Will of Man - Part One (2 page)

I was ready there and then, but just as I was about to lunge at him, I saw a teacher and realized how stupid this whole thing was.

I looked at him and quietly said “You better knock it off, or you and I are going to have a problem.” I stared him in the eyes and didn’t look away till he did. Dad told me how he used to stare down his opponents’ when he was a boxer.

He said the first to look away or blink was the most scared. So I stared him down till he looked away. I don’t know if he was scared or not. But his teammates pulled him away and he walked on by.

But then came last period gym class. I hadn’t been thinking about Glenn at all since I was playing basketball with Kendrick and Jax. Then out of the blue BAM! Someone punched me hard in the back of the arm again and I knew who it was.

I turned around, with basketball in hand, and threw it right in his face as hard as I could. It hit him hard, but he barely flinched. He grabbed me by throat with one hand and squeezed. As he squeezed my neck with one hand he started to cock back with his other.

He took a swing and I ducked. Unbeknownst to each of us, we were standing in a puddle of water leaking from a nearby drinking fountain.  We both slipped and fell simultaneously. Glenn hit his head on the drinking fountain with a loud twang and was knocked out completely. I fell backward as my arm swung back and hit the wall really hard. I fell on top of Glenn’s head adding yet another bang to his empty melon.

I looked at Glenn who was already starting to swell up around his forehead and nose. My knuckles were bleeding from scraping the wall.

Poor Glenn lost control of his bowels and pooped his pants (I guess that happens sometimes when people are knocked unconscious). The smell was instant and horrible.

Everything happened so fast. No one had seen what happened until it was over. Students ran over yelling fight, fight, fight! But soon stopped and grabbed their nose from the rancid odor emanating from Glenn’s behind.

I stood up holding my hand. Everyone looked at me and assumed I had knocked Glenn out. Before I could say anything, someone yelled out that I had just kicked Glenn’s butt. Poor Glenn was still lying there unconscious snoring loudly, with a nasty load in his pants.

I looked around at my classmates who were looking at me like I was some crazy psycho. I knew what really happened and that I never really hurt Glenn. That moron did it to himself. But I still felt ashamed for the way people were reacting to me.

We had a sub that day who was no bigger than a little kid. She ran to the hall and grabbed another male teacher who grabbed me and hauled me to the office. I’d never been in trouble before and I felt horrible.

The weird thing was that when I got to the office the secretary seemed to be more worried about my well being than Glenn’s. She gave me an icepack for my hand and pulled a chair around for me to sit on.

Poor Glenn had to sit out in the hallway on the floor and wait. Kids were walking by him plugging their nose and scrambling quickly away from him. He also thinks I knocked him out. He actually looks scared of me.

I feel bad for Glenn and I don’t like fooling people, but this whole ordeal may benefit me. I guess I’m not really lying; I’m just not going to divulge the truth.

When I got home, I had to tell my dad what had happened and that I got suspended. For some reason, I didn’t tell him the truth, that I really didn’t hit Glenn. I just said I got in a fight at school and now I’m suspended.

And this is the weirdest part; when I told Dad, I expected to get in big trouble, but the only thing he asked is if I’d won. I told him yes, he nodded and then went about his business. And that was it.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 13

                Date: October 3

Day: Saturday

Weather: Light drizzle and cold.

Training: 13 miles trail run (155 average heart rate)

Dad may not have made a big deal about yesterday, but Mom wasn’t so forgiving. I’m grounded for two weeks, with no electronics. Dad said it’s ok for me to continue my training. He knows about running and how it can be therapeutic.

I agree. Running is a release and it gave me a lot of time to think about how things went down, how I reacted, and whether it was appropriate. Should I have told the truth? To be honest; I don’t think the teachers would have believed me. As far as the other kids - let them believe what they want.

I feel bad, but I’m not sure if I feel wrong. I did not ask for Glenn to take a swing at me. I don’t feel I could have ignored him forever and I sure as heck wasn’t going to let him beat me up. I guess it was him or me. Luckily I was on the winning side of the whole ordeal.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 14

Date: October 4

Day: Monday

Weather: Sunny but cold.

Training: Rest day

So my sentence has begun. It’s my first day of suspension and I don’t know what to do with myself. Mom made a list of things for me to do and
not
to do. I’m going to stick to them.

I wish I hadn’t done such a long run Saturday (thirteen miles) and needed this rest day (runners take “rest days,” so their muscles can recover). Because now I have nothing to do. Training helps pass the time when I have nothing else to do.

The electricity went out today for around an hour. I didn’t realize how boring it is around here with no electronics like T.V. So I decided to tune my bike and organize my bedroom (thought that would make Mom happy). I read a couple running magazines and actually took a nap (I usually hate taking naps).

I hadn’t thought much about the fight until Carlos stopped by to fill me in on all the gossip going on around school. Apparently Glenn’s head was so swollen he had to go to the hospital. The doctor told him no football for a week. His head was so swollen, that he couldn’t put his helmet on.

He’s the team’s only center and they had to have someone else fill in for Friday’s game. They lost and word is the team is blaming me.

The word is, that they are going to get back at me for beating up Glenn and it’s all going down when I return to school on Thursday. It’s not going to be the whole team, but three of them and they are going to mess me up good.

It worries me, but I’m not backing down. I may not have had to actually fight Glenn, and I don’t think all three are going to slip on a puddle of water and knock themselves out. So I better prepare myself.

I made a punching bag out of my dad’s old sea bag he got when he was in the Navy. I filled half with sand and the other half with old clothes from the attic. I hung it in the back yard from a tree and started pounding away at it.

