by Shelley Bennett
The New Guy, part 1
The month of February is finally here, and I am taken back to my senior year at LHS, almost forty years ago.
That was a difficult sentence to write! I typed “thirty” without thinking and had to backspace and try again.
Anyway, it was Data Match time at Lassen High, and I dutifully filled out the scantron survey provided by ASB. Data Match was the 80s version of a dating app. You answered some questions about yourself and then a computer set up with a list your top 10 matches.
The list was printed on a dot matrix printer with the perforated edges that you tear away. You could barely make out the letters, even with my 18-year-old eyes.
But there I was, in Mr. Ready’s AP Lit and Comp class perusing the list with my friends Nicole and Lisa. Data Match had done a pretty good job. The list was filled with guys that I was friends with.
The Steves, Vanderville and Abernathy, two of my brainy, edgy, emo friends who listened to The Cure and an imaginary band called Skinnypuppy. Jeff Wallace, younger brother of my classmate Eric, who was always super nice and funny.
Then there was an unfamiliar name: Leo Bennett. The new guy. He had transferred to Lassen our junior year and besides seeing him at Burger King and being impressed by his blue, suede Airwalks, I didn’t really know him.
He was a friend of my childhood guy friends (Mike B., Mike C., Karl, Kenny, and Ben), so that was a plus. He played basketball so I guess I’d seen him on bus. I couldn’t really remember. Mr. Murin kept the cheerleaders and basketball players separated.
Then I remembered a day last summer when the childhood guy friends I was talking about earlier picked me up for a birthday party. Leo was with them.
He was tall and lanky with striking, black hair, hazel eyes, and a unique style. Funny and goofy, with a good personality.
It was then, sitting in the back row of Mr. Ready’s classroom in the old English building, passing notes with Lisa and Nicole, that I decided to see what happened if I paid more attention to Leo Bennett. Maybe crossed paths with him during passing period.
To be continued…
Remember when news was ‘newsy’? When you read about weddings, family events and engagement announcements in the newspaper? If you have something that might be newsworthy, please submit it to [email protected] and I’ll do my best to include it here in “The Good Stuff.”
