Title: Reflections (1/?)

Author: Anna-Maria

Rating: PG

Summary: "You know they're coming months in advance, so you can plan to look your best and also exactly what you're going to say when you run into that two-timing rat Chris Davies, who ran off with Paula "I'll pash anybody" Parker"

A/N: Catherine's POV

Grace, one of my oldest friends from my teenage years, rang me up last week in what can only be described as a state of utter desperation.

"Catherine, you have to help me," she announced dramatically. "I have to lose 16 kilos in one week."

"Goodness," I pondered, "what could have brought on this sudden need for extreme dieting in my previously happy-to-be-curvy friend?" And then it hit me.

"Oh, my God, you're getting married," I screamed down the phone.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped, "it's something far more serious than that."

"Goodness," I pondered again, "what could be even more serious than a wedding to have brought on this sudden need for extreme dieting in my previously happy-to-be-curvy friend?" And then it really hit me.

"Oh, my God, you're going to your high school reunion."

"Yes," she sobbed, "and I've got one week to go from Size 16 to 10, get a new job, a new car, a new wardrobe, a university degree, find a husband and have two children."

What is it about high school reunions that bring out our deepest insecurities?

Why is it that one minute we can be perfectly happy with our lot in life but the moment we hear our high school reunion is looming, suddenly we're straight back in the 1970's, back to that tall, clumsy girl with bad hair, coke-bottle glasses and questionable fashion sense who may or may not have wet her pants in Mr Thompson's biology class.

Not that anything like that ever happened to me, you understand, no I was just giving an example of what other girls might go through.

Anyway, I believe I know exactly why high school reunions have the power to turn us all into insecure teenagers overnight.

It's because no matter how far we have come, no matter what we have achieved to turn us into the person that we are, lurking not too far below the surface is the person that we once were – and not too many people I know are actually all that keen on who they were in high school.

I completely understand Grace's nerves, because I, too, have a high school reunion of sorts coming up.

My old school, is celebrating its Golden Jubilee on May 1 this year and I've been asked to be a special guest speaker, my old school having apparently forgotten about the unfortunate Bunsen Burner Incident of 1978.

While it is not specifically a reunion for my year, apparently just about everybody who ever went will be there.

Now I loved my old school, so I'm happy to go along to show my support, and I've also realised that one of the good things about high school reunions is that at least you have time to prepare for them.

Yes, at least you know they're coming months in advance, so you can plan to look your best and also exactly what you're going to say when you run into that two-timing rat Chris Davies, who ran off with Paula "I'll pash anybody" Parker, even though you and Chris were clearly still going together at the time and had in fact given each other love bites behind the vigoro shed just that very morning . . .

Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes – high school reunions, where planning is everything. Even though I only had a week to help Grace get ready for hers, I believed I was up to the task and so took her shopping.

"Can I help you?" the sales assistant said.

"Yes," I said. "Do you have a dress that says, 'Hello everybody, aren't I fabulous, successful, clever, accomplished and slim and I would have brought my husband Lorenzo along only he's visiting our two adorable children Parisia and Byzantine at their boarding school in Switzerland?' "

"A high school reunion dress, you mean?" she replied.

"You got it, sister."