A shy schoolboy found himself the victim of merciless bullying by his school bus driver.
The child tolerated the abuse until one fateful bus ride saw him finding the confidence to stand up to the nasty adult.
Redditor Cormorant11 was a shy child who never made friends his age. His only way to pass the time during the brief bus journey home from school was by reading.
He kept to himself all the time, but that didn’t save him from amassing trouble.
The original poster (OP) would sometimes sit with his older brother on the bus, which somehow helped him make some new friends older than him because they were all his brother’s friends. When OP moved to middle school, he ran into a new bus driver who separated children by age before allocating seats.
OP thought the guy was impolite. The driver had yelled at him a few times for sitting with his older brother. Frustrated by the man’s nagging, OP decided to move to the front row, hoping he’d be spared at least now.
As a little boy, instead of being idle, most of the time, he sat alone in the front and read books. He was shy and didn’t like talking to children his age. OP’s routine on the bus didn’t go unmissed. The driver had been noticing him reading books and, at some point, started to taunt him about how he must be intelligent reading all the time.
A few days later, the driver picked at him again, but this time, OP knew what to do to shut his taunts permanently.
Eventually, the driver came up with a quirky nickname for OP—the “Book Boy.” Every time OP boarded the bus, the man would say sarcastic things like, “Heya, book boy…whatcha reading today?”
The driver exceeded his limits by also poking fun at OP for not having any friends. The boy patiently put up with him, but the final straw on one such bus ride tested his patience to the extreme.
The man announced over the intercom: “Will someone come sit with book boy?” OP was startled and felt ridiculed. “He needs to make some friends,” added the driver about OP, who was then 10 years old.
OP was distraught and went home crying. He narrated the incident to his mother and was surprised by what she told him. OP’s mother comforted him and advised him not to let the driver affect him.
She praised him for being a bright boy, one who would grow up to be successful, unlike the bus driver, who was probably just upset with how his life turned out. The woman’s words breathed some fresh air into OP’s mind, and they quickly brewed an idea in the back of his head.
The little boy had never felt so confident about himself. He started reading with great intensity and remained indifferent to his bullies. A few days later, the driver picked at him again, but this time, OP knew what to do to shut his taunts down permanently.
While dropping the child off at the stop, the driver sarcastically asked Cormorant11, “So, book boy, why are you always reading so much?” OP knew this was the right chance for a little payback. He didn’t miss a beat and merrily hopped off the bus, saying, “So I don’t grow up to be a bus driver!”
The boy never looked back to see the wreckage. Years later, OP took to Reddit’s “PrettyRevenge” subreddit to narrate his experience. The story was soon met with an overwhelming reaction from people online.
Reddit users were amazed by Cormorant11’s story and rushed to the comment section to share their opinions. “This made me smile so big. The fact that you didn’t look back at him makes it even colder and more awesome,” user brendanvista wrote.