High School Years-Chap.4 – The fight

   Junior Year. 11th grade. It was a momentous turning point in my life. By this time I was coming into my own. My brother graduated, so I was no longer under that shadow for the most part. I started to really get into the Beatles by this time. I had a strong nucleus of close friends. They consisted of Denver, Alan, George and Sean.

  Sean was another person that Denver introduced me to. He had moved into the neighborhood a few years earlier. Sean was the grade younger than me and relatively shy. He had a brother in my grade that suffered from a form of Autism . Because of the Autism, kids would tease him just to get him agitated and watch him freak out. I always felt bad because Sean never acknowledged that he had a brother. It put the rest of us in a bad spot, do we stick up for his brother with Sean right there doing nothing. It was obvious that his brother embarrassed him, but the ignoring him was painful to watch.

 In October of this year I was being harassed by a guy named Fred. I’ve had issues with him for years, but this year they came to a head. He was twice my size and we hung out in the same circles.  He always made fun of my last name and turned it sexual. It was annoying and such, but when I came to school wearing my father’s Marine Corps South Carolina t-shirt and he accused me of being a KKK member I hit my limit. In the lunch room I confronted Fred and called him out to fight then and there. He quickly backed down. It would have been over then and there if it wasn’t for the taunting that followed. Kids were teasing him about backing down to a guy half his size and my friend Mark was taking 2 to 1 odds that I would kick his ass. I went home and told my parents I almost got into a fight and they told me not to fight. After a long discussion I told them I wouldn’t.

  The next morning, in first period Math, Fred turned to me and said “You’re dead at lunch.” At lunch I got my food, sat at the table and Fred comes over and sits across from me. I pick up my food and move to the other table trying to avoid the fight I was told to avoid. He said something I didn’t quite make out, so, naturally, I went back to see what he said.

  I leaned across the table and asked “What did you say, Fred?” He mumbled. Then he tried to slap me. I grabbed his arm. Then he tried with his other hand and I grabbed that one. When he stood up he pulled me across the table toward him. According to accounts of the fight, I lunged at him, but oh well. A fight ensued. He tried slapping and scratching me and I was punching. I was winning the fight when they pulled us apart. That was my plan, either get a few good punches in before they break it up, or get it broken up before I got hurt too bad. After being sent to the nurse to be checked out and a call home, we both got sent to the detention room. Between periods people came in to congratulate me and/or laugh at him. My friend Tom got himself kicked out of every class that day to keep me company. He was a regular in detention. Socially, Fred was done. I, on the other hand, got some street cred. I also got a one day suspension from school. On top of that it was Picture day at school so I’m not in my Junior year Yearbook.