The Preston Story:WHAT MAKES SOMEONE
PUNK?
What makes someone punk is a rhetorical question and the incident you are
about to read can prove that in many different ways.
People can be so close minded. And lie. Lie when they
are wrong. Put words in your mouth, and get you pissed off. Lying triggers violence. When
someone lies about your friend, do you stand up for them? I do, especially when it
is my close friends.And how far should you go?
In summer school P.E. class Kristen and I had an encounter with
Preston, a boy who has no concept of punk at all.
During summer school, since it was in the middle of the summer, it was
REALLY hot outside.Summer school was 6 1/2 hours long, and an
hour and half of that was lunch, so no one would puke when we went back outside to play
sports.
After Kristen and I had eaten lunch, we went into the lobby of the
school it was being held out . Several people were already out there, and we went out
there to talk to them.
We had a lovely time in summer school before it. Because I was so
different from everyone else (I had pink hair and DIDN'T wear clothes that had nike on
it!) everyone knew who I was. People would randomly come up to me at places other than
school like malls and stuff and still do and say "you were in my class! I love your
hair!" or "you're so funny! You went to my summer school!", things like
that. Everyone knew who I was, and people didn't discrimnate against me because I was
different. Kristen and I ruled summer school practically.( but that is another story)
Anyway, we were talking, and as usual, someone wearing a Limp Bizkit
(suck!)came up to me and touched my hair. Their name was Preston. He told me he liked my
hair, etc...basically hitting on me. And then he asked me what kind of music I liked.
DUH!!! What a dummy! Of course I like punk! I had a freaking Black Flag shirt on! And my
hair was pink and spiked (but that doesn't make you punk...)
He didn't get it. I said I liked punk. "Oh, like Green Day."
I giggled and looked at Kristen and said "Green Day is not a punk band."
"Oh, yeah, I know. They sold out. NOFX?" At that time I was getting really
annoyed by him. He was so ignorant!
I replied "NOFX isn't punk either." He got incredibly pissed
and called me a poser because I didn't like NOFX!! I hate NOFX!! They aren't punk at all
to me, they make fun of people who choose not to drink, they make fun of African American
people, they write about masturbation, and musically, the mostly suck!
I replied by telling him exactly that. Not mean or anything. He then
kept calling me a poser and saying "Spiked hair doesn't make you punk." Then
Kristen stuck up for me, by saying that he had no right judging me and calling me a poser
when he didn't even know me at all, and also by saying NOFX isn't punk.
He called Kristen a bitch and a poser or something. And that made me
mad, he had no right to call Kristen that, when again, he knew nothing about her. We got
in a huge argument with him about what punk was. And he knew he didn't know sh*t about
punk, he kept saying I was a poser. He didn't back himself up. We kept telling him about
why NOFX couldn't be punk. About 10 minutes passed.
Then he said something about me being an ugly poser who knew nothing
about punk. I then asked him to name a true punk band, and he said like MXPX or some awful
excuse for music like that. And then I told him he was wearing a Limp Bizkit shirt
and well... that explained it all. Kristen and I walked away, only for him to follow us
and continue harassing us.
We ignored him, and out of the blue, for NO REASON he said "The
Sex Pistols weren't punk at all. Their music was, but they weren't." Umm.. wasn't it
the other way around?
We argued about that, and then he has to say "The lead singer of
the Sex Pistols killed himself, he can't be punk."
Kristen and I laughed so hard about that and got so annoyed by it. We
weren't talking with an attitude like he was... I just replied by saying "It was the
bassist, Sid Vicious, and he died from a heroin overdose."
"Whatever, thats what I meant." Kristen and I gave each other
five and preceded to walk over to where I friend was sitting. Everyone was laughing at
him. He got pissed, and said he was gonna hit me or tried tospit on me or Kristen or
something... something made me have to chase him. Well, I chased him. I was going to punch
him, when Darrion (a really funny and nice athletic African American) pulled me away.
Preston's friends were making fun of him. By this time I was really angry.
It was almost time to resume class... and Preston asked me if we were
going to Warped Tour (which was that day, which SUCKED hard and was so commercialized.)
Anyway, I saw him there. Mike and I were walking to see the Dropkick Murphy's I think when
he said "look its the poser, where is your bitch friend?" or something like
that. I was going to punch him, but I didn't want to get kicked out, and Mike would have
probably wanted to beat Preston up, it wasn't worth it. I told him to watch his back,
jokingly, so Mike wouldn't get mad at Preston (Mike sticks up for me).
Anyway, the day after Warped Tour, to show Preston I wasn't afraid of
him, I made a shirt that said "I HATE NOFX!! NOFX ISN'T PUNK!!" and wore it to
summer school. Conviently, Preston wasn't there. One of his friends that was making fun of
him actually turned out to be quite nice. He told Preston about it for me.
