Almost all days in Jacksonville Junior High were very casual. Classes after classes until students either waited for someone to pick them up or they got to their houses themselves. Other than the occasional celebration of a birthday or holiday, things were dull. Until today.

I had a friend called Ethan Bordeaux. He came from Providence because his parents wanted to live quietly and retire in Florida. He and I instantly became friends. Unfortunately, a few weeks after Ethan came here, another boy came from Nashville to Jacksonville Junior High. His name was Harry Craft. He was a major bully, beating up kids for fun and threatening them if he got into trouble. For months, his reign of terror was successful, and uninterrupted by adults.

In November, after a horrible day of Harry’s tormenting, it was time to go home. Me and Ethan rode on the same bus, and fortunately, Harry rode on a different bus. He still had time to bully us when we waited for our buses. Harry was a natural at wrestling, excelling in his old school’s wrestling tournament as he bragged about every day. Today, we just tried to stay out of his path with no luck. Without a word, he slammed Ethan against a tree.

“What are you doing here?” Harry said in a cruel voice. Ethan didn’t respond. Instead, he started chuckling. Harry looked confused. “Why are you laughing, runt?” This time, Ethan responded.

“Why aren’t you enjoying life? You don’t have much of it, you know. Walk home, take a bath, maybe watch a movie on the TV you don’t have.” Harry was speechless. “You don’t have a long life, so live it to the fullest.” He started pounding Ethan, then threw him to the ground. Ethan started laughing again. “You are wasting your precious time,” Ethan giggled.

“I HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO PUMMEL YOU DOWN, SUCKER!” Harry yelled at the top of his lungs. He then kicked Ethan roughly back to the tree, but Ethan was laughing like a maniac by then. Harry looked creeped out. He took a few steps back. Ethan was still laughing violently. Then, he started choking, coughed a bit, and breathed. “I’m not gonna ask you again. What’s so funny?” Harry said furiously.

“You think that you have a long time for living. Trust me, you’ll have a much longer life if you enjoy it more instead of beating innocents,” Ethan said calmly.

“I can enjoy life because I know how to get rid of pests like you,” we heard a bus come in. “You’re lucky that’s my bus, otherwise you would’ve been dead meat.” Then Harry started walking to his bus. Ethan whispered quietly to himself,

“You’re already dead meat.” Ethan started giggling uncontrollably, turning into an echoing laugh of a madman. By now, the entire schoolyard came over, seeing what was wrong. Ethan was still laughing. After a few more seconds of disturbing laughter, he finally stopped. He stood up. “Don’t expect me on the bus. I’m walking home,” he said to me.

The next day, there was something terrible on the front page of the news, ‘Horrible Accident on the Highway.’ The article was about a very recent bus crash during the route. The driver crashed into a swerving car emerging from a blind pass. From the wreckage, officers identified the bus as Harry’s bus. I was shocked. There were many individuals that got hurt, but only three people died immediately when the bus crashed. The couple in the car died seconds after they got into the accident. The morticians showed them dead when their heads hit the car glass, and were shown as Harry’s parents. Ironically, Harry himself died in the crash. His body was found in a bloody pulp. Jacksonville Junior High cancelled the rest of the month to allow the students that got injured during the accident to recuperate and to allow the Craft’s friends and family to mourn.

In December, most of the students hurt have managed to heal enough to go to school again. But when we got back, instead of cries of sorrow, we encountered cries of anger and confusion. Inside the school, there was graffiti all over the lockers and the walls. All the same six words; ‘Live Your Life to the Fullest.’ Except on one place. The late Harry’s locker didn’t have the terrifying words inscribed throughout the building. Instead it had this:

‘There once was a boy named Harry. He loved torturing innocents, and because of this, he didn’t have time to enjoy himself. Because of this error, he died. This is, however, not a reason to mourn. A dull-lifer doesn’t deserve your tears.’

The teachers got the police to see who sprayed the graffiti on Harry’s locker. They couldn’t figure out who did it. The sickest part of it was Ethan was smiling when he saw the locker.

A week after the incident, Ethan moved to back to Providence. Rumors went around the school that he was the one who caused the crash and murdered the Craft family. But from then on, no one would take Harry’s locker, and the janitors refused to clean the words written. The legendary locker became known as the Bully’s Bane. Even though Ethan was gone, nobody dared to harass another student again and cried tears of terror whenever they got sent to the principal’s office. The bus that crashed was never replaced, so the kids who survived the accident rode on different buses, no matter how far away the bus stop was. The bus driver himself was saved by his seatbelt but got cut by a shard of glass. After he came back from the hospital, he was fired on the spot for his poor driving. Luckily, the driver wasn’t sued. The event was chilling for everyone, and if there were any Crafts nearby, they would be too shocked to do anything. No one would forget that day, and no one would forget that saying written on that forbidden locker: Life to the fullest.