This week’s Friday Fictioneers picture is from Raina Ng. It looks like a nice place to come home to. So if you’re looking for gut wrenching and thought provoking look to my friend Doug MacIlroy. I promise you won’t be disappointed. 
Coffee and baking cookie aromas filled Gail’s kitchen. She wiped dust from a dog-eared yearbook, set it on the table and smiled at her high school chum. “So glad we found each other.”
“We were darling, weren’t we?” Brenda flipped through the faded pages. “You’ve done well for yourself, Miss Homecoming Queen. Nice home. Handsome husband.”
“Thirty-seven years next month.”
“Amazing.” Brenda pointed to a picture of a moon-faced boy with horn-rimmed glasses and buck teeth. “Hey remember him? What a geek! Wonder what ever happened to the little twerp.”
“I married him.”
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple 
Dear Rochelle,
I love your story. We are all ugly ducklings in one way or another and the passage of time turns us all into swans in the same way. I was always that ‘moon faced’ guy, the skin and bones twerp that still lives on in the faded pages of someone else’s year book so I can really relate.
Great story this week. Thank you so much for the hyper-link and the plug. I appreciate the support from the Girl Most Likely To…
Aloha,
Doug
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Thanks, Doug. The plug’s well deserved. Stunning…oh I said that already.
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Rochelle, I was that girl. 🙂 At our 40th high school reunion last fall, someone said, “Why didn’t I know you were so much fun?” and my response was, “Because I wasn’t.” I was too shy and geeky, although geeky then was liking school, wearing glasses and being a tomboy. 🙂 Lovely story.
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Funny. My 40 year class reunion was last year also. I was on the planning committee and found how much we were alike even though we were from different social groups. I had a blast…talked with everyone until I had no voice left. Glad my story resonated with you. 😉
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the people we call “nerd” and “geek” are the people who remember your birthday, bring flowers, open the door for you, and are often called ‘boss.” nice job.
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Good point, Rich.
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thanks sir. where ya been?
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Way too busy with work… crazy. But I think I’m back.
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Have you seen my PhotoLog?… http://tedbooksdailypics.com
Sorry, The Girl Most Likely, for the shameless promotion…
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no such thing as shameless promotion. we all need to do that on occasion.
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I was just being nice… I don’t know Rochelle…
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any chance you saw the tv movie from about 40 years ago starring Stockard Channing, called “the girl most likely to”?
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Doesn’t ring any bells, Rich. Thanks for your comments. 🙂
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it was about a girl who wasn’t very attractive and picked on by teachers and students. then she gets plastic surgery, acts like a new student, and gets revenge with a few murders.
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Rocks! That was fun.
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Hi Rochelle,
Your story proves that nobody should be judged by their high school yearbook photo! Ron
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I would certainly hate to be judged by mine.
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I like yours. I like Doug’s. Don’t make me choose between the two of you!
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Glad you like them both, Paul. I’d never want you to have to choose. That you would mention us in the same breath is a high compliment. At least it is to me. 😉
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Congrats on another good one Rockstar. Now off to read Aloha Doug. Hmmmmmm….Gotta wait for mine.
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That’ll take some smoothing over, then! Nice work Rochelle, as ever.
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Yes Brenda will be feasting on toe-food for a bit. Thanks, Sandra.
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Oh how funny things turned out.
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I wonder if life ever turns out the way we planned it in high school.
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Hardly!
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Love it – go geeks! (Yes, I am one, so I’m biased.)
Lovely story, Rochelle, great twist at the end. 🙂
Ours is here: http://www.lazuli-portals.com/flash-fiction/left-behind
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Thanks, Joanna. I’m off to read yours.
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I really enjoyed this. I was having trouble leaving a reply below, so I tried here. Fun, surprise ending.
Mine is at http://banterwithbeth.blogspot.com
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Thanks, Beth. Twice. I’m not sure why but wordpress saw you and Lorelei as spammers. Glad i caught this. Welcome Back!
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Loved this! A sweet love story and a put-down of high school cliques all in one! Well done, and brava!
Here’s mine: http://unexpectedpaths.com/friday-fictioneers/shuttered/
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Oh I love this so much, Rochelle. I can just imagine Brenda’s face at Gail’sd answer to her question, “I married him’. I am laughing so hard. 🙂 Mine is here: http://readinpleasure.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/fridayfictioneers-the-empty-heart/
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Never judge anyone by the way they were in high school. I recently ran into one of my class’s golden girls. It was literally a case of how the mighty have fallen.
