“The Insult That Made a Man Out of Mac” is the story of a guy who stood up for not only himself, but
for others as well. On a date at the beach, Mac and his girl were enjoying themselves until the beach
bully came over and kicked sand in their faces. Mac nobly stood up to defend his date, but the bully
just looked at Mac and laughed because of his small stature. Not wanting to be ridiculed again, Mac
decided to take action. He trained and worked out to build his muscles, the thought of justice fueling
him. The day had finally come to give that bully what he deserved. Mac confidently walked up to the
bully and punched him right in the jaw! Instantly, Mac became the hero of the beach.

Mac was tired of people pushing him and his friends around and not being able to do anything about it.
So in order to be able to defend himself, he first had to change himself. I think Mac just wanted to get
justice, not just for him, but for the beach.

Anger, it can change a person. You become so focused on what that person did to you, you can think of little else. It begins to boil deep inside of you; you begin to want justice, or even revenge. You begin to conjure up ways to hurt, or even destroy that person, you stop caring about others. But beware, for every action has a consequence.

“Do you see her?” I asked trying to catch my breath.

“No, I think we are safe under the bleachers.” Joanna said between breaths.

“There she is,” I said, pointing in her direction, “it looks like she is going to tag Josh.”

We both continued to watch as Josh tried to outrun Kaiya, but she was quickly gaining on him. With her hand outstretched, she tried to tag him, but Josh skillfully dodged it. Determined to catch him, Kaiya jumped and tackled him to the ground. Joanna and I ran over to where they were, asking if everyone was alright. As they picked themselves up from the ground, Kaiya seized the moment and gave Josh a big hug.
With our mouths as wide as our eyes, we both shouted, “Kaiya!”

Josh, still shocked, wormed his way out of Kaiya’s embrace. He hastily ran over to the other boys and they all entered the fellowship hall.
“What was that, Kaiya?” I said nearly yelling.

“I think it’s called a hug.” She replied with an attitude.

“Um, hello.” Joanna said while she grabbed Kaiya’s arm, “I’m not finished talking to you. How dare you
hug my brother! You know we are not supposed to hug boys, have you even been listening in Sunday

School?”

Kaiya looking annoyed said, “Look, I love him—“
“You don’t know what love is.” I interrupted, “None of us do, we’re just kids, and you’re only eight
years old, if you’ve forgotten.”
Walking away Kaiya loudly said, “I haven’t forgotten, I am just mature for my age, that’s all.”
Walking behind her Joanna grabbed her arm and spun her around, “You need to apologize to my
brother, or else—“
“Or else what?” Kaiya said looking at both of us, “You’ll beat me up, ha, I doubt it, you two couldn’t
hurt a fly!”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “you just wait and see, meet us in the teen girls classroom in an hour, we’ll show
you!”
“Fine, I doubt you two will even show up.” She said while walking into the auditorium.
Joanna looked at me and said, “We can’t fight, we will get into so much trouble! Do you
want to be grounded?”
“Joanna,” I said putting my hand on her shoulder, “I don’t care about the trouble I am going to get in; I
want justice, for all of us! You don’t even have to fight, I will, for you! Come on, this is for Josh.”
Looking down at the ground she said, “Okay, let’s do it, for Josh.”
I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, I mean it was only a hug, but for us, it was huge. We were kids,
all around the age of ten, we hadn’t even thought about boys in that way, until now. For us, it was the
worst thing that anyone could have done, justice had to be served.
Joanna and I anxiously watched the clock as the time slowly passed by. We passed the time by drawing pictures on the chalkboard, and talking about how good it would be to finally put Kaiya in her place.
As Kaiya entered the classroom, we were ready for her.
“So you guys did decide to show up.” She said looking us up and down.
“Yeah, we did,” I said, “But, you do know that you don’t have to get hurt right? If you just apologize to
Josh, we can all be friends again, this will be forgotten.”
“I’m not apologizing to Josh,” Kaiya said with an attitude, “I did nothing wrong.”
The anger began to boil deep inside of me, “You will apologize, one way or the other.”
“Yeah, right,” She said, “You two can’t make me, that would involve hurting me, and we all know what
goody goody’s you are, don’t we?”
She began to walk closer to me, an evil gleam in her eyes. She clenched her fist, and socked me right in
the arm. “What are you going to do about that, Tab?”
I lost it. I lunged forward knocking her to the ground. “This is what I’m going to do; I am going to make
you apologize!” I said while holding her arms down. “Well, we are all waiting Kaiya, I really don’t want
to have to hurt you, all you have to do is apologize.”
“I will not apologize!” She screamed, trying to get out of my hold.
“Okay then.”

I took a wad of her hair and pulled, really hard.

“Ow, stop it, ow, you’re hurting me! She screamed and pleaded.

“That’s kinda the point, so are you going to apologize now?”

“No!” She persisted.

Frustrated and angry I raised my fist and “Bam”, I punched her in the stomach.

With tears streaming down her face, “Okay, that’s it, you’re getting it!”

Looking determined, she lunged forward and kicked me right in the nose. Blood began to
pour out; she looked away in disgust. I quickly took advantage of her shock and kicked her legs out
from under her. She fell back onto the hard worn-out carpet, she let out a scream. I quickly pinned her
down, raised my fist, and was about to swing when she quickly rolled over and pinned me to the
ground.

She raised her clenched fist; I closed my eyes, just waiting for the pain. But, to my surprise, I felt Kaiya get off of me. I quickly opened my eyes, just in time to see Mrs. Rosa, Joanna’s mother, standing there. I knew we were going to be in big trouble, that’s when I realized I gave into my anger. We all knew what we were doing was wrong, but our pride got in the way of our friendship, and our judgment. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way; all of your actions truly do have consequences.