Once, when I was in Year 8, I was sitting on a bench outside the tuck shop eating an apricot pie. I was concentrating quite intently on the pie, because they were usually crazy hot. If any of the filling dripped on your leg it would melt an apricot splotch into your skin faster than you can say ‘Holy Hotness’. So there I am, in my QUITE short skirt, legs suntanned and splotchless. I’m thinking about how great recess is, who to sit next to on the bus and whether to buy creamy soda or a milky bar after school. Ahhh.
And then… THUNK! Not in a thinky-thunk way. In a forceful, punched in the back way. I have been forcefully punched in the back. I go flying. My pie goes flying too. An angry girl I have never spoken to stands over me amidst the apricot, snarling something post-punchy. Then she’s gone. I am left sitting on the ground, trying to pull my skirt down while I pick the pie up. (That’s quite hard.) Drat. I loved my pie. Ugh. My pie is BROKEN.
By the time I get up, which seems like 456 hours later, but in reality is 4.56 seconds later, there is a crowd of girls around me. They are saying nice things and helping me sort myself out. I am looking for the back puncher, but she seems to have gone. I try and be brave, but I start crying. Another older girl approaches and puts her arm around me. She’s going to sort back puncher out, she says. She gives me a squeeze and disappears into the mess that is recess.
The bell rings and I go to class. I’m a bit numb. Not literally, of course, because it didn’t really hurt too much. But I feel wounded and I can’t do my work. I am hot with embarrassment. I am the back punchee. I am sure everyone knows and I don’t even know what it was all about. I don’t want to whisper about it in Maths. I don’t want to hear what anyone thinks. I don’t want to mention it at all. I don’t want to feel this hot and cringey. I wish it was time for milky bars. I wish I could go home and make a pot of soup and watch Worzel Gummidge or something equally sweet.
After school, the older girl rushes over to inform me that she found the back puncher and punched her back. For me. She said I got punched because the back puncher’s boyfriend had said something nice about me. I do not know who her boyfriend is. Our high school has over 1000 kids. I nod my head thankfully, force a smile and pretend to be fine. I take this grin onto the bus and find a seat near the front. When I get home, I make tomato soup and float little cubes of white bread in it. I eat it with a teaspoon in front of the ABC and the heat slowly retreats.
Sheesh. It’s not nice having the pie punched out of you, is it?
xx Pip
Pip, I read you account aloud to my 11 year old, a recent victim of bullying at school, feeling like the biggest loser and nellie no friends. Thanks for remembered tale, as much as your mum tells you it will be ok, we've all had a few unfortunate incidents in our past, it seems you hit the nail on the head. "don't get the pie punched out of you" seems to have become a mantra between my 3 boys, they are thick as thieves at the best of times, all on the same campus now, no one is punching any of their pies! Thanks babe.
I like your story. I got punched in the stomach by a boy in year 6 because he thought I liked him! I didn't I was just a friendly person, I liked everyone! It was certainly a shock to me that people used violence like that!
Thank you Pip. (-:
Oh! You've taken us all back there! Look at all the stories of bully-ees (those that had bully things done to them)! I love your very present recollections. I agree that you should be compiling them all into a book for our reading pleasure. You write so well.
To add to the list, I was taken back to a school camp where I had returned to my duffle coat that I'd left in the bus to find it smelling a lot like poo. I heard through the loud and reliably smug grapevine that it had been sprayed with fake skunk spray from the novelty shop (all the rage at the time, fart cushions, exploding cigarettes, and the like). I snuck from door to door for the whole weekend camp, encountering sniggers at every turn. I never wore my duffle coat again, because it made me feel lame.
Thanks for your beautiful words. xxx
No, it's not, but you write a great story! And I've never even heard of apricot pie. Sounds yum.
Being a kid can be hard sometimes. I have many memories of grade school that don't quite go away. I did not have the best of vision as a little girl so I had big glasses, and was terribly shy. I became the target for teasing. I was a happy little girl otherwise, just not when I went to school, mainly grade 6. One boy in particular, which I still remember his name, crazy, liked to pick at me. I was glad when junior high came, we moved, and I was the new girl at school. From then on things changed, I was growing up, my glasses weren't as thick anymore, and I felt confident. These experiences, while not fun, unfortunatly happen, but we need to use them to make us stronger, and not let the bullies keep us down. Even as adults we can get punched in the back. I have to tell myself this all the time π Great post Pip!
Oh Pip. That is sad.
Our school had buildings that were SO far from the main block(probably 200m) we called them 'Siberia'. I can still feel the feeling I had when those girls surrounded me there. I was completely alone. I had to go to art with wee in my pants. I loved art but not that day. The next time they tried that my friend stepped between them and me as a human shield. I will always remember that. Hugs(and shields!) to you and yours. Sue
sad!!!
