It's All Under Control

It was another normal day in 8^th grade. I walked into the boy’s locker room picking out my fro as I approached my locker. My buddy Miguel was already there getting dressed into his gym clothes for 6^th period PE. He was a quiet guy, more on the reserved side, but he had a witty tongue on him that only his close friends would witness (he was a shy guy and didn’t really speak in front of people he didn’t know). I’ve known him since 3^rd grade and we were really close at a point in elementary so I knew what he was capable of when it came to humor.

We talked and joked around as we both got dressed into our gym clothes like we usually did until our mutual friend Tucker arrived at his locker. Tucker liked to think he was an aggressive kid because he was taller than most of the guys. He also liked to play the role of the antagonist as he seemed to enjoy provoking people. We included him in our conversation because that was the daily automaton in the locker room before we went outside to meet with our gym teachers. That day however, things went a little bit different.

As we were dissing and making fun of one another, Tucker cracked a joke on Miguel that Miguel quickly responded to. I remember me and my good friend Javier, whose locker was next to ours, began to laugh hysterically because of how funny it was. We all knew it was a joke, but Tucker took it way more serious than he should have. His embarrassment caused him to react with bravado as he stuck his chest out and got in Miguel’s face. Miguel didn’t really do much except look down as he tried to turn around to his locker, however Tucker wasn’t allowing him as he started to shove him. At that point, I remember I was still laughing, but decided to step in between the two to get him off Miguel since he wasn’t doing anything for himself. And while doing so I was trying to explain to Tucker that it was a joke and he was the one to initiate it in the first place. That’s when Tucker decided to turn his anger towards me and shove me against the fence that was directly behind me.

Here I am trying to stop one friend from bullying another to end up having the situation turn around on me! But nope, I wasn’t having it. Out of natural instinct, I immediately rebounded off the fence, got low and tackled Tucker down. I blacked out for a while during the interaction and the next thing I noticed was that we landed on the bench behind us and he was trying to hold onto the lockers to prevent him from falling. But in the state of mind I was in, I exerted some more force and tackled him to the ground. I came to my senses and noticed he was hurt, but didn’t care so I got up and walked back to my locker to finish getting dressed. I checked on Miguel and made sure he was fine. And me being the type of guy I am, I felt bad for what I did to Tucker. So, as I left the locker room, I noticed he was in the bathroom and approached him to apologize. I said sorry and explained where the whole situation went wrong then went on out to finish the rest of the school day.

I remember I was pissed when I saw him get in Miguel’s face. It wasn’t necessary at all because he knew Miguel wasn’t going to do anything to defend himself. So being there in that situation to witness bullying I felt obligated to step in and defend him. I’ve been like that since I was younger. I don’t allow that whether it’s inflicted upon another individual or me.