It was our sophomore year of high school and my first year in marching band. I'd really wanted to be in marching band, but I didn't play a band instrument as a freshman and didn't get on board to try out for the flag team in time.
The stars shined upon me, however, when our band director decided he wanted some "banner girls". You know those people that walk in front of the band during parades carrying the banner with the school's name? Well, our band director decided to dress that idea up a bit and have banner girls that did stuff. As such, each of us girls had our own letter sign that spelled out the school name on one side and the name of our school mascot on the other. Clearly, it was good prep for my illustrious career as a crossing guard.
I'm the one with the nice "A" 😉. We were The Miners, hence the hard hats...
Because the stars shined upon me again when our band was invited to the Portland Rose Festival in Portland, OR that would take place in the spring. In the interim between marching season and the Portland trip, a certain flag girl became "with child". Actually, a couple of them did!
With those sperms burrowing into those eggs, another banner girl and I were promoted to the flag line! My dream! Yay! Except...
I needed to learn how to BE a flag girl, and I needed to learn quickly. A minor detail.
Our band director assigned Paula to be my flag tutor. I'm not sure why he chose Paula, she wasn't a captain or even a senior. I assume it was because she was also a sophomore, and she'd been in flag since we were freshmen. She and I arranged for my first session of flag girl crash course.
I was excited to get started and played clumsily with my practice flag until Paula showed up. When she did, it was all business.
She showed me several compulsory moves and had me repeat them all until I had them down. All the while, her face was a stone. She almost seemed bored, but at the same time, she seemed happy that I didn't know a darn thing. I knew she liked being a flag girl and was good at it, and it was me she didn't like.
But I was motivated, and Paula was a great coach. I soon had the moves down, so she started to teach me a whole routine for a song. I was having fun despite her coldness, and somewhere during that first session, she couldn't help herself from having fun too.
I don't know how many more one-to-one sessions we had, but we soon became good friends. We went to Portland with the band and rocked the house. By the time we were seniors, Paula and I were co-captains of the flag team, and our school's band was kickass.
But Paula and I became more than just teammates. She eventually confessed that she did not like me before she knew me - chyaah, I already knew that!
I actually had a diverse set of friends during high school, and as such, I didn't really belong to any specific clique. You could say I was popular in a big-fish-in-a-small-pond kind of way. I was a rah-rah, joining every sport and club and holding every office. Paula was not in that crowd. But she was an excellent flag girl and student editor of the yearbook, another thing in which she and I were in cahoots.
She told me she didn't like me at first because she'd assumed I was conceited from being such a rah-rah and didn't care for "her kind". But when she showed up to teach me flag, I was... not. Well, crap. I wondered if I gave off some conceited vibe? Either way, I'm thankful to our band director for sparking such a close friendship.
Like I said, I had several good friends in high school, but I think I can honestly say that Paula was a friend with whom I was most intimate - and I don't mean THAT! Get your minds out of the gutter. We just shared a lot of things that we didn't share with other people. I was also very close with Ingrid, but I've already written about good ol' Ingrid.
I remember one night after my boyfriend went a little off the deep end, and I found myself sitting in an ER while he was being attended to (a whole 'nother story I might blog someday, but don't hold your breath). It was late at night, and I was pondering my options for getting my sorry self home.
The automatic door to the ER slid open, and there was Paula. A sight for sore eyes... but not necessarily a surprise.
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Hooking up with Mama Kat this week for the prompt:
1. Tell us about the moment you met your high school best friend.
10 comments:
You were popular in school :)
Have no idea what rah-rah is, (Is it the same as the rah-rah in Lady Gaga's bad Romance?
Some people have their first impression imprinted about us, and usually negative.
I never had friends in school, maybe because I was violently cruel and a teacher's pet.
That is an interesting story that we all should take a lesson - never judge or try not too. It can be for a varied reason someone might seem they act one way and they really are not. Glad you made friends!!
Sandie
I think that's the way a lot of folks become friends in high school: they get thrown together and have to sort things out. I love the story at the end, not that your boyfriend ended up in the ER but that Paula was there for you. In the end, that's all that matters.
I wonder how many lifelong friendships begin with not liking each other. Girls who are too pretty and happy are easy to hate. lol. They're annoying. You just assume they are snotty and have it all together...probably more a reflection of the hater than of the hated. Leave it a marching band and a teen pregnancy would save your friendship!
What a great story Abby! I love Paula.
Funny how we assume things of other isn't it? I was the rah-rah girl too. (cheerleader tho) and I would hear that all the time. Guys would say they didn't ask me out because of being popular or figuring I was always on dates. In the meantime I was sitting at home wondering why I wasn't asked out.
Interesting story -- one of my good friends admitted years later that she thought I was a snob when we first met. I guess so many possible friendships are dashed by first impressions. I lIked your nice A joke, ha ha.
I had a girl who later became my friend tell me she assumed when she first met me that I was "conceited." I think it was a misread on my being an intervert. To survive, Id developed a self-reliant kind of self-assurance, which I guess could be misinterpreted.
I guess I was on the judging side back then, and have to admit that extra peppy people filled me with suspicion. Why were they so happy all the time? Why did they expect me to be peppy too? And on the flip side of that, I felt judged by them. Ah yes, teenagers. I am SO glad I'm not one of them! And for all of that, I pretty much got along with everybody, just not peppily.
Such a great story. :)
I loved my flag days. I can’t remember how I got involved, though. I’m sure I had to have been recruited by someone, because I was too shy to try out on my own. It was the first time I felt comfortable with a group of people, and I made some really good friends.
Do you still keep in touch with Paula?
I honestly don't remember the details of how I became a banner girl, but I definitely remember the pregnant flag girls!
Paula and I are friends on facebook, and sadly, that's about it. Neither of us uses facebook much. We were much better at keeping in touch back in the old days through snail mail. She actually doesn't live that far from me, we need to hook up!
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