I woke up early in the morning, like I usually did. The day started out just like any other day of my life. I woke up, got ready for school, then rode my skateboard there. Everyday at school was always the same, and painfully so, and I had absolutely no reason at all to believe that that day was going to be any different. Nothing interesting ever happened in any of my classes, and everyone and everything was exactly the same. This was largely caused by the fact that we had to have uniforms.

The dress code was very strict, and heavily enforced. All of the girls had to wear black flats, white socks that went half way up our shins, maroon plaid skirts that went all the way down to our knees, white dress shirts, and a grey vest, with our hair pulled into a ponytail. This meant that I wasn't aloud to cut my hair, no matter how much I wanted to. The boys wore pretty much the same thing, except they had maroon slacks, and black dress shoes. During formal events either at the school, or funded by the school, all of the students also had to wear maroon blazers.

I got to school, stepped off my skateboard, and kicked it up to carry it inside. My skateboard always took up most of the room in locker, which made things just a bit complicated because I didn't have much room for all of my books, but it was the only way I had to get to and from school, so I managed. As I was grabbing some books, and putting my skateboard into my locker, I heard my friend call out my name.

"Ty!" She called out. She was always so positive. I turned around, and saw Clair, my friend. She had long, red hair, with striking blue eyes, and very pale skin. She looked like she was almost the exact opposite of me. I had tan skin, brown eyes, and dark brown hair. Clair was most definately more attractive than me, but this didn't bother me at all.

"Hi Clair." I said in a voice that was a lot calmer than hers.

"I hear we get to watch a video about something special in global studies." Clair said excitedly.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but I really don't think it's going to be very exciting."

"It might be."

"Doubtful. Nothing exciting ever happens around here." With that, the conversation was over, and Clair and I took our seats in our first class.

We did watch a video in global studies like Clair had said that we would, but I more or less missed part of it. The second I had sat down at my desk, I took out my sketchpad, and began drawing instead of paying attention. Our teacher started the video, but I still didn't look up. Eventually, I did end up glancing up at the screen, and after that, I couldn't pull my eyes away from it.

The video was about recent news, and it was talking about a murder. After that, it talked about a mugging. Then a car crash, another murder, and a stand off that almost ended in a mass shooting. It was all just news about all the crime, and the people that were dead. What bothered me most was that there was footage of the victims of these crimes, meaning someone stood back, and took a video of someone getting killed instead of trying to help. That wasn't right. To stand back and watch a life get taken was wrong. I left that class angry at the world.

I wanted to do something. I wanted to help, and I wanted to make a positive difference in the world. I didn't want to be like everyone else, standing back and doing nothing more than taking a video while someone else gets killed. It just wasn't right, and I didn't want to be any part of it. I decided right then and there that if I ever saw someone who needed help, I would help them. No matter what.

The opportunity to hold true to my decision presented itself a lot sooner than I had expected. I was skateboarding home after school, just that day, when some movement caught my attention. I stopped, and looked over to my left, where I saw something going on in the alley way across the street from me. I couldn't quite see what was going on, so I just stared for a moment, until I heard a voice.

"Please, leave me alone." I heard a man beg. I remembered the video that we had watched, and the promise that I had made to myself. I inhaled deeply, kicked up my skateboard, and summoned all of my courage before walking across the street.

"Hey!" I called down the alley way, pretending that I wasn't afraid. "He said to leave him alone!"

"And who are you?" A man asked. As I got closer, I was able to see that a large man, who looked like he definately was a criminal, had another, skinnier man, pinned up against a wall. The skinnier man was still trying to get free, even though the larger man had stopped what he was doing to look at me.

"Someone who's here to stop you." I growled.

"Look little girl, just keep walking. This doesn't concern you." The big man said.

"Yes it does. Leave this man alone."

"You're asking for trouble kid." At the man's words, I took off my backpack, and set it aside along with my skateboard. I put up my fists, hoping that I looked tough, because, in all honesty, I was not prepared to beat anyone up, and I didn't even know how to do so.

"Bring it." I growled, trying to keep the shakiness out of my voice. The man backed away from the other man, and pulled something out of his pocket. There was a little click, and a blade popped out. I knew right then and there that I definately was in way over my head, but I didn't back down. The big man pushed the other man down behind him, and charged at me.

