The Cliques

My high school classmates, like the stereotypical students from The Breakfast Club, fell into several groups, types, or whatever you want to call the students who gravitated to each other for whatever reason. Each group had its leaders and those leaders kept the groups together.

There was a group of audio/electronics/photography geeks who were fascinated by the workings of different types of speakers, sound boards, video cameras, etc. They were the ones who ran the announcements, took photos for the newspaper, and videoed all of the school's events. They knew every nook and cranny of the school and were known to play practical jokes with the school's PA system.

The drama kids were their friends, as they often hung out in the auditorium together for school plays and concerts. The drama kids lived in the bowels of the auditorium. They knew every hiding place to make out...and they did. Stories of secret trysts leaked out every time a play was in production.

Jocks, both male and female, were always in the gym and locker rooms after school and during study halls if they could get passes. I was a jock, plain and simple. It was thrilling to throw around a basketball instead of having to be quiet in study hall. My friend Marilyn and I would go to the gym whenever we could. It was a great place to check out the guys, who were very often shirtless, and admire the views. To see and be seen...that was the objective.

The cheerleaders were another clique. They were always practicing in the hallways in cold weather and outside in the grassy areas around the school in nice weather. They stuck together like glue and always went to the girls' rooms en masse, reciting the latest cheers and singing bawdy songs. Practice, practice, practice...check the make-up and hair! Must be perfect! I was actually a cheerleader my junior year...probably the most unpopular cheerleader of all time...who never ever had a date.

The jokers...practical and otherwise...were always plotting some new prank. My favorite prank was when someone let 2 chickens loose in the school lobby. My friend Marilyn and I were on our way to the gym when we spotted them. Suddenly, the vice principal, who was pretty wimpy, ran out of the office and tried to catch them. They squawked and ran all around, too fast for the short VP, eluding capture. At that moment, the door to the girls' locker room opened and the 6 ft tall girls' gym teacher strode out, reached out for the chickens, and one at a time shoved them out the lobby door. It was one of the funniest things I had seen in my high school career!

Lastly, the nerdy, engineering/math/science geeky kids...the guys with pocket protectors and pens and the girls who didn't care as much about their appearance as much as they cared about trying for med school. Despite their appearances, they were some of the funniest kids because they knew how to laugh at themselves. Their intelligence made them natural comedians and I was a proud member of this group. I never thought of myself as funny but somehow my brains helped get me into this group. We have all been successful since then...some of us became engineers, some are IT gurus, and some of us became research scientists.

Despite snail mail and phones for communication over the years, we are now beginning to reconnect through Facebook...and finding out that we are those same kids all over again.