On the last day of summer school, Kristen and I had another run in with
Preston. This time it was such a farce! He was calling us posers and stuff. I was getting
very annoyed, and once again he was saying that "looks don't make you punk." and
"the sex pistols weren't punk," which I don't undertsand because we never said
anything about the Sex Pistols to him, he always instigated it. We again told him he
didn't have any right judging us and how he was so mean. And he caled me ugly or
something, and Kristen stuck up for me. He called her my sidekick and said that I was more
punk than she would ever be. Kristen is NOT my sidekick. Again, he was being a hippocrit
judging on looks. Kristen just happened to be wearing Adidas shoes. HEY! IT WAS P.E.
class! She wasn't going to hurt her knees.
Then I asked him how he supposedly knew all this stuff about punk. And
he said, word for word, "All my friends are punks." When he was stand next to
his friend who was wearing all Nike (his friend was actually a nice person) and his friend
just laughed at him. Preston then replied, seriously, asking me if I lived in a trailer
park because, "all punks live in trailer parks."
This had Kristen and I rolling!!! It was so stupid. We walked away from
what we thought would be our last confrontation with Preston.
I thought we had given up on him, we did... until my make-up day. I had
missed a day of summer school because my cousin was visiting me and I wanted to do some
stuff with her. So at the make-up day, I saw Preston. Of course he said mean things to me,
but he got ANOTHER friend to say mean things as well. It didn't bother me at all, I don't
care what people say.
A few hours later everyone, about 50 (out of about 600 people that had
taken gym) had to do the makeup day, were all sitting near the track resting. I was having
fun talking to all the people I hadn't seen since school was in, such as Darrion... when
preston threw some grass at me. I ignored it. He kept doing it. I through some back. We
exchanged some comments. I got tired of it so I got up and went to play volleyball.
When they game was over I went back to discover Preston and his bitch
had put grass in my lunch. I got really mad. I don't care what people say about me... but
when they mess with my food... well, I had a short temper. I sat down by my bag and dumped
it out. He was saying some stuff, and I didn't really notice it because I was inspecting
my food. This made a really nice girl ( I can't remmeber her name) say
"Preston, why are you so mean to her? You have no room to talk, your name is
Preston!" And he shut up for awhile.
He then asked me if did drugs, smoked, etc... and said I couldn't be punk because I didn;t
do drugs or smoke or drink. What a dummy.
About 5 minutes later, the nice girl got up because it was her teams
turn to play. Preston started throwing stuff at me. My temper was short so I told him off.
I basically gave him a lecture about life and punk music, and treating people equally, I
said it with a mean tone. A few other people heard and clapped. Preston said "I
should slap you." I sat down and ignored him and he KEPT throwing grass at me.
He then pushed me. And said stuff about Kristen I got so irriated and I told him if he did
it anymore I was gonna hit him. I don't lie about things like that. He threw some grass in
my hair. I hit him, it wasn't hard, it was actually a playful swat. He slapped me back.
Boys don't hit girls. I was having a bad day besides the fact. I
didn't sleep well the night before, had to get up at 5, was late tosummer school, it was
hot, and on top of all that a boy hit me.
I was in a relay bad mood. I jumped and knocked Preston down and
punched him. He grabbed my arms and tried to restrain me.Can you imagine that? Let me
describe this to you. Me, about 5'2 or 5'3 fighting overweight wrestler Preston. I did the
only thing I could.. I kneed him in the back and said "give it up Preston." He
let go because I kinda kneed him hard. I gave him what he wanted.
I hate fights. It was not worth it. This whole situation just got out
of control... After I kneed him he looked at me, contemplating on whether to hit me back.
He didn't. He was intimidated by me!
He said something like "You know, you are punk. Anyone that would
put themselves in the place you are to defend their friend and their lifestyle... you have
a punk attitude." I looked at him weird and walked away.
THEN... THEN he tried to tell me what punk was once more. He
said "here, listen to my MXPX cd, it's really good punk." I was so sick of him,
I didn't tell him it wasn't punk.
Violence isn't worth it. I hated the situation I got it. I mean, I love
Kristen, she is my best friend. She stuck up for me, and I stuck up for her, and i then
had to stick up for myself. Im glad I have a friend like Kristen who sticks up for me...
its just that if she wouldn't have I wouldn;t have had gotten to the point to resort to
violence. Maybe. It was probably just the heat.
The moral of this story is IF YOU SEE PRESTON ON THE STREET KICK HIS
A$$.
Ok, kidding!!!!
Don't care about what people think. Preston could have
killed me! Seriously! I was soooo lucky. Me caring got me in trouble. Im lucky he
was intimidated, I was lucky for the punk stereotype that punks were tough and all.. which
can be true.
Ice once said
And he was right. What I did was punk, but it was also incredibly
stupid! Yes, I was defending a friend... but ended up defending myself. I don't care what
people think. STUPID HEAT! Look what it does to people : )
So basically, a true punk would have ignore Preston from the begining. I
should have said my opinion on punk, and ignored his, right? But how can someone go
through life thinking NOFX is punk? What makes someone punk is a rhetorical question and
this incident had definetly proven that statement true.
Email Me- tell me your
thoughts
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