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Ha, ha! The years have a way of changing things, don’t they? Great job, Rochelle.
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Well, I married my high school sweetheart and thirty-seven years laters she continues to tolerate me. I love the comment about how the mighty have fallen. Time has a way of becoming a great equalizer.
Great story, Rochelle, and I love the “slam dunk” ending.
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Thanks, Russell. Glad you liked it. Nice to hear that you’re still married to your high school sweetheart. Bet she has a great sense of humor.
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Are Gail and Brenda still in touch – can we have 100-words on what happened next? Just lovely. 🙂
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Ha! So much for fun-filled trips into yesteryear! Wonder if poor Brenda has any room in her mouth to eat those tasty cookies or is her foot taking up all the space? Awk-ward!! 🙂
Thanks for the fun story. So many of the posts have been great this week, but few (including mine) have been fun!
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Ha Ha. I bet her girlfriend will be careful how she says things the next time she puts her foot into her mouth. The ‘little twerp’ must have looked pretty good to her once she learned who he was.
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If only we’d know then what we know now.
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hahaha…very nice story, and so true too. I enjoyed this much. Many thanks for stopping by mine
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A laugh but also a true thing: often we don’t seem much like our high school selves. For some, that’s great. For others, as I’ve recently found out, they still regret the loss of that self. I’m one of the changing ones.
cheers,
Lorelei
http://westcoastwriters.blogspot.com/2012/10/fridayfictioneers-shadowed-kitchen.html
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Cheers to you Lorelei from one who’s a changling to another.
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I got a real kick out of this one. Proves both that some people never change, but some others change completely.
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There are more stories in that comment alone, Daniel. Thanks.
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What a great and funny story!! Good for Gail (and her husband)!
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Loved that story. I was the quiet, shy, nerdy girl in school who didn’t talk to anyone. I haven’t even been to one reunion since leaving high school but I’d like to go back now that I’ve grown out of my old shoes 🙂
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41 years out of high school I’m certainly not the same wallflower I was then. I’d encourage you to go to a reunion and bask in the newness of who you really are, Madison. I did last year at my 40th (even helped plan it) and had the time of my life.
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High School? I don’t even remember high school.
Maybe I do, but my memories are all in black and white!
Cute and funny post. All I was missing were the buck teeth …
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So wonder what he looks like now? Hope she brought a pic to prove he turned out better looking than he once did.
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I think he looks quite different. I’m sure by the time the yearbook came out, Gail had shown Brenda wedding pictures, family pictures etc. But Brenda never connected the ‘handsome husband’ in those photos to the old yearbook picture.
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His name is Bill Gates, and guess what, poor Brenda had never heard of him. Good story.
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No doubt his name is Bill Gates and many many others. Thanks VB.
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Hey remember him? What a geek! Wonder what ever happened to the little twerp.”
“I married him.”
Oops!
I bet Brenda spit out her cookies and coffee.
Speaking of dying in one’s chair.
Wonderful fast paced and cute story. Randy
If there are any of Gail’s cookies left, could you send some my way?
I hear she bakes great.
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I’ll talk to her and see if I can get the recipe. I think you’re right about Brenda. Hahahahaha. I could see her spraying coffee out her mouth and snorting it from her nose. Thanks for commenting.
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Great way to show how people change – both the high school geeks and the homecoming queens. Quick, smart, and nicely written!
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Wonderful story.
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I love your stories, Rochelle. You always have the best ending lines. 🙂
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Thank goodness we do not have to stay the people we were at school. Yours wholeheartedly, Anne. Bit late on my visiting this week, but glad I got to read your funny story.
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thanks for stopping by, Anne. I’ll accept nice comments like that on any of my stories any time.
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Nice story, Rochelle… brought me down from Doug’s!
Old yearbooks are fun to look at… 50 year reunions are too… interesting how people change… you captured that.
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Thanks for the nice comment, Ted. Glad you could hook back up with Rich. ;). Checked out your photos. Nice. While you don’t know me, I too, wondered where you went.
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😀
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Pretty stinking adorable, Rochelle! Gail seems like a classy lady. I like the contrast between her and Brenda.
Catching up: http://waitingforaname.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/friday-fictioneers-the-letter/
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I think so, too. I also think that Gail found humor in Brenda’s faux pas.
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Yes, I can see her smiling mischievously over the rim of her afternoon cup of coffee as she reveals the fate of the little twerp.
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Funny and true-to-life at the same time. Really outstanding and brings back good memories for me. We have our 45th reunion in three years. Great story! Nan
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