…maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all.
This weekend I got a letter from my most excellent friend Kati. She lives in Germany. She goes to University, is very smart, is very cute, has an adorable little flat of her very own and happens to have two of the most awesomely amazing parents you will ever encounter.
Kati and I met in high school. She had come to America as part of an exchange program. Now, my karma must have been really well balanced that first semester of my senior year because Kati wound up being scheduled into my second period ‘health occupations’ class. I’m telling you, this was fate at its finest. I was attempting to keep my head above water in my first period German language class (okay, so I was actually doing really well in the class…heck, I got an A) and who should sit down beside me but a native! I was determined to make a new foreign friend so I introduced myself by way of demanding assistance with my homework (smooth, I know). We got along really well and at the end of the class she asked me for directions to the chorus room…to which I was heading too. See what I mean? FATE!
The long and the short of things is that we became really great friends and had some amazingly fun times.
And we managed to get into some semi-serious trouble too, and this is that story.
The Big Oops!
Or
In-school Suspension: It’s not just for slackers!
While Kati was in America she was living with a ‘host family,’ an individual or family who agrees to have an exchange student stay with them and act as that student’s guardian while they are in the states. (This is totally something I would do once my kids got to be high school age.) Kati’s host parent was a woman named…well…we’ll just call her ‘E’ (like Evil), who had agreed to have two students staying with her. As the school year came slowly to a close (and as I neared graduation) it became very clear that the situation with Kati’s host parent was falling into rapid decline. ‘E’ had some family issues that were affecting the way she dealt with her visiting students and things just kept getting more and more stressful for Kati.
Seeing my new friend so miserable really tore at my heartstrings so I rallied the troops (the rest of my clique…of which I was the ring leader) and asked for ideas. We spent hours and hours and hours at the mall just walking and window shopping, we drove around the county burning gallons of fantastically cheap gas (it was like $1.50 back then!!!), we went to the movies, went out to eat, and laid around at my parent’s house. We did everything we could think of to try and keep our friend from feeling blue.
But there came a day when dear Kati was having a particularly horrible time of things. For some reason (it’s been ten years and I’m a little fuzzy on details) we ran into each other on the bleachers above the football field and it only took about six seconds for Kati to burst into tears and pour her heart out.
Now, what you have to understand is that this event took place on a day much like today. It was late in May (about two weeks from graduation) and it was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining, it was warm but not hot, the sky was blue and cloudless, the grass was green and because I was a senior in my final semester of school I got to leave campus every day at 1:30 PM.
Well, I decided then and there that Kati had clearly had enough for the day. So we marched inside, collected her things, wandered up to the office to call the evil ‘E’ (as this was in the days before every teenager had a cell phone) and checked Kati out of school. We climbed into my buddy Vanessa’s truck and took off toward the mall where we had a late lunch, went shopping, and had a really great afternoon.
Then we took Kati home, and the evil ‘E’ was waiting for us…rather like an overgrown spider. The end result (I’m leaving out a lot of nasty bits and yelling here) is that ‘E’ was super duper mega mad. We were, to use a phrase from the linguistic code of my high school clique, ‘funky busted.’
The wrath of the evil ‘E’ was swift and mighty, but would be somewhat defused by the honesty of those involved. The next morning found both Kati and myself voluntarily confessing our abuse of the system to the school guidance counselor who, despite having to maintain school system disciplinary regulations, was actually very sympathetic to our case. She understood exactly what Kati had been going through, understood where I was coming from and chose to support us in the pending personal PR disasters we were both facing.
During the course of the morning Kati and I shuffled from authority figure to authority figure explaining exactly what we had done and why. They would ask Kati a few questions and then look to me for the full story, and no matter how many times I had to repeat our exploits I would always end with the statement: “And I would do it again in a heartbeat.” It was simple enough to understand really. My friend had needed me and I was there for her.
The verdict was handed down (much to the consternation of the evil ‘E’ who seemed to feel that only I should have been punished but hey, Kati went along with it and fair is fair…) and we were both given a day of in-school suspension. And I have a feeling that I’m still the only student on record who was actually apologized to by the principal, the vice principals, and the guidance counselors while being given the form for the day of in-school. I was later told (by a vice principal) that they didn’t want to punish me at all, but that the evil ‘E’ was threatening to press kidnapping charges so they did it to calm her down. Rather nice of them, don’t you think?
Anyway! The next day dawned clear and sunny and when the first bell rang I made my way into the quiet, windowless class room in the corner of the gym. Sort of like the room in the picture…but a lot less ‘homey.’
This weekend I got a letter from my most excellent friend Kati. She lives in Germany. She goes to University, is very smart, is very cute, has an adorable little flat of her very own and happens to have two of the most awesomely amazing parents you will ever encounter.
Kati and I met in high school. She had come to America as part of an exchange program. Now, my karma must have been really well balanced that first semester of my senior year because Kati wound up being scheduled into my second period ‘health occupations’ class. I’m telling you, this was fate at its finest. I was attempting to keep my head above water in my first period German language class (okay, so I was actually doing really well in the class…heck, I got an A) and who should sit down beside me but a native! I was determined to make a new foreign friend so I introduced myself by way of demanding assistance with my homework (smooth, I know). We got along really well and at the end of the class she asked me for directions to the chorus room…to which I was heading too. See what I mean? FATE!
The long and the short of things is that we became really great friends and had some amazingly fun times.
And we managed to get into some semi-serious trouble too, and this is that story.
The Big Oops!
Or
In-school Suspension: It’s not just for slackers!
