After Billy had been at school for a few months, his school football team took part in a prestigious football competition. Aside form the prestige involved in winning the competition, it was also a matter of pride for the school, who had won the prize two years running and whose prime objective in this year’s round was to complete a hat-trick of three consecutive wins. Accordingly, they had, prior to the competition, conducted a private and somewhat secret probe into the circumstances of the other teams in the competition. The primary objective of this rather doubtful procedure was to identify particularly strong players with the aim of ensuring that they were well covered on the pitch. The players could also study the form of their opponents and find out whether they were known for any particular style of play, such as aggressive play, defensive play and so on.

On the day of the competition, the stadium was packed. All of the pupils were each given one complementary ticket, but tickets for outsiders were almost priceless and Billy had to press hard to get through the crowd. The school principal had arrived to preside over the event and to present the trophy to the eventual winners. The audience were roaring and chanting, and the whole stadium was seething with primitive emotions. Billy looked around for someone he knew, but didn’t see anyone. Then he saw a hot dog stall, which was also selling drinks, so he wandered over and bought a large cup of coke. To tell the truth, Billy wasn’t quite sure why he himself had bothered to come since he was not a great football fan, but he could only presume that he had come on the pretext of enjoying the privilege of watching his own school prevail. To get into a position where he could see the pitch, he had to proceed horizontally through the stands, and in the process he suddenly felt some prick his thigh with a sharp object. He turned around to see a large, fat boy in the uniform of another school who was looking at Billy and sniggering. He was holding a pair of dividers in his hand. Strangely enough, Billy felt no fear at all. “Is it your habit to prey on others who are smaller than yourself?” he asked, calmly. Then, without further ado, he emptied his large cup of coke over the fat boy’s head.