never seen Aquarius smile.

Like every other day, Pesci walked home taking the path through the park that he always took. He would sit on the swing that was next to the broken one, he would swing back and forth a few times, enjoying himself for a few minutes before heading home. Pesci was swinging himself for the second time when he heard someone approaching. It was Leo, the biggest bully in the school, and his gang of three other boys. The reason why Leo was called the biggest bully in school was not because he was physically bigger than Aquarius; in fact, he only as came up to Aquarius's nose. Although he wanted to, Leo could never exercise his power on Aquarius. There was something about Aquarius's cold face that made Leo scared and he never wanted to admit that. He had always hated Aquarius for that. He had hated Aquarius for as long as he could remember. He was called the biggest bully in the school, because he had a gang, who would follow his orders and bully anyone in their sight, and they were always together.

Seeing them getting closer, Pesci stood up from the swing right away. The sudden standing up made him lose his balance; he fell on the sand. Pesci could hear their laughter when he was struggling, trying to stand up. Not letting Pesci stand up that easily, Leo kicked Pesci in his stomach, so he would fall again. Pesci rolled on the ground with his hands on his stomach and that made Leo even more excited. It's the same with every bully in the world; they feel satisfied when they see their victims suffer.

"I heard you gave Aquarius your candy bar," said Leo, "What about me? Did you bring one for me?"

Pesci timidly shook his head, attempting to get up but failed to do so when Leo kicked him again on his side as soon as he saw Pesci's answer.

"You should know better. You should know who's the boss in this school! You stupid worm!" Leo shouted as he kicked Pesci and signalled for his gang to join in.

Pesci hid his head between his hands, praying that it would be over soon. In his mind, he thought if he did not give them a reaction, they would get bored and leave him alone. But in the case of a bully like Leo, he enjoyed this so much, there was no way that he would let Pesci off that easily. Somehow, beating Pesci gave Leo a kind of fantasy that he was on top of Aquarius. He knew for a fact that Aquarius had never beaten Pesci. And now, as he was beating up Pesci, a thing that Aquarius would never do, he felt like he had the power again.

As the bullies were laughing, having fun beating up their victim, they didn't pay attention to their surrounding. Aquarius ran to the scene from the park gate and pushed Leo off Pesci with all his might. Leo fell over, grabbing on one of the gang members to keep balance but failed; they both fell on the ground. The other two members, as soon as they saw Aquarius, backed off from Pesci immediately. The sudden appearance of Aquarius startled Leo for a bit but he tried not to show it. The gang members tried to help Leo get up but he brushed them off in a frustrated mood.

"Those chickens!" Aquarius said quietly as he pulled Pesci to his feet, "ganged up on a worm."

"What did you say?" Leo barked.

Aquarius turned his eyes towards Leo, his expression never changed. He said coldly:

"Chickens, ganged up on a worm! Is that wrong?"

Leo's blood started to boil in his veins. He was not entirely angry, he was more embarrassed than angry. How could Aquarius interrupt in the middle of his exercising his power like that? It was humiliating for Leo in front of his gang members and especially in front of his victim. On top of it, Aquarius dared to call him a chicken! It was unforgiveable! The boiling blood reached to Leo's brain, that made him forget his reason but also made his face turn red. Without thinking further, he launched himself at Aquarius. His gang stayed behind because they somehow were smarter than Leo at the moment, they knew they could not go up against someone who was twice their size.

Aquarius did not want to fight, he stepped aside out of Leo's way to avoid the punch. Leo, once again, lost his balance because of Aquarius's sudden getting out of the way, fell flat on his face. He screamed:

"You stand still!"

Then Leo launched himself at Aquarius again with more strength. Aquarius once again avoided Leo's punch and once again, Leo fell flat on his face. If this went on, Aquarius would get bored and eventually angry again at the life he was living. So he stopped for Leo to punch for the third time. The punch landed on his stomach. Aquarius grimaced as it hurt where he was punched. He fell on the ground on his back. Leo climbed on top of Aquarius and started to rain punches down on his face. The punches made Aquarius's sight narrower, he could not see his opponent to defend himself. Suddenly, the punches stopped. Aquarius looked up and saw that Pesci was clinging to Leo's arm, trying to get him off Aquarius. Although he was trying with all his might, Pesci was weak, he was soon thrown off by Leo. The gang members started to get on Pesci. Seeing Pesci fall on the ground, Aquarius found a weird feeling bubbling inside his stomach. It was hot and it was urging him to take action. Aquarius threw Leo off, ran to Pesci and threw the gang members off one by one. After seeing Aquarius fall, the gang members apparently gained some courage, they all launched at Aquarius. But this time, Aquarius did not stand still and also did not avoid them; he used his strength, pushed them out as they got close to him. They all fell down and got up quickly. But before Leo or the gang members could launch at him again, Aquarius shouted:

"I don't want to fight with you anymore! It's pointless! What do you want out of fighting with me?"

