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Right around the start of COVID, I was an 8th grader on my middle school's science olympiad team. One of the girls on the team had a crush on a guy on the team, which was an open secret to literally everyone except him. Our school ran a "secret valentine" event, she sent him chocolates anonymously, and the plan, agreed on by the entire team, was that she would confess after regionals which were in a few weeks.
Being a 13 year old who wanted to watch the world burn, I told him anyways.
She cried, and then I sent her messages making fun of her for crying. In hindsight, yes, I was a menace. The team hated me. The only thing that saved me from having to face them at regionals was COVID cancelling the whole competition.
Unfortunately, COVID also meant everyone now had unlimited free time on Discord. So they dragged me into a server and put me on trial for twelve hours.
The prosecutor was the most popular girl in our grade, who was also on the team. The judge was a history nerd who was friends with her. He was the kind of kid who, when the teacher called on him in class, you mentally prepared for a 3 minute monologue. He wasn't even on the team. He just wanted to be involved. (He and the popular girl later dated briefly. Let's just say that it did not end well).
Charges included: being a douche to the girl, general douchery toward the team, and a side rumor going around in the entire school that I had insulted a teacher through an anonymous email and gotten detention for it. (That one was 100% true. I spent a non-trivial amount of the trial trying to downplay it.)
Despite their attempts at formality, the trial mostly consisted of them listing reasons I was a douche while I typed defenses with a shit-eating grin no one could see. Eventually I just left the server mid-trial, partly to troll them, partly because twelve hours is a long time.
You know what? I kind of miss being a dumb kid who did dumb things.
Being a 13 year old who wanted to watch the world burn, I told him anyways.
She cried, and then I sent her messages making fun of her for crying. In hindsight, yes, I was a menace. The team hated me. The only thing that saved me from having to face them at regionals was COVID cancelling the whole competition.
Unfortunately, COVID also meant everyone now had unlimited free time on Discord. So they dragged me into a server and put me on trial for twelve hours.
The prosecutor was the most popular girl in our grade, who was also on the team. The judge was a history nerd who was friends with her. He was the kind of kid who, when the teacher called on him in class, you mentally prepared for a 3 minute monologue. He wasn't even on the team. He just wanted to be involved. (He and the popular girl later dated briefly. Let's just say that it did not end well).
Charges included: being a douche to the girl, general douchery toward the team, and a side rumor going around in the entire school that I had insulted a teacher through an anonymous email and gotten detention for it. (That one was 100% true. I spent a non-trivial amount of the trial trying to downplay it.)
Despite their attempts at formality, the trial mostly consisted of them listing reasons I was a douche while I typed defenses with a shit-eating grin no one could see. Eventually I just left the server mid-trial, partly to troll them, partly because twelve hours is a long time.
You know what? I kind of miss being a dumb kid who did dumb things.