The skinny man watched in fear from the ground as the big man slashed at me with his knife. I did the best I could to dodge the knife, and actually had managed to not get cut. I threw a punch, and hit the man in the face. I let out a groan, pulling my fist back, and cradling it a bit. Evidently, there is a wrong way to punch someone. The man got angrier, and slashed at me, cutting my arm. I did the only thing that I thought would work, and the only thing that I knew how to do in terms of fighting. I kicked the man as hard as I possibly could right in the junk. He doubled over in pain, with his hands on his crotch. I took this opportunity to kick the man in the face, once again, as hard as I could.

The man fell onto the ground, blood pouring out of his nose. I ran up to him, and pried the knife out of his hands. I threw it to the side, and out of his reach. The man got to his feet, and, before I could see it coming, he punched me in the face. My head snapped back a bit, and my vision went a bit blurry. I stumbled back in order to stay on my feet from the sudden impact to my face. I recovered as quickly as I could, and punched the man in the face again, hurting my fist yet again. The man punched me in the gut, causing me to drop to my knees in pain, unable to breath.

The man chuckled as he pushed me over, and began to kick me. My vision blurred as I got beat up. It got to the point where I couldn't even feel the pain anymore, and I just watched as I got the shit kicked out of me. Then, suddenly, I got angry, as angry as I had been earlier that day after global studies. I rolled away from the man, and got up on my feet, though with great difficulty. I put my fists up again, ready to defend myself.

"You don't know when to quit do you kid?" The man chuckled.

"The word quit isn't even in my vocabulary dipshit." I responded, spitting in his direction. The man growled, and went to lunge at me, but he stopped when sirens were heard from right behind me. Red, white, and blue flashing lights flooded the alleyway, bringing visibility to the situation. I lowered my fists, and turned around to see two cops stepping out of their car, both raising their guns as they approached the situation.

"We got a call saying that there was a fight and a mugging going on here." One of the cops barked angrily.  

"Who called you?" I asked, curious as to who would have called the police.

"I did." I heard a voice say. It was the skinny man who was getting mugged in the first place. He walked up to me, and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. He smiled at me in thanks.

"What, exactly, happened?" The same officer from before asked. The skinny man walked over to them and began to explain.

"This man here was robbing me, when this lady came over and told him to leave me alone." The skinny man said, pointing to the big man, then to me. "He was threatening her, and he pulled out a knife. She hit him a few times, he cut her, but she managed to get the knife away from him. He was beat on her really bad just before you guys got here. I think she needs to go to the hospital. Please, don't do anything to her. She was trying to help me."

The police lowered their guns, and one of them walked over to the man, and slammed him up against the wall, putting him in hand cuffs. I placed my hand on my ribs where I was very tender. I wouldn't have been surprised if a rib or two was broken. The cop who yelled at us in the begining walked up to me, most likely wanting to ask me some questions too.

"Is what he said true?" The cop asked, pointing to the skinny man.

"Yes. The knife is over there if you wanted it." I said, pointing to where the knife was on the ground.

"Do you think you need to go the hospital?"

"It's a likely possibility." I chuckled, but quickly stopped when I found myself in excruciating pain, causing me to grip my ribs tighter.

"Where are your parents?"

"At work. Don't worry, I'll get to the hospital. You just, take care of this guy." I said, gesturing to the bigger man who had beat me up.

After the police and the skinny man had left, I didn't go to the hospital. I grabbed my bag, and skateboarded to Clair's apartment. I used the fire escape to climb through Clair's window. I climbed in, and shut the window. Clair was sitting at her desk, her back towards me, as she watched a show on her computer. Her headphones were on, so I guessed that she couldn't hear me. I tapped Clair's shoulder, and she jumped, taking off her headphones and spinning around quickly. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

"Ty? What happened?" Clair asked, standing up and rushing to my side.

"I may need just a little bit of help." I replied.

"Right, what all is hurt?"

"Everything. I think I might have a broken rib or two."

"Take off your shirts, I'll get the first aid kit and get you taken care of." Clair left, and I did as I was told, taking off both of my shirts, but leaving my bra on.

Clair cleaned off, and bandaged my cuts. She wrapped up my torso, after poking around at my ribs, and having me do different things, and deciding that she didn't think that any of my ribs were broken, but that we should still wrap me up just in case. I had let Clair wrap the bandages around my torso, and, for the first time that whole day, I actually didn't feel horrible. Definately not as horrible as I should have felt, given the circumstances.

"Do you think..you could make it a little tighter?" I asked while Clair was wrapping me up. Clair looked up at me with an unhappy expression.

"That's not safe Ty." She told me.

"I know, but..."

"No Ty. I'm trying to help you, not cause more damage." Clair told me in a tone that told me that there would be no more debating about it. I sighed and nodded, accepting defeat.