January 20, 2022:
The jocks underestimated me. Despite insect-ungainly lanky-scrawny I could throw a ball, and catch one, and I ran distances better than anyone in any of the schools which imprisoned me.
One example among many. There were handball courts in middleschool. I could throw to the exact base of the far wall, where it met the ground, every time — to win the serve. Then win the game, often by exploiting the underestimation. Stand with body facing right, telegraph where the shot will go. Then send the ball far left, until Johnny Suckerjock falls over his own feet in confusion.
I detested those kids. Their arrogance, their tendency to bullying. Not all of them, of course, but enough to leave arrogance and bullying as my strongest recollection of them as a group.