this is jerry warner and he's in trouble the i'm the door a decision is being made an important decision that may affect jerry's whole future i never thought i'd be sitting here like this sure i knew other kids had been suspended from school and all the trouble they had i never thought it happened to me well so they suspend me so what that's ok too the other kids are still think i'm a pretty big man is going to be a lot of bother how come i got into this anyway how come when they think they are anyway because they're bigger they think they can tell everybody what to do make me feel like a real punk so my friends can laugh at me what's the difference if i did really a silly rule anyway not in heard anybody nobody's gonna tell me it's not hard to make somebody else look silly either i didn't really want to fight that guy i was only clowning everybody was watching me and i couldn't back out could i i think i was chicken mom call the whole thing a storm in a teacup after all boys will be boys she said it wasn't as if i do anything terrible just a little fight sure the school has a rule against fighting and when you come right down to it i did start the whole thing i guess i was in the wrong mom was on my side so what could i lose still i suppose she had to agree to letting them discipline me one week on the trash detail boy especially in the girl section that was really humiliating you know the kids are probably never never hit off and at and then another lecture just because i got an f in a home assignment for what not the school grades matter whether or not you're popular that's the way to be somebody rather than nobody the most important thing not show him that i was somebody not afraid of anything i'd show him a real star i want all of them to look up to me not to laugh at me it was a close call right and i was scared it really was a dumb thing to do when i had to play it through tonight here comes another lecture someone else to tell me do this and don't do that even after school the policeman said that i put myself in danger as well as setting a bad example i got away with it this time with just a warning now we're sure the kids were impressed that i wasn't afraid the kids were impressed all right anyway s i wanted what all the other saw most of them didn't belong to my gang of course they thought that getting good grades and obeying the rules were things to do sure did sometimes watch when i did a stunt or somethin in alaska i sometimes wonder if they were laughing with me or at me anyway i was pretty sure my own group even though it was a small town thought i was a big m not carol she was pretty impressed with me all right she's ok and i wonder if she's really the kind of girl i could go for it maybe just that she's always around isn't really that good looking either only kind of flashy and it's certainly true that she isn't very smart i guess the teacher was right when he told her that you can't keep your mouth and your mind open at the same time material certainly does talk a lot in class maybe the fellows of the gang were the greatest but i didn't want to be left out like when the guys wanted to stop and flew around a dea knew very well that i was supposed to go straight home from school but he couldn't refuse i knew i was doing the wrong thing and i guess it was more important to be accepted by the guys than anything else i was very late getting home one night mom was real angry with me i guess i had to come mom said i was grounded and had to stay home saturday and it wasn't any fun to have to tell the kids that i couldn't go with them after all they knew why and i felt i was losing my reputation for being a big man that's when i got my big guy bill i really wanted to show well i guess i have a good idea now where i'm sitting here in this fine it wasn't just the one thing going wrong a lot of things i guess i just wasn't too sure of myself but i wanted to be and so i tried to play the big man by showing jerry wanted to be accepted and liked and admired by his friends and all his showing off and rebellion really just accomplished the opposite in the long run playing the big man you even placed himself and others in danger and created trouble for his friends but he was hurting no one nearly as much as he was hurting himself well he'd call the tomb now he had to face the music but perhaps it wasn't too late he had been wrong he knew that now perhaps he would get another chance jerry did get another chance he had taken an honest look at himself and had come up with some good answers in the up to act upon them then he is taking the first step toward growing up