If you look at my senior picture, which I will not post, you’ll notice a patch under one of my eyes. It’s Clearasil I used in an attempt to cover up a black eye I’d gotten just the night before. All the cadets in Echo Company were lined up against the walls of the first floor hallway. Nathan Zoss was in the laundry room at one end, I was standing near the side door that exited to Bravo Company at the other. I can’t remember what I said but it was second-hand information about how Zoss was to blame for something. Something totally insignificant. Now, what I need to mention is that Zoss and I were friends. When he caught wind of what I said, he came rushing down the hallway toward me, roaring something and I curled up into a little ball on the floor and covered my head.
This is nothing to be ashamed of. If you knew him, you’d have done the same. He pummeled me for a while until oh, I don’t know, twenty or so people pulled him off me.
I curled up into a little ball because the Rage of Zoss was well-known. A man who had the misfortune of briefly being our biology teacher had a confrontation with him. I can remember at least a couple of us muttering, “Please don’t make Zoss angry.”
Then it happened and as the rest of us scattered, he lifted and threw tables and chairs no human teenage boy should be able to around the room.
The pix of the biology lab are modern. I think they could use a new whiteboard, even if it isn’t on their wishlist.
See also: The Legacy of Nathan Zoss
