THE WEIRDEST KID IN MY SCHOOL
In my school there was a boy 4 classes above me who was a real bully, yet a lot of the time he bullied in a really weird way. He was often falsely sweet rather than directly nasty and aggressive.
I had my first encounter with him soon after I'd started school. I can vaguely recall RC walking up to me and saying (in a falsely sweet tone of voice), "Kiss me, darling" . Thereafter he used to take the micky in all kinds of ways. He was charasmatic (perhaps partly because of his eccentricity) and socially the leader of his class.
Possibly the weirdest way in which RC used to take the micky out of me was during a period when he would repeatedly come up to me and say, "Darling, can we be friends?" I was naturally very confused about how to respond, and despite his false sweetness (as opposed to direct nastiness and aggression) RC's manner was always very intimidating. I can particularly recall one incident in which he came out of his classroom and, upon seeing me in the playground, called out, "Hey wizard", and starting running towards me, "Hey, hey, hey!" Upon reaching me he again asked, "Darling, can we be friends?"
There were times when I experienced RC's more directly nasty and aggressive style of bullying. Even back then I knew that he was not really wanting to become friends with me, and was just piss-taking. One time I managed to pluck up the courage to tell him directly that we could not be friends, and he replied with, "F*** off; the next time I see you I'll kick you in the face!"
Perhaps another incident worth mentioning is the time RC handed me some kind of metallic object, telling me that it was worth a £10 note and that if I took it to the bank I would be able to exchange it for a £10 note. Even I was not fooled, and he spent some time trying to convince me, eventually giving in and angrily and aggressively ordering me to give the object back to him.
RC left school during the penultimate year (by which time he was 17). Immediately prior to then he was still being as unpleasant as ever. One time during that period when he was taking the micky out of me he placed his hand over his ear and said, "Speak a little louder, I'm a bit hard of hearing". Another time during this period after a piss-taking incident (he was with another boy in his class) he called out after me, "Gandalf, Gandalf, GANDALF!!!! We're coming to get you!"
What a relief it was when during that year RC left school! It seemed too good to be true. What I have often wondered since is, what would he have been like by the time he reached 18? Would he still have been as unpleasant as ever, or might he have finally grown up and matured by then?
I was by no means the only person RC bullied. I think he was horrible to everyone younger than himself. In fact, he used to hang around the youngest kids and ask them, "What's the 3-times table? What shape is it? How do you form it?" As was characteristic in the school I went to, the kids would start reciting, "3 is 1 times 3, 6 is 2 times 3" and so on. RC would repeat his questions, basically taking the micky and trying to confuse the hell out of them.
RC had a very intimidating manner. Another boy in the same class as myself mentioned that his worst nightmare had been about RC. A third boy recalled that RC used to viciously attack him.
Much later it was my turn to leave school. Some months afterwards imagine my surprise and shock when I encountered RC of all people walking along the street where I lived. I bumped into him several times there during the course of this first year after leaving school. He just said "Hi" to me, so I said "Hi" back to him. I was thinking that hopefully he would have finally grown up and become a nicer person. He must have been living and/or working in the area at the time.
Two or three years later I was told of an encounter one of the boys who had been in the same class as me at school had had recently with RC. CC had bumped into him by chance in a pub, along with several other people who had been in the same class as RC. RC immediately said to CC, "I was a bit of an a***hole in school", and asked CC what he had been doing since leaving school. CC told him, and then RC told CC about what he had done since school, and it was really pathetic. CC told me that RC did then seem like a perfectly nice person.
I think this just proves wrong the myth that bullies are tough and successful people. RC had always seemed like an intelligent and tough person, so it would have been natural to assume he would do very well in life after finishing school. This story shows that the bully will always be the one to suffer in the end.
Why had RC been such a horrible person throughout his school years? Well this much I now know - his parents used to beat him with a belt if he misbehaved. Perhaps he was thus venting his anger and frustration onto anyone younger than himself.
If someone is a bully, there's always a reason for it. Bullies always have low self-esteem - if their self-esteem was high they would not bully anyone because they would have no need to do so. They would thrive soley on positive interactions with other people.
(Gandalf, Mon 18 May 2009, 19:55, 1 reply)

Pedantic
but I can't help myself.

Self-esteem (high or low) has got bugger all to do with how someone 'thrives soley on positive interactions with other people'

Stalin? Hitler? Pol Pot?
(minlan no longer barks at bancleys, Wed 20 May 2009, 0:45, closed)