The Tussle with Russel

“Next time you got a problem with me, why don’t you say it to my face?” Is what I hear before my head gets dunked back into the water. I’m not close to drowning or anything but I sure wished I was. Just so Russel would finally get what he deserved: a prison sentence. 

But unfortunately, I didn’t drown. And Russel didn’t have anything happen to him, because I was the only one who could do anything. He pulled me back up and I studied his face. I swore I would remember what he looked like so I could find him one day if I ever manned up. Blue eyes, dark brown hair, weak chin, a wannabe mustache. He pushed me into the water again. I just waited, letting him do his worst until he finally left, and I was alone in the bathroom soaked in toilet water. Thank god the janitors just cleaned them. I smelled like lavender and didn’t want anybody asking questions because God knows the last thing I needed was for Russel to think I snitched on him, so I texted my mom and asked her to pick me up.

I knew she wouldn’t let something like this go so I just made up some lame excuse. “I felt like I was about to throw up and I rushed too fast into the stall and slipped. My head fell right in.” It was Friday anyway so she didn’t mind me having an early start to the weekend. “Well at least they’re nice smelling toilets,” she said, “Go wash up.” I gladly rushed upstairs to take a shower.

You know those shower thoughts you have? Sometimes you’ll get an amazing idea for an invention, or maybe you finally think of a good comeback for that argument you got in three weeks ago. Perhaps you’ll gain inspiration for an amazing song that changes a traumatizing event in your childhood into a beautiful memory, helping you finally get over your fears! Well during that shower I didn’t have any of those thoughts. I just decided I needed a movie to help cheer me up. 

After I got out, I dried off and went downstairs to ask my mom what movie I should watch. She said she didn’t know, but suggested that I ask my dad to watch one with me. I went out to the backyard and found him working on the lawnmower. 

This very brief conversation led to a life-changing moment for me. 

“Hey, dad.”

“Hey buddy, your mom mentioned you didn’t have a very good day at school. You alright?”

“Yeah. Can we watch a movie later?”

“Sure, what do you want to watch?”

“I don’t know. Can you pick?”

“Sure bud.”

He picked a childhood favorite of his, “Rocky,” I had never heard of it, but he was really enthusiastic about it so I just agreed to do it.

Later that night dad popped the disc in and we got comfy, ready to stare at the screen for a couple of hours. As we watched the movie, I felt… Inspired?? At least I think that’s what it was. Rocky was a loser like me, but he always stood up for himself, which is something I’m really bad at. Whenever Russel picks on me, I just ignore it, because everybody always says that when you ignore bullies they get bored, and eventually that’ll cause them to leave you alone. But ignoring him just makes him even madder! I never do anything wrong but he constantly finds some reason to hit me, or push me, or trip me. Maybe one day he will stop, but I am sick of it. Most people think they deserve better just because they’re human, but Rocky proved to me that if I ever hoped to deserve better than what I got, then I needed to work for it. 

I got my parents to enroll me in boxing lessons but when I got to the gym the coach told me he only worked with aspiring pros. When he asked me why I wanted to box, I told him it was so I could beat up Russel. Because of that, he decided to give me a refund. He only wanted to work with kids that were there to learn because of their love of the sport, not the desire to hurt somebody else. Fair enough. 

When I got home, I popped Rocky into the DVD player and I tried to copy the workouts that he was doing. No luck. After three pushups I was done for, and there was no way I could do them one-handed. I decided that if I wanted Russel to give up sooner rather than later, I needed to learn how to fight. I wasn’t going to deal with it any longer, so I skipped to the scenes where Rocky learned technique instead of brute force. I wrapped a string around my legs and I danced around my bedroom, but without anybody there to spot me, I tripped over my shoes and hit my head on the dresser, which earned me a black eye. 

My first boxing injury!!

