Still Tough

Chapter 2

There is a reason I like to keep my birthday a private matter. Little punks who think they're cool come up to you and say happy birthday and you know what? They've never spoken to you before. It's freaking annoying! It makes me feel like I'm the bad guy for telling them to get lost. What the hell?!? I'm not supposed to feel like the bad guy on my birthday! But whatever, Georgia and Warren were having a killer time with it so it wasn't too bad. I don't know how I made it through the day with only one incident.

  The only slip-up was this one kid, I think he was a freshman. His face was covered in acne to the point where I couldn't picture him with clear skin at all. His hair was greasy black and his pants were sagging horribly; just another kid who wanted to be cool. Anyway besides the fact he looked annoying, he wouldn't stop pestering me. I've never spoken to this kid in my life before yet he saw my locker, figured out my name, and suddenly we're best friends. I finally got fed up when he took Warren's seat by me at lunch, so I punched him. In the face. His nose was bleeding pretty bad as far as I saw, before being herded into the principal's office rather gruffly by an administrator and the police officer that patrols the halls. Next thing you know they called my dad and he had to leave work to come talk with the principal and the kids parents. It was like a big conference; the kid and his mom and dad on one side, my dad and I on the other, and good old Denny sitting at his desk in the middle. 

 "Okay, why don't we start with Kris's side of the story," Denny said and calmly folded his hands, looking at me.

  I looked at everyone, then sighed. "This kid here...whatever his name is, is an annoying punk. First off just to point out the fact... my birthday happens to be today and my friend and boyfriend decorated my locker like crazy, even though I told them not to do anything. This kid here then sees it and decides he has to constantly bother me. Every second he's like 'Happy Birthday Kris', or 'We should go out sometime Kris', and even 'Hey Kris how's the boyfriend? I could do better than him'. It's called harassment! I snapped after he took Warren's seat. My bad."

I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms. I was irritated; I mean this isn't exactly how I wanted my birthday to go. I wanted to be with Georgia, Dad, Uncle Kurt, my board, and Warren...

I felt the heat rise to my face as I thought about Warren. I tried to think of something else, like how I would react to the zombie apocalypse. That helped a little, but I could feel my face was red. Luckily, the guy and his family thought it was because I was mad, and they shifted uncomfortably. I stared them down, just to add to their uncomfortableness, and I started looking at details. The mother was obese, it looked as though she had squeezed into that pink summer dress. Her chestnut hair was hair-sprayed like crazy; she looked like she was trying too hard, possibly trying to detract from her plump figure. She seemed like the insecure type, who eats when they're moody and want to lose weight, but lack the self-confidence to do so. The dad was overly thin and sickly looking. He was balding and had thick glasses that covered a good portion of his face. He seemed like a computer analyst type of person, or some sort of computer guy. The balding and constant fidgeting showed signs of stress and anxiety. I guess a combination of those two would result in a kid with need of constant attention, possibly ADD. I suddenly realized that I still had no idea what this kid's name was.

"If I may say one more thing," I asked. Denny looked at me, then nodded. "What's this kid's name?"

The mother glared at me with her red puffy face, "His name is Timothy. Timothy Sawyer."

I smiled and turned back to Denny, who coughed to get everyone's attention. He looked at the kid who is apparently Timothy regained his cocky attitude and gave him a cross look.  

"This situation is a bit of a mess. I would rather settle this peacefully, with the cooperation of both families," he paused to look at both sides for approval, which he got, "Miss Dawson will not be suspended, but she will have to attend after school detention for two weeks starting tomorrow. Mister Sawyer will have three days detention for harassing Miss Dawson. Does that sound fine?"