Fat kid. Geek. Brainiac.
Joe
I keep trying to add this - but I keep overthinking it. I want to convey how stunned I was.
To recap, not popular in high school. Transferred my senior year, reinvented myself. Still not ‘popular’ but much happier.
College was even better. My junior year, I was doing pretty well - had been nominated for student body rep, was unexpectedly voted society president. Had successfully auditioned for the ‘good’ vesper choir. I was not top dog by any means, but I was happy and had great friends.
So I’m walking between classes with my best friend, when I hear this voice urgently yelling my name. I turn around, and it’s the former high school class president. He’s halfway across the parking lot, flapping his arms at me to get my attention, like a dying man trying to grab a life buoy. “What’s up?” I ask.
“Just wanted to say hi!” he shouts. An overly-enthusiastic grin crosses his face as he looks approvingly at his friends.
Then it dawns on me - he wanted them to know he was ‘friends’ with me. It was so glaringly obvious and slightly unnerving. A kid who was probably the most popular kid in HS needed me to acknowledge his existence.
I, of course, said hi and then continued on to class, stunned. It was very surreal.