#reverse tmi

I just caught my cat chugging my iced coffee and I’m still going to drink it! I paid 5 dollars for this and I REFUSE to give my horrible demon the joy of taking this from me!

When I was in middle school, all the kids from the neighborhood would play in this unbuilt lot on the cul-de-sac (there was one with trees, and one with a red clay hill. The one we most frequented was the tree one for various reasons). In this lot we did basically a miniature town rp with pinecones as our currency, and we made funny little shops to ‘sell’ cool leaves and rocks etc etc.

Well, the power had gone to this one girls head. She was one of the two eighth graders, so obviously Cooler ™ than the other younger kids and they had fun bossing the elementary ones around, but my sib and I weren’t really cool with that. We weren’t super confrontational though, and only really started saying something when things became obviously bias against us (like hoarding the precious pinecone currency especially from us and ‘not knowing’ what happened to our stores when they ended up in disarray when we returned the next day)

So I confront her one day, tell her that what’s she’s doing isn’t fair and that she should stop. She antagonizes me instead, of course, cause oh, what was I going to do? Tell on her? For a fake store? Which I mean, ye, I wanted to, but it pissed me off that she was acting like it wasn’t a big deal when OBVIOUSLY it was a big enough deal for her to be harassing two younger kids about it.

So I say this, and she gets upset. She starts calling me names and other means things I no longer recall (I mean c’mon it’s been well over ten years since then), but then that’s not working, so she says something about my sibling, who mind you, their only crime so far that day had been supporting me in saying we were being treated unfairly. Anyways, either way, that was not flying with me. She can be mean to me all day but she has no reason to be mean to my younger sibling, especially not /in front of me/.

A dastardly idea comes to mind as I recall that she had been complaining of getting her braces tightened earlier that day, and before I can run through any list of logical consequences my fist’s against her cheek in an astounding right hook for a sixth grader

She cries out in pain, clutching her cheek, and the younger kids scatter and I grab my sibling and we run too.

It’s the only time I had ever thrown a punch and i was worried that someone would tattle, but no one ever speaks of it apparently as I never get in trouble for it. We simply stop seeing them in the area, as the lot is next to our house, and no one ever brings it up if they do see us. The parents don’t know what’s going on, just that the groups has a falling out.

I somehow manage to keep this a secret from my mother until I’m 23 and casually mentioned I’ve only ever punched someone once and that they really deserved it and had to regale the whole tale to her. Hilariously, she says she remembers the fallout happening and having been confused, but that she had 100% covered for my sibling and I when the neighbors mom had come to ask about us.

Anyways, Idk how to end this, but just remember that it’s always okay to punch bullies 👍