Real Life Nightmare...

You know the nightmare every American teenager supposedly has of walking into high school and then realizing that he/she is completely buck naked??? Well I had something very similar happen to me in real life my senior year.

You see, it was Spirit Week at Fullerton Union High School which was a pretty big deal to me and my ASB friends (ASB is like StuCo for those of you Texas readers). The "involved" students were really the only ones who jumped in and participated so we had to make up for the lack-luster of our classmates. There was Mismatch Day, Nerd Day, 70's Day, 80's Day, and Movie Star Day leading up to Pow Wow on Saturday night (our winter formal dance). And let me tell you, we went all out with our costumes. For example, Monday I wore an orange striped shirt with crazy plaid pants and leopard print shoes. And then Tuesday my nerd outfit included a tennis skirt (which looking back on it was WAY too short... why did Mom let me out of the house?), plaid suspenders, a white button-up, tortoise-shell glasses, tall socks, Mary Jane shoes, and to top it off... MY RETAINER!

Nerd Day 2001 (photographed with Murphy)

70's Day (wearing a Dress from my mom's college years... I got a lot of wear out of those socks!)

I loved Spirit Week. I loved my school. I oozed school spirit... RAH RAH SHISH COOM BAH! And well, it's all fun and games until somebody doesn't tell you that the whole school is boycotting 80's Day. You see, everyone wanted our Sadie Hawkins dance theme to be "Eighties Sadies" and they knew that if we had an 80's Day during Spirit Week that the idea would get boycotted as a dance them. So... word spread across the school to dress completely normal on 80's Day as a way to stick it to the man... but word unfortunately did not spread to me.

As I was getting ready that morning I was starting to feel guilty and a lot like a poser for trying to look so cutesie on Nerd Day, so I decided to really go authentic, ugly 80's and not care about how silly I looked. I mean... Everyone was going to look silly, right!? If you know my family at all, you know that we had an extensive costume trunk full of treasures. I dug through it and found the supreme outfit: a high-waisted acid washed shirt, authentic belt, shirt clip, leggings (not cool in 2001), leg warmers, and the high top, white-on-white Reboks my mom had worn back in the day. I topped the outfit off with earrings from 2nd grade and a side pony tail. I went down stairs, laughed with my mom in disbelief that I was leaving the house like this, and then went off to school to meet up with my friends and see their outfits.

Well, what a rude awakening it was to walk across our outdoor campus and see that NO ONE ELSE WAS DRESSED UP. People were pointing, staring, and of course laughing. I quickly ducked into the ASB room where I was sure to find a haven of all of my 80's friends huddled only to be greeted with loud laughter. They explained to me the strike we had "all" agreed to and my mind began to race. What! No one told this girl! I swear that the whole day I only saw ONE other unfortunate girl and she simply had a side pony and hoop earrings which she immediately removed in 1st period. It was a nightmare and I had nowhere to run. There was absolutely no way I could take off any article of clothing and look half-way normal. I didn't bring a change of shoes and there was no stepping out of that skirt. Needless to say, my day was pretty embarrassing as I clopped around in those big shoes from class to class and plastered a smile on my face.

Anyways, I thought I would share a photo since no one who has heard this story has ever seen the true extent of humiliation with their own eyes. ENJOY!