The Tooth Fairy Came Early – A True Story

in #curie6 years ago (edited)

Sitting at my desk in second grade, suddenly I felt someone holding down my shoulders from behind. It was a girl and a moment later another girl grabbed one of my arms and started pulling. At the time, the teacher was writing on the chalkboard with her back turned to the class. I did not yell or scream for help and just silently fended them off and waited. Finally, the teacher turned around and when she saw what was happening she was furious at the girls. The teacher created a new seating arrangement in which there were mostly boys on my side of the classroom. Sitting down in my new seat, I felt more upset than I ever had in my life.

A Few Days Earlier

My friend Nicholas was absent from school for one day. We were friends that did the stuff that typical boys do on the playground during recess like digging holes and playing hide-and-go-seek. As an introvert, I actually relished the rare opportunity to be by myself on the playground. However, towards the end of recess a girl named Kayla approached me. I had been good friends with Kayla in kindergarten and first grade. But in second grade, for several reasons our friendship had taken a turn for the worst and in a way I no longer considered her to be a friend. So on this day, I was not happy to see her and even worse she immediately started teasing me in a playful way. I don’t remember what the nature of the teasing was, I just remember that it really offended me. I actually walked away from her without saying anything, but she followed me and the teasing continued. I became so angry that I gave her a soft push. The teasing still continued and I gave her another soft push with the same result.

Finally, I came up behind Kayla while she was facing a tree. The next few seconds seemed to play out in slow motion. With my adrenaline filled arms, I pushed her in the back as hard as I possibly could. I caught a glimpse of the side of her delicate looking face as she headed towards the tree and felt a quick sense of regret. Finally she collided with the trunk of the tree and then she quickly turned around. Her face appeared unscathed and I thought that she was unharmed. But then she started screaming at me about her loose tooth. She put her finger inside her mouth and when she took it out there was blood on it. She spent some time screaming at me before running off to the bathroom. What actually happened was that she had a baby tooth that had been slightly loose. As a result of the impact, the tooth was now very loose and bleeding.

Back in the classroom, I sat nervously because I did not know what to expect. The teacher was on the side of the classroom preparing for class. Kayla walked into the classroom and had a bloody paper towel with her. I wondered how a loose tooth could possibly bleed so much. The classroom was noisy and chaotic but I was just barely able to hear Kayla and the teacher speaking. Kayla told the teacher that her loose tooth was bleeding. Then Kayla told her that I had pushed her into a tree. The teacher replied 'who pushed you into a tree'. Then she repeated my name. I could not believe that Kayla had just told on me. At this point, I became despondent and I thought that at any second the teacher was going to want to talk to me. She told Kayla to go to the office. Later Kayla came back to the classroom to get her stuff and said that her mom was coming to pick her up. The teacher didn’t send me to the office, didn’t ask to hear my side of the story, didn’t punish me, and never even said a word to me about it. I can only assume that this was because this teacher was not very fond of me and it was near the end of the school year and she could soon pass me on to another teacher.

Kayla returned to school the next day and was fine but was missing the tooth. Immediately, her friends who were all girls asked her why she had gone home early the day before. She told them that it was all my fault, that I had pushed her into a tree and that I was really mean. This news spread like wildfire throughout the classroom. I could literally hear kids whisper to their neighbors that the reason Kayla went home early yesterday was because I had pushed her into a tree.

When I sat down at the boys lunch table, there was an awkward silence. Eventually one of the boys broke the ice and asked me about what happened. I don’t think I gave a very satisfactory response. I was defensive and trying to justify my actions rather than being apologetic or remorseful. I was told that the boys would support me even though not all of them felt like I deserved it.

Kayla’s friends increasingly threatened and picked on me. Kayla did not participate in this however she did not stick up for me at all. Sometimes I would look at her when this stuff was going on to try to make her feel guilty and she would just smile at me like you get what you deserve. However, group mentality made it easy for Kayla’s friends to get other girls in the class to join them. For example, they would all yell ‘girl-beater’ whenever they saw me. The boys started responding by completely surrounding me. Eventually surrounding me became the routine anytime I was outside the classroom. We actually developed a formation where the biggest and tallest boys in the class would stand in front of me and the rest would crowd around me on the side and back. This definitely brought the boys closer together because of the cooperation, team work, and planning this required. But, it further divided the class because the girls were upset at the boys for supporting and defending me.

During this time, Nicholas went through the motions of being my friend like playing with me at recess and sitting next to me at the lunch table, but he would not look at me. If he noticed that I was looking at him, he would try to hide his face even more. The school year would end without me apologizing to Kayla or us making up in any way. Luckily for me and the class as a whole, this incident happened just a few weeks before the end of the school year. Summer vacation was never such a welcome relief.

Epilogue

I had a few get-togethers with Nicholas during the summer and to my relief he was his usual old self around me. He and his family moved out of town later that summer. On the first day of third grade, Kayla was extremely friendly to me and we both apologized to each other for the stuff that happened. All of her friends left the school after the second grade and I did not have any girl problems in third grade. I found a new friend Ryan who replaced Nicholas. There were still hurt feelings and unexpressed emotions with Kayla, so I avoided her for the most part. I left the school after the third grade though I remained friends with Ryan outside of school until around fifth grade.


This is my entry for the Pick A Subject Writing Contest under topic ‘My Early Childhood’ hosted by @averageoutsider.

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I'm happy that you participated once again in the writing contest @ninjamike ... and enjoyed reading your true tale of Kayla, the tooth and the tree :)

You're a pretty good writer, knowing how to keep a story interesting through to the end.

Have a wonderful day.

This is a very open, honest and candid story, beautifully written but ever so slightly harrowing at times...

I say that because some of those early experiences linger in our psyche and (for better or worse) manifest themselves in our actions and perceptions as we mature. Children can be cruel or at the very least annoying in their hierarchical struggles and general wanderings through the world of relationships and peer groups.

I sense some residual guilt in your tale? If so, time to let it go Brother, you were a kid struggling through school-life and responded to provocation in exactly the same way many of us did, the lash-out very little thought is involved (No-one ever said humans were entirely smart, right?)

I always enjoy your writing style @ninjamike personal and open. Cool entry, have a fabulous weekend and an even better week to follow, my friend

Thanks for reading my story. I don’t think that this early experience shaped me or had any lingering effects. It was more a side effect of some deeper issues that I did not include. I told the story with minimal background information as well as minimal character development.

The story ended up coming across a bit more negatively than I was expecting. Maybe there is some residual shame. But the story is almost 30 years old and I know that I’ve obviously changed a lot over the past 30 years.

I love that you find my writing style personal and open, that’s what I strive for. Have a great day.

I enjoyed reading your well written story @ninjamike.

And the winners of a free @dustsweeper $0.50 upvote balance are...

@ninjamike

Looks like you won the 0.50 up-vote and @dustsweeper membership. Now all your troubles are over, forever....

Cool, I was the first name on the list of winners.

Yes...You Waz. The top of the list.

You were one of the winners for this entry. One share of @steembasicincome was bought in your name. Thank you for the wonderful story.

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