Each Stormy Skies

Andrew walked home quickly, so as to avoid the attention of the bullies, braggarts and cowards at his school. Earlier he had been thumped into the lockers and half-strangled by the biggest bully of them all, and he knew he wouldn't escape that bully at home - it was his own brother George. George was sixteen, muscular and as much a bully and braggart as a studious person. He picked on those who he believed to be below his academic grades, and woe betide the ones who were brave or foolish enough to ask him to teach them what he knew. They were mocked to the point of despair, and more than one such victim had taken their own life. His or her, as his school was the only school to segregate the academic classes in the area. Girls were still expected to learn sewing and cooking rather than woodwork and other such "manly" things, and men were discouraged from partaking in the "girls" classes. It was a big deal for the sleepy little town of Spalding.