Yes, I like what you have suggested regarding the beginning. I suppose, I was initially thinking of it from a bird’s-eye point of view (coming in from the big to the small as an opener to this, an undeniably short, piece. This is how, if oddly, in a detached way, my mind choses to remember the event. 

 

If I’m to be honest, "the crown of my head” came to me also, but in an attempt to “kill my Darlings” I dropped it. Also, I battled with the fact I was not yet ‘’crowned’’. 

 

The "Higher court” — is a difficult one as it’s still in session, as with us all. It’s how we feel about ourselves and how others perceive us, especially in our formative years. It’s true, I did gain a certain adolescent notoriety from that ‘battle’  and in a less dramatic ways also: I, you might say, winning the hand, if briefly, of the school's fairest maiden. This also brought its own frictions. Soon after, and with further unsolicited  ‘exchanges’, it all came to a head — excuse the pun — when the deposed ‘King’, who still had  minions who were willing to lie for him,  plotted until he successfully won both his and my expulsion from the school. I being framed for virtually crippling another boy in a fight, -- a fight that never happened -- quickly followed by a full on battle with my nemesis and his minions in feigned retribution. 

 

The main reason the open telling of this tale has been a difficult one for me, is, to my great lasting sadness, my father never lived to see that these rite of passage episodes were just blip in an otherwise peaceful, productive life.