Unfiltered Story #365771

(In the early ’90s, when I was in third grade, I had a massive overbite, which also gave me a noticeable speech impediment. One of my classmates, upon hearing me talk for the first time, latched onto the idea that I was, shall we say, slow; he made a point of loudly announcing this suspicion at least twice a week, and would mock my voice whenever I tried to tell him to shut up. This being the 90’s, nobody with authority would do anything about it because he never physically laid a hand on me; he was a massive jerk, but no real threat.

The day this story takes place, I’m wearing what was, at the time, my favorite t-shirt, which has an enlarged copy of the cover of R. L. Stine’s “The Barking Ghost” printed on the front[I didn’t care for that book, but I’d always been a dog person, and still am]. Having showed up a few minutes late to school, the jerk comes in just as the rest of the class are settling into our seats, and true to form, he takes one look at me and shouts out for all to hear.)

Jerk: “Anyone wearing a ‘Goosebumps’ shirt is retarded!”

(Everyone laughs… including me, at him. He looks at me, puzzled by the unusual reaction.)

Me: *pointing at him between laughs* “Look down.”

(He’d chosen that day to wear a “Goosebumps” shirt of his own, and in his haste to embarrass me, had inadvertently insulted himself. His taunting of me didn’t actually stop after that day, but he was a lot more careful about what words he used against me, for fear of them being turned back on him a second time, so there were longer intervals between such events.)