It's awful when you've got kids at school. I think you worry more about things than they do. Whenever one of the girls comes in with a story of someone being mean I always want to march down and kick-off – before I remember they are 11 years old. So hard…
Makes me very thankful that high school is a dim memory, they are not forgiving places. Having said that I still have some of my best friends from high school, so it can't have been that bad!
beautifully written. brought back so many memories for us all. no bullies lurking around to tell their side of the story huh! when i was in grade four a boy in my class punched me hard in the stomach on our way out of school totally unprovoked and i never found out why. as an adult now i see him and his family around town and realise that perhaps life was just like that for him. i didnt deserve it, it was horrible but i think so was his life.
I love your little reflections π P.S Did you decide blogger over WP?
Gosh grade 8 was fraught wasn't it? I remember the hot, burning feeling of wishing I was somewhere else, possibly someone else, and the strong feelings of "why me?" I don't gave a punching or a pie story, but I did manage to put my retainer in my lunchbag to hide the ugliness of it, and throw the bag out and my rather expensive retainer was incinerated. I blame it on all the raging hormones.
aww what a sad story. I am glad that older girl came and helped you.
This makes me sad, even more so because you thought of it because one of yours is having a bit of an unsettled time. I am so nervous for my daughter when she hits school and she is only 3. We all have these stories but I often wonder if the meanies remember of think about these occassions with regret?
I love that a lovely big girl came to help.
I hope your kids have lovely big girls/boys in their school world too.
Nice people help balance out the crappy sorts that inevitably come our way.
Oh Pip! Im sorry that happened to you but am glad you wrote that today.
I was the back punchee for my 6 year old today because his best mate's dad is jealous of my boy's friendship with his son. It's made me feel icky. But it's nice to remember that the icky goes away
M xxx
aww that's harsh. grade 8 is a tough year. I totally know all about that hotness. Not a good kind of hot, that's for sure. I bet that back puncher feels bad about it now. Kids can be so cruel without even understanding why they are doing these things. I hope your little one is feeling okay about school soon xox
Pip Lincolne's 'recollections" that should be your next book..you write so well! I'd buy it!! π
You brought back so many memories Pip!
remember (although I wish I could forget) the first day of year 7. There was this BBQ, a sausage sizzle and everyone was waiting in line to put sauce on their sausage from one of those big 5 litre squirt packs. As soon as it was my turn this horrible boy turned around the nozzle and squirted sauce right into my crotch! I spend the rest of that day with my jumper tied around my waist backwards so no one thought i'd just had a sauce-period everywhere. I wish I could say that high school was on the up from then, but it wasn't really. I'm really super-glad that now I get to choose the people I spend time with and that I don't ever have to go back to high school again! (although it's kind of a bit funny now I think about it….right?).
Great story Pip.
I want to tell my kids when they come in from school they NEVER have to go there again, cos you just made me revisit some feelings of the 'lostness' of being a kid.
An older boy, was walking past me as I walked home from primary school alone – aged ten. He suddenly stopped talking with his mate, abruptly grabbed me, kneed me hard in the tummy and ran off – no reason! DAMN it was a shock and DAMN it hurt, nobody was round, and nobody saw it happen. I wandered home shocked, hurt, crying. I told my big brother. We could identify the kid as he was noticeable due to being very overweight and we knew where he lived – unkindly known as Fatso. A few days later my brother told me he had 'sorted' it all out – I think that meant he beat the s–t out of the guy. Never saw him again.
You name checked Worzel Gummage. I think I love you.
xxx
"Hot with embarrassment" oh I know that feeling, it creeps up over your face and you feel like you are glowing like a traffic light! How do apricot pies make you feel now? I hope you can eat them without ill feeling!
A similar thing happened to me in year 6. I was sitting at my desk, trying to be interested in what our substitute teacher was writing on the blackboard when BAM, my head & the desk collide. The girl in our class who was about two years older than the rest of us, and significantly bigger – she was held back – decided, just because, to punch me in the back of the head.
Said girl was bigger than the substitute teacher so nothing was done. I went home at lunchtime & cried, was escorted back to school & told the solution to my getting randomly punched in the back of the head problem would be to keep out of bully-girl's way. Helpful.
So sorry you had the pie punched out of you Pip!
You write so beautifully. You took me there! Once in Year 7, a rumour reached me that another girl (who I didn't know and had never seen) was going to fight me, but only after the knee support I'd been wearing due to an unfortunate accident at Little Athletics came off. I wore that knee support for the rest of the year, until we moved house and I went to a new school. You took me there, too.
I don't know why I thought of that Ruth! I think because one of the kids is having a bit of a hard time at school, maybe. Not feeling positive or settled. I think that made me think of the things you go through… and how there are some CRAP things that can go on… Ugh. But I did LOVE school, so there you go!
That's a sad but very cute story.
Reminds me of making a little girl band with all of the unpopular girls that got picked on. π
I'm sorry you got punched.
Hey! I won the citizenship award too π
π
What made you think of that Pip……??
That made me cry a little…….