20 years later.

I went out on Saturday night with some old friends from high school that I hadn't seen in about 20 years or so. They were terrific company by the way.
I was actually crashing a get together that they were having for their elementary school class, so a lot of the people didn't really know me, which was fine. There were really only a couple of people that I wanted to see anyway.
At one point one of the strangers asked me what grade I'd met the girls I knew in, and I explained that I was in a few grades simultaneously. This elicited the usual laughter, which I'm fine with, and then someone asked what year did I graduate and I had to explain that I was expelled from school before I could graduate.
One of my friends said "It wasn't because of intelligence, it was because of attitude." to which I heartily agreed that the School Board did indeed have a terrible attitude problem back then.
Another girl that I didn't really know to well started asking about the group of friends that I hung out with in high school. A lot of my friends committed suicide or wound up dead in high school, a situation that led people outside of our circle to speculate as to whether or not the suicides were part of a pact or an agreement. While it would be a lot more romantic or sensational if they had, there was no such agreement. It was just a bunch of kids with substance abuse problems and some chemical imbalances combined with a whole lot of hopelessness that caused a higher than average rate of attrition. I thought it was kind of funny that even 20 years later, the rumors still persist. She seemed a little disappointed in my answer. People did 20 years ago today. Doesn't make for a good story that way I guess.