teaser

That is a photo of "the Claw" - downtown.

I have a difficult jump to make ahead. I've gotten us through my freshman year but the story I want to tell, the real story doesn't happen until the middle of my senior year. There aren't a lot of really juicy stories beyond the ones I've told so far to jump us there so I have to just paint you a picture of what happened sophomore and junior year.

Basically I take those years to establish myself as the single most powerful person in the entire school. The student body president? Well yes, I was the student body president but being the student body president doesn't really mean that you are the most powerful person in the entire school. I was something much greater, much more important, much more lauded after and clamored for - the Homecoming Queen.

Now of course, we have to put things into perspective here. This is probably the most perfect example of big fish small pond ever. This is - "the Claw" we are talking about. Who the fuck wants to be the Queen of "the Claw"? Well a lot of people actually. I suppose at some schools being the homecoming queen is not such a big deal but at EHS it was a huge deal, big drawn out deal.

I don't think I'll tell the homecoming story just yet though, this is just a teaser entry, an entry of what's to come. I think that I should probably mention my cheerleading days first. Maybe it sounds boring but it's important to mention, so that you can get a full picture of who I was when the shit went down. I was the cheerleading homecoming queen student body president after all.

More than anything I wanted to be a cheerleader. MORE THAN ANYTHING. I freaking dreamed about it, obsessed about it. I was convinced that being a cheerleader was the key to all things cool. And I was right.. Cheerleading isn't really cool at all High Schools but at EHS it was. There wasn't a JV squad and a Varsity squad there was just one squad - ten lucky ladies. Also, there wasn't a dance team. We did dances too, really awesome dances. I loved being a cheerleader so much. It was my life, my identity. It was a little sad.

I didn't make the team the first tryout. I tried out three times before I made it. There were two separate tryouts each year - one for fall sports (aka football) and one for winter (aka basketball & wrestling). I made it onto the team for winter sports my sophomore year. I cheered that year and also for Fall and Spring my Junior year. I practiced like a maniac, went through two trials of rejection and finally I made my mom drive me an hour out of town to take private gymnastics classes twice a week so that I could learn how to do a back handspring. Most of the girls could do flips and stuff and I couldn't so I figured if I could learn how to flip, I could make it in.

It worked. I could only do one back handspring though and it wasn't very good. I was always terrified that I would land on my head and then I actually did fall on my head. I had learned how to do them too late. You have to learn how to do that kind of shit when you're a kid and you have no concept of gravity. It seems perfectly natural to be able to bounce your feet against the ground, sail into the air and flip your body upside down and land on your feet again no problem. But when you're a little older, the fear sets in. You know that if you fall it will hurt. So I was always scared and one time at a pep assembly, I tried to do two back handsprings and I fell on my head and knocked myself out in front of the entire school. I couln't do them after that but it didn't matter, I was already in.

I have to tell you all that this story is boring the hell out of me because it's not even really a story. I apologise. I'm going to go get through some of my work here and then try and come back to this this afternoon... xo, la ketch.