It All Began in High School

Isn't that where all life began? Are not all the worlds only graduation caps that got stuck? Ok, so that's a little silly, but despite its utopian environment, life began the senior year of high school. It's when most people start making the big decisions for real rather than just dreaming about them. It's the time when you know you'll be an adult the following year and somewhere possibly far away from home. It's where life begins to lay itself out and everything you do affects everything from then on.

Seniors in high school don't realize this at all. Only after you become an adult in your 30's do you look to try and figure out where all this mess really started and you come up with high school. If only you'd done this or that back then, then things would have been different.

For me and The Queen, that's also where it all started. It's been almost fifteen years snce graduation, and truth be told, I'd heard her name as far back as sixth grade since we were both in band and in the same middle school (that would be sixth thru eighth grade). But it wasn't until we were halfway through our senior until I actually noticed her. And did I take notice!

What was it? I can't put my finger on it no matter how hard I try. She has a beautiful face, a very cheerful attitude, an awesome smile, a laugh to die for, and after I got to know her, her personality is incredible and her heart was so open that I can't help but wonder if she was just taking pity on me at the time (I was a bit pathetic). But once you start to talk to her, you find an intelligence that she works hard to hide, and beyond the hot body, I found that extremely attractive. It is a rare person that can keep up with me with I'm talking or theorizing, but she did it without any problem and continues to do so to this day. I've lost many people in my conversations, but I've never lost her (unless I'm just going off on tangents, which isn't her fault).

Anyway... back to the tale.

The Broken Arrow Pride was preparing to take a trip to Tempe, Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl Pageant of Bands and parade. At the time, I was completely obsessed with riding on the first bus. Something about always being first in line, I guess. Well, My friend at the time, a junior we'll call BG, wanted to get on the sixth bus to be with his latest flame, Rox. Now Rox was a friend of The Queen, so it was The Queen who let us know while we were signing up for a bus what they were on.

I insisted on being on one, so BG complied, even though he wanted to hang with Rox on six. He was always great that way, but he moped the whole time. Oh well.

The trip came and the bus ride to Tempe was all but uneventful in regards to The Queen and I. She had her entourage of friends and I had...well... I had associates more than I had friends. You have to understand what an introvert I was then and am now. It gets me into trouble because I don't talk to anyone. It makes The Queen crazy because I get very reclusive so very often.

When did I take notice? I can't really pinpoint it. I believe in the early part of the trip, BG was spending a lot of time in Rox's room, so I noticed The Queen. She was sweet; she was cute; and I just wanted to spend time with her. When BG began spending almost 100% of his time with Rox, The Queen had nothing better to do but to hang with others, and I got to the point where I was tagging along behind BG just to spend time with The Queen. Hence, almost 100% of her time was spent with me. I had no complaints.

It actually annoyed the crap out of BG at the time, but when I spoke to him some years later after the Queen and I were married, he had noticed that I seemed to like her. The Queen insists my bit that I liked her in high school was just a pick up line some four years later, but I promise it was true. It really was...

But that's how it started. She was fun to be with, and I was remarkably comfortable around her. Note that at that point in my life, I was the consummate geek. I had never so much as kissed a girl at that point and the closest I'd gotten to a relationship was two years before that also on the AZ trip, and she was a senior. But we had only spent time together. Hugs but no kisses.

What stood in the way? According to the Queen, absolutely nothing. She maintains to this day that if I had asked at the time, we might have ended up together right out of high school. I, on the other hand, saw an obstacle. And we'll call him what I call him to this day. He is not a druggie, but just a play on his name: Crackhead.