Flashback Friday # 141

The Fight

Greetings to all who have stumbled upon these ramblings (You really didn't come here on purpose, did you?). I have prepared a ringside seat for you at this momentous occasion. Many times I had the potential to be in a fight, but due to divine intervention, it never came to fruition.

Since I missed so much time at the beginning of school in my Freshman year I had a few "unusual" seating assignments. The most unusual was in my General Science class. Our teacher, Mr. Carver, was apologetic when I showed up. All of the desks were occupied. The only seating left in class was at the experiment stations, where the faucets and Bunsen burner outlets were. There were tall stools at these stations.

The danger of these stations was the fact that these stool weren't affixed to the writing surface (like the desks) and could be slid out from behind you with ease. I witness this a couple of times during experiments, and came up with a way to make sure it didn't happen to me. If I was standing, I would insert my left leg into the stool legs to keep from being pulled away.

One day, before class, a group of us were at the experiment station looking at a magazine that someone brought in. One kid, Felix Mallard, ran with the rougher crowd. He was good friends with Derrick, who was a hood that I had trouble with before. As we were talking about the magazine, he stealthily grabbed hold of my stool and yanked it away. Since my leg was interlocked with the stool legs, the stool slid all the way up my leg until it could travel no farther (I think you know where it ended). I yanked my stool away from him, gave him a shove and told him to knock it off. He then took a swing at me. Seeing that I had spent my life trying to survive the onslaughts of my brother, I dodged. The blow missed my face, but caught the very edge of my glasses, and sent them flying across the room.

BIG MISTAKE!!! Since I can't read much past my nose without my glasses, and my family couldn't afford to replace them at a whim, I was very protective of them. When they flew off, it was like taking the harness & bindings from a pit bull at a dog fight. The berserker was loosed.

I don't remember what all happened, but I came to my senses when someone hollered "Teacher's coming". Felix was crouched in the corner with his arms crossed over his head. I had been raining blows down upon him like a fierce thunderstorm. Someone handed me my glasses, which were a bit bent, but otherwise unscathed. Felix was very quiet throughout class.

Later in the day, Derrick walked up to me smugly and said "I heard the Felix kicked your ***." I looked at him and said "Oh really? Anytime you want what he got today, just let me know." I think he really knew what happened. Surprisingly enough, I never had any trouble with him, or any of his toadies after that. I also never was involved in another fight.