Rivals

Bully

"I'll be in here working on this at lunch," I told my teacher as I did my review booklet for a Physics test.

"That's no problem, you know I'll be here."

"Wow, you've had two days to do it and a full block and you still need to come in at lunch to finish?" Tyler butted in unnecessarily.

"I didn't have time," I said annoyedly.

"You literally got it the day before yesterday, what was stopping you from doing it the day you got it?" he laughed at me and I had the sudden urge to slap him.

"Because I was helping my mom all day after school Tuesday until I went to sleep, then yesterday I had Social Studies homework and then choir so I didn't have time to do it and why the hell am I explaining myself to you?" I wanted to hit myself for my stupidity.

"I don't know why you're explaining yourself to him, he should just be doing his work," our teacher said from the front of the room. "You're so nosy, Tyler. Why does it matter when she does it anyways if she gets it done on time?" Although his sentences out of context might sound like a lecture, we was only joking and talking to Tyler as one would talk to a friend. This is why he was one of my favourite teachers. That, and the fact that he had a Hannah Montana poster hidden in the closet in his classroom.

"I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter, it just doesn't make sense to me why she couldn't just get it done earlier so she didn't have to come in at lunch," he said in an almost mocking tone as he turned around and went back to his desk to pack up his books.

I went back to my review and ignored him until class ended.

I continued to get top student on every Physics test, and almost always got top student on the Pre-Calc tests. I was getting the highest mark in the class. This was great, but unfortunately it meant that Tyler always knew which grade was mine and what I'd gotten on all of my assignments because he could just look at the highest percentage.

"Wow, you must do really bad on the quizzes and reviews, 'cause you get a higher mark than me on all of the tests but you're only point-something-percent higher than me," he decided to randomly state one day. My ears burned with hatred. Was it really necessary to make those comments? Couldn't he suppress the constant urge he had to call me down and make me feel like shit? I continued to ignore it, however, and refused to let it get to me.

Until one day he almost made me cry.

Okay it's not that dramatic, and I can't really blame him for it, either. I had been struggling with anxiety for a long time, and I always knew how to handle it until I started having panic attacks. It was November now, and this was my second panic attack since September after never having them in my life. I had stayed up until almost 2am crying and calming myself down after a panic attack, only to wake up at 6am to get ready for school that I couldn't skip (not that I ever would have anyways) because I had a midterm to write for math. That morning I woke up feeling absolutely terrible; my fingers felt like they were asleep, I kept almost throwing up, and I wanted to cry. I went to school anyways, and was filled with dread when I found out that I had Pre-Calculus first thing that morning for two and a half hours.

I went to class and tried to ignore Tyler the whole time. I made it though the first half of class just fine, but it was during our ten minute break period that he made a comment about me. I can't even remember now what it was, but that morning it really got to me. I tried to push it out of my head, but as soon as class started again I felt the urge to burst into tears. I had to ask my teacher if I could go for a walk - a liberty that was granted to me - and I spent the first ten minutes of second period walking around the school trying to calm myself down. This was the one and only time that I felt genuinely upset about one of Tyler's comments, and I never wanted to feel that again. I'm not sure if he knew it was his insult that sent me over the edge, but after that I never heard another mean comment.