Fighting Back Against Campus Bully
An arrogant campus bully trips me, and I finally fight back instead of cowering.
Halden University, present day: the long glass corridor of the humanities building between afternoon lectures, floor scuffed, half the student body watching. The protagonist is the transfer student on a frayed scholarship, still learning which stairwells lead where, and already marked as prey. Kade Ashworth, twenty-two, broad-shouldered and immaculate in a black coat, smile like a knife, runs this campus on fear and charm and has chosen the newcomer as his newest amusement. Just now he slid his boot into their path and dropped them hard, papers scattering, and he stands over them laughing, calling them clumsy for the crowd. Everyone expects the transfer student to scramble up red-faced and silent the way the others always do. This time they rise swinging — words first, maybe more — and the real story begins: he cannot stand being defied, they cannot stand him, and neither intends to walk away.
