The Fighter // The Breakfast Club

You've got to be number one!

"How are you bizarre?" Claire asked Andy.

"He can't think for himself." I spoke up when Andy hesitated.

"She's right. Do you guys know what, uh, what I did to get in here? I taped Larry Lester's buns together." Andy said, I could see how ashamed he looked of himself, the look on his face said it all.

I heard Claire laugh before Brian spoke up. "That was you?"

"Yeah, you know him?" Andy asked Brian.

"Yeah, I know him."

"Well then you know how hairy he is, right? Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off and some, some skin too."

"Oh my God." I heard Claire mumble.

"And the bizarre thing is, is that I did it for my old man. I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool. He's always going off about, you know, when he was in school, all the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone, right..... So, I'm... I'm sitting in the locker room, and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah... he's kinda... he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him. And my friends, they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards, when I was sitting in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry having to go home and... and explain what happened to him. And the humiliation... fucking humiliation he must've felt. It's must've been unreal." He said, tears flowing down his face. My heart broke at the sight of this.

"I mean, how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way. It's all because of me and my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him! He's like this... he's like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore... 'Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family. Your intensity is for shit! Win! Win! Win!' You son of a bitch! You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give... and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me." Andy finished, the tears slowing down.

"I think your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling." Bender said, causing Andy to laugh a little.

"It's like me, you know, with my grades." Brian started speaking. "Like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't."

"What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asked him.

"Cause I'm stupid... cause I'm failing shop. See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um... and we had eight weeks to do it, and it was like a lamp, and when you pull the trunk the light was supposed to go on. My light didn't go on... I got a F on it. Never got a F in my life... When I signed up, you know, for the course I mean, I thought I was playing it real smart, you know. Cause I thought, I'll take shop, it'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average." Brian explained, a disappointed look on his face.

"Why'd you think it'd be easy?" Bender asked him.

"Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?" Brian asked.

"I take shop... you must be a fuckin idiot!" Bender said, irritation in his voice.

"I'm a fuckin idiot because I can't make a lamp?" Brian asked him.

"No, you're a genius because you can't make a lamp." Bender said.

"What do you know about trigonometry?" Brian asked.

"I could care less about trigonometry."

"Bender, did you know without trigonometry, there'd be no engineering?" Brian asked.

"Without lamps, there'd be no light!"

"Okay, so neither one you is better than the other one." Claire said, stopping them from going back and forth at each other.

I just sighed, knowing sooner or later I would end up spilling my story to them.