Oh, you're the normal one...

So, I met Heather, and then Ray, during my junior year at NHS. 

The funny thing is I can remember the exact place and time.... it was 2nd hour, and I was in English in Mrs. Bagsby's class.  Heather was the "helper" that hour, and Mrs. B thought that if she introduced us, we would hit it off.  I am not sure why she would think that, since I am sort of the main streamer, and Heather has always been a little off the path.
Obviously, I had seen them in passing in the halls.  They were sort of hard to miss, with  the great big combat boots, and the graceful Doc Martins.  I was more the flip flop kinda girl, but back when they were not so cool.  I would have loved to wear the boots or the Docs, but it just wasn't me.

Long story short, we got along smashingly.  


Heather introduced me to Ray the next day, between 6th & 7th hour out on the now infamous block.  He called Her Evanne and it was pretty cool.

He was intimidating, long legged and as skinny as a nail.  He had half a head of hair that was 5 inches long, and half a head of razor stubble.  He was sporting his official "uniform" of long skater style shorts with pockets, and a great big long sleeved tee, and of course those ugly combat boots.

He looked at my shoes, sighed and said...


"Those are the most normal shoes I have ever seen.....  They give me the creeps."

I had never been creepy a day in my whole 16 years of life, and in a way, it felt cool for the creepy kid to think I was.

I said, "Thanks, your boots are ugly."

He said, "I know, isn't that cool, they are finally broken in. You should get a pair."

Secretly, I wished I had a pair.  (Once, when he fell asleep on the couch at Heather's house, we took turns putting them on and doing impressions of him, and we sang Cure songs while we wore them, and he woke up and caught me in them.) 
I made a frown face, cause I was too cool for the boots...

and he said, "I am gonna call you Beulah, cause it seems so normal."

And that was that.


After that, Ray and Heather took me under their awkward wings, and introduced me to the rest of their friends. Every time they would always look at my shoes. 
Before they could say anything, Ray would say, "This is Beulah...."

And they would say, " Oh, you're the normal one..."


So, here is my side note:
Nigel, I miss you terribly, and wish that we could banter back and forth about all the crazy politics and where we stand on religion.  I wish that you were here to make fun of us, and poke fun at my shoes....  But mostly, I wish that I could put those boots on and stomp around in them and do funny impressions of you and that you would wake up and catch me and say.... "What do you think you are doing?  I sound nothing like Robert Smith...."

All That Mushy Stuff,
Beulah