It was the falling leaves that hooked his eye. The chilling fall air made goosebumps on his skin and he blew labored breaths. Even regarding his focused look on his face, anyone could tell he was distracted. Yet, besides all of that it was the leaves. Leaves, leaves, leaves, the wet leaves that left his feet dancing all over the field, unintentionally, all practice long. The ball kept slipping out of his hands from leaves bonded to it. The other kids were puffing with anger. Tyler observed his coach looking confused. 

That's Tyler. Tyler plays football on the Needham Greykats football team. He has always loved football, especially the excitement of throwing deep passes and winning games. His father and him used to watch the Patriots games together. 

The starting lineup for offense on his team is Derek, Tommy and Will (twins), Jake, Isaac, a couple other random kids, and himself. 

Derek had always expressed nasty and uninviting looks to Tyler. He never knew why but it only got worse when he joined the football team and “ruined the game for everyone” Derek had muttered to him recently.

Practice was over, Coach Jon instructed Tyler to practice deep passes more to prepare for the upcoming playoff game. On his way home, Tyler remembered to had to finish his math homework. As Mr. Thompson, the librarian, greeted Tyler and told him to take a seat into the library. He noticed Derek there, he kept staring at Tyler with disgust. Tyler tried to ignore it but the anger got to him “Oh are you so perfect!” He fumed to Derek. He then smirked as Tyler quickly turned around in rage. The thoughts of catching that ball in the endzone or not fumbling the run, kept appearing in his head. At the same time, there were thoughts of Derek’s cruel looks even before practice started. Why was he so annoyed to have Tyler on the team? 

You're just like everybody else, his Mother would always say. No matter what you look like, everybody is a human, eats the same food, has the same thoughts, has the same organs, and she would go on forever. When Tyler was young, He didn't know what a different skin color meant. Having black skin just makes him unique right?

Tyler didn’t even know having a different color skin then most people was even something other people thought about. When he was a little kid nobody ever pointed it out until his mother did. Could having black skin be why Derek didn’t want him on the team. That’s crazy, who would think such a thing? Tyler’s skills of catching and running were quite better then most of the other kids, It couldn’t be about his skill. 

The next day at school Tyler could not get his mind off the thought of Derek being...no, no, racist? Why would he have something against black people. Racist, such a scary word for Tyler to comprehend but the thoughts only got worse as the day went on. His mind was a big knotted mess of trying to think about school, the upcoming playoff game, and Derek.

As lunch time rolled by he went to get his normal sloppy beans and half cooked crusty pizza. He then stuck his pizza down on one of the nearby tables as Jimmy said hello to him. Not too far away, he noticed Derek standing next to Eli. Eli was one of Tyler's 3rd grade reading buddies, he had a hearing problem and needed to use hearing aids. Tyler felt pounding on his chest with a thousand nervous butterflies flying all around his body. There was Derek telling Eli to never play football or he would make the team lose because brown skinned kids cannot play football at the same time he plucked his hearing aids out. Smoke arose from Tylers brain as his face turned as red as a firetruck. What is this kid's problem, why would he say such a thing? 

Tyler stomped to his feet and began sprinting, as he reached them, Derek noticed him and immediately froze. He then walked away acting like nothing happened as a lunch lady was eyeing him. Eli started crying loudly, and tried to ask Tyler what Derek was talking about, but all that came out were sounds of fear. 

“That's it!” Tyler ruthlessly rumbled as he ran towards the door where Derek was talking to a girl in the hallway with a smirk on his face. “Yeah we would actually be a good team this year if it wasn’t for Tyler himself. Kid’s prolly lookin’ for me as he saw me talkin’ to a little twerp in the caf.” Derek confidently said as always. 

ROAWWWWWWWW. BOOM, BOOM. Load footsteps, clenched fist, impact, impact, impact. Slam! everything goes dead.

The coolness, the soft sheets. A warm hand touching mine. Ahhhh, sharp pain. Nose, nose hurts. Wha-what happened. Where am I? He opens his eyes. Hospital. I am in the hospital.” He sees his mother worried but with a petite smile on her face. “Mother what happ-”

“You're awake!! Oh my gosh I’ve been waiting hours for you to wake up. Some kids say you were eating lunch and suddenly ran to this kid, this kid Derek. Then you tried to punch him but he knocked in a wall and you passed out? What happened Tyler? Are you alright?”

“Oh yes, he has been rude to me and some other kids. I think he is being racist towards the black kids in my school.” He then saw his nurse signal to his mother that they were free to go home, with a bag of medication in her hand.

“Your nose is fractured, but will heal in a couple of days. Take it easy, and rest up! You guys are free to go.”

Tyler then skipped the next day of school to let his body heal. Still confused about what happened as he did not remember any of it, probably from being knocked out. 

When he returned back to school, He first had to talk to the principal about what happened. Mr. Lockmoore, the principal, and Tyler agreed Derek acted this way because Eli and Tyler were less fortunate then Derek and he found it amusing that their families could not afford to live in such a wealthy town as a result he took his anger out on them. Tyler still had to serve detention for trying to punch Derek because Mr. Lockmoore said it was against the rules if Tyler got off the hook.

At lunch time, Tyler noticed his football coach standing in the corner of the cafeteria and went to go ask him a question. Coach Jon immediately looked surprised “I have been looking for you. Listen, what you did was the right thing but that contact got you in trouble and it would be against code if I didn’t make you sit the playoff game out.”

“What!” Tears instantly filled the kids' eyes. Countries full of regret filled his soul. His voice was so unusually sad sounding. Not the playoff game, he had worked so hard to make it onto this team and to play in that game. How could this happen? He needed to fix this!

During the last block of the school day Tyler saw Derek in the bathroom with a red face. He had heard Derek was suspended the day before and in lots of trouble for lying about what happened Eli. He looked like he had been crying. When he noticed Tyler he immediately looked away. Tyler then asked him what happened and he broke down sobbing. “I went to guidance and told them everything and I’m sorry, ok, I should have treated everyone better.” Derek explained to Tyler that he said those things because Tyler and Eli were less fortunate and he was insecure about himself so he took his anger out on the two instead of talking to someone about it. Tyler explained that feeling insecure is ok but taking the anger out on other people is never the right thing to do.

The two then talked it out and Derek apologized. After school they went for milkshakes and they both skipped the playoff game to play manhunt with some kids in the neighborhood. Derek learned to not take his anger out on other people who have less.