Leo looked puzzled and confused. He didn't expect the fight to turn into some kind of interview like this. The gang members looked at Leo, waiting for an answer or a signal to launch at the two boys standing in front of them.

"What do you want?" Aquarius repeated his question.

"What does it have to do..."

Leo started to reason when he was cut off by Aquarius:

"What do you want? I know what I want, I want to stop fighting. Let's settle it once and for all. If you want to prove you're better than me, then you win. I have nothing better than you. You have friends, you have a dad. I have none of those. What else would you want from me?"

Leo struggled with his words:

"The...the worm...gave you his candy...but didn't give me anything..."

Aquarius sighed, reached into his pocket, pulled out a candy bar and threw it at Leo's feet:

"Here you go! Anything else?"

"Not like that!" Leo's anger suddenly came back, "He gave it to you first, he wasn't even scared of me! I had to teach him a lesson! Why did you get in the way?"

Aquarius eyebrows got together for a second or two then separated again as he finally understood the situation:

"Oh! Is that the reason? That you only want to prove you're a bigger bully than me?" Aquarius cracked a smile as if it was something slightly amusing, "Look, you're already a bigger bully than me. Everyone admits that. Even Pesci," He turned to Pesci, "Right?"

Pesci startled as everyone suddenly looked at him but he still timidly nodded. Leo's eyes were wide open. He was surprised and at the same time, confused by the situation. Aquarius went on:

"I'm nothing. You can't bully me because you physically can't so I really don't care. I bully him because I was bored and school was boring. Bullying him was like the only excitement I have in a day. And I bully only him, do you see me walking around and bullying everyone else like you do?"

Leo, still surprised and confused, shook his head. Aquarius nodded:

"See? You have the power all along. I'm nothing. I don't understand why you hate me so much, I don't have the things you have. I should be the one who envies you. You don't have a stupidly long name. I don't even know who my dad is...or was. What is there about me to envy?" Leo couldn't answer the question so Aquarius went on, "If you want the worm's candy bar, you can have it. I don't need it. I just don't want to fight with you."

The park was silent except for the sound of the wind passing through the leaves on the trees, as Leo didn't know what more to say. In a moment, his hatred for Aquarius was suddenly resolved. He didn't know why, but he felt like there was something in his heart that was released from its cage. He awkwardly nodded:

"Ok."

And signalled his gang to come along. They walked out of the park in silence.

Pesci and Aquarius were left in the park. After watching Leo and the gang leave, Pesci took a deep breath and spoke to Aquarius, as timidly as ever:

"So do you still want that strawberry candy bar tomorrow?"

Aquarius turned around to look at Pesci, he brushed off the dirt on Pesci's face, fixed Pesci's glasses on his face, then said calmly:

"No, if you don't want to bring it."

He turned to leave when Pesci spoke in a louder voice:

"I don't think your name is stupidly long. Do you know why you were given that name?"

Aquarius turned around, shrugged his shoulders. Pesci smiled brightly as it was his field of expertise:

"It's because you were born under that star sign. I went to your birthday party in kindergarten, so I know your birthday. You know, Aquarius is said to be very humane and loves peace. Myth says that Aquarius is the water bearer that brings life and peace to the world. That was what you just did. I've always known that you're a good person."

Aquarius, surprised at Pesci's knowledge, smiled:

"How do you know that much?"

Pesci pointed at Aquarius's left arm:

"That tells me."

Aquarius looked at his left arm, almost like he was remembering something happy; he smiled warmly. He pulled Pesci to the bench and said with a more excited tone than before:

"Tell me more about the star signs."

Pesci smiled more brightly than ever and started talking non-stop about the things he had read in many books.

The conversation lasted longer than Aquarius expected. It was already dark when he got home, and as he predicted, his mom was on the verge of breaking down when he saw her face on the porch. Seeing him walking toward the house, her sobbing stopped. She smiled brightly, the same way Pesci smiled when he talked about the things he knew. She ran toward her son, looked at him from head to toe, brushed off the dirt in his hair, announced in a cheerful voice:

"I made fried chicken. Come on!"

For the first time, looking at his mom's tears and smile, Aquarius understood how important he was to his mom. He was not a nothing to her. He was everything to her. And why would he need a dad who he didn't even know? His mom was everything he needed. With a newly found source of excitement in life, Aquarius walked into the house.

Tomorrow would be like every other day; Aquarius, the 11 year old boy with a ridiculously long name, would wake up with his mom's kiss. He would take the same way passing by the park to school. He would sit in Mrs. Mars's class and this time, he would try to stay awake for longer than 15 minutes. He would meet Pesci for lunch to hear more about the myths that Pesci had read in books. Leo would not greet Aquarius with hatred anymore. Tomorrow, although like every other day, would be a brand new day.