[Munch's Master]

We only had some really manky and not very good showers that in my entire time at the school (with it being the only school I ever went to before college) I never saw anybody use them.

And hoo boy did I get bullied. First had 1 guy who was bigger than everyone so would rough some of us up. Gave me an egg on my head for about 6 months. I found that if I retaliated he backed off so I started retaliating more, and not controlling my temper. Then, after 1 guy beat up a mate of mine over something very trivial I got in his face about it & shoved him, he retaliated by grabbing me by the neck and throwing me into a wall. This led to my becoming alienated slowly, and if I did lose my temper I'd just get picked on more.
For a period of around 4 years there wasn't anyone I could call a friend at that school, god knows why I didn't leave or tell someone. I mostly just recieved very large amounts of verbal abuse, but if I tried to stand up for myself I'd get shouted down, or if I tried to resist being physically excluded it'd lead to minor altercations. Thing was even if I came out on top it didn't stop it- I had 1 guy bigger than me on the ground in a guillotine choke hold that I only let go because I saw a teacher wasn't too far away and I didn't want to choke this guy in front of the teacher. He gets up after I let go, punches me and says not to piss him off, then struts off as if he won with everyone siding with him. People would conveniently forget having ever said certain things to me. 1 guy bullied me, and his best mate, who I was okay with, didn't have a clue why. Me neither.

Anyway the moment I took up a martial art, as a hobby more than anything, the bullying dropped off rapidly to just snide backhand comments. Still had no real friends, but there were a few guys I was okay with and a few who would be civil when the ringleaders weren't around. Of course I was too affected by it to properly make friends at college, since many of these people ended up going to my college, but I made some friends there, and since the fresh start of university have been fine. That said I did encounter an unpleasant character here, but we've brushed things over now.