Freaks. Outcasts. Weirdos. These words are now casually thrown around by Columbine High School students in reference to the two boys who opened fire, killing 12 of their classmates and one of their teachers. One girl dismissed all the taunting and name calling they endured as "just stupid teenage stuff."

But for many of us who've been viewed as square pegs in round holes -- and tormented for it -- it's been enough to prompt the fantasy of killing our tormentors. I remember sitting in biology class trying to figure out how much plastic explosive it might take to reduce the schoolhouse -- my biggest source of fear and anxiety -- to rubble. I scowled at those who teased me, and I had fantasies of them begging me for mercy, maybe even with a gun in their mouths. Those visions of having power and control over them excited me.

Was I a sick person in need of immediate psychological assessment? Was I a warped mind among millions of high school students who dealt with their frustrations by smoking pot or playing the violin? I don't think so. I'm sure there were thousands of other students who had the same fantasies I did. We just never acted on them.

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Everyone knew it was true when we first heard rumors he was dead. "Aye! Somebody just killed that fool Biggie Smalls!"

"Damn!" was the only reply.

Despite their similarities, the two, B.I.G., also called Biggie Smalls, and Tupac Shakur feuded furiously -- in songs, in interviews and in person, pulling guns, traps, setups. All heaven and earth knows Tupac accused B.I.G. of being the attacker in the first attempt on his life in 1994 and spent much of the rest of his career trying to humiliate the "Notorious" one.

Ironically, Tupac and Big were at one time close friends. What severed the friendship? To quote Tupac, "Biggie got signed." The music industry destroyed their friendship, after which both set off on their own self-destructive paths. Both ended at the same point: bullet-riddled cars with bullet-riddled young black men slumped over inside.

Check out another similarity: Both men had the same underlining theme in their music -- death.

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