“Zzzzzz”.In a high school classroom, a sleeping student snored and drooled on his desk. Like all students in this district, the boy wore a school uniform consisting of a black polo shirt and faded black pants. He even wore a black hoodie which he usually kept zipped half way. The hood covered his head as he napped. This would be considered “sporting gang colors” by some faculty members, but the boy didn't care and in fact considered it a very arbitrary rule. The other students wore polo shirts as well, selected from the school colors of red, black, or white. They paired these with either pants or skirts in the choices of khaki or black. No one else wore black on black.
Now back to the boy. As he rested his head on the desk, TaeJean murmured in his sleep, “I’ll beat you…” The teacher, a middle aged balding man walked to his desk. “TaeJean!” the teacher spoke with some bite in his voice.
Within his dream, TaeJean felt a fist hit his face! CRAAKK! His cheek bone was broken! TaeJean was sent sliding across the ground! As he got up he could see a clear night sky, with many stars in the distance. Even closer, where the moon should be was a planet he did not know. He didn't have time to stop and ponder about where he was though. His instincts as a fighter were on full blast, and he knew that he was in a battle for his life! TaeJean could not actually make out the face of his opponent, yet knew when his foe cracked a smile at him. It seemed to T.J. that he had been losing the battle up to this point. “Time to die, TaeJean.” What T.J. heard startled him. Not the threat. No. The voice itself made his very essence tremble, though he tried not to show it.
This dream felt all to real. TaeJean remembered laying his head down in his classroom. Yet he felt as if losing the fight in this dream would cause him to die in reality. He also felt overwhelming pressure, knowing his unknown enemy was someone, or indeed something, that would inevitably kill him. Yet TaeJean was never one to back down from a fight. He got up, calmed his mind, and began running towards his opponent. He felt a power surge within him and…
CLAAAPPPP!!! TaeJean snapped out of his dream, awoken by the loud sound in his ear! As his head popped up the hood of his jacket came off, revealing his miniature afro. A mini afro that needed a line up. He had milk chocolate skin with lighter undertones, thick eyebrows, and a peach fuzz goatee. The teacher looked annoyingly satisfied with himself. “I’m glad you could join the rest of the class!”
“What the f*** bruh!!! You ain't have to do that s***!!! All loud in my damn ear!!!” T.J. was not one to start trouble, yet it always seemed to find him. When it did, his reactions usually didn’t make the situations any better. “Language! First you disrespect me and your classmates by disrupting class with your snoring and now you’re swearing?”
“Bruhhh whats damn disrespectful is you clapping in my damn ear! You in here teaching us s*** we already know and you expect me not to go to sleep?! You dumb as hell!” TaeJean was referring to the current lesson on the Heroic Decade. It was after all, the most important event of recorded human history. Of course everybody knew about it! T.J. and the other kids had been learning about it their entire lives and he was currently in the 10th grade. The teachers face turned into a scowl. “Well if I’m boring you so much you can leave my classroom!” TaeJean responded “S**, that’s fine with me.” The teacher: “Oh okay. Well then mister smart ass you just earned yourself a write! I hope you like detention!” T.J. sucked his teeth “How you gonna cuss at me, but complain about me cussing?”
“Because I’m a contributing member of society. You’re lazy and a future detriment on society. In a few years I’ll see you on the news for either robbery, murder or selling crack. In fact since you aren’t that bright you’ll probably do crack and have to sell yourself to feed your habit.”
At this point several other students had been watching the argument and laughing. “Oh s*** bruh you gonna take that?! Whoop his ass TJ!!” TaeJean was already ahead of them and was already standing! The boy looked somewhat imposing with his height of 5’10”, compared to his fully grown teachers 5'7". Several phones were out. Everyone knew this would be an excellent viral video!
"Finally! I get to smack one of these damn kids!” The teacher had become miserable over the decade and a half he worked for the public school system. He knew legally, he could defend himself. All it would take was a punch being thrown! T.J. got face to face with him. “Come on then, BOY.” TaeJean felt his fist ball up and was about to swing when suddenly, a voice yelled across the class…
“Don’t!! He’s not worth it T.J.!” It was TaeJean's childhood friend Keshawna. In fact, she was probably his only friend. TaeJean did not really cause trouble for anyone, but he was generally unapproachable. Currently age 15, the boy spent his entire youth hopping between foster and group homes, as well as a juvenile detention center. He wasn't on to get attached to people. It was just that his path overlapped with Keshawna's several times. Even if his living arrangements changed again, he would definitely keep in contact with her. She had more melanin than TaeJean, as well as shorter and somewhat chubby. She was also a very sweet girl, if not being somewhat ditzy and childish. She wore her hair in four afro-puffs at this time.
At the behest of his friends voice, T.J. calmed down. In fact, he decided to leave the classroom, as he had been told earlier. However, he decided to do it with style. The classroom was on the second story floor after all. He walked over to the window, flipped the teacher the bird, and jumped out. The class rushed over to look out the window. TaeJean was already walking across the lawn, having landed in the small tree below beforehand.
