Pic unrelated.

I'm a nerd. I became an environmentalist after seeing The Day the Lorax was Lifted. I have always loved animals, dogs in particular. Dogs will never betray you. They will never lie to you. They will always show you exactly what they think of you in the most obvious way possible, and they will love you with all their heart for the entirety of their lives.

When I was thirteen, I had moved at least once a year, sometimes twice, for every year of my life. I was in the lunchroom of my school, reading a book as per usual, when I heard something that made me put my book down. "My dog had puppies, and my dad didn't want them. So I buried them to their neck in the yard and ran over them with a lawnmower!"

The kid and his cronies laughed. He was a bully, of course, that I had come up against before. I had been taught that fighting was wrong, and so I had never stood up to him before. I had let him walk all over me, but I put down my book and just glared death at him. He didn't notice at all. No one did.

That didn't matter. I had a baseball bat and a shotgun in my locker. I was planning on doing something really stupid and really destructive. I didn't do it, but I had intended to until that moment. That was a moment that changed my world. It wasn't just people vs. me. I was humans vs. everything else.

I took the baseball bat. I rode the bus. I didn't get off at my stop. I told my sister to get off and kept riding. I got off at HIS stop. I waited until the bus drove off over the hill, and I called his name. He turned, and I saw a moment of fear in his eyes. He saw a person with a baseball bat, he saw a threat, then he recognized me, and he sneered.