Who is My Enemy? Winter 2001

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"Shut up, Peter, you a-h-!" All of a sudden, I stopped and realized what I'd said. "Wow," I thought. "That came naturally. Why did that happen?"

The bell rang for lunch. As I sat down, Peter, the bully of our class and my enemy, got in my face and said, "Oh, Kyle, you're so ugly, your mom had to put a paper bag on your face before kissing you good night."

"Oh, yeah? Well, you're so fat, you had to move over before God said, 'Let there be light.'"

This went on until I finally said, "Peter, lay off," and walked away.

As I got onto the bus, I sat and thought about today. Why did I insult so naturally? Why are these things happening to me? Is there anything to stop it? A kid on the bus named Paul leaned over and whispered, "Hey, Kyle, I heard what you did today to Peter. Man, no one's insulted him like that before. Everyone thinks you're so cool."

"They do?"

"Yeah," he said, and went back to his seat.

And then I stopped to think about that. Is this the way I'm actually going to get popular? I'm always trying new things and they never work, until this.

That was the story I didn't hear in response to my standard "So how was school today?" question. At the time, I was relieved that Kyle just said, "Oh, fine." Ever since our boys started a new school in a new city, Kyle had been bringing home stories of being bullied. Of slaps and kicks as Peter walked by him in the lunchroom. Of being called gay. Of being called stupid. Of going to use the bathroom, only to find Peter and a group of boys already there, waiting for him. So an "Oh, fine" day sounded good to me. After all, we had met with the teacher and the principal, who promised to "work on" the situation. My husband and I both volunteered at the school-for many reasons, including the hope ...

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