The teacher on the other hand, almost had a heart attack. “Damn it. That little bastard almost caused me my career!” he thought. Of course, this was a dumb sentiment for two reasons. The first being that, if he had fought TaeJean, no matter the results he would have still lost in court once the footage of him escalating the situation came out. Secondly, and most importantly, he would not have survived a fight with TaeJean. Neither of them knew it, but had they come to blows, that man would have had a heart attack anyway. As the class settled down, many of the students had the same thought though they did not verbalize it. “I wish T.J. would have beat his ass!” Indeed, non of the students liked him and he disliked all of the students. Why he became a teacher, he would never know.
When the incident occurred, it was almost lunch time for TaeJean, so he figured he’d wait a few minutes and head to the cafeteria.
As he walked around aimlessly he thought to himself. “I’ve been having that same dream for about 2 weeks now. What could it mean?” He recalled the sequence. It was something he had become very familiar with. First, he was flooded by a feeling of great loss. Next came the combat with the unknown entity. As always, there was a feeling of dread and fear.
TaeJean did not fear anyone, yet he knew the fear he felt in his dream was very real. What could have him shaken like that? Hearing the bell for his lunch period, he tried to put these thoughts to the side, but he couldn’t. Even worse, these weren’t the only thoughts that were bothering him. Though he said it in a cruel and condescending way, the teacher was somewhat correct. T.J. had no plan for his life. Being a good student wasn’t on his mind at all, so an academia life route was out of the question. Barring him developing powers and either becoming a sanctioned Stem or a super criminal, his best bet for a successful life was probably being a professional fighter. While that was something T.J. found conceivable for himself due to having natural fighting skills, it was not something he was yet ready to commit to. “Maybe I should think about it? You do have to do something with your life, TaeJean Thompson,” he thought as he entered the cafeteria.
School lunches came in 3 periods. TaeJean's was the 3rd. He ate his lunch lost in thought, contemplating his recurring dream, as well as his future. After he was finished, the current class period was over. He headed to his locker before his next class. He would swing by Keshawna’s locker to talk to her as well. Their lockers were on opposite ends of the same hallway. As he approached he saw a sight he disliked. 3 of his male classmates had K, as he called her, and another girl surrounded at her locker. T.J. only recognized one, named Cory. A pretty boy, who liked to act tough.
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TaeJean and Cory had history, and they had always disliked each other. They had bumped heads many times over the years. Ending up in the same group home as 1st graders caused their first clash. Cory liked to fake and act tough, but T.J. saw through him the day they met. He was a coward and a bully, and TaeJean had to slap him a few times in that first group home, due to him griefing the other children, who all ranged from ages four to seven. After a particularly rough fight, especially by the standards of first graders, both of the boys were sent to different group homes as they caused destruction in the house. Broken dishes and a destroyed television. A knocked over book case. There was also the fact that Cory had used house hold objects as weapons. It was then that T.J. developed a greater disdain for the boy.
Their 2nd clash came years later in 7th grade, as he and Cory ended up in another foster home together. Cory had remained a bully and coward. He and T.J. recognized one another instantly, and the cycle repeated. Only this time, Cory had started playing at being gangster. Cory tried to bully the younger boys again, and T.J. slapped him about it around 8 or 9 times. He didn’t know, because he wasn’t really counting. The last time it happened, he embarrassed Cory on top of giving him a beat down. T.J. wrote humiliating things on him with marker while having his foot on his old adversaries throat. T.J. had hoped to embarrass him so thoroughly that Cory never even attempted such antics on the weak ever again. However, an opposite effect occurred. One day an unfortunate event happened. The group home they occupied burned down. The investigation showed obvious signs of arson.
All the children survived, yet they had lost their home. This was such a terrible fate for already unstable children. As you can imagine, they were all torn up about it. All of them except for Cory. T.J. took notice of this. In fact the little bastard seemed ecstatic. T.J. eventually confronted him. And the boys fought again. Once again it was very rough, but T.J. emerged victorious. Yet it was a net loss for him, as he was placed in a juvenile detention facility due to being the one who started the fight. Thus, TaeJean spent the rest of his 7th grade year locked up. Eventually, he did get his comeuppance.
