9th Grade – Memory #2

No daily delight today, but I was reminded of something hilarious.

As is normal during the holidays in a small town, I saw several people I haven’t seen in a while. And I was explaining to a friend’s new girl friend that yes, I knew her boyfriend and friends from high school, but really, didn’t know them until college. And without missing a beat, her boyfriend says, No we’ve been online buddies since 9th grade. And suddenly, something I hadn’t thought of in practically a decade came rushing back to me.

I slapped my hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh. And nodded my head to let him know I remembered. See, back in 9th grade, I was advanced in the online world – I had been building webpages and IRC chatting for a few years by then – and so when everyone in my school found AOL/AIM, I naturally, went along with it to test the waters. I chatted up a lot of people under various aliases just because I was curious what they had to say, what secrets they would tell, who they were when they didn’t think anyone was looking.

I chatted up T even though I really didn’t know him (we went to different middle schools), and nothing too exciting or embarrassing happened in our conversation. In fact, he made a good impression on me, he said something about how he’d much rather have his grandparents around rather than have their money – don’t ask me how this topic came up. Goodness, I might even still have the transcripts from our conversation. Note to self: check old computer.

But the really funny part to this story, was while we were chatting, I’d give him clues to who I was but never actually reveal it. And I told him that we had a class together, maybe I even specified which one – social studies or american history or global history or something like that. And the next day in the middle of that class, he just stood up. I mean the teacher is at the front of the classroom lecturing about one country invading another, and T just stands up and starts scanning everyone in the class.

I was sitting next to my then-best friend and she knew what I had been doing to him, so we had to do everything possible to not completely lose it. Because it was the funniest thing ever – him just standing there looking over everyone, actually turning left to right – to the point where the teacher stopped and asked him if he had a problem/needed something. It was just hilarious, in that silly, giddy-secrets-girl kind of way.

I’m super glad I saw T tonight and was reminded of this.