Once upon a time, there were two boys who were very good friends. Their names were Carl, which means hope, and William. Carl and William always played basketball on the court close to where they lived. They liked to imagine that they were famous basketball players and took turns shooting the ball into the net.
One day, two bullies came to the basketball court and started calling the boys names. Then one of the bullies stole their basketball.
‘It belongs to us now,’ said the nasty bully.
‘And you’ll never get it back,’ said his friend.
The bullies then began pushing the two boys, and Carl fell down and suddenly became very scared. Without thinking, the young boy sprang to his feet and ran home without looking back to see if his friend William was able to escape too.
But William wasn’t so lucky, and yet he didn’t like being bullied and refused to run away from the boys just because they thought they could push people around. But the boys were bigger and stronger than William, and they punched and kicked him until he was badly injured. His clothes were also torn, and one of his eyes was swollen.
‘That’ll teach you,’ said the nasty bully. ‘We’re big and strong, and you’re small and weak, and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ And with that, the nasty bullies left poor William.
The next day, when Carl met William on the playground at school, he was very ashamed when he saw what the bullies had done to his good friend.
‘I can’t believe you ran away and left me alone!’ said William. ‘What kind of friend acts like that?’
Although Carl tried to apologize, William was very upset and wouldn’t forgive his friend for abandoning him.
‘If that’s the kind of friend you are,’ continued the angry boy, ‘then I’m better off alone.’
Carl was very sorry that he had run away, and now he had lost his best friend because of it.
William’s mother bought him a new basketball, and because the boy was determined not to let his life be controlled by the bullies, he returned to the basketball court the next day and played alone. It wasn’t nearly as fun as when he played with Carl, but William was still angry at his friend and couldn’t forgive him so easily.
Just as he was practicing a difficult shot into the net, he heard a voice behind him that sent a chill down his spine.
‘I see we need to teach you another lesson,’ said the voice.
‘And I see you have another basketball we can take,’ said the other.
And when William turned around, the two bullies were walking towards him.
‘Give us that basketball, and we won’t hit you as hard this time.’
Just as William was about to protest, he heard another voice loud and clear across the basketball court.
‘Get away from my friend,’ called Carl. ‘You’re just bullies, and we won’t stand for it anymore!’
Carl had been watching his friend all along, and as soon as he saw the bullies walking towards William, he took the chance to make up for his mistake and wanted to defend his friend.
Carl and William stood side by side, rolling up their sleeves and preparing to fight with everything they had.
But as soon as the bullies realized they were in for a real fight, a fair fight, two against two, they suddenly lost interest and started walking away from the two friends.
‘You’re not so tough when it’s not two against one!’ said William.
‘You’re just a weak bully,’ said Carl, ‘and if we see you here again, we’ll teach you a lesson. We’ll also tell our parents and our teachers, and they’ll make sure you never get to do this to other kids again.’
Faced with such confidence, the bullies quickly started running away as fast as they could, and Carl and William laughed at the sight of the two big boys looking so scared.
William thanked his friend and forgave him for running away earlier.
‘I’m really sorry,’ said Carl. ‘I see now that together we are stronger than when we’re alone, and we’ll always win over all the bullies in the world if we stick together and don’t let ourselves be pushed around.’
Carl and William remained friends throughout school and continued to be good friends even when they grew up. And they always remembered the lesson they learned that day on the basketball court, and they always stood by each other, as good friends should.
