Random Childhood Memories #2: Second Grade, Stupid Grappling

Remember my post a little while back about my first grade childhood memory? My first girlfriend?  Well, I've decided to make it a series, working all the way up through high school.  

Remember my buddy from my first story, the one who ended up in rehab by his freshman year?  Well, in second grade, I was still good friends with little old Fred.  One recess on a beautiful spring day, Fred and a whole group of us thought it would be fun if we organized a big old wrestling match out on the school lawn. Naturally, we knew fighting was against the rules, so we did the responsible thing and cleared it with the yard duty.  

"It'll just be a fun thing," we told Sue. "No one will get hurt, we just wanna wrestle." Famous last words.

Sue assented and we proceeded to have a blast. Grass was staining our clothes and dirt was getting in our eyes, and it was awesome.  

Until one kid--Josh, let's say--got a little angry.  I didn't even know what was going on, I was on the outskirts of the skirmish.  All of a sudden I look up and Josh is actually punching the new kid at school, who couldn't speak english and probably didn't understand what the whole point of our fun was. 

When everyone realized what Josh was doing, they yanked him off the new kid, and a new cluster formed--a violent-looking cluster, probably.   The second Sue saw this new cluster, she blew her whistle and broke it up, and proceeded to make us all sit on the bench for the remainder of recess.  As I see it in my mind's eye, it was actually a pretty comical sight: Ten kids squeezed on a little bench, all trying to get a piece of seat.  So recess ended, and I figured that would be the end of it.

No, siree.

No adults saw Josh do the punching, so it was all on the word of the kids.  Naturally, no one said anything.  Not, that is, until the period after recess, when the new kid came in from the other class with Sue.  Everyone looked up from their reading as Sue walked to my desk and asked to see me outside.  What could this be about? I wondered.  Sue answered my question very quickly, and proceeded to tell me that the kid said I was the one punching him!

I ended up getting a citation and having to write 100 sentences saying "I will not punch anyone," and got in trouble with my parents, too.  I was a perfectly innocent kid, and this new guy spoiled my clean record.  It still makes me mad every time I think about it, because I was completely dumbfounded when he told on me. I never did find out why he picked me.  But it sure made me a whole lot less sorry that he got beat up.

Of course, there is justice.  Ol' Josh, the kid who did the punching, ended up getting expelled for possession of Marijuana in the SIXTH grade.  Yep, great elementary school I went to, huh? ;)