I don’t know that I was really a brat when I was a kid (oh, I’m definitely a brat now), but I was easily bored. So when things weren’t moving fast enough, my brain would come up with something to make things interesting.

In fourth grade I had a buddy who really liked doing pull-ups and other moves on the chin-up bar. I was never great at it, but it was something to do at recess.

Fifth grade found me in a new school. As normal, I didn’t have many friends at first, a couple of weeks into the school…

In sixth grade I had a teacher I loathed: Richard Ryan. I don’t remember why, I’m not even certain now what subject he taught. Spelling?

Ryan didn’t rate his own classroom, so we used a classroom for art, which meant that we sat on stools at big drafting-table-like desks…

In eighth grade, the two most beautiful girls in class were Lori and Ingrid. Lori was a typical American girl-next door, while Ingrid was exotic in a vaguely foreign way. They never really seemed to be each other’s BFF, but they often hung out together. Each of them seemed out of my league, so I enjoyed…

In my sixth grade class were two sisters. I forget the one’s name, but the other’s name was Jodi.

Jodi was suggestible. Very suggestible. After a few months of playing minor-league mind games on her, a group of us decided one morning before school to see how far we could go.