One day, a shy outcast named Marcus found an old rubber band. Bored, he started to play with it. All the kids laughed and made fun of him, teasing that his only friend was a dirty elastic. When Marcus got home, he started tying together some old elastic bands he found in the drawer. He tied them into knots until they became a marble sized clump. The next day, Marcus found another elastic lying on the ground. He picked it up and tied it around his little clump of elastics. As the day progressed, he found more rubber bands around the school and so he tied them, and tied them into his clump Slowly his ball of elastics became bigger and bigger. On the weekend, he went to the store and bought an entire bag of rubber bands. He tied and tied until he got blisters all over his hands and fingers. His ball was now the size of a tennis ball. He gave it a rest for the weekend and put bandaids on his blisters.

Sometimes, Marcus would tie in a little note under the elastics, using them as sort of hidden treasures if anybody were to ever unravel his ball. Sometimes, he would just write the date, or sometimes, he would write his secrets. He would write about what the bullies did to him, and how he was afraid to tell anyone about it. He wrote about how they teased him and beat him up, how they shoved him in lockers and stole his lunch.

When he ran out elastics, he went out and bought a bigger bag of elastics. Again he sat there and tied away for hours on end. His blisters turned into calluses and his ball grew to the size of a volleyball. Soon, regular sized elastics could no longer stretch over the elastic ball, so he had to buy a package of jumbo sized elastics. Again, his ball grew, now it was the size of a basketball. Marcus’s hands were giant callus’, but he liked them because it meant he could work on his rubber band ball for longer and his hands would not get sore.

Eventually, not even the jumbo sized elastics could fit over his ball. There was nothing left for him to do. He had spent an entire month creating his masterpiece, and now it was complete. He brought it to school, and all the kids marveled at the sight of his elastic ball.

Marcus’s ball was useful for many things. He lifted it as a weight, and became strong. He used it for self- defence, as it was extremely heavy and hard. Marcus’s ball became a symbol of his personal strength and confidence. He hurt his hands, but when his blisters healed they calloused over, and made his skin thicker. It started out as one flimsy rubber band, but with determination and commitment, he turned it into a rock hard mass that was strong and unbreakable.