Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 23:19:14 +0200 (CEST)
From: lo75014@yahoo.fr
Subject: My New Friends - Part 1

It all started at the beginning of high school. The groups in my class
formed pretty fast. Basically, there was, say, the boy scouts group, with
the rich healthy popular kids who liked sailing and camping in the
woods. There were the computer geeks who spent hours talking about video
games. There were the mean kids who made fun of the others and bullied the
weakest. And of course there were the girls groups, and a few outcasts.

I didn't have many friends in my former school, so it was time to make some
new ones. I first thought I would try to mix with the boy scouts, as they
were cute and popular but still nice, and if for some reason they rejected
me, I would go for the geeks. But, surprisingly, I found myself spending
more and more time with the bullies.

One of them, Mike, a thin guy with dirty blond hair, a cute smile, baggy
pants and big fucked-up white sneakers, kept sitting next to me and talking
to me. One day, I had lunch with him and we sat with his friends, so he
introduced me to them : Steve, short bulk guy with a shaved head, Nike
sweat pants and sneakers and a leather jacket, who was sort of the leader,
and Hakim, who had short dark hair, grey military clothes and Timberland
shoes.

I felt amazingly good with them. They liked my humor and didn't seem to
notice I wasn't as cool as them. As the weeks passed, we began hanging out
together after school, and it was exciting for me because they made me
drink alcohol or smoke, which I had never done before. I began dressing
differently, wearing big skater shoes, baggy jeans and T-shirts, I let my
hair grow...

One day at the mall we were checking out the sneakers when Mike said :
"Hey, man, know what would look real good with your skater style ? This !"

He was showing me a big (fake)golden chain with a dollar sign. I wasn't
really into it, thought it was rather gangsta and wouldn't match my skater
style, but they insisted, saying I had to look tough to be respected, so I
said "anyway, it's too expensive". "You don't have to pay, just put it in
your pocket and stay cool" Steve said. They pushed and pushed me, and I
felt that was some sort of initiation ritual, so eventually I did it, and
this is how I got my golden chain. Later I stole two other chains, and a
pair of sunglasses.

My new friends were not only shoplifters, they also threatened the younger
or more isolated kids in order to steal their money. First I was just
watching, but later when we had to beat the disobedient kids I took an
active part in that, and I was surprised to see that I actually enjoyed
kicking the guys and calling them worthless faggots. Two months after the
beginning of the year, I was officially a bully. Everyone hated me, but I
didn't care as long as I had the power. The guys in my class said they
despised us and we would end up working at Mc Donald's, but they always
showed us respect and deep down it was obvious they feared us and admired
us.

One day, I was trying to steal a very cool skater T-shirt with Hakim, and I
got caught. I was really scared at first, but then Hakim talked to the
guard, which was his friend, they went to the surveillance room and he came
back alone : "my friend says we can go, he gave me the surveillance tape,
we have nothing to worry about".

We went to his place, and drank a few beers. At one point, Hakim said "Hey,
get me another beer" - "No way, fucker, get it yourself" - "What ? Is that
the way you treat me, after I saved your ass ?" - "Ok, I'll get your beer".

After Hakim had used his "you owe be one" card a few times, I said "Come
on, dude, I'm not your fucking bitch !" - "Well, you should be, after all,
if it weren't for me you'd be getting your ass fucked in a prison cell
right now" - "ok, you're right, take my ass, it's yours" - "I'm not kidding
man, that's the code of honor, we'll ask Steve and Mike, I'm sure they'll
agree you have to be my bitch"