I have been in a couple of fights in my life---and all were with bullies.

[TlalocW]

16. My parents raised me to ignore the bully, and most times they'll stop...

But when they don't, do what you think is right.

You wouldn't think high school band class is where you would find bullies as the stereotype is that we're all music geeks to begin with, but there were some popular kids in there, and some of them were bullies. The freshman initiation was, "red-bellies," where the non-freshmen dragged a freshman to the ground, lifted up his or her shirt and took turns drumming on their stomach. They never got me when I was a freshman, which pissed them off. While I wasn't big that year, a few of them got elbows in the teeth for their trouble when they tried. My sophomore year - after I had started lifting weights and was now much bigger than the shit who was the ring-leader and most enthusiastic of the red-belliers, who was standing near me (when the teacher was out of the room - happened a lot, stupid git), giving me shit as well as giving me a "physical tell" that he was about to go for my legs (I, to the surprise of my classmates, excelled in wrestling in gym class even when smaller). He went for them; I threw my legs out behind me, and landed on top of him and quickly got him immobilized... and held him like that for 5 minutes, making fun of him in front of everyone as he struggled until the teacher came back into the room. "James? What are you doing? Let him up. Everyone get out the National Anthem; we need to work on it." (Once again, stupid git). That was enough for him to not to try anything on me or anyone else for the rest of the year.

Junior year starts, and I'm now on a par with most kids in school and bigger than anyone else in band (and am on the wrestling team at this point). Teacher has left the room for a moment while we're all sitting in our sections with our instruments. I stand up and say, "I have an announcement I'd like to make. There are going to be... no... more... red-bellies in band." I look at all the upperclassmen as I continue. "Anyone have a problem with that?" ending with the asshole who tried to get me the previous year.

There were no more red-bellies.

TlalocW