Every story needs a hero. For this story, the hero turns out to be Marquise Bird. Marquise is bold, brave, and willing to make sacrifices for those he loves and cares about. He doesn’t know he is a hero, however. In fact, if you ask him, he would tell you that he is just an ordinary boy. But heroes are made, not born. And Marquise the hero was about to be made.
In most stories, there is also an insidious villain. Villains are notorious for opposing heroes. They slink about, poking their noses where they don’t belong, and they generally make the hero’s life miserable. And yes, this story has a villain. Her name is—ah yes, “her.” Villains tend to be on the mean side and there is nothing meaner on God’s green earth than a girl, so naturally, the villain of this story is a girl. Her name…is Diana Garcia.
Marquise was terrified of Diana. Diana has this glare that could curdle milk. In fact, Marquise wondered if she couldn’t turn people into stone with such a penetrating, evil stare. He tried to avoid her look whenever possible, lest he be caught in her gorgon stare and draw her ire. The only good thing about her was that she was so much older than he was, so she tended to overlook him when their paths crossed. Marquise secretly referred to her as Diablo Diana—or DD for short. Never to her face of course. He wasn’t stupid.
On this day, the day when Marquise would be made into a hero, he arrived at school to see the usual characters lounging around the playground or talking in groups here and there. Near the playground entrance stood the closest thing the school had to a gang—the Baker Boys. They were harmless enough, Marquise supposed. Generally they just made faces at people who got too close to them. Usually, this just turned into a fit of contagious laughter since Jacen’s scowl looked more like that of a squirrel with nut stuffed cheeks. Dalen, the de facto leader of the Baker gang, tried to look cool, but sticking his tongue out at Christopher spoiled the effect. Kyle ignored his brothers, making faces at a passing butterfly instead, while Owen just laughed at Jacen’s bad attempts to imitate Dalen. That got them all to laughing.
Marquise gave the Baker Boys a wide berth and walked up the sidewalk towards the school building to put down his backpack. The Newton twins passed him, walking in sync to each other. They did everything like that, annoying the teachers, and driving people crazy when they finished each other’s sentences. They claimed they couldn’t help it, but Marquise figured they had conspired long ago to make everyone’s life a little bit more complex. He bet at home, they fought like two stray alley cats tossed into a small closet.
Nicole and Breanna flashed him a mirrored smile of welcome as they walked by. The dual smile flustered him, not knowing which to respond to, so he ended up returning a sloppy one of his own that probably looked more like melting chocolate than a real smile. They nodded to each other satisfied and whisked away to more mischief.
Shaking his head, Marquise walked on. The sun shone brilliantly this day and the air had a lingering coolness of the fading morning. He enjoyed mornings—though he would enjoy them more if he didn’t have to get up so early and go to school. Still, he wasn’t complaining. After all, hero’s didn’t complain. Well, he wasn’t a hero yet, so a complaint or two would be okay—if needed.
Robert Long and his sister, Niki, emerged from the school building just as he got to the door. “Hey,” Robert shouted as soon as he spotted Marquise. Robert always seemed to shout. Marquise guessed it was easier than repeating himself. “Did you hear about what happened to Master Osgood?”
The school master ran the school of budding young Christians. It was his job to prepare boys and girls to survive in and even to conquer a wicked world. A real battle takes place all around them. Satan and his minions sought to destroy everything holy and ruin lives, making them ineffective for the cause of Christ.
“No,” Marquise replied, trying to think what might have happened, but coming up with nothing. “What happened? Is he okay?”
“We don’t know. He’s disappeared. Gerardo said he saw Master Osgood come to school, but no one has seen him since. No one can find him.” Robert seemed overly enthusiastic.
“That’s not good.”
“Sure it is,” Robert exclaimed, smiling broadly.
“Uh, no it’s not.” Marquise objected.
“Well, if no one finds him, they might cancel school today! That’s good, isn’t it?”
Marquise had no real response to that one.
“Well, I hope so!” Robert shouted. “A free day! Yeah!” He ran off.
Niki lingered for a moment and whispered, “Someone has to find Master Osgood. If he doesn’t turn up soon, You-Know-Who will take charge.” She nodded to a group of students standing under the awning of the adjacent building. Marquise turned to look and looked smack dab into You-Know-Who’s eyes—Diablo Diana.
Marquise felt his heart thump—and not in a good way. And sure enough. She was staring right back at him, standing among a group of her evil minions. He could practically feel his face hardening into stone. He backed up and turned slightly so as not to stare directly at her.
