Day 39 - The Heathers

My first class the first day in a high school where I only knew band kids and I met them just weeks earlier was Integrated Physics and Chemistry. I was retaking it because my middle school called it something different. There were no band kids in this class and I was flanked by Heathers. I'm not being clever. There was a blond Heather to my left and a blonder Heather to my right and of course they were friends. They were awful, mean-spirited girls who gossiped, made fun of everyone loudly and copied off of me.

During that first class, I was thinking how the move to Texas was a terrible mistake and the nice kids in band were a fluke not to be repeated. Heather on the left was talking about softball try-outs and how she was sure she, Jennifer, Lauren, Becky and Megan were going to make it, but hoped Rachel didn't. "Rachel's a bitch and the girls from Bammel Junior High are sluts, dontcha think?" Heather on the right was listing off the parties she had gone to that summer, the guys who had been there and the unbelievably lame girls who tried to go. "I mean, they didn't even bring their own drinks!"

I had been considering trying out for softball and had even considered having a social life up until those first five minutes.

The Heathers influenced my first year more than I'd like to admit. The initial shock wore off, but I never tried-out for softball, and I avoided the party people like the plague. On the plus side, I became really good at the under-handed snide come-back and covering my answers.