Sometimes karma really shows up in earnest.

And sometimes, karma can be acted out.

This girl proved to be very clever after she put a bully in his place by doing a little act that got him embarrassed in front of everyone.

Let’s check out the fully story.

First chair yells at me for missing a performance, make him look like a total tool before the full room

I (23F) recently graduated this past weekend, and my parents came to my city to have dinner with me.

When we were talking at dinner, my mom reminded me of a kid I used to attend high school with.

I honestly didn’t remember this story until she said his name, but I think it was a pretty satisfying moment in my young life.

For context, I’ve been playing violin as a casual hobby for the vast part of my life.

She had early exposure to the craft..

My grandma knew someone through the grapevine who would mentor me, and I attended her lessons from kindergarten all the way to senior year of high school.

I have a pretty good grasp of the instrument, and an echoic memory, which is a neat little party trick.

I did do some recitals here and there, but the closest I’d ever come to playing in a group was with my old church, and even then, it was pretty laid back.

When I was a freshman, I joined with my school’s string orchestra.

And we can sense the trouble..

This was a small group, and I was the only new freshman that year. I think it was about 14 kids at the most.

My director was a very cool guy, and he was very accommodating since I was new to the ‘learn a piece in X amount of weeks, then be ready to perform it here’ strategy.

Again, I was a casual player. I was still on Book 4 of the Suzuki collection.

Here it comes..

This did not sit well with the first chair for violins- let’s call him Guy.

Guy was a junior, a top scoring student and had a bunch of other accolades to his name.

My mom also apparently knew Guy; when she did recess duty at my previous school, Guy was constantly giving her lip and always brushed her off to seem cool.

According to her and some gossip, he was one of those “instant gratification” only child types.

He clearly had his issues to be so mean.

The kids who are spoiled rotten by their parents so they never have to wait.

My mom did not like his spoiled brattiness, and when she heard he was the first chair of my orchestra, she was already getting some “oh, god” sorta vibes from him, but said nothing to not make me worry.

Guy was a very intense leader.

He was good at what he did..

I think his instant gratification attitude spilled over into his musical pursuits. He was highly competitive and took his role as first chair very seriously.

From day one, he made it clear that he didn’t think I belonged in the orchestra.

He would make snide comments about my playing, question my abilities, and generally make me feel unwelcome, especially with my other orchestra members.

He always went out of his way to exclude me.

He left no chance to bully her.

I wasn’t too bothered by it at first, but it did slowly chip away at me. I continued to practice diligently and work hard to prove myself.

Slowly but surely, I started to gain confidence in my playing. My director was supportive and encouraged me to keep pushing forward, and I will always thank him for that.

In early Fall, we were due to have an open house for incoming freshman / families, and my orchestra group was supposed to be there and perform for a few hours to get kids to join.

But something tragic happened.

Unfortunately, a few days before, my dad had some sudden medical complications- ruptured spleen.

Because it was so sudden and out of nowhere, I didn’t have time to really tell my director that I wouldn’t be able to make it due the family emergency. T

he open house was on Sunday, and my director called my house that very Sunday to try and figure out where I was.

She got scared!

Admittedly, I panicked when the director called- it totally slipped my mind.

I think I said something like “sir, I apologize for all this, but my dad’s in the hospital, he’s having surgery and it’s been serious and complicated and I just don’t know what’s gonna happen; I apologize for not giving you a proper heads up but it’s just been a haze all weekend.”

Tried to remain cool and calm, even though I was mentally freaking the hell out.

The director was a nice guy..

Thankfully, my director was very understanding and even talked to me and my mom to make sure we were doing okay.

He said that it was no big deal that I was missing out, since this was a smaller event and I should focus more on my own mental health more than anything.

It was nice to have such an understanding guy.

I don’t think he told any of the other members out of respect for my privacy, but Guy was frankly pissed about the whole situation. He was stewing on it for a while.

But finally, some good news!

Thankfully, my dad’s surgery was a success, and he was doing better.

Of course, Guy had to spoil my mood.

The orchestra room at my school is usually open in the mornings, which lets kids drop off their instruments for the day.

Uh oh.. Here goes..

The day after the performance, I walked in to put my violin in its usual spot, and Guy angrily confronted me about why I missed out, pitching a whole scene in front of the others who were hanging out in there; I have no idea why he did this, but it was clear he was trying to embarrass me.

He accused me of being unreliable and letting the team down, saying that my absence reflected poorly on the orchestra as a whole.

And then he screamed!

He yelled “What the h**l gives you a pass to skip yesterday!?”, and at this point, I’ve already been stressed for the better part of a weekend, so I decide to get some petty revenge right now.

She did something he never saw coming..

I’m guessing he wants me to just start crying, so I do. He looks satisfied for a second, before I yell out, loud enough for people outside to hear, “MY DAD WAS IN SURGERY, YOU D**K!” , and then run off.

Was I acting? Yes. But did it instantly shut him up? Absolutely.

HAHAHA!

I got told this by a buddy in band, but after I ran out, Guy looked like he’d swallowed a damn frog at that moment.

EVERYONE in the room was giving him a look that said ‘what the hell, guy’ and he looked like he wanted to yell at everyone.

She turned people against him real quick.

After that, I guess he tried to pitch another fit in the group chat with all his older buddies, and I think they chewed him out too, because from their perspective, he just yelled at a freshman who’s dad was having a damn medical emergency.

I got stopped by a few of them in the hall, and they checked in, saw if I was doing better, just extending the basic definition of empathy.

It was nice to see, and I think they felt better when I confirmed some stuff.

And then the director took it from there..

Word got back to the Director quick; he must have chewed Guy a new one, because when I got into orchestra that day, Guy looked very defeated. He didn’t even look at me, until the Director took the stand.

First off, he said the open house was a moderate success, and congratulated the group who played. However, he shifted gears and said he was very disappointed by some in-fighting within the group, and immediately turned towards Guy.

He cleared his throat, and asked if he had anything to say to me.

This Guy must’ve wanted the floor to gulp him in.

Guy let out a very weak ‘I’m sorry’ and began hastily setting up his music stand. It was a very pathetic apology, but I wasn’t exactly gonna sulk about not getting one.

I had a lot more important things to focus on.

After class, my director asked how I was doing, if my dad’s surgery went okay, etc. Again, cool guy. I hope he’s enjoying retirement.

The director ended up emailing my mom about what happened; knowing that the little shit that defied her authority back then got SOME minor comeuppance was a little petty revenge for her, carried out unintentionally by me.

But wait, here’s the best part!

And the cherry on top? My dad came home the exact same day, so that was another weight lifted off my shoulders.

Guy did revert back to his usual rudeness, but he never blew up on me again to that effect.

A bunch of his orchestra buddies did end up befriending me, so I had an enjoyable two years with them before they all graduated.

And she got to the throne.

After that, I ended up taking Guy’s chair, and I promised myself I’d be more laid back and understanding with other members than he was with me.

I think it worked out pretty good; we were a smaller group at that point, but still a really great sounding one.

Lovely! She has some stories to tell!

Let’s check out what folks on Reddit commented about her life story.

This person loves the way the story goes.

This person thinks its a big thing that the director called the guy out.

This person loves what she did.

This person has a joke to crack.

This person is here for these kinds of stories!

Petty revenge that teaches someone a lesson?

Let’s go!

If you liked that story, check out this one about a delivery driver who gave two weeks notice… so his employer disabled his truck when he was 300 miles from home!