Afterschool Special of the Week

During the second half of my freshman year of high school, I started hanging out with a new group of friends. Jill, a junior, was the stereotypical preppy (I don't think she owned anything that didn't have a little Polo emblem on it). Angie, a senior, was an all-around nice girl who always had cool clothes and never got into trouble. The pic is of us on "Have Pictures Taken with Friends Day" - Jill is in the peach shirt and Angie is next to her in the yellow shirt and "bad-ass for their time" Express envelope jeans. Dude, check out my collar -- what's up with that?!? Anyhow, back to the story...

The three of us became inseparable and every weekend, we drove thirty miles north to a teen nightclub called "The Library." We never drank anything stronger than soda and we had a blast dancing all night to music from the Miami club scene. We became friends with the DJ, who was also a popular local radio DJ -- sometimes he'd even give us shout-outs on the air when he was working. We made friends with the regulars and Jill and I even found serious boyfriends. Several times, I entered lip sync contests and won money (dude, I honestly have zero talent...but if there is one thing I can do, it's lip sync like it's nobody's business).

One night, Jill wasn't able to go out, so Angie drove us up there in her Nissan Pulsar NX (my dream car at the time). On the way home, she was really tired and probably driving a little too fast for the country road we were on. We turned a corner too fast, she slammed on the brakes, dirt caught up in the tires and we ended up flipping. We landed upside down and hit a telephone pole.

Thank God we were both wearing our seatbelts because otherwise, we would easily have been dead. I experienced that "movie sensation" where you think that because the car is upside down it means that it will explode within seconds...so I started to panic. Angie kept her cool though and directed me to take off my seatbelt and follow her out the back window.

Angie didn't have a scratch on her. Not one. I received an abrasion from having my hand out the window when we flipped. I had glass in my legs as well but was otherwise alright. They took me in an ambulance to the local hospital for a tetanus shot and to give me some butterfly stitches. Then Angie's dad picked us up and drove us home.

Her car was totalled, unfortunately, but at least we were okay. For months after that, I was a basket case riding with anyone in a car, so the trips up to The Library became less fun for me. After Angie graduated, they stopped altogether. My parents made me break up with my boyfriend, Craig, because the long-distance phone bills were too expensive and soon, the whole Library era became a distant memory.

I still get nostalgic when I hear Stevie B or Trinere though.