Don’t Call Me a Punk

I don’t know why I bother. You aren’t going to believe me. Nobody ever believes me when I tell them things, even if I swear that they’re true. Everyone says that I’m a liar, but that’s not true. Okay, I do exaggerate the truth occasionally, I’ll admit to that but it doesn’t necessarily make me a liar. None of this is even my fault anyway, so I don’t see why I’m telling you about it in the first place. I shouldn’t even be grounded right now, it’s just totally unfair. But, I guess I’ll tell you and then you’ll see; none of it is my fault.

You see, it all started a little over a week ago, the day that we took our midterms at school. I had promised my dad that I’d do a really good job this year, and I really wanted to. I go to a small school, so whenever a major testing time comes you can always tell by how quiet it is. I went from class to class in a near complete silence. Everything seemed to go so well. I was certain I knew the answer to nearly every question on all the tests I took. I was so sure I had it in the bag, straight A’s across the board, my parents would be so happy. Of course, this put me in a pretty good mood, so when I got home and saw my dad sitting at the kitchen table writing something, I told him how well I thought I did. He said that we’d see for sure when the results were handed out in a week. I was so sure I’d done my best ever, I was almost literally floating.

Then, the next week, I went crashing to the ground like a jumbo jet. I really should have known, an F in World History. That teacher, Ms. Erdman, has had it in for me since the beginning. Ever since the first day of school it’s been as if I can’t do anything right, a regular Snape that one is. I sometimes think she even looks kind of like him, with the black hair and all. But, that’s being mean; even she doesn’t deserve that comparison. I know one thing, it certainly isn’t my fault. She probably gave me the grade just to be mean. I wouldn’t put it past her. I mean, just because the kid next to me had his paper turned out for the entire world to see, that doesn’t mean I was cheating. I can’t believe she even accused me. I suppose the rest of my grades weren’t so bad, one C, two A’s, and B’s on all the rest.

After that, I guess I must have been pretty disappointed. Everybody kept asking me why I was so quiet, but I just told them all to leave me alone. I mean, it’s none of their business, is it? Now I was going to have to put up with a lecture from my dad, for nothing that was even my fault. I know that the real trouble didn’t really actually start until right after school. I remember getting all my books, homework, and other stuff from my locker and tossing it all in my backpack before leaving. The rest is sort of a blur; it happened pretty fast, I’ll do my best to remember.

I don’t live very far away from the school, so I always walk to school and home. I was heading down the sidewalk away from school, completely minding my own business, when I heard Mike call out behind me “Yo, Dave, you punk!” When I turned around, he was standing outside the school, pointing and laughing at me. I figured I’d just ignore it, so I turned and started walking away again. Then suddenly, the next thing I know, I’m being pushed down to the ground. Well, after that I had to fight him, I didn’t really have any choice. Any fool can see that. I mean, isn’t it obvious it isn’t my fault? Of course, Mike’s one year older and a lot bigger than me, so I don’t really have to tell you who was soon winning. I got in some good punches of my own though, before the older kids ran in and pulled us away from each other.

Next thing I know I’m being escorted into the principal’s office. Mr. Edgar is a man who has no sense of humor whatsoever, and can drone on forever whether you’re listening or not. On top of that, he’s short, almost bald, and kind of fat, so needless to say everyone has trouble taking him too seriously. If you saw him, you’d probably want to laugh out loud. He basically lost my attention right after “Have a seat.” That didn’t stop him from talking though, he seemed rather determined to convince me of the error of my ways. From the little bits and pieces I did hear, it seems like the other kids must have accused me of starting the fight. How ridiculous is that? I didn’t even really do anything! They’re all liars. I knew it was useless to try to argue about it though, so I just waited for him to finish talking. After a while, he called my dad to come for me. Of course, it’s just my luck that the whole fight had to happen on school property. If we’d been a little further away, I wouldn’t have gotten a half hour lecture.

It didn’t take very long for my dad to show up and he was not happy at all. I could tell just by the look on his face. Then I had to sit outside the office while they talked about what I had done, or should I say talked about Mr. Edgar’s version of what I had done. Then my dad finally came out and just signaled to me to follow him to the car. Not that I particularly minded him not talking. At least the ride home was silent as well, my dad never said a word, and I don’t think I dared to. The deafening silence pretty much stopped at the door though. I knew it was too good to hope it would last forever. I guess he just wanted to wait until we were at home. That’s always a sure sign that I’m in big trouble. After all, it means he needed time to think about just what to say to me later. He looked so serious, I began to wonder just what it was that the principal had told him. I didn’t have very much time to think about it though.

Now I feel like I should explain something about my dad. You see, he’s basically the exact opposite of my principal. He’s really tall, and I think it’s almost impossible to ignore him; it’s as if he just draws your attention. So, when he talks, I know I have no choice but to listen. Besides that, he’s also a lawyer, so I know that I will never be able to win an argument with him. I knew the drill by then though. When I’m in trouble, I might as well not even bother trying to go upstairs to my room. I’m supposed to just go straight in the front door and into the living room, which is exactly what I did.

I sat down on the couch and just looked over at him. He seemed as if he still wasn’t quite sure how to begin, so I waited, not that I minded a few seconds more reprieve from what I knew would be coming. Imagine my surprise when he didn’t yell or anything. Not that he sounded happy, far from it really, but at least he was calm. That was new, not to mention extremely lucky. It definitely got my attention right away to. Now that I think about it that may have been the intent. Anyway, it was a lot quieter than I was expecting.

“Why did you start that fight with Michael today, David?” He asked, oh-so-calmly. Can you believe it? He actually thought that I had done it. What kind of dad thinks that about their own kid? I was shocked for a few seconds.

“But, I didn’t start it!” I said.

“Then perhaps you can to explain to me why everyone who witnessed it says you did?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because they’re all a bunch of liars?”

“So, you’re claiming that everyone’s lying except for you? Why would they do that?” then he just sighed really big. “We can discuss this later, I’ve been told that you received your midterm results back today, and I’d like to see them now.”

I knew things were about to go from bad to worse, but what else was there for me to do? I took the grade report out of my backpack and handed it to him. As soon as he saw it I knew he was even less happy than before. Now I had really crossed the line. I tried to explain to him that the grades weren’t my fault, but he wouldn’t believe me. He actually said that I would do better if I bothered to study every once in a while! I can’t believe he thinks that I don’t, just because my teachers hate me. Then we both decided not to talk anymore until after dinner that night, when my mom could be there as well.

So here I am, grounded for six months. I tried to tell both of them that it wasn’t my fault, but they didn’t believe me. So now I’m stuck in my room with no phone, TV, friends over, computer, video games, or anything else really. On top of that, they insist on checking that I’ve done my homework every night, as if I were a little kid. I’m fifteen, not a baby. I just wish somebody around here would believe me, but at least you do, don’t you?