The weekend continued with several more incidents like this and finally, Monday came. I didn’t even try to hide my black eye because I was so proud. Everybody asked me about it and I told them I got into a fight in the bathroom. I made up story after story about how some random guy walked in and just started swinging. Sometimes I even said there were two! Everybody was impressed until I got to my sixth period. Math class- with Russel. I walked in and Russel was already there. “That’s weird,” I thought, “Russel’s never in class on time.” As I got closer I could see that he was MAD. “I heard you were telling people that you beat me up in the bathroom,” he said. The problem with rumors in high school is that they almost always spiral out of control. They get more and more crazy details thrown in. My best guess is that somebody knows Russel doesn’t like me so they assumed he was the guy in my story. “Yeah, and?” I responded. You may be thinking “What are you doing?” I knew that Russel was going to destroy me after class, but I wasn’t letting this opportunity pass. The whole class got quiet. “If you beat me up then why do you have that black eye?” There was no way in hell I was going to let him make it sound like he gave me the black eye because I deserved it. “You hit me when I wasn’t looking dude. I couldn’t do much until after. I’m not the one who ran away crying.” I replied nonchalantly. I heard gasps from my peers and Russel got up and pushed me. “Why don’t you prove to everybody here that you can beat me up then?” I just stood there, not moving. I didn’t know what to do. “Come on pussy! Show everybody how good you are at fighting! Especially when your head is in-“ Without thinking I cut him off with a swift punch to the temple. He fell back into the desk and the class started going wild. I was really happy about how excited my classmates were but above all the commotion, I heard a piercing voice screaming, “SIMON!” Apparently Ms. Porter walked in right before I hit him. I was promptly dragged out of the room down to the principal’s office, but before we got into the hall, Russel made sure to let me know he was coming for me. “You’re dead. Next time I see you, you’re dead.” 

Lucky for me I was suspended AND grounded. That gave me three days to prepare for Russel’s attack. If I had it bad before I hit him, I could only imagine what was coming now. I knew the haymaker I threw was a lucky hit, so I had to start training fast. 

Every morning I woke up at 5:00 ready to start my training for the day. My first step? Going back to bed till 10. After that, I got up and went for a 2-mile long jog. That might not seem like a lot, but I’m a little guy, and this stuff is something I was not used to. I mean getting out of bed was a workout in itself before this. Every quarter of a mile or so I would stop and take a 3-minute long break, then I would continue on my way, going a bit faster each time, trying to outrun myself. Since I couldn’t leave the house I had to sneak out, which was hard to do because my parents wouldn’t stop asking why I was so sweaty after I got back from every workout. “Puberty?” I would answer lamely. I barely even tried with that excuse but it worked like a charm. 

Anyways, I continued my training and what I noticed while watching all the other Rocky movies, is that even though Rocky definitely can use brute strength, he almost always finds some way to outsmart his opponent which eventually leads the fight to end with Rocky being victorious. I knew that I would have to do the same for Russel so I came up with a plan…

It was finally Thursday. The suspension was up. My mom made me breakfast in bed, I guess she was hoping it would be a good start to my day? I mean it WAS my favorite… smiley face pancakes. I gave my mom a huge hug and she asked me to promise her I would have a better day at school. Thinking about lying to her broke my heart so I just said no promises. I could tell saying that hurt her a little bit but it was much better than lying. I took the bus to school and just went throughout my day trying to keep low until sixth period. I would be a liar to pretend I wasn't terrified but all I had to do was tough it out until the time came for the confrontation with Russel. 

During lunch I was pretty popular, a bunch of people came up to me and they told me about how great I was for finally standing up to a bully. I heard stories of people who were inspired enough to stand up to their own bullies, and they actually became friends with them. One girl was even dating her bully, a dude who was just trying to pick on her for attention. I was loving THIS attention! And since I didn't have the same lunch as Russel I had nothing to worry about so I was able to let my guard down. It felt good to have people finally talking to me, not asking for me to do their homework, or making fun of me, but just wanting to talk to me. It almost made me feel like a hero. Like Rocky! I was so focussed on all the attention I was getting that I barely heard Ms. Porter yell my name. I was confused, it felt like deja vu until I turned around to see where she was and WAM!

