Sophmore tales of the lunchtime loser.

First of all I was pissed that I had to give up Acapella the choir of greatness at one school to be in nothing but the stinky Sophomore mixed choir at another.  Silly Mr. Harris didn't recognize my "musical genius" and wouldn't put me in Honor Choir.  My irritation was compounded by the fact that that "freakin" (mind you I did NOT know this girl at all, AND she's totally my friend and she's GREAT) Janelle Tingey got to be in Honor Choir as a sophomore.  WHATEVER!

Then add to that  that Karen (long time besty) had a DIFFERENT lunch period than me. What the what?  I was left stranded in sea of strangers.  Trust me, this school belonged to people who came from Carson and Kino Jr. Highs.  The few that straggled over from my original Powell were there but not there if you know what I mean.  So, I was feeling A-LOOONE.

For the first month or so Eric very "graciously" let me tag along at lunch time.  Usually we went to this pizza place on Country Club that offered all kinds of prizes when you spun the wheel.  Or we went home, or to Krazy Sub.  Whatever the case, it would be Eric, Merlin, usually Rob, Loren and Randy, sometimes Steve or Chris as well,  all squeezed into the suburban and off we went. I was an annoyance to their retarded boy teenager-ness. Imagine all the studs of the school, student council leaders, football stars, hotties and then this random chubby girl straggling behind.  Yeah, that was ME! 

I tried to find a pic of Eric and his friends, but couldn't.  So, this will have to do.  That's my bro rockin the camo and the #97.  The other two were his VP and Secretary of the Senior Class, with their advisor.

Like i said, he let (and by let I mean my Mom FORCED him or threatened his use of the car I'm sure if he didn't include me) me come and at least I had SOMEONE to eat with. Then I made a friend in Shanna, and she started coming along too.  I'm pretty sure she just wanted to be with all the cool boys, but whatevs.  Shannas coming along didn't last long, 'cause Eric didn't like her and wanted none of it.  So, before I knew it, I was out on the street.  I had no one to eat lunch with. And truth be told, Shanna sort of bugged me too.

This is so sad to write out loud.  BUT, for the next while, I would seriously just go to the library during lunch and hang out, reading or hiding, who knows.  I felt like such a total nerb bomber.  Why had I made this horrible decision?  I could have been with that "damn" Helena Nielson, or Andrea eating lunch at Mesa High.  But no, here I was seriously, stuck, in a library, no friends and to add insult to injury...no lunch for the fat girl.

THEN things started looking up.  I reconnected with my friend Mindy from the Pioneer Trek.  We started hanging out and soon I had an invite to lunch in the cafeteria.  I know right?  The freaking cafeteria.  WHO does that?  Well, we did.  And it was so lovely to not feel alone anymore.  Mindy was one of my dearest friends all through highschool, and I have the Trek to thank for that.  I think at the semester that  Karen and I ended up having the same lunch again, which was a HUGE relief for sure.  But highschool is funny.  Those that you were friends with you sometimes aren't anymore, and those you weren't, sometimes become friends.  Karen and I were always still best friends, but we also each found new groups, and they were very different and independent of eachother. So I just pulled out the trusty journal....apparently there were some issues right off the bat, like Karen had NEW friends and I was NOT pleased from even the summer. 

I was on the swimteam and in reading the journal (man those things are just invaluable, good on me for actually writing in them regularly) I HAD made friends with Heather Young (Hi Heather) and Katie McMichaels and I really liked them, 'cause I wrote about them a lot, and how NICE they were.  I hated being on swim team though.  Because why?  You guessed it, because I was fat and felt uncomfortable.  PLUS, I was forced to swim way longer distances than I had ever done before.  People, I was a sprint swimmer, none of this crap distance stuff.

In the meantime, there I was wasting away in sophomore chorale.  One day, as I was sitting next to Warren Bodine in all his blond blue eyed cuteness I looked over at him and noticed something a bit odd.  I looked a little closer.  "Ummm Warren, is that MAKEUP on your face?"  To which he replied, rather matter of factly. "YES! So what, I use a little concealer and powder.  If girls can do it, why can't I?"  He failed to see how it was fair for girls to cover zits and not guys.  What was I s'posed to say to that?  So I just laughed, and told him he was wierd. He continued to wear his "makeup" so his perfect cuteness would not be disturbed by any blemishes.  I think that little incident bonded us.  Not that we were super besties, but you know, we're still friends to this day.

Say hi to Warren.  See, cute.  This pic was actually taken after we graduated and he came to visit me on my G'pa's farm in PA.  I'll save that story for Senior memories.

Also, in the early part o' the sophomore year, I decided to get all kinds of brave, I mean shoot, if I had no friends, and I was gonna ride on my popular brothers coattails, I may as well GO FOR IT!  So, I decided to run for student council.  I can't even remember the position I was running for, some activities thing.  Anyway....in those days you did your speeches in a huge school assembly, IN FRONT of the whole school.  And by speech I mean, skits, like SNL worthy SKITS.  In mine I was acting like Dr. Ruth and had this whole silly speech to act out.  Let's just say...it didn't go so hot. And "surprisingly" I didn't win. That distinction went to Rand Lesuer. Phlbbt!

FINE, no student council, but it didn't mean I couldn't get involved.  This was to be the 25th anniversary year for my school.  All KINDS o' celebrating at Homecoming.  So, I worked on the class float and did all I could to be involved.  **Take note: This would TOTALLY pay off later.**
Re-reading the journal, it was during float making that I became friends with Janelle Tingey, Jenny Giles, Loreen Lamb, Brent Mason, Nichol Anderson and others.  I wrote in there more than once how happy I felt that I was becoming friends with them.  And we actually hung out.  Though I did write a lot that I questioned my choice in coming to Westwood.  I just wasn't sure if I'd done the right thing.

Our sophomore class float.  Needless to say, we didn't win.

That spec in red is me.  I was being all important and "involved" and on the field during halftime. Such a random picture.

Back in choir...I had now also met JR Wright.  I knew who his older sister was. EVERYONE knew who his older sister was(Hi Jenee, I looove you my friend).  If my brother was popular, she was like in her own orbit popular.  But I digress.  JR was quiet and reserved, but he took an interest in me (and this is a 22 year old memory.  I'm sure my PERSPECTIVE was that he took an interest, that's all)and would talk to me.  He even invited me to a big party that was in the driveways between his house and his cousins.  And when I say big party, I mean HUGE, HUGE party.  Seniors (cause really it was his sisters party) and Juniors there and then some of us sophomores (I'm sure that Janelle was there, hahahaha).  I felt super cool that I got invited. 

Perhaps things weren't gonna be so bad afterall....