"You better watch your back, *****!"

Yes, some one just yelled that at me. Apparently asking someone to stop wrestling in my doorway makes me a *****. Let me explain.

After work today I decided to come home and study rather than go to the library. It is rainy and cold I didn't want to deal with the wetness and puddles that are Missouri State after it rains. So I ate some homemade tomato soup, put on Tony's Red Sox sweatshirt, and started my last (yay!) assignment of the semester. About 5 minutes after I start reading I can hear these people talking right outside our door. At first I'm just annoyed at our apartment, it has INCREDIBLY thin walls. I tune it out until I hear this loud whack! I look out the peep hole to see who would be banging on my door. I see these two middle school aged kids--a boy and a girl, both of whom I think may be a bit slow--that I've seen around the complex. I open the door and ask if everything is okay. They assure me they are fine and apologize for hitting my door. I ask them why they hit the door. They said one of them tripped. Whatever. I know that isn't true but I say okay and go back inside. Not even a minute later I hear another bang! against the door and a sign we have on the wall and the mirror over our couch move. What is going on out there? I am really mad because I have a lot to do tonight and I need to work on my assignment. For the next minute I keep hearing these weird noises. Finally I look out the peephole again and see the two of them in the middle of a fight. The girl flings the boy off her back, then he runs back and knocks out her knees and tackles her. I decide to grab my phone so I can call our apartment complex office in case of emergency and open the door.

Me: WHAT are you doing?
Boy: (Sheepishly) Teaching her [the girl] how to fight.
Me: That is a bad idea.
Boy: I think it is a good idea. She needs to know how to defend herself.
Me: Nope, it's not. Get off of her right now.
Boy rolls off her (and reveals WAY too much crack in the process).
Boy: You can't make us do anything. We aren't doing anything wrong.
Me: Yes you are and yes I can. You both need to go home right now or I will call the office. You have banged into my door many times and if you do it again I will call the office and have one of the maintenance men come over and take care of you.
Girl: Let's get out of here.
Me: Yes, go home.

The boy doesn't say anything to me, but they kind of walk off. I go into my apartment. I can now see them out our living room window. The boy starts yelling towards the window as the girl walks towards her apartment. I can't exactly hear what he is saying, but judging by the shapes his mouth was making I could make some pretty good guesses. I walk outside and hear him yell, "You better watch your back, *****!"

So I tell him I heard that and he ran home.

All I wanted to do this afternoon was study and now I feel bad because I was mean to special 8th graders. It's these watching-my-back times that I'm glad to have Tony around. He is much stronger and a much more skilled "fighter" than me (or that kid).