When I was in high school I was chased by "someone" late at night while I was driving around in the country. When I got into town, I blew through a stop sign and was pulled over by a cop.
Well, I was a Junior Fireman and the fire station was next door to the Cop Shop plus my Mom worked for the Police so ALL the cops knew me. So the cop asks me what the hell I'm doing and I tell him "Someone is chasing me." About that time another car comes around the corner and I tell the cop "That must be him!" (This being LATE at night in a small town in Missouri, there wasn't that much traffic on the road) So the cop pulls over the other car and it's a guy I go to school with. The cop searches his car and finds beer in it. I get released, and he goes "Down Town".
So the next day at school I find out that the guy gets his license taken away by his Dad and even though he's pissed, at first everything is OK. (Sort of anyway) Well you know how Kids are. During the day his friends are telling him he should kick my ass! (He SWEARS he wasn't the one chasing me BTW) So eventually he says he wants to meet me after school.
Well I have aways though fighting was stupid, even though it seemed I did it a LOT. And I would usually try and talk sense into people wanting to fight with me. This time however I had a dilemma. If he really WASN'T the guy who was chasing me, he had a legitimate beef, and if fighting about it would make him feel better, SO BE IT! So I tell him I'll meet him.
Come the end of the day, it seems EVERYONE in the whole school turns out to see "The Fight" (well, all the kids anyway) and the parking lot is full of people. Just a few feet from the parking lot is a railroad track and once on the other side, you are off of school property. So I say to Roger "Let's go across the tracks." and he pushes me. POP, I nail him one in the face! First time in my life I ever threw the first punch, but I figured if a fight is inevitable, might as well get the upper hand. Several blows later and I have Roger in a head lock and am working on remodeling his face when someone yells "Here comes the Principal!" He starts yelling "Let me go let me go." so I do and we both try and fade into the crowd. Not a easy task since we are both bloody and our clothes are torn up. So we get caught. The next day at school I get called into the office and told to Get a hair cut and stop wearing bluejeans and "T" shirts to school or don't come back. (Roger was part of the "IN crowd" and I wasn't) So I tell the Principal that My clothes and hair shouldn't make a difference, I am the same person no matter how I look or what I wear. Never the less, he says thats the way it's gonna be. I say "see ya" and left school.
My folks had gotten a divorce a short time previous to this and my Mom had moved to K.C. so I was living with my Dad. When I got home and told him what had happened, he told me he would buy me some new clothes and take me down to get a haircut. I refused saying it was a matter of predicable. We ended up getting in a wrestling match over it and that was the day my Dad realized he was no longer able to impose his will on me. (A footnote: Years later my Dad said he was proud of me for standing up for what I felt was RIGHT!)
I ended up leaving Warrensburg and moving to K.C. to live with my Mom.
A few years back I returned to Warrensburg for my 30th High School reunion, I hadn't been there since that fateful day in 1970. Rumor had it I had died in Viet Nam so imagine the surprise when I showed up!
And guess what? My old nemesis Roger was there! I eventually asked Roger if it had been him chasing me that night over 30 years ago. And he admitted it HAD been him! (Something I "Knew" all along!)
Sometime during the night I made a comment (tongue in cheek) about how you hear about all these kids these days walking into their school with a arsenal and opening UP, but you NEVER hear about this happening at High School reunions!
I'm still wondering if I'll be invited to my NEXT reunion.