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You see, there’s some part of my genetic makeup that sometimes kicks in and takes complete control of me. It’s like a switch that flicks on, starting up a brutal stubbornness mixed with a willingness to use violence to get my way.
I first really paid attention to it in eighth grade. I used to doodle a lot, and wound up sketching women for the boys in my classes. Beautiful women. Anatomically correct...and very, very nude. I’d sell them for a dollar and did okay business.
But then two schoolyard bullies...Kenneth and Leon...got hold of one and threatened to turn me into the principal if I didn't give them half of what I made.
I told them, "Go ahead."
So they did, and I got into huge trouble. Dragged into the principal's office. My folks were brought in. I was called a pornographer and horrible and needed to rethink my path in life and on and on. Slapped me with a two week suspension, and I was told if I was caught doing it, again, I’d be expelled. As if that would be a punishment.
I said nothing in response. Wasn’t going to make any difference.
I loved those two weeks off because I hated that school. We were living in Fontana, at the time, thanks to dad's job at the airport. I had to ride a school bus since my folks were both deep into working and couldn’t take me.
Half the kids on that bus were complete dicks to me because I wasn’t all that built up, back then, and read a lot. That made me more nerd than they approved of. And the teachers all wanted to make sure I understood that I had lots of potential, even though I was getting As and Bs...
Well, except in art class. That dick hated everything I did and often used it as an example of what not to do...like a drawing of boots in a desert should minimize the shadows. Cs only, there...which is part of the reason I shifted my focus to writing. Got As in English.
Anyway, when 1 returned Kenneth and Leon started in on me. Verbal harassment. Physical. They had a pack that included one girl who rode the same bus as me. She and I had ignored each other, since she got on the bus before I did en route to school and had her clique of mean girls to be with on the trip home.
But then she started getting on after me, at the school, and as she passed would smack me on the head with a ring she wore. It had a large, sharp rhinestone on it which she'd shift around to her palm side, to hide what she was doing. I told her to stop. She wouldn't, so come Friday when she did it, again, I smacked her in the side. She hit me again and I smacked her, again. And again.
This continued until blood trailed down my face. She quickly moved away to be with her clique, giggling nervously. I just felt for the cut and pressed on it to stop the bleeding.
Fucking bus driver did nothing about it.
When I got home, my mother freaked out over the blood, but I wouldn’t tell her what happened. I was locked into anger and revenge mode. And quickly worked out exactly what to do to Kenneth and his pack, on Monday.
The day came. The pack of bullies surrounded me in a hallway, howling and threatening and snarling until Kenneth shoved me.
He hadn’t noticed I had a nice, sharp #2 pencil in hand. I jerked my arm up and rammed it into the back of his left bicep. Tore in at an angle, and stuck.
Blood flew. Screams of pain brought teachers over. A chaos of voices howled over each other as Kenneth showed them his arm and other students freaked out.
He was carted off to the nurse’s station while I was hauled into the principal's office and told I was going to jail for assault. But this time I played the wide-eyed innocent and said, “It was an accident. He shoved me and my arm jerked, that’s all.”
The principal didn’t believe me...until one teacher who'd actually seen it but was doing nothing to stop it...was dumb enough to say, "He didn't shove you that hard." Which backed my claim up.
As did the security cam that caught it all.
No charges filed. Still a two-week suspension. But after that, the bullies left me alone. Especially when I whispered to Leon the next time I saw him, “Next one goes in an eye.”
Nicky flicked the switch on that attitude when he pulled his first asshole stunt while zooming past me on the bike pathway. Not overwhelming, yet, but it grew and expanded every time I saw him swooshing past and being a dick...until taking him was my one real focus.
Oh, I was still able to write and network like other people in the business. But Vance noticed a new edge to my script-work. A tension that wasn’t there, anymore. It’s probably what got my latest script sold and put into production...a revenge thriller with a female protagonist and some very hot sex scenes between her and the man she’s using to get to the assholes who raped and killed her sister. The director is already talking about taking it as close to NC17 as he can without losing an R rating.
So I was getting ready to take Nicky. Even though I knew once I did I’d be going to hell on the wings of Satan.
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