Ryder Cane: This is me

Chapter 5

Thirteen years ago

Walking the halls, dodging people who didn’t see me while feeling like an outlaw. It was the first day of junior high and while everyone felt positive, I felt like a clown because of the weird looks I received from students my age or older. I was skinnier than the average guy my age and people seem to always see that immediately. I was a very tall guy with almost 0% body fat, my bones poking out from underneath my skin. No amount of oversize clothes could hide it. I heard known voices when I entered the classroom and I wasn’t thrilled when I learned that I would be spending another year with the biggest bully on the playground. I’ve been shoved, pushed to the floor, and picked on since kindergarten by Keegan Daniels.

He was a bully and everyone seemed to fear him. His friends weren’t even his true friend, they were only his friend because they didn’t want to get bullied by him. “Scrawny!” He exclaimed with a roll of his tongue, getting everyone’s attention in the classroom. Girls gave me disgusted or sympathetic looks while the guys laughed at me. “Following me, are you?” Keegan said from across the classroom. “I thought at least the summer would have done you good but it seems like you are stuck in a body that doesn’t know how to expand or grow.”

My dad couldn’t afford to place me at a different junior high. He was struggling to keep his gym open after mom created so much debt and left everything to him when she abandoned us. I was having to spend the next four years with him until I graduate. I looked for a seat as far away as possible from Keegan when I found a guy with red hair and glasses smiling at me. “Guess, you spent a lot of time with him?” I nodded. “That obvious?” I didn’t think it was possible for his smile to grow. “I’ve been called a nerd my whole life. I have been wearing glasses since kindergarten.” I decided to sit down next to him. “Just because you are wearing glasses?” I questioned finding it unbelievable.

“Oh, and because I’m a straight-A student.” He pointed out. “I can actually relate.” He looked dumbfounded. “Nobody wants to be friends with the “scrawny guy” so, I spend a lot of time at home alone and it gives me all that free time to read, do my homework, and put extra time into my projects,” I explained. “I’m Ryder by the way.” I introduced myself. “Peter.” He replied.

Peter became my friend; we had a lot in common and not only being the two biggest losers of our school. While every guy signed up for soccer, basketball, or American football, we spend time working on our grades and staying out of everyone’s way. Keegan became the new star player for the basketball team and girls melted into puddles around him. My crush, Olivia Jenkins even ended up dating him. She never noticed me, only when Keegan would take my lunch and lunch money from me. I will see her laugh at me with his and her friends. I will overhear her tell everybody how ugly I am and that nobody will date a skinny guy like me.

That inspired Keegan to pull me into the guy’s gym locker-room. He pushed me into a locker and locked me up inside, his laughter following him as he headed out. I thought that I was going to spend another night at school when I heard footsteps and a shadow appeared in front of the door.

I thought Keegan returned to let me out but it was one of the guys from wrestling and by the looks of things, I was locked up into his locker. That day, was all I needed to turn my life around. The guy was a senior, he was one the best wrestlers and has won a lot of fights over the years and has the trophies to show them off. His name was Lucas and he introduced me to the sport after he learned how much I got bullied because of how skinny I was. I always used to think that I was too skinny to participate in any sport especially contact sport like this but to my surprise, I was actually good at it.

The sport didn’t change who I was and nobody really cheered for me but I started to cheer for myself. I spend some time at my dad’s gym working out and practice for my fights. Lucas became our friend and he helped me to become a better fighter. He helped me gain some weight by introducing me to healthy protein shakes. My dad’s pro-fighters also helped me out and they turned me into one hell of a wrestling fighter. I took over from Lucas and ever since he graduated from Highschool, I was the new champion. I found something else to boost my self-confidence. I wasn’t weak because I was skinny, maybe everyone was terrified to fight against me because they were afraid, they would break a bone but I turned out to be quite an opponent.

I was still overlooked by girls and guys still picked on me but it became just a buzz in the back of my mind. I’ve researched healthy eating habits to get me to gain weight and I’ve researched ways to bulk up from certain exercises when I came across MMA. My dad’s gym was known to be an MMA gym facility and after I graduated, I worked out to become an MMA fighter. The first few years, I was just another fighter with no name or face until a fight with a pro-fighter went viral and Dana White learned about my existence.

I received an invitation to partake in a UFC fight. It was the first big step I needed to jump-start my fighters-career. I wasn’t this skinny or scrawny guy I used to be but I was a 6.4ft tall man who has a weight of 120kg. It took me a few years to gain all that weight, but training and eating the right amount of food helped me to get there. Each fight boosted me to a point where I became the best. The voices of my bullies became a whisper of nothings. Life was too short to leave the key to my happiness in someone else’s pocket. I needed no one’s validation to my success.

The hater's opinions were nothing but a dime to a dozen and loyalty was just a word, no one seemed to use because they had no guts to pick a side. We sometimes have to say goodbye to our past but keep the small reminders to help us from marching forward. I used my past experience to my advantage so that I will forever stay a step ahead.

And soon the world of MMA was buzzing loudly with the announcement of having me as their new heavyweight champion. The media followed and everyone wanted to schedule an interview with me. Nobody had to know about my struggles and how I come to be here. They didn’t have to know about my mother’s abundance or that about my struggling father who gave his everything to get me here. I needed no one’s sympathy. I needed to believe the voice inside of me who believed in me. People talked about me like I was the new Brad Pitt. Gossip magazines and health magazines wanted me on each cover because I was voted as the sexiest male of UFC.

But no one really wanted to talk about all my accomplishments in UFC. How many fights I had to win to get where I am today. But a face that I will never forget suddenly made its way back into my life and my world suddenly became rocky. The uneven ground left me powerless and all I tried to do was survive and understood her return. But it all became clear when she couldn’t wait to announce her mothership over me. Journalist dug into my past where I was a skinny guy. Old school students shared their stories about knowing me and didn’t wait to release photographs of me.

I was accused of using steroids because of my incredible weight gain. But it was cleared due to a recent steroid test but the other problem was still present. My mother. The woman who walked out on me and my father. The woman who had us suffer because of her debt. She was back claiming that I was her son but she had no decency to tell them about her abandoning me.

She wanted money from her star child. She didn’t even want to get to know her son. How was I still even surprised? I denied all accusations of her being my mother. I told the media reporters that my mother died when I was five-years-old. I had no further comment and I turned my back on her after calling her a stranger.