Bullies

True story. My brother was a vigilante when it came to bullies. There was one kid in our school that picked on everyone for year's. One day, Billy says to the guy - I'm going to fight you on March 15th, I should mention it was the end of January when he scheduled this. Not sure if Billy wanted two months to train or what the case was, but that was the day he scheduled the fight...and that was the day it happened. Billy was in High School at this time and I was in Middle School. The buildings were about a 1/4 mile apart on a pretty hilly road. As I exited school that day, I remember looking up the hill toward the High School and seeing a huge crowd making its way to the middle school. There was Billy. Wearing a Batman shirt and reciting Romeo & Juliet as his own motivational speech. The crowd moved on down to the train tracks where Billy met his nemesis face-to-face. It was an ugly fight that ended when Billy firmly planted his size 13 shoe across the kid's face. It was awesome. And, I loved it. I cheered him on and I was proud to be his brother that day.

I'm not sure if this event inspired me to face my bully or maybe it was just coincidence, but a few weeks later I decided to stand up to a bully that pushing me around. Yeah, the guy was up to my navel, but he was still supposed to be a tough dude. Similar to Billy's story, a huge crowd emerged afterschool as the buzz of a fight began to spread (people love watching fights). We ended up in the alley to duke it out and I was comforted to see my brother in the crowd of on-lookers. I figured, if I was getting my arse kicked, Billy would help me out before the dude killed me.

So, the fight began and I did okay from the start. He tried to tackle me and I forced my knee into his face. It was a move that surprised the heck out of me, but I was pleased. The dude was dazed, but being a non-fighter, I really didn't know what to do. We fell to the ground and I was on top. We just laid there for a while. Yeah, it probably looked pretty gay, but I was a kid who had no idea how to fight. So, I was thinking to myself "if I punch him with my right, could he block it and karate chop my head off". Totally weak, I know... The crowd must have started getting bored because they started yelling and heckling me. It was fine. I didn't care. I was too worried about getting karate chopped....when all of a sudden, I felt someone kick me in the ribs. And, it hurt...not so much from the blow, but from when I saw who did it. It was my very own brother. He was bored by me not punching and decided kicking me in the ribs would liven things up. To this day, I really don't know why he did it. It's something I would never do to my family. I guess I should have worn a Batman shirt....