While working at one of my substitute teaching jobs, I had cafeteria duty. I watched the kids doing the high school thing…boys being stupid. Girls being catty. Boys and girls flirting. Etc. Etc.

I remarked to the teacher I was on duty with that, “You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to high school.”

“Really?” he said. “I’d go back in a minute.”

I smiled politely and ended the conversation.

I didn’t have a horrible high school experience, I suppose. It was pretty much normal. Well, there was the emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend who consumed the better part of it. There were nasty girls in the class above mine who wanted me dead. Well, maybe not dead, but definitely suffering…and suffer I did. I shed a LOT of tears my junior year.

I was reading a recent post over at Stephanie’s blog about prom that got me to thinking about those girls.

See, I was on the cheerleading squad. My mom was advisor to the junior high cheerleaders, and acted as a judge during tryout time. Near the end of my sophomore year, tryouts were held for the varsity squad. A group of these girls, who would be seniors in the fall, were trying out. They hated me. Loathed me. Despised me. But, knowing that my mom would be (partially) holding their little cheerleaderly fates in her hands, they put on a good face.

Not that I didn’t know better. Mostly.

See, I was naive enough to believe that one of these girls (Micky) could be trusted. I thought that we were, in some small way, friends.

A group of these girls had a class with Stephanie. She overheard them talking shit about me one day, and told me. I made the mistake of thinking I could trust Micky and asked her about what was said. (You know, I don’t even remember what it was that was said…) I thought that it was in confidence. I didn’t think she’d tell anyome.

Micky, of course, told them all.

The next day, Holly (the most dramatic of all drama queens) came up to me all weepy and apologetic.

“I don’t know what you heard, but I would never say those things about you.”

Or something like that.

Meh. Whatever.

I felt terrible about this. Horrible. Steph, if I never apologized for being such an idiot, I’m sorry!

And like I said, you couldn’t pay me enough to go back to high school…