Russel punched me right in the face, I fell backward over the table and he stood over me pummeling me with his huge fists. I blocked one with my arm and threw an uppercut into his chin causing him to stumble backward. I tried to run into a more open area but he grabbed me and threw me back into my seat, swinging his arm over the top of my head. I ducked under his outstretched arm and ran, rushing past the principal and onto the announcement platform. Russel pushed Mr. Kinniger out of the way and jumped up the stairs to meet me, giving the entire cafeteria a clear view of our fight. I danced around the stage, trying to imitate Rocky from the third movie and when I threw a jab Russel caught it pushed me, causing me to lose balance. I steadied my feet and clocked him in the ear, making him howl out in pain, giving me time to sidestep behind him and jump on his back. I tried to put him in a chokehold but he threw me over his shoulder, slamming me on my back in an attempt to stomp on my head. I rolled out of the way, grabbed his leg, and pulled as hard as I could, dropping Russel onto his back, knocking the wind out of him. As he struggled to catch his breath I straddled across his chest and punched him over and over. Left, right, left, right, left, right, until my left arm got tired and I continued with my right until he was out cold. I stood up and the entire cafeteria went wild. I threw my arms in the air and then I woke up. 

“HE’S AWAKE!!” My mom cried, folding herself over me as my dad rushed into the room with a Gatorade. “You okay Simon? You must be thirsty!” He handed me the bottle and I drank as fast as I could. “What happened?” I asked, spilling Gatorade on my blanket. My mom explained to me that Russel ran up behind me and hit me in the face and as soon as I hit the table I was out. There was no fight, and because of that Russel was in a lot of trouble and I was scot-free. Well, almost scot-free. I had a concussion because I hit my head on the table, but everybody said that Russel stopped after that first punch. Even he has standards I guess. “Where is he?”

As I said that, Russel walked in, apparently he had been waiting for me to wake up because he wanted to apologize. He asked my parents if he could talk to me alone and even though they were hesitant, I told them it was okay. They left and Russel and I were in the room alone.

“I didn't mean to hurt you, man. I just wanted to teach you a lesson and you hit your head on the table.”

“You literally punched me while I wasn't looking.”

“I had to make your story believable. You said yourself that I gave you that black eye when you weren't looking.”

“Okay then, I guess I kind of deserve that one.”

“Yeah. How did you get that black eye anyways?”

“I was training and slipped.”

“Training for what?”

“To beat you.”

“Woah, what?! You were actually gonna fight me?”

“Yeah.”

“You did hit me with a mean right cross last week, so I guess that makes sense. You're really not as bad as I thought.”

“What do you mean?”

“I always thought you were a wimp. Remember when I told you I was gonna toughen you up, way back in 4th grade?”

“Yeah, I remember that. But I didn't think you were gonna end up bullying me.”

“My bad man. I didn't think it would ever get to this.” 

I didn’t know what else to say so we just kept it at that. After a few awkward minutes of sitting quietly, Russel got up and left. As I watched him leave I thought about how this all started.

Russel and I actually used to be best friends. Ever since I met him in Pre-K we were inseparable. The only problem was that whenever we would go anywhere Russel always seemed to be the popular, cool one and I was the little nerd sidekick that never wanted to do anything. In fourth grade he said he was gonna whip me into shape and help me be more confident, but as the years passed I just began to resent him more and more. In 8th grade, we finally stopped being friends, and I guess he used the whole “personal trainer” thing as an excuse to torment me. 

I do have to give him credit though, I feel way better now that I actually tried to do something for myself. I may not have won the fight, but I could tell that Russel really respected me for what I did. I missed being his friend.

I walked out into the hallway after him. He was walking with his head down, being escorted by a police officer. He looked sad. “Hey, Russel!” He stopped in his tracks. He turned around and I tried to jog over but my head hurt too much, so I walked as fast as I could and put my hand out. 

“Are we cool?”

“Do you think we are?”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Then yeah.”

“Do you think we could try to get things back to how they used to be?”

I don’t remember exactly what he said after that, but we exchanged phone numbers and started going to that boxing gym together. The one where the coach turned me down. I explained everything to him, about how I trained by myself, all my failures trying to self teach discipline and technique, and what eventually happened. He said it sounded like Russel had the same problem I did, but since we came together he thought we were ready to learn something. 

Nowadays Russel is a trainer at that gym. He’s helped a lot of the pros attain their dreams, but he was only an assistant coach for many of them. There is one kid though, that Russel has really helped turn into somebody. That kid just turned pro, and Russel was promoted from assistant coach, into that kid’s personal trainer. Any guesses as to who that kid is? 

Yep, it's me.