Angry

I have sunburn. It was sports test day. Everyone was happy because there are no classes. Just playing outside. I went to jiu-jitsu for three hours last night. Slept hard and felt good. But I knew. I knew that the 3rd year boys would find a way to fuck up. That knowledge is a burden. It is an itch. It is more than a premonition. I did everything I could to avoid them. When we met in the gym I stayed far off to the side by the 2nd years. I didn't say anything to anyone except for "good morning." I wasn't assigned an event for the sports test but I went somewhere fairly neutral that started with 2nd years. I ended up at the handball throw. You have to throw a handball and see how far it goes. (I threw twice today. 24 and 25 meters, if you were wondering. Two 1st years and 1 or 2 3rd years bested me with 27s and a 31.) My job was to catch the balls coming back in from the field and pass them to the person that holds them for the person who gets two throws. It went ok.

When the 3rd years came around, I stationed myself 40 meters deep in the field to catch any stray balls and to avoid any actual contact. How long did it last? Not long. I am not sure if it was the 1st class to go or the 2nd, but from my spot, 40 meters deep in the field, I see Fukunaka (who hangs out by my desk all day to avoid bullies) go down in a cloud of dust after he made two weak throws. Someone had said something and he said something back and they pushed him on the ground. He landed next to Yoshida, the basketball captain with the extravagant beaufont hair-do, who then proceeded to kick him and laugh. There were at least 4 teachers closer to this than I was, 40 meters deep in the field. No one even seemed to notice. I made it there first while the boys laughed and told Yoshida he better run. I shoved him hard in the chest yelling "What the fuck are you thinking?" In Japanese. He went about 10 feet back and started trotting off the other direction. I nailed him again yelling something. We ended up near a low concrete wall and all off the other boys were surrounding me. The other teachers? 0 and counting. Sakakibara gets in my face with everyone's favorite line "This ain't got nothing to do with you." So I switched to English. "Get in my face you little bitch. I dare you. Huh? Try it." Eloquent. "Speak Japanese!" He yelled. That shit gets on my nerves. Yoshida was sliding out sideways. "You kick someone who is on the ground? What is that shit?" He is creeping off. "What are you thinking?" We make it back to the scene where another teacher has showed up to make sure that nothing effective happens. All the other boys laugh and I challenge any of them to step up. But they don't because they are cowards. Fukunaka slinks off crying and the teachers let Yoshida go. Later they will make Fukunaka apologize to him for falling on his leg and give him a bandage. He makes a half-ass apology to Fukunaka. I say that I want to speak with him but they say, "He's with his friends now and we worry it will make him angry if you talk to him." Par for the course. After this, Sakamoto, who I get along with, steals a megaphone. I chase him down and playfully jump on his back. Another guy, Fukuizumi, is holding on to his arm and starts screaming, "That hurts! Die! Die! I hate you! I'll fucking kill you! I'm going to kill you! Die! Die!" Again, and this was actually lovely, I hit him with a barrage of "What? What? What." But not like I am actually confused. "What" like you hear in a playground basketball game that means, "Say 'what' motherfucker." Somebody out there gets what I am saying. He actually went chest to chest with me but again another teacher dragged him off lest he miss his lunch.

Nakamaura exploded at a 50 something year old teacher, kicking a desk and chair around because he had been asked not to punt the balls across to the other side of the field. He had to be restrained by Okada. When I showed up he screamed, "Don't even come over here you fuck."

Nice school they got here. Want to know what happened to Yoshida? Guess? Nothing. Later he complained about his leg hurting and everyone made sure he had a bandage.

Inoue sensei and I sat at our desks and waited for our heads to explode.