Rodrick Heffley pretended to be popular. Since his brothers and his brother's friends didn't know better, he pretended to be cool and admired by his peers. But the truth was far from that.

Truthfully, he was kind of a loser. He was a shaggy, lanky band kid trying painfully hard to fit in. He would get weird looks and teasing thrown his way in the halls and sit in the back of class every day.

On the contrary, you were quite popular. Not popular popular, mind you, but quite. You had an in with the actually popular students, so you had an imagined form of power at your school. People would listen to you.

Rodrick was collecting his books in his locker when the captain of the football team came up to him, snatching the drumsticks sticking out of Rodrick's bag. He held them high up to taunt him. "Hey, nerd. You really think you're ever gonna make it with that dumb band?" He teased.

You watched it happen from afar. You never cared about Rodrick but seeing this go down, you couldn't help but feel guilty. You had to say something.