A case of the hiccups turned into a real headache for one student Wednesday night.

Everyone has their own secrets for getting rid of those annoying breathing abnormalities, but few include head-butting.

University of Georgia student Abbie Rickoff was at Genco on East Clayton Street with a friend when she got the hiccups, she said.

“My friend was joking around and told this guy to scare me,” Rickoff said. “Like to say ‘boo’ or something.”

Instead of saying ‘boo,’ Richard Handley Hale, 29, head-butted Rickoff, according to the Athens-Clark County Police report.

Rickoff said Hale hit her head very hard, causing it to swell.

“I hadn’t really spoken to him before that,” she said.

When the ACC Police arrived, Hale confirmed he hit Rickoff’s head with his own.

Police arrested Hale and charged him with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, the report said.

Rickoff said her head still hurt on Thursday and that she was really bruised on her face and nose.

“I have lived here for a while, and I have never seen anything like that downtown,” she said. “It was really weird.”

As for her case of hiccups?

“I guess that did get rid of them,” she said.