Lurking around at home was not my idea of an enjoyable Monday. The weekend had passed exceptionally slowly, due to having to spend all my time listening to my parents lay into me. It upset me that they ignored my justification for my actions, but they couldn't stay mad for too long - especially when they found out that it was a one time thing and would never happen again.

I had been banned from computer games and my laptop for the next two weeks, but at least I was back at school next week, so I could distract myself with that. I'd just have to consider this to be an Omish holiday break.

My parents seemed to be all yelled out by now, and now it just seemed that they were in the dissapointed stage, which to most people is so much worse. But this week, I didn't really become bothered by it.

Now that the bullies had been punished, I was pretty certain that they wouldn't be bothering me any more. Which brought a smile to my face every time I thought about it.

By standing up for myself, I had essentially upset my parents, but I had cleared my own issues up, and that was the key focus right now. I could deal with their grief later.

It wasn't a guarantee, but I was pretty certain that the bullying had come to an end. Besides, even if it did continue, I'd just stand up for myself again. It may not have the best effects on other people's opinions of me, but they never really bothered with me anyway.

Hopefully, however, the bullies would have figured that bullying me was a bad idea, because now I would fight back. And of course I wouldn't start a fight unless it was absolutely necessary, but now I knew how to get to them, I was looking forward to a normal secondary school life.

Another incentive for the bullies was of course exclusion, but I ignored that, because, let's face it, they probably would too.

I need to be very clear again - this was not something I was exactly proud of. I wasn't proud that I hit somebody in the face, and got into a fight with somebody else. I wasn't proud of the violence.

But I was proud of myself. I was proud that I had stood up for myself - something I had never expected to be able to do. I was proud that I was handling my own problems, instead of doing nothing. But I was especially proud that I had shrugged off the chains of my oppressors.

And things were looking up.

The End.

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One of my better solo stories - and although it was written in only one day, I feel like it took an eternity. It's the most care and thought and work I've put into a Protagonize story so far.

updated Jul 29 '09 by LairdTom