Four months ago, an invitation came in the mail. The blue envelope with my name written in calligraphy in orange pen, Amelia Harris.

The invitation read:

Class of 1994 Your 20 year High School Reunion is coming up.

When: September 18, 2024 at 7pm

Where: The Old Gym at Washington High School. Yes, the one that has the musty smell that clings to every surface - a potent mix of mildew, rust,...

She can’t wait to see whose old facebook photos are the most catfishy today. Whose jawlines have gone soft vs who has been preparing for this with semaglutide shots. Its petty, but she is chomping at the bit to hear more about Maria and Tom’s sordid split. They had two kids and apparently divided them up in their divorce paperwork along with the financial assets.

Amelia plucks up a champagne flu...

Amelia took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to her 20-year high school reunion. she stepped through. The cold hall, the wooden floor, the blinding lights hanging from the ceiling, the projector screen still hanging at the front. it was exactly how she remembered.

not everything was the same.

you know what they say,

high school is either the best or worst year of your life,

well.

for Amelia...

She was now 40 and they were all in the 40s married with kids dreams met or lost.

Some rekindled relationships with a high school sweethearts

Most where married but she could sense that some yearned to escape and do something risky

There were flirtatious and static glances around the room

It made her smile that some of the more popular girls who wear catty and beautiful and popular when now ...

It’s funny the things you remember, Amelia thought. High school yearbooks would have you thinking high school was all drama club and football games broken up with frozen laughter. But Amelia’s strongest memory of Dennington High was the fresh painted cinder block walls kissing the shiny linoleum floors. Her Pop Pop used to say, butter bean you tend to see what you look for. Meaning what? she thoug...

Magic burst through her heart as she stepped through the auditorium. Fellow students mingled, their familiars perched on their shoulders. Amelia felt like a thorn in a rose bush in her plain black dress and fake pearls.

“Amelia!”

A voice addressed her, shrill with joy. She whipped her head in all directions until her eyes met a woman with black hair reaching down to her knees. The way the woman’...

Its been twenty years sinceI walked out of these doors. Here I am about to walk back into these doors. Feeling the unknown is like the first day of high school. So as I take a deep breath I open these doors to see how much people has changed and to see who all has not changed. Then to see if popular kids now grown adult stilll act like children. I was not a popular kid in school. I just kept to m...

Amelia took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to her 20-year high school reunion.

Her hand trembled as she placed it on the brass door knob leading to her high schools PE room, which was also used for prom a few days ago.

“ deep breaths, Amelia. Do it for him. “

She forced herself to turn the doorknob and open the door.

One step.

Two steps.

Amelia looked around.

Everything looked ex...

Oh my God, you like look great!!!...

Amelia took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to her 20-year high school reunion. She had changed; that was for sure. She wasn’t where she wanted to be in life, and she saw that some of her classmates on Facebook had achieved all she had wanted and more. Her body could be better, her hair could be thicker, her voice could be more relaxed; these were all things she thought as she walked into ...