Their third major clash came towards the end of T.J.’s sentence. He had done the state sanctioned work to get his school credit so he could re-enter school for the last half of his 8th grade semester. 2 weeks before his release, Cory joined him in lock up. The boys met, and acted cordial. “Hey man, I see you’re here too. I don’t want any trouble, you don’t want any trouble. Lets just let bygones be bygones,” TaeJean said to this boy he despised. Cory agreed. “Bruh, I just wanna do my time and leave. I got no time for bull s***” So the two shook on it, but neither expected the other to keep his word. T.J. knew he had to wait for Cory to make a move, or else his sentence would be extended. “Yeah man. I only got two weeks left. Don’t want any trouble, ya feel me?” This was all Cory needed to hear, and was all the bait T.J. needed. Cory had delved deep into gang activity at this point, and was not the only member of his gang in lockup. So TaeJean steeled his mind and waited. It was the last day when Cory finally made his move. T.J. was more than ready. He saw Cory with 3 other boys in a hall way he traveled through several times a day. He approached. “Ok, so who’s swinging first?” he thought to himself. Besides school work, T.J. had spent his time in lockup doing push-ups, sit-ups and squats daily. He would also throw in jogging in place, and other isometric exercises. He also watched a variety of martial arts films and sanctioned combat sports, and made sure to practice the moves to the best of his ability. His self taught skills, natural fighting talent, strength and the year his favorite foster parents put him in Tae-Kwon Do made him a deadly fighter. Indeed, if those foster parents had never had a messy divorce due to infidelity, T.J. would have likely stayed with them and been a master of the martial arts. He took to the sport naturally and had gotten his green belt before life got in the way.
As he approached his foe and his gang, one of the boys swung. T.J. ducked and dodged easily. Then the other three boys began swinging.
“FIGHT!! FIGHT!!”, the other boys cheered, loving to see a good scrap. At the angle they were set up, T.J. had plenty of room to dance around their fists. He quickly came up with a plan. “No grapples, only strikes! I can’t let any of them grapple me either! Knockout blows as fast as possible!” TaeJean swung his leg straight forward, seeing the first boy was in range for a blow to the testes. And so T.J. did what he had to do. “WHAMMM!” The boy fell over groaning in pain, almost crying. The second boy rushed, with the third boy close behind. T.J. backed away, causing him to whiff his punch. This boy was still in range of TaeJean's legs though. With another swing of his leg , he hit him in the chin and the boy fell over. This created a small impediment for his third foe. As he was stepping over his fallen comrade, T.J. had time to aim his fist directly at the boys nose CRRAAKKK! T.J. felt cartilage snap. In all this combat, Cory stayed in the back. T.J. noticed this and began to taunt Cory. “You had three other guys with you and you are still scared of me? Wow what a _____!”
Cory was visibly ticked off at this point. Suddenly he drew a shank. He then ran at T.J.! At this time the officers had been making there way to the scene. They arrived just in time to see Cory stab T.J. through the hand! As the blade went in all the way to the hilt, TJ was able to latch on to Cory’s fist, holding him close for his own unoccupied fist to land on his foes face! These weren’t even proper punches, but hammer fist blows from the side! WHAMMM! WHAMMM! WHAMMM! Temple, jaw, chin in that order!
After that, the rest is history. T.J. was released as it was an obvious case of self defense. Cory on the other hand received extra time and spent the rest of his 8th and 9th grade school year locked up.
As T.J. approached Keshawna's locker, he reminisced about this time. “I’m probably gonna have to whoop him again, aren’t I?” Picking up his pace, he got his mind ready to handle his business.
Cory and his friends were bothering Keshawna and another girl. “…so you see, me staying out of juvie depends on my grades. That’s why I think you should do my homework for me. What do you say? You keep my grades up, I keep your clout up, I buy you what you want.”
Keshawna responded, with obvious contempt in her voice. While she had been known to do homework for money, she did not like Cory one bit, even before T.J. told her about him. “Yeah, no. If I do, you won’t ever learn anything. Also can you back up out my space?!” She said this loudly. Cory, not taking rejection well instead pressed in closer, putting his hands on either side of the girl, having her backed up against her locker. This was all T.J. needed to hear and see. So he came in wit a flying knee hitting one of Cory’s compatriots in the spine. Before his enemies could react, he grabbed Cory by the neck with both hands! “HOW MANY TIMES WILL I HAVE TO TEACH YOU A LESSON?!” he yelled as he flung the boy away. While the other boy was getting up from the flying knee, still reeling in pain, Cory’s second ally threw a punch at T.J. who easily dodged, grabbed his face, pushing it back while placing his leg behind his opponents for a sweep. The boy fell on the hard tile floor with a loud THUUUUD! The first boy grabbed T.J, around the waist at this point, but TJ planted his legs firmly, and started elbowing behind him, aiming for his side but the awkward position did not allow for effective hits.
Cory had gotten up at this point, and began rushing for T.J. Keshawna, thinking quickly grabbed one of her all to heavy school books and hit the boy who restricted T.J. over the head, causing him to stagger and let go! This was just in the nick of time grab Cory’s leg, as the boy tried to kick him. TJ said out loud “Really?” He pushed and pulled the boy, what would be referred to as “heave-ho” in wrestling, causing him to fall. Then TaeJean began to rain down blows.
By this time, several students had brought out there phones and had recorded the fight. The school resource officers approached as well. T.J., not wanting extra problems stepped back, got on the ground and all four boys were taken to the principals office. The recorded videos were uploaded to various social platforms, sent out via text, went viral almost instantly.