Pete stood in the queue at the bank. He had to get change for his mother’s fruit stall and it was a job he hated. He dreaded having to open his mouth to speak. This was the most difficult task for him and he tried to avoid it by any means.

But his mother insisted. "Thank you, my boy! I know it's not your favorite thing to do but I appreciate your help!"

Pete knew what his mother was doing. She did it on purpose to "help him" overcome his fear, but he had no other choice as she could not leave the stall unattended.

The queue was long but it moved fast. The closer he got to the counter, the more his heartbeat increased. He was practicing his lines in his head. He looked around to see if anyone could hear him repeat his sentences when he saw two girls from school joined the queue behind him. Annie and Emma, their names were. He could hear what they were saying.

"Oh no!" Annie was laughing. "Look who's in front of us! If only we'd come earlier then we wouldn't have to stand here for two weeks. This is going to take forever!"

Emma joined her sister, giggling too. "Y-y-yes! P-P-Pete won't be out of here anytime soon!"

Pete's heart sunk. He knew they were mocking him. By the time he had reached the counter, he was so embarrassed that he had forgotten all of his lines.

He looked up at the bank teller. At least she was smiling at him politely. "H-h-hi! Can I h-h-have some ch-ch-change for m-my mother?" Behind him, Annie and Emma were giggling together.

This was exactly why Pete hated doing things like this. All his life, he had stuttered. It was so hard for him to speak. Although he was a clever boy and knew exactly what he wanted to say, his tongue didn't seem to give it's full cooperation. People's reactions also made it worse. Some people would finish his sentences for him and some even gave up and left.

The stuttering made him embarrassed and ashamed. Sometimes Pete felt like never trying to speak again, especially when bank tellers got impatient or girls from school mocked him.

"I need s-s-seventy t-t-ten-cent p-p-pieces and..." And that's all he could get out as he never got to finish.

Suddenly people were screaming. As Pete looked around, he could see two robbers with balaclavas over their faces had entered the bank and they were shouting for everyone to lay down while pointing their guns at people.

Source

Pete had no other choice but to lay down on the tiled floor. Annie and Emma lay down close to him and he felt so sorry for the girls who were crying out of fear. The robbers wanted money and they wanted it "NOW"! Because Pete did not want to attract attention, he kept his head down low and all he could see was their shoes. One had black shoes and the other had white sneakers.

It wasn't long before the sounds of police sirens could be heard from outside. People felt some relief as they knew that help is on their way.

"What do we do now?" one of the robbers shouted to the other.

Both robbers looked a little paranoid. It was clear that they weren't prepared for the police to turn up so soon.

"The kids! Grab them!" yelled the one with the sneakers.

Pete felt himself being tugged roughly to his feet. Something hard and round pressed into his back and he knew it was the barrel of a gun. The other robber, the one with the white shoes, was dragging Annie to her feet. He pressed his gun against her back too.

To be continued...

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