Diana smiled at his weakness, but it was more of a smile a cat has when a mouse wanders beneath its fangs. Her group of minions all turned to look at Marquise then and he shuddered under the impact of their malevolent stares. Trey had the most thoughtful look, but it wasn’t friendly—more cold and calculated, like a snake’s. Amanda eyed him like a butcher would consider a slab of meat, and Makenna’s was the worst of all. How can a girl so short manage to look down her nose at him? But she did—though it made her look somewhat cross-eyed. He still found the effect unnerving.
Diana stood forth and placed her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “Don’t get any ideas of trying to find Master Osgood, frog-face. This is none of your business. You stay out of it. Understand?”
The moment of crisis had come. The entire school yard fell silent and every head turned to look at him to see how he would respond. Sweat broke out on Marquise’s brow and his hands suddenly felt clammy. His heart thudded in his chest, threatening to jump right up his throat. He glanced at the others, his friends, trying to see if anyone would support him. Niki had disappeared, Robert had scampered off to antagonize the Baker gang, but everyone else stood perfectly still, watching him.
He saw Trevor Cowling standing with Isaiah, Jelena, and Jackie. Under normal circumstances, Marquise would expect that group to stand up to Diana and her wicked cohorts, but today they did nothing. Today they watched to see what Marquise would do. Today, it was up to him to take a stand.
Others, such as Aiden, Christopher, TJ, and Delilah all nodded in his direction, giving him silent support. But the decision was his and his alone. Still others, like Lily and her sister Hope, stood with another group of students, giggling and murmuring amongst themselves. Lily looked to be laying odds on who would win the confrontation—the traitor!
At that moment, Marquise learned an important lesson. Being a hero wasn’t about vanquishing evil, it was about deciding to stand up against it. Even if he suffered because of it, the most important thing was that he would have done the right thing today. Tomorrow, he would not look back on this day and have regrets.
He straightened up and lifted his head slightly. Taking a deep breath, he sent up a silent prayer to God for aid and said, “You’re wrong, Diana. It is my business. In fact, it is all of our business. The world out there is a dangerous place and Satan is out to get all of us—even you, Diana. You might think Master Osgood’s disappearance is a good thing, but it isn’t. Can you teach us to apply our hearts to wisdom? Master Osgood has been a captain in this battle against the enemy. We need him and we can’t waste time not learning how to win this war. You might think this is all just a joke—all a game, but it isn’t. This is real life and what we learn here today could save us in the future.”
For a long time, no one said anything. The words had just sprung out of him. He hadn’t rehearsed it, planned it, or anything. Where had those words come from? A verse from the Bible floated across his mind: “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”
Marquise eyes widened slightly as he realized that God had used him in that moment.
He smiled then, but it quickly faded when he looked again at Diana. Diablo Diana wasn’t finished yet. Her face turned red, then purple, and then a shade of color that might or might not even exist. “How dare you speak to me like that,” she shrieked. She glared around at her minions who all flinched as her eyes focused on them. “Don’t just stand there, you pathetic louts! Get him!”
Uh-oh, Marquise thought in dread. Here it comes. There was no way he could win a fight with these three. Besides, two of them were girls, and if his father ever found out that he struck a girl—regardless of the reason—he would be grounded for at least the first few thousand years of Heaven—a fate, he feared, soon to be upon him.
He could run. Well, no, he couldn’t. Trey would catch him, and hold him down while the girls kicked his ribs in. Makenna especially liked to kick things. His side began aching just thinking about it. So, since all other options seemed to be worse, he stood his ground. He would suffer if need be. He had done the right thing. Afterwards, he would organize some of the students and look for Master Osgood. School would not be canceled today. There were lessons to learn. Each day was important.
And so a hero was made. Being a hero isn’t about being able to vanquish the villains. Being a hero is not even about saving the day. Being a hero is about standing up for what is right, regardless of the cost. Marquise became a hero that day in every sense of the word. True heroes rarely make it into the history books or have their faces plastered on posters somewhere. True heroes live all around us and they are deserving of the title.
Oh…you might be wondering what happened to Marquise. Did Trey, Amanda, and Makenna beat him up? Did Lily win her wager? Did Marquise suffer for standing up for right? Undoubtedly he would have, and he would have judged it to be worth the cost. But about the time Trey reached out to grab Marquise, Master Osgood strolled around the corner of the school building, a half-eaten donut in one hand and a smug of jelly on the corner of his mouth.
Everyone froze and stared at him incredulously. He looked the situation over with a critical eye and said loudly, “What? I was hungry. Everyone get to class or you’ll all get demerits!”
Everyone scrambled to obey, even the villain. Sometimes, even villains know how to be heroes.
The End