Chantilly in the Big I-L

As some of you might know, Tyler freelances for an up-and-coming site called CSL Insiders, which covers all the high school sports in our area. I tagged along with him tonight as his photographer (hopefully will get photo credit this time!) Yes, we're a fun couple on Friday nights. ("I'm going to go to a high school basketball game and write about it! You can take pictures! OKAY!")

They played "Chantilly Lace" during half-time while the players were warming up. At the first sound of that opening "HEYYYYYYY, babyyyy!" I was viciously thrown into a flashback of short purple skirts; blurs of blockheaded boy-children crowding the hallways; "pep rallies" that were not really so much peppy as it was just kind of stupid. So that was weird. I mean, what are the chances that anyone outside of Chantilly High School even knows that song?? The team had been warming up to a combination of hip-hop and Miley Cyrus (yeah, that was weird, too), and then suddenly, there was that HEYYYYY BABY.

After the game, Tyler ran to get quotes from both of the coaches so I waited for him in the hallway. During the 10 minutes that he was gone, I could've sworn I relived high school.

First off, there was me, in a big awkward coat off in the corner clutching my camera bag, not really belonging to any crowd, watching everyone else interact. Then there were all the giggling, shrieking cheerleaders prancing around and literally throwing themselves at the varsity basketball players, who all tried to look bored and uninterested as they ate their after-game snack of hot dogs and nachos from the concession stand. All of these semi-children lingered on the stairs for their rides, hormones sloshing around their veins as generously as the prevalent orthodontia in their mouths. They eyed one another in a sort of crazed glee that made me wonder: Are they really this perky, or is this learned behavior from TV or great American stereotypes? Like do they really want to act this way, or do they just THINK they should be, following in the footsteps of generations of smiling beautiful cheerleaders/nonchalant athlete hot shots? To complete the whole experience, there was actually one cheerleader bawling into her locker as her two friends alternately patted her on the back and flirted with the guys.

Tyler could not hustle back from wherever he was fast enough. Doing high school once was bad enough; re-living it again in any sort of abbreviated version is just unnecessary.