During my chemistry class today, we were conducting an experiment in groups of 4.

At one point 3 of us in my group were standing at the table reading the worksheet while the 4th guy was collecting equipment. He saw us standing and half-yelled saying “can you not just stand there and be useful?” raising his voice. He said a few times and was aggressive and giving bad attitude.

After his second sentence, I got pissed off with his attitude and said in a loud but not overly angry tone “can you ask nicely?”.

Our teacher was standing right beside and sensed the conversation was getting heated and tried to calm him down. After I replied with that, he said nothing back and we got back to our experiment.

Normally I wouldn’t say stuff like this because i tend to stray away from offending others and creating conflict. Afterwards, we didn’t talk for the entire class and I felt bad vibes and negative energy. After school, I talked to him kind of normally again I guess, but our relationship still felt a bit strained after that situation.

If I just stood there and said nothing, he’d probably just feel like he can walk all over me again at any time. I feel like I need to start being more assertive and speaking up like this, so people will start respecting me.