I know I was bullied in Elementary school, not so much in middle, and I don't recall anything from High School. There may have been snide remarks, but nothing stands out.

At my 20th reunion I was amazed by the number of people who knew me and I couldn't remember them. And I had a fair number of people tell me they were scared of me in high school. Which still makes me scratch my head. I didn't bully anyone and kept to my social circle most of the time. I was on the heavy metal side of fashion, but more average teen that you would think. Whatever.

Jesse, you can punch me in the face if you want. As long as you know, then it's on like Donkey Kong.

BTW, I knew you cared about 90210. Also, Donna Martin graduates!

I don't think I got into anything that could be quantified as a real fight. That would be two people hitting each other. I'm not sure I ever got into more than a one-two exchange of blows in an unformalised fashion, and that was usually me showing my sister who was boss. In a formalised (i.e. boxing matches in the driveway) there were more.

Kat, a friend of mine went to school with Teri Hatcher. She was stunned to hear Teri's version of how she was a geek in HS, etc. She was a cheerleader.

But one of the things I'm learning in my middle age is that we make a lot of assumptions about people and even the people we think are doing very well may not perceive things that way or may be hiding some private pain the world never sees.

The only physical bullying I recall was a girl in fourth grade who kept hitting me and then grabbed my braids and pulled me into a mud puddle. I had to tell my mother about that, because of the state of my dress, and she said to get her back. So I laid for her outside her house and knocked her down and hit her. Her mother promptly called mine to complain, and my mother said she got what she deserved.

We moved five times between when I was 10 and 13, to progressively smaller towns, and each one was another fresh hell. I was taunted, accused of cheating, not given honors my grades deserved and generally made miserable. My mother did throw a fit when I was not entered for Governor's Honors, which was a summer program for gift students. At that time, each district nominated students and the top overall students were chosen. The small town I lived in had never had a student chosen. I was chosen and the closest thing I had to a friend, a girl I took art classes with who was also a pariah, was chosen for her artwork. (Students could enter their own portfolios for art, without the filter of the school officials.) The town was shocked that the in crowd did not prevail.

I hated high school.

I had a couple people challenge me to fights who didn't show up when the time came.

The most physical fight I ever had was when my eldest brother (one year younger than me), called someone in my grade "faggot" (which was unbelievably stupid...but we were raised in a family where that word was thrown around to mark anyone you didn't think was cool or manly enough *sigh*). I was walking home from school and could hear him behind me yelling for help. He was being chased by about 6 guys from my grade.

I put my foot out just like in the cartoons and it worked. The guy closest to him in the chase went flying. Then I continued walking to catch up with the gaggle who'd caught up to him and were pinning him down on a neighbor's lawn while punching him. I punched my way through the guys and picked my brother up and we went home. This is the brother I get along with least but our family has always been the type to think "Hey, *I* can punch him but I'm damned if I let *you* punch him!"

"Hey, *I* can punch him but I'm damned if I let *you* punch him!"

That's what families are for!

one of the things I'm learning in my middle age is that we make a lot of assumptions about people and even the people we think are doing very well may not perceive things that way or may be hiding some private pain the world never sees.

I read this and thought "Earshot". And yes.

one of the things I'm learning in my middle age is that we make a lot of assumptions about people and even the people we think are doing very well may not perceive things that way or may be hiding some private pain the world never sees.

Oh, that's what I was told almost verbatim if I complained when I got shit. "There are things about his/her life you don't know/understand."

It took growing up for me to learn to not give a crap about the motivations of a person being abusive to me. If you're nasty to me I don't care why. If I could go tell 12 year old Trudy anything it would be that.

I need to find out if my sister ever felt put upon. I think she was never even slightly weird (eta: until after uni). But I know I'll find out something different.

Yeah, any fighting I did was mostly informal. There was never any meet you after school stuff. It was mostly running and grappling. And then more running.