Chapter 170

During middle school, out of sympathy for our circumstances and out of admiration for our resilience, our homeroom teacher publicly disclosed to the entire class that we were orphans. The teacher had meant well. He had hoped that our classmates would offer us more help. However, he didn't realize that we were just a group of children. To them, we weren't people who needed help but were instead two people who didn't fit in. Since then, the class would always behave in front of the teacher, as if they were trying to help us in every way. However, they would say the worst things to hurt Ryan and me behind the teacher's back. For three years, we heard all kinds of slurs and abuse. They said that our parents had abandoned us, that we were fatherless bastards raised by animals, that we were the jinx that killed our parents, that we were the disgraceful presence that embarrassed the class, and so on. Ryan had been unable to tolerate it, so he would fight back against them even though he