Underestimated
By: Francis Thomas B. Serrano
Frankie a husky teenager whose perfectly content in just slipping under the radar. Attention was something that frightened Frankie and if he could live the rest of his life without anyone noticing him he would be content. On the other side of the spectrum was Tommy his older brother. A jock and a star pupil. Attending college on a full athletic scholarship and has made the deans list every semester he’s attended. Everyone loved Tommy and everyone wanted to be with him and he was actually a good guy. Everyone except to Frankie. Tommy thinks that it is his job to push Frankie, belittle him and push him around. There was not a day that Tommy did not take it upon himself to push Frankie around. And because Tommy justified this under the banner of trying to motivate Frankie into something a lot of people including their parents went along with it. But instead of pushing Frankie into doing something they considered positive with his life it just pushed him deeper into depression. And today was no different. For just like any day Tommy is doing his best to make Frankie a tough time. The kitchen the typical hub of any family you see Tommy laying it into Frankie. As Frankie continue to play on his game console Tommy is laying on him about how he’s not making anything of his life. Only when Frankie was in tears already that Frankie looks to their mother in hopes that she would end this torture, did Frankie’s heart break even further. When his own mother condones Tommy’s actions and tells Frankie it was for his own good.
Until one day, while walking home from school another bully decides to pick on Frankie. Unfortunately bullies like to seek out the weak and they do not get any weaker than Frankie. As the bully kept pushing and pushing him it just drew Frankie deeper into himself and as his older brother walks by for the first time he needed Tommy. He thought that no matter what they were still brothers and that blood was always thicker than water. But that day, it was not the bully that hurt Frankie but Tommy as he looked at what was happening and joined the fray.
As he was walking home, bruised and crying. He decided that this was the straw that broke the camels back. As each step towards home was as painful emotionally as it was physically, Frankie could not help but feel helpless and hopeless. Until a billboard catches his attention. “DON’T GET MADD, GET EVEN...” Those five words resinated with Frankie like no other five words in the world has ever done. It was like something inside him woke the sleeping dragon and all of a sudden everything make sense.
Two nights later, dressed in a dark hooded sweatshirt and masked armed with a toy shotgun walked into a liquor store. Pointed the gun at the attendant and demanded all the money be put in the bag. Afterwards asked for a bottle of Scotch. The attendant refused due to the fact that the thief did not look 21 years old. Frankie insisted that he was and yet the attendant did not believe him. Until Frankie pulled out his wallet showed the ID and was finally given the bottle of scotch. Two hours later the police pulls up to Frankie’s house. The police officers knocks on their door and his mother answered, “What can I do for you officers?” Then the police looks at her asking, “Ma’am were here looking for Tommy.”
