Sit down, children and let me tell you the first time I ever owned a game console of my own.
When I was younger, I was really good at school [a]. I was also obsessed with trying to please everyone [b]. There was this new boy that came to our school, and for the life of me I can't remember his name, only that he wanted everyone to call him Red.
He was the coolest 6th grader there ever was, at least that's what I thought then, but he never really liked me. In fact, he steadfastly refused to even look at me because I might infect him with my cooties or whatever it is 6th graders believed.
Except when he realized he was failing Science.
Man, he was failing hard. Like, hardcore won't graduate into high school failing. I later realized that this was not the first time he had failed the subject in such a manner. He needed to pass this class.
As the smart kid and the naive kid, everyone in class knew that during exams, I would let anyone copy my exams so that they could pass. However, New Kid Red didn't know this. I didn't register on New Kid Red's radar enough for him to realize that if he had asked me, I would have done the same for his earlier quizzes and exams.
New Kid Red was suddenly very desperate because he needed to pass this last exam and he needed to talk to the one kid that seemed to be doing really good in class.
So Red took me aside the day before exam, and started acting friendly. He said he's noticed me from before, said he's always had a thing for me, said that even though all the others made fun of me, he always stood up for me.
I saw Red and then I saw fucking red.
I knew he was lying from the start because he had spent the five months that I had known him laughing and making fun of me. You see if he hadn't lied and just told me he needed help, I would have gladly let him cheat on my paper because I wanted to be liked.
But the lying and the cajoling just pissed me off and I was about to tell him to take a hike, when he brought out this wonderful, brand new Game Boy Color - you know the one that you could see through?
Oh, it was so beautiful and I was so weak. All thought of my injured pride flew out the window - especially in the face of Pokemon Yellow that came with the Game Boy Color. I wanted it, heck, I needed it.
And you know what? I took it and let him copy off of me. I let others copy off me too, but they were for free. Unfortunately, my classmates who copied me weren't that smart and my Science teacher caught on. Since I was consistently getting good grades - he just assumed that they copied off of me without my knowledge, so I was off the hook.
Should I feel guilty that I was allowed to leave, not take a retest, and I still kept the Game Boy Color? Maybe. But I didn't because screw those guys. They bullied and used me when all I wanted was to be their friend.
Guess what? That Game Boy Color was my friend now.
***
Footnotes:
a. After the accident and the scars, I promised myself that when people meet me, they will remember me not just because of the scars but because of my amazing personality. So I worked hard on acquiring anything that would make my personality amazing. May I suggest not to do that? It only led to great confusion and anxiety on my end.
b. Same reason as [a], but slightly more sad because I also let everyone walk all over me.