In 8th grade I was pretty quiet. Completely lacked confidence and was picked on pretty regularly.

One day we were at an assembly in the lunch room. Everyone was quiet anticipating whatever was coming next, and for a split second you could hear a pin drop.

That's when it happened. The biggest douche in school was near me. He had spent a good deal of time picking on me. I was turned and facing him because that's the direction the stage was in.

I coughed. Then a stream of puke poured out of me like none ever had before or since. It must have been a full quart. I didn't mean to do it. I didn't mean to aim it at him.

When I coughed, the whole gym looked over. When I covered that kid in puke, the table around him cleared out (like they all had the time to react and he was stuck in time).

I just stopped and stared. So did he - but not towards me, just in front of him. All I could see was his blond curly hair and his back just covered in throw up.

Then someone nearby said "what the fuck!" and the whole assembly roared with laughter. Except for me. And Chris. We were still just locked in time unable to react.

Then one of the teachers walked over and grabbed him and took him away.

Then one of the other teachers got on the microphone and said something like "alright everyone settle down" and continued the assembly.

Quietly, a janitor came by with a mop. One of the people near by whispered "did you really just puke all over chris? Holy shit that was a lot of puke." and I responded with "he's always fucking with me" and my table had like this whispery cackle. The hot girl whispered "Whatever. He deserved it." Everyone seemed to be in agreement. She was nice to me the rest of the year.

Surprisingly, no teacher ever checked on me. I just carried on with the school day like any other. I got a lot of high fives and people coming up to me for the next week or so (sometimes not even talking directly to me just pointing and saying "that's the kid who puked all over Chris", but not in any sort of insulting way - more like it was the highlight of the week). It helped with my confidence, but I was still mostly quiet.

Two weeks later Chris came up to me out of nowhere and yelled "that kids a liar. Everything he says is a lie." and punched me square in the face. That was probably the biggest confidence boost I ever had. He hit me hard and drew blood. But it didn't hurt at all. I just stood there and looked at him and he walked away. I don't think he was scared. I think he was looking for a reaction and didn't get one. One of the kids that saw it was on the wrestling team and he encouraged me to join so I did.

And that's how I picked up my first group of friends in 8th grade - the wrestlers. We were all outcasts in our own way and had a blast getting all that pent up anger out.