A scary, feaving bully demands that I take him home in order to give him my fundraising earnings.

So I decide to maliciously comply, leading him directly to my neighbor, who just so happens to be a former gang member,

who puts my bully in his place in a beautiful way.

Here's what happened.

So I was in middle school in the 90s.

I loved growing up then and even though there were gangs in my area,

I generally avoided trouble.

One of my classes had this big field trip planned and they had a selling chocolates to raise

money for our trip.

I was pretty good at it and I was selling at a good rate.

I would take the public transportation bus to school and my stop was about two blocks from my home.

I got off my stop one day with my box of chocolates and there was this older kid probably 16 or, who was pretty big for his age, just hanging out right there.

He saw me and came towards me.

The guy is very clearly a gangbanger.

We call him peso, and he comes up to me and says,

Hey, where you from?

Now he was asking what gang I was from.

It's not the first time I get challenged like this,

so I just reply by saying I'm not in a gang man,

I'm just a junior high kid.

Payso looks at my box of chocolates and takes it from me.

He says to me, what's this?

...