The early years.

This reminds me of another "note"book I had with a few friends. (Too many to name. You know who you are.) A spiral-bound, 150 sheet notebook that we passed between classes, during classes, after lunch, and afterschool in the carpool line. If you were lucky enough to take it overnight, you had the opportunity to cut out any and all images from teeny bopper magazines, rubber cement them all over the place and leave your personal stamp on history in the making. There were some days I prayed it would make it back around to my hands by 7th period so I could explain, "i haven't had a chance to write ALL period, because I was actually paying attention. i'll have it back in the cycle first thing tomorrow morning."

A true account of 7 or so teenage girls, these pages were filled with the good, the bad and the ugly. We knew everything..about almost everyone. And it was here that we spread the gossip and shared insight on the "how to's" of becoming a high schooler and the ultimate teenager. (I don't use the phrase "how to" lightly, we discussed EVERYTHING.) There were rules to follow, one of which included NEVER EVER IN A MILLION YEARS could we or would we sign our names to any of the pages. So, no matter what, we were in the clear. Right?

Nope. Totally wrong. Leave it to me to get caught for the entire scandal.

I remember it like it was yesterday. 5th period, Mrs. Stone's class, Algebra. I waited until she turned around to write something on the board, stretched my arm to the row of desks to my left, tapped AZ on the shoulder with the damn thing, waited a second, tapped again (AGAIN?!?), and right as AZ was turning around for the grab, my plan backfired. I'm pretty sure all teachers lived for catching us in mid pass. And, here it was. The biggest catch of them all.

To make a long story short, and skip all the horrid details of being humiliated in front of the entire class, my biggest crush included, here's how it went down. We were both escorted to the principal's office immediately where we had to explain - what it was, why we had it, who was involved, and why in the hell there was a "sex page." (Yes, we had a sex page. Don't ask. I'm still embarassed about that part.) After we gave the bare minimum without ratting out our friends- our parents were called and a few exerpts were read over the phone (Imagine having your principal read a note to your Dad that you wrote to your best friend about your first kiss. MORTIFYING.) It was at this point that I began planning my first adventure after being grounded for the following 6 months rest of my life.

Needless to say, every single skeleton was quickly escorted from the closet. My parents found out about the wine coolers we took from [Redacted's] parents, that one cigarette we smoked, between 12 people, at the Sugar Creek pool, [Redacted] and her secret relationship with a real bad boy, whose house was the easiest to sneak out of, and pretty much every other thing we did, wanted to do and would never do. Needless to say, the rest of that year and the years to follow turned out pretty awesome. Partially due to the open line of communication between the parentals and myself, and partially due to the fact that I was extra careful when passing the "note"book in the future.

Whaaat? You thought we wouldn't make another one the next week? Shame on you.