Slugger

33: Middle School Reunion

A few weeks later, Nicole and Stacy appear at my door with backpacks slung over their shoulders and plastic carrier bags filled with what looks to be snacks. I rub my eyes (it's just past eight pm and I was getting ready to go to bed (yes, I am an old woman)) and let them in.

"Nicole? Stacy?" My mom says, wandering to the foyer. Then she puts her hands on the hips of her forest green Hilary Clinton pantsuit and side eyes me. "Kennedy, when was this sleepover decided?"

"Surprise, Tina!" Nicole yells and then reveals a box of the chocolate fudge Pop Tarts. My mom gasps and takes it from her. "We came to shower you all in gifts and disturb the peace."

Mom grins. "It's always a pleasure to have you here, girls."

She ignores the look of disbelief on my face and shimmies towards the kitchen. Tired and a little jealous, I gesture for the girls to go to my room.

"So what's the occasion?" I ask as they settle on my bed. Stacy pours the contents of her carrier bag in front of her and squeals.

"Didn't Tyler tell you? We're having a middle school reunion!" She says.

As if on cue, Tyler comes into my room wearing his oversized Ninja Turtles shirt and flip flops. He's whistling and carrying his own carrier bag of snacks and his camera. "Howdy girls! So what's on the agenda?"

I realise that I have an odd friendship unit when Nicole unfolds a sheet of paper labelled Itinerary. Perhaps I'm the only normal out of all of them.

"First we're going to play our favourite songs from middle school." She reads off slowly. "Then we're going to talk about an embarrassing story – all of this while eating our favourite snacks! And lastly, we're going to look at our yearbooks and watch the Lizzie McGuire movie!"

"Why the Lizzie McGuire movie? It came out when we were like... eight."

"Because even though we were eight, it was still our favourite movie in middle school!" Tyler declares.

Fair enough. I look to Stacy who is currently stuffing her face with peanut M&M's and raise my eyebrows: she hates it when we reminisce about middle school so I wonder how they convinced her to join in on this.

She catches me staring and swallows. "What?"

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" I ask. "You normally hate our middle school talk."

Stacy shrugs. "Ty promised me that we would see embarrassing photos of y'all so I thought it'd be fun to join in. Besides, I wanna see Wayne in middle school."

Nicole passes me some twizzlers. "You've never seen him before?"

"Nah, he always hid his pictures. Said he was too afraid of me seeing them. But anyway! What's everyone's favourite middle school song?"

Tyler leaves the room briefly and comes back in with his laptop. He connects his iTunes to my speaker and starts playing what sounds like a throwback playlist, starting with Estelle's American Boy. I start having flashbacks to when I used to stand at the back by the punch at all those awkward dances that Nicole and my mom made me attend in middle school.

"Do you guys remember High School Musical?" Stacy asks. "Apparently it came out in 2005!"

Nicole gasps. "No! How young were we then? Damn, we must've been babies."

"We were like ten or eleven?" I rub my temples as they start braiding each other's hair.

"Yeah? Babies." She repeats and then drags me over to sit in front of her so I can be braided up too.