While Kati was in America she was living with a ‘host family,’ an individual or family who agrees to have an exchange student stay with them and act as that student’s guardian while they are in the states. (This is totally something I would do once my kids got to be high school age.) Kati’s host parent was a woman named…well…we’ll just call her ‘E’ (like Evil), who had agreed to have two students staying with her. As the school year came slowly to a close (and as I neared graduation) it became very clear that the situation with Kati’s host parent was falling into rapid decline. ‘E’ had some family issues that were affecting the way she dealt with her visiting students and things just kept getting more and more stressful for Kati.
Seeing my new friend so miserable really tore at my heartstrings so I rallied the troops (the rest of my clique…of which I was the ring leader) and asked for ideas. We spent hours and hours and hours at the mall just walking and window shopping, we drove around the county burning gallons of fantastically cheap gas (it was like $1.50 back then!!!), we went to the movies, went out to eat, and laid around at my parent’s house. We did everything we could think of to try and keep our friend from feeling blue.
But there came a day when dear Kati was having a particularly horrible time of things. For some reason (it’s been ten years and I’m a little fuzzy on details) we ran into each other on the bleachers above the football field and it only took about six seconds for Kati to burst into tears and pour her heart out.
Now, what you have to understand is that this event took place on a day much like today. It was late in May (about two weeks from graduation) and it was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining, it was warm but not hot, the sky was blue and cloudless, the grass was green and because I was a senior in my final semester of school I got to leave campus every day at 1:30 PM.
Well, I decided then and there that Kati had clearly had enough for the day. So we marched inside, collected her things, wandered up to the office to call the evil ‘E’ (as this was in the days before every teenager had a cell phone) and checked Kati out of school. We climbed into my buddy Vanessa’s truck and took off toward the mall where we had a late lunch, went shopping, and had a really great afternoon.
Then we took Kati home, and the evil ‘E’ was waiting for us…rather like an overgrown spider. The end result (I’m leaving out a lot of nasty bits and yelling here) is that ‘E’ was super duper mega mad. We were, to use a phrase from the linguistic code of my high school clique, ‘funky busted.’
The wrath of the evil ‘E’ was swift and mighty, but would be somewhat defused by the honesty of those involved. The next morning found both Kati and myself voluntarily confessing our abuse of the system to the school guidance counselor who, despite having to maintain school system disciplinary regulations, was actually very sympathetic to our case. She understood exactly what Kati had been going through, understood where I was coming from and chose to support us in the pending personal PR disasters we were both facing.
During the course of the morning Kati and I shuffled from authority figure to authority figure explaining exactly what we had done and why. They would ask Kati a few questions and then look to me for the full story, and no matter how many times I had to repeat our exploits I would always end with the statement: “And I would do it again in a heartbeat.” It was simple enough to understand really. My friend had needed me and I was there for her.
The verdict was handed down (much to the consternation of the evil ‘E’ who seemed to feel that only I should have been punished but hey, Kati went along with it and fair is fair…) and we were both given a day of in-school suspension. And I have a feeling that I’m still the only student on record who was actually apologized to by the principal, the vice principals, and the guidance counselors while being given the form for the day of in-school. I was later told (by a vice principal) that they didn’t want to punish me at all, but that the evil ‘E’ was threatening to press kidnapping charges so they did it to calm her down. Rather nice of them, don’t you think?
Anyway! The next day dawned clear and sunny and when the first bell rang I made my way into the quiet, windowless class room in the corner of the gym. Sort of like the room in the picture…but a lot less ‘homey.’
I was greeted by a rather jovial assistant coach who said something to the extent of ‘gosh, I never thought I’d see you here,’ and was shown to a seat on the far side of the room. The day was a quiet one since I had explained my impending punishment to my teachers the day before and none of them had sent any work for me to do. (I was really well liked.) At some point the coach asked if there was anything he could get me and I jokingly suggested that I wouldn’t mind having a Coke and the new issue of Cosmo. Fifteen minutes later I had both, courtesy of the coach. I relaxed and read my magazine while waiting for the morning to pass.We were marched down to the lunch room in a single file line at around 11:30 AM. While sitting at the table (not eating …because school food = are you kidding!) I noticed that the administrators were all having lunch in the staff area of the cafeteria. They wandered past and paused to ask me how my day was going. We chatted for a few minutes and during the conversation I asked if I would still be allowed to leave at 1:30 PM as usual. I was told that it shouldn’t be a problem.
We rambled back to the little cold room above the gym just before the first lunch bell for the rest of the school rang and resumed our seats, facing the white painted concrete block walls. Two hours later I was dismissed and handed over my Cosmo to Kati on my way out the door. She was looking pale and scared but I gave her a smile and that seemed to cheer her up. (The coach also asked if I would autograph the wall to commemorate my stay but I politely declined my shot at high school immortality.) Since all my friends were already gone for the day I wander to my dad’s classroom and asked to borrow his car. He tossed me the keys (in front of a room full of juniors and seniors who all knew me and for some strange reason looked stunned) and told me to be back to pick him up at around 4:00 PM.
Kati and I chatted the next day in class and agreed that things could have been a lot worse. Apparently the evil ‘E’ had forbidden Kati from hanging out with, talking to, or phoning me. But since we spent the entire day at school together it really wasn’t that much of an issue. Kati talked to the exchange organization and managed to find a new host family (who were and are very friendly and awesome people). So with as bad as things had been they turned around to become even better than she could have imagined.
And Kati, if you’re reading this, just know that “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
2 comments:
That is the most awesom-est thing I have read all day. You guys rock! : )
I was indeed reading it and yes, I´d do it again in a heartbeat as well! Thanks for your help back then. I don´t know if I had survived that year without you!
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