Being a Mascot

Being a Mascot

At the age of 17, I attended high school.
Our school's mascot was the lion, and the rival's was a tiger.  I was the guy in the lion suit.

One day at a game against my school's rival, I was doing the typical cheering on the team and keeping the crowd happy.

Me and the other mascot would have small playful battles, like exchanging tricks.

I was so much better. Tiger became angry.

At halftime, the tiger challenged me to a plastic sword fight, and I obviously accepted. It starts and we exchange hits, hurting a bit. I was winning, when the Tiger got really mad and threw his sword down and starts punching me hard. I back off, angry, not wanting to continue the fight.

The Tiger mask was staring at me with it's smug tiger eyes, and I became mad. The Tiger waves his arms at the crowd, and gets applause. His back is towards me, and I rush towards him.

I plunge my hand into his mask and rip out one of the Tiger's eyes. He was scared. I knocked him down and jumped on top of the tiger. I beat the daylights out of him, probably broke his nose.

A ref pulls me off and takes me to my coach.

My coach says "What made you do that?"

I sat there for a second thinking and eventually I say, "It was the eye of the tiger, it was the thrill of the fight, standing up to the challenge of our rivals."