I imagined the sea bag was each of the three that were going to gang up on me. I made a plan of attack which involved going hard and fast. I’m going to strike them hard and not let up. They will not have a chance to react. They will not have a chance to throw a punch. They will not have a chance to grab a hold of me. I will dominate and in the end I will be the only one standing.

…. Who am I kidding? I’m going to get slaughtered. But at least I’ll go in with a plan and hopefully I’ll go down fighting. Being a kid sucks. I didn’t ask for this. Why are they blaming me? Glenn is the one who pushed this. I just stood up for myself.

Well, 20 years from now, this will only be a bad memory……if I live – ha.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 15

Date: October 7

Day: Thursday

Weather: Cold, thunderstorm (fitting).

Training: 5 mile runs

Well, today was D day. I had to return to school with everyone either smirking at me or looking at me like I was on death row. I thought that I would have a new image when I returned to school. I kind of was hoping everyone would think I’m really tough and shouldn’t be messed with. But fighting Glenn only seemed to add fuel to the fire. I only managed to shake the bee hive. This was going to be a long day.

A period didn’t pass where someone had to tell me how bad I was going to get my butt kicked. A few people at least seemed concerned and said they would let a teacher know if I wanted them too. I told them to not worry and that I would handle it. Deep down though, I was getting more and more worried.

I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I just kept going over the scenario over and over in my head. None of my friends were in my gym class (where this was all suppose to go down), and I wouldn’t expect them to fight anyways. They are all wimps. But that’s ok, because none of them pretend to be tough and I didn’t want them involved anyways.

Part of me was really angry though. How could they think they were proving anything by fighting me three on one? To me, that is cowardly and it should’ve been one on one. Not to mention they are all pumped up football players and I’m a triathlete who works to keep my body weight to a minimum.

Maybe I should have challenged them to a swimming, biking, or running contest. Ha! Maybe I should have showed up in my bike shorts. That would have intimidated them! Or better yet, I should have showed up in my swim Speedo’s and goggles. Ha!

But this is what happened; like I said, all day people were either smirking at me or telling me to run. I knew I wasn’t the type to run, so the alternative was that I was going to have to face them. The consensus was that they were going to jump me in the locker room at the beginning of last hour gym.

I just kept telling myself that I’m used to pain and suffering from racing and training, and that I can endure a few bumps and bruises. What I didn’t want to endure was the label of being a chicken for the rest of my school years. So I decided to just do it and face them.

Last hour came and I was the last to walk in the gym. I made my way towards the locker room where this was all supposed to happen. I walked past several football players sitting on the stage near the entrance to the locker room. My guess is that they weren’t going to involve themselves and risk getting suspended or kicked off the team for fighting.

As I walked past them, one stopped me and warned me that I was going to get hurt really bad if I go down in that locker room. I’m not sure if he was actually concerned for me or just didn’t want me to go down and have his teammates get in trouble for turning me into a pretzel.

As I approached the entrance to the locker room, a student saw me and excitedly ran inside to tell everyone that I was coming - like it was a surprise birthday party or something.  Thanks jerk – you could have at least warned me. However, I knew what was waiting, and there were no presents, birthday cakes, or balloons involved.

I turned the corner and two of the three football players were getting dressed at the far end of the locker room. I didn’t look at them. I wasn’t going to provoke anyone, but I also wasn’t acting like I was in a hurry to get out of there.

I was showing no fear and actually wanted them to see that I was pumped and ready. My fists were clenched and my face was red.

My plan was to take my shirt off, so they didn’t have anything to grab. I was going to stay on one side of the bench that was mounted in the middle of the locker room. That way they had to step over it to come to me and there I would start swinging.

I put my gym shoes on fast so I would have a good grip on the locker room floor. Street shoes are dirty and slippery on the smooth locker room floors. I kept my back turned to them to show a little disrespect but kept an eye on the people around me. I could read their expressions and would know if the football players were coming.

The two didn’t come after me and didn’t say a word. I was thinking they were waiting for the third. Everyone was waiting for a big fight. There was a big circle around me and I could feel the anticipation with the crowd around me. Kids were pumping their fists and looking at me like I was the main event of a boxing match.

Then finally the third showed up and I thought to myself “Ok, this is it. Once they come for you, you start punching and don’t stop. Give it your all!” The spectators got silent. So silent that I could hear the footsteps of the third player behind me (behind me, because I still had my back turned to them).

I looked at one of the spectators to read his expression and follow his eyes. I clenched my fist and got a good grip on the locker room floor with my gym shoes. I was ready like a sprinter ready to explode from his starting blocks.

But then to my amazement, nothing happened. Not a thing. The three didn’t say a word and not one of them started anything. I don’t know if they were initially trying to scare me and then realized I wasn’t going to back down, or maybe they realized this wasn’t worth getting in trouble for.

But in the end, I didn’t get my butt kicked and I stood my ground. It felt great! I think everyone expected me to run away and hide. And instead I faced them, didn’t run away, and I walked away with my dignity.

This will be a day I remember for a long time. Not to sound corny, but I’m proud of myself and I learned a little about myself today…... but mostly I’m glad I didn’t get my butt kicked.

Tyler’s Journal Entry: 52

Date: December 25

Day: Saturday

Weather: Cold, Cloudy, Windy

Training: Weight lifting (CHRISTMAS DAY!)

The power went out today! On Christmas day! Only for about two hours, but long enough that the house got really cold. Mom couldn't cook any of the food and we opened our presents while huddled together on the couch.