Old Friends

13023I went to public school all of my life except for one year. Eighth grade. We moved into a huge old house we got for cheap because it was in various states of disrepair. It was on the other side of town from my old school, so we went to new ones.Mom hated the public school there, so she sent me to John XXIII Catholic school (yeah, I was a catholic schoolgirl) for a year. As per normal, I was the outcast there. I wore glasses, I wasn’t raised with them. I wore shorts under my skirt because the boys had a habit of flipping up unwary hems as the wearer walked past. Most of all, I wasn’t catholic. Despite this, I loved my time there, mostly because of just one person. Sarah Taylor. You couldn’t pick two people more different, but she and I latched onto each other like we’d been friends all of our lives. We looked different, we talked different, came from different backgrounds, and yet that one year of school was better than any before or since because of her.

13029Sarah and I were joined at the hip for most of the year. We even once made a vow to each other to tell each other about our first times (sex, people) before we told anyone else. We played pranks on each other, and even on her poor mother. We hung out with a few other people the majority for that time too. Tara Cain was another good friend who was sort-of dating a guy named Adam. Sarah was sort-of dating a guy named Jason, and I was sort-of dating a guy named Chris Sauter. It was a big happy group. I can’t even remember when or how I met all of these people, but it was a great year. At the end of that year, my family moved to Georgia despite my tears and promises to run away. I kept in touch with Sarah and Chris for a while, but both will tell you how awful of a letter writer I am. Chris and I carried on a somewhat long distance relationship for a while, but when you’re 14, distance is a killer. I lost touch with both of them over the years. Sarah found me about 6 years ago, and again, I lost touch somehow.

I found her again thanks to (lame) classmates.com. I jumped on after a year of not being on and found her. She’s gotten married and changed her last name. She’s even had a baby! After doing a little research on her with her new last name, I found her phone number and gave her a call two days ago. I got the machine the first time I called, and attempted ot leave a message, but the machine cut me off, so i called back. Sarah: Hello? Me: “Is this Sarah Taylor?” Sarah: “I was…” Me: “This is Heather Lickliter…” Sarah: “OH MY GOD!!!!” There was much hooting and hollering on both ends of the line, and I chatted with her for about an hour. She’s married to a great guy named Steve and after 5 years of trying they just had their first child Roger about 6 months ago. Durring that chat, a bit of her younger self came through, and I realized that she’s just as weird now as she was then. Me too, for that matter. John’s as weird as me, so i wonder if Steve is (or knows) as weird as she is. 🙂 She told me that Chris is married and living in Phoenix, AZ with his wife and twin daughters, and I found his phone number too. I haven’t called him, and I’m not sure I will. It might be a little too weird hearing from your eight grade pseudo-girlfriend with your family around you. I’ll have to ask Sarah what she thinks, since she’s the one who has kept up with him.