So, how was your day at school? How was the fight?

I'm beginning to wonder if I should ask this question as a follow up to the first.

Yesterday, on the way home, my daughter breathlessly told me about how one girl walked up and started punching another in the middle school courtyard during lunch. The entire eighth grade knew about the upcoming smack down, it seems, and were all there to watch, as one girl, Anne, walked up, and start punching another girl, Megan, known for being the eighth-grade school bully.

"She totally deserved it," said my daughter, who said that the first girl had bragged all morning about how she was going to let Megan have it.

"Even the teachers weren't sympathetic, no one likes here," my daughter continued.

Anne, who started the fight, had a black eye at the end of it, while Megan broke her hand, punching back.

Finally one of the teachers arrived on the scene, separated the two, and marched them into the principal's office. A one-day suspension for the bully, a three-day expulsion for the girl who started the fight.

This whole conversation led into a discussion on bullies, the way girls fight (lots of hair pulling and slapping), the way boys fight (lots of punching), and why any kid's a bully in the first place. Apparently this bully comes from nice parents, according to my daughter, and a $1 million home.

Okay, but bullies aren't born, they are made, I reminded her. The middle school bullies in my school (before it became the subject of studies and movies like "Mean Girls") hired a much bigger girl than herself to slam people (including me) into lockers.

I surmised that she obviously has problems, probably at home that no one knows about.

"Well, she's a bitch," J. declared, with a sideways glance. But the "bitch" apparently has her uses.

Later that night, as she was brushing her teeth, J., my daughter said that she hoped Megan didn't get in too much trouble. She's a good basketball player and the team needs her.

"We'd really suck without her," she said.