I was NOT one of the "Cool Kids"

I've got a stomachache. And I don't think the coffee is doing it any good.

There was some discussion in the PB box last week about high school, and someone said something about how the people who chat in there were like the cool kids in high school. I decided then that I was going to write about high school. Because in no way was I one of the cool kids and it's something I've never delved into as a writer tool, but seeing as how I'm doing this YA online workshop, I figure I'd share some.

As I said, I was not one of the *cool kids* in high school. I had my little group of friends that I went to junior high with – the ones who befriended me from the get go when I moved out to Katy from Spring. And that little group expanded somewhat with other friends and their friends or acquaintances. But I mostly just stuck with the few I'd already known. Those I hung out with after school, got rides from and all that.

Then there were the other people I made nice with in different classes, people I ate lunch with like Ryan and Matt and then senior year, at least one semester with Marie and photography class with Ashley. Well Ashley and I actually hung out outside of school, went to a of couple parties together, etc. Marie and I never did though, and it's funny now because we're practically neighbors and still don't hang out!

But anyway, by senior year a lot of my friends had either graduated, or dropped out, didn't go to my high school [like Alesia – she'll never forgive me since I was scheduled to be in her gym class in 9 th grade] or since my senior year was also junior year [I went to summer school after sophomore year to take economics and that gave me enough credits to be able to graduate the next year on the minimum credit program], I didn't have classes with any of the friends I'd been in classes with since like 7 th grade. Not to mention that there was a lot of drama brewing between friends and couples and all that stuff that I tried to avoid. So I made new *class friends* in my graduating class, only one of which [Rob] I still see around at parties nowadays.

But overall I was a bit of a loner throughout school. I just kind of stuck to myself. And at that time it really didn't bother me much. I'd go home and there would always be people there, my brother or sister's friends. I actually went to a high school that I wasn't zoned to, so my mom would drive me to Katey's house everyday freshman year and I rode the bus to and from school with her and my mom would come get me after work or Katey's mom would take me home.

Sophomore year she got a car and I would ride home with her a lot, my mom or one of the other 5 or so people living in the house would drive me in the mornings. Jesse picked me up some days too. Then it seems around the end of the first semester my brother got a job working in the same building as our step-dad so they carpooled and I drove his car. A Nissan Maxima that had been lowered and had a banging system in it. Then the next May I got Cherry Bomb that I couldn't drive for about a month because I had to learn to drive a standard.

Wow, you can sure tell that I like cars since that's what this just turned into – me talking about cars, heh. But junior/senior year I got my first job. A pizza joint called Valentino's. The entire time I worked there I ended up doing pretty much everything at one point or another, but when I first started I was, what we referred to as, a phone ho. I made friends with pretty much everyone there. Some of the people working there I already knew. My sister was the manager so she hired a bunch of pot-smoking hippies and we all had a good time. I met my *first* while working there. We all had a really good time. I can't think of how many Friday or Saturday nights there were one or two kegs chillin' in the walk-in freezer!

But by that time, our little circle of friends had kind of fell apart. I don't think I talked to Katey for almost a year or so. The rest of them kind of stayed together, and still hang out a lot now, but even with them I always felt kind of like an outsider and still kind of do. It's still seldom when we talk, but it's mostly because she's busy working and going to school, and I'm busy working and being a housewife afterwards. But I make an effort to go, say, to the bar where she's celebrating her birthday, or when a friend passes I make sure to show up and show my respect and support and make it known that I'm still there and I still care about these people. I mean, they still mean a lot to me. How can the girls you got arrested with in 8 th grade behind the McDonald's not mean something to me?

Today's Promises(R) Message [brought to you by Dove Chocolates]

There's no excuse not to dream.

And I almost forgot! Today's Word of the Day:

risible \RIZ-uh-buhl\, adjective:
1. Capable of laughing; disposed to laugh.
2. Exciting or provoking laughter; worthy of laughter; laughable; amusing.3. Relating to, connected with, or used in laughter; as, "risible muscles."
All twelve selected are thoughtful, small and funny in both senses of the word: odd and risible.-- Stefan Kanfer, "Of Cats, Myths and Pizza", Time, December 11, 1989
But Lionel . . . is not a risible character, even though he is often called "freakshow" and "crazyman."-- Adam Mazmanian, "Postmodern PI", Washington Post, November 7, 1999
Risible comes from Late Latin risibilis, from the past participle of Latin ridere, "to laugh, to laugh at." The noun form is risibility.