IZ and ZI.....boys I know

I've known Iz and Zi for almost 3 months. Both are 13. Today they got into a fight. Iz hit Zi on his chest and the latter retaliated immediately, so a 'buku lima' landed squarely on the face. A scuffle ensued. The fight ended soon enough because of intervention. Anyway, when I look at these 2 kids, I am really at a loss of words. Both look normal enough but I think that's where normalcy as I know ends.

Iz stays with his sister...he doesn't know why he is not staying with his mom. Doesn't know where dad is. He is actually quite a cute boy but there is this one thing about him that irritates almost everyone who knows him. If there're people around, he'll be annoying them. Also, he has this defiant behaviour. I think he does it to gain attention. Point is he's always in trouble. And his eyes...they never stay focussed, always darting everywhere. When I talk to him, I sometimes get this feeling that he's treating it like a surreal thing..... as though he's in a game or something to that extent.

Zi is big for his age. He has just gone back to school after a hospital hiatus. Got himself there after a bad accident. This not so little guy is a 'Mat Rempit'. He is involved in motorcycle races...the last one didn't go as planned. His tyre burst and he ended up with his face flat on the asphalt road, a stone piercing through his mouth area, a couple of broken bones and lacerations all over. He was warded into the ICU. You can see that he is still in pain. But if you ask him whether he will race again, his answer is, "I don't know". His brother died, slamming himself into a cement lorry some two years back and little brother is now using his bike.

How do you make sense of such kids? We talk to them, advise them...they've been burnt, one almost lost his life...you'd think they'd wise up.

Anyway....both apologised, seemingly no hard feelings....for now.