Our gym teacher was an old man and was actually the grandfather of
one of the cool kids in our class. About a month into school we had a
kid from California move in. The main problem with someone from a
state with a reputation for coolness is that every idiot from there
thinks that they are also cool by marinating in it. He was acting
like he was too cool for everything right off the bat and was trying
to pick fights with all kinds of kids and just generally trying to be
a tough guy. That would have been fine if he would have kept it low
key and fought his fights on the hush-hush but the point of being
cool and tough is making sure that other people know that you are
cool and tough. We were in gym class jogging around the gym when he
started trying to pick fights with lots of different kids. He was
pushing and shoving and calling names when the teacher came over to
break it up. That is when California made a critical error he decided
to take a shot at taking a swing at our old man teacher. Whoops.
California put all of his force into a punch that missed because it
was dodged. The old gym teacher then, and I want to make perfectly
clear that this was a one second exchange, grabbed the kids
outstretched arm and spun him into a hard choke-slam. He picked
California off the ground and slammed him to the ground. The fight
went out of him with his breath and he writhed a little and then
crawled to the wall to sit up and have a nice quiet cry. Everyone who
saw what happened walked away with a new respect for an old man and a
new disrespect for California and his toughness. California never
picked another fight and I think he had moved again but after his
taming he was not that noticeable so I am not sure for sure.
