He was never one of them. He was never good enough. He was never worth their kindness. But now suddenly he is, what changed?

Ever since his birth, he was frowned upon, because of what you might ask. His favourite colour? His favourite game or food? No. Those should have been the reason but frankly they were not. The colour of his skin consumed the perspective of him. It was most confusing for Andre growing up in a small conservative town surrounded by white people of a so-called superiority. The first memory he ever had was of questioning children in his school asking what disease he had. This should have never been a question children were even thinking about. Andre was a hardworking student with great grades but was never appreciated.

ANDRE

School was always a must for me, I wanted to be a doctor. The only thing that made me not want to attend was the different levels of respect I was subjected to by my teachers. No matter what I do, I am always some kind of problem that the college is ashamed of.

I took my seat in my usual seat at the back of Mr Malory’s music class. On the first day of school, Mr Malory stated that I couldn’t be seated next to him as he didn’t want to catch anything.

Until now, i never recognised what he meant by this but after today I now do.

Monday 30th March

Pete was my best friend of all time. He and I attended the same camp when we were kids and shortly after he was adopted and moved to the same college. We were the only black kids in the entire town. So I wasn’t surprised with what happened on Monday 30th of March. Pete and I were driving home from school when it happened. We were pulled over by an unmarked police officer and Pete was asked to step out of the car. When we asked what we had done wrong, he scowled and couldn’t give us a straight answer. Shortly after, we were let go. Shocked, we drove back to Pete house which was unfortunately situated next to Mr Malory’s shooting range. When we stopped the car and got out we were welcomed by a hyena-like laugh erupting from Mr Malory’s front drive. I can’t remember exactly what he said but this is the gist.

“Silly, silly boys caught by a cop! I wondered who called them!” he had shrieked

“An idiot by the name of Malory” shouted Pete

This is when it all went sour for me and Pete. Mr Malory was known around town as a very angry lonely man. He grabbed a gun, which was tucked in his trousers, and fired at Pete. i was not ready for this because when are you ever ready for your best friend to be shot.

Tuesday 31st of March

I sat in the hospital for hours waiting for a nurse to rush out and say Pete lived. But this never happened. The bullet had narrowly just hit his heart and there was nothing anyone could do to save him. Police arrived that afternoon, where I told them about Mr Malory.

4 months had passed, and we had finally arrived at the last day of Mr Mallory’s court investigation. I wore a plain suit and was the main and only witness to the case. It was my word against Mr Malory’s. When the jury arrived, I noticed they were all old white males and looked exactly like Mr Malory. They even mirrored his expressions and frown. After only 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Mr Malory not guilty of murder. When asked about why he had shot Pete, he said Pete was scum and black males are violent.

I graduated university with a degree in medicine and moved to the city. On my first day in the city, young white women greeted me in the coffee shop with a smile. It felt amazing and I still think about her to this day. After years of being spat at and called a disease, I was treated like a normal human. I worked for hours on end at a research centre looking for a treatment for kinbowderes disease and today I found it.

Today is the first day of the first ever treatment trial by a patient in my hometown. I am terrified to return but I know I can save someone’s life, so I am travelling down there. I arrive outside a very familiar house. Mr Malory’s house. I sit stunned. I am potentially going to save the life of a murderer.

The treatments worked.

Now when I visit my hometown, I am proud and so are the residents. So, after years of mistreatment and discrimination, I am treated equally. But this saddens me because I SHOULD have been loved and treated with dignity and respect, but I wasn’t, just because of something I have, and others do not. We should ALL be loved, and I know for sure I will love everyone. But I will never forget Pete.

By EVIE, 13.