Friday Five: Go, Mustangs! Whatever.

Joe and I are going to see The Perks of Being a Wallflower on Saturday, mostly because we are both suckers for indie movies and I'm particularly in love with high school based outcast/underdog films, especially of the maybe gay/misfit/weirdo/too sophisticated for your age/wear black/read books/love theatre/uber-awkward variety. It feels so familiar to my high school experience. And when the underdog gets a new gang of friends or wins the girl or outwits the bully or finally gets that dramatic poem published in the literary journal (come on, literary magazines are the pinnacle for nerdy high school writers, at least they were for me) I feel a sense of all the wrongs being righted in my own high school history. It's silly. It's truth.

Which fits perfectly with the Friday Five for today. Today's questions from Friday Five are inspired by Perks. Just another charming excuse for me to delve into the treasure trove of my high school adventures, angst and mishaps. Heavy on the angst and mishaps. Which I've covered here, here, and here, oh and here, god and that prom post, how could I forget prom. I love writing about those messy, heartbreaking, crazy formative years. It makes me realize how far I've come from that nervous 15 year old, and still how shockingly close I am to her some days. So, class, here are today's questions....

1. What do you remember about high-school dances? 

Ok, for a longer post on high school dances, visit that prom link up there. It's a doozy. But the actual dances themselves I remember being quite boring and awkward. I don't think anyone cared about the dance itself. It was the lead up, the prep work, the anticipation, the Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine that we were excited about. The dances were usually set in the school commons area, streamers and balloons, bad DJs, dry humping on the dance floor, yeah, not great. But the dress shopping and accessories, the big hair and bigger make up, total fun. The getting felt up in the car on the way home, even more fun. I haven't made out in a car in ages. I might have to remedy that. 

2. At whose house would you and your friends usually gather after school-related activities? 

I didn't have one solid group of friends where we all piled over to someone's house everyday after school. I wasn't in a clique. I floated. I had a few close friends and my house was often the place where we hung out, my mom was nice and gone a lot (always a perk in high school.) Mostly I remember floating between theatre friends and a boyfriend or two, and older friends and forensic friends and writer friends. I didn't feel like I fit in anywhere exactly, but turns out, no one really felt like they did.

3. Who in your school had a memorable nickname? 

I cannot think of a single nickname. Not a one. I just don't remember details about little high school stuff like that, unless I sit down and start hashing it out with someone I went to high school with, or looking at my yearbooks. I got nothing on this one. Though I do remember this pep rally/contest thing we had one year, where the football jock guys competed to be "Mr. Mustang," complete with shirtless push ups and gyrating dance moves so risque that it made the local news from all the outraged parents who complained. So, Mr. Mustang is out there somewhere. Just don't ask me who it was. No idea. 

4. What was your high-school cafeteria like? 

Pretty much exactly like that cafeteria scene in Mean Girls. Though I never ate lunch in the bathroom, I wanted to some days.

5. Your parents aren’t reading this, so what were some of the crazy (or just memorable) things you or your friends did while driving? 

Smoking, shouting at boys in cars next to us, meeting strange college guys in parking lots, then following them to their nearly empty apartments to drink strawberry daquiries and cheap beer, blasting the stereos, driving with our knees, racing each other from red lights, and all that making out. So much making out.