Dating in High School




The actual pic Mike had in his wallet.  Do kids even give pictures anymore. 
( Also, am I old because I asked what the kids do..??)

 Every once in awhile I will hear a song that will transport me back to those times. I know, you are probably imagining something like Britney Spears or N’Sync (If you think the latter, we are not friends. Those who know me know I swear allegiance to BSB. If you still don’t know what I am talking about.. stop reading now.) Alas, it was not bubble gum pop that brings me back to those moments of over powering Coconut scented car trees, Jungle Juice, Sun In (Oh the perils of my past love/hate relationship with thee), and wearing skirts I’m sure are too small even for Annabelle.



Nope, it’s the words of 2Pac, old school Jay Z and Snoop Dogg. My hockey playing boyfriend, and his friends that were jammed in his ’88 Accord would pull in front of my house windows down, rap blasting as I ran out of the house to be smushed in between, or on top of his friends, reminding me the skirt was probably not the best choice.

Ok, now press play, then come back and keep reading.  Now you have the soundtrack..

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.



The very first time I met Mike he was standing at the end of the hallway and he was laughing. If you’ve met Mike you know he has dimples and a smile with straight, (and now I hear expensive) beautiful teeth. I was new to the school, and my friend was pointing out all the cutest boys. I thought he was cute, but this was all in one overly pierced ear and out the other. I was still travelling back to my home town to hang out with my old friends, and of course, a different boy.



I finally had to stop the frequent bus trips (I can’t even imagine teenagers on busses these days.. do they exist? ) when cheerleading started up and we had to start cheering Friday night football games and my parents started suggesting I make friends within 100 miles. Every Friday night, the cheerleaders and football players would take the field while the rest of the school was drunk, in the stands having what looked to be a lot more fun than the sober behavior required while stunting. We cheered and led the drunk crowd in rousing renditions of “We Got Spirit”, and I watched my best friend flirting with hockey boys in the stands, as I got to look at the back of the football players wishing high school players didn’t have to wear tailbone pads. It was NOT the 90’s teen movie I had envisioned.



It didn’t take long for an arranged relationship, if you will, between myself, and the Captain, and quarterback of the football team. It would seem the rest of the school felt we were an obvious match. Apparently, they had been watching the same movies I had. It was an awkward meeting at an after party one night when I got introduced to the boy everyone else thought I should be dating.



In the debriefing that always takes place between two high school girls after an sort of interaction with boys, I told my best friend that he was cute, but wasn’t sure he was my type.



The next Friday my friend was determined that she was going to hang out with the hockey guys after the game. I told her I would meet up after my cheer duties were concluded, and I met up with the group in a parking lot. See kids, that’s where we partied in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Parking lots, empty fields, and whatever idiot decided to host a high school party at their house. Anyways, I showed up to find my friend trying to her best to win the affections of the same hockey guy she had pointed out to me at school.. Mike. I could see he wasn’t really interested, but suddenly his friend was interested in me, and as a good friend, I agreed to go with them to grab a bite to eat.



The second thing I noticed about Mike was that he ate.. a lot. Not quickly, not shoveling, but with a slow and steady pace that was frankly, astonishing. He really still had zero interest in my friend, and the ginger that had eyes on me started to creep me out. The rest of the guys were loud and telling stories, while Mike sat back and watched, the ginger kept trying to touch me, and my friend tried harder and harder to be noticed. I just wanted to go home.



The next weekend was a long weekend, so I hopped back on that bus and headed home to see old friends, and as always, wanted to meet up with the boy I thought was still pretty awesome. I did, we all went out (again it was parties in parking lots and fields.. and a lot of driving around) and I looked at the boy I was sure was perfect in all ways and realized he was sorta dumb. And not as cute as I remembered.



But you know who I did start thinking about…



Meanwhile, my sweet friend was so excited to get another invite to hang out with the hockey boys. She showed up and was more than a little sad when Mike leaned into the car full of girls and asked where I was.



We made a game time decision the next day. A trade, straight across. I got the rights to ‘like’ Mike, while she got the go ahead to pursue my betrothed Quarterback with whom I was very certain I didn’t want to date. (And they say girls know nothing about sports… )



Before long I was looking for Mike in the crowd of drunk hockey players watching the football game, meeting up in between classes, and calling his house terrified his sister would pick up.



And here’s where I started the story. An old car, a bunch of white hockey players cranking up the music, and one blonde cheerleader, in a short skirt falling in love to the soundtrack of gangster rap.



Of course I turned up Spice Girls, Britney, and BSB as soon as I walked in the house and picked up the phone to tell my best friend Every. Single. Detail.




Look.  At.  That.  Skirt.  (And the Sun In.. ALWAYS the Sun In.)




Mike's Grad... I had to crop it because obvioulsy no one else in this pic is still together.

I'm so glad to have these memories.. and it wasn't all bubblegum and lip gloss.  Ok, a lot of it was, but we did some dumb stuff we did to eachother, and there were moments when I cried thinking he was going to just be 'some old highschool boyfriend' so it's honestly so cool to think that we made it to the other side of 'high school sweethearts'.