About all the times he came home quiet and hollow-eyed. About the laughter and the cruelty he never deserved.
“No, sweetheart,” I said, brushing a strand of hair from his forehead. “Sometimes, the smartest thing isn’t just being smart, it’s knowing when to stand up for yourself.
And you did.”
He smiled, the weight on his small shoulders a little lighter.
The next morning, Lucas’s party was trending all over social media, not for its grandeur, but for the epic bird invasion! People speculated, joked, and laughed. No one knew the real mastermind behind the chaos.
Lucas didn’t show up at school for a week!
Jake went back to his studies, back to being the smart kid no one saw coming.
And from that day on, when kids looked at him, they weren’t laughing.
They were wondering, suspecting, but unsure.
“Maybe next time they’ll think twice before making fun of the ‘poor kid,'” Jake said.
