Crazy Lanie

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Katie Lanie transferred to Seton Catholic high school during our junior year. Katie’s reason for leaving Carl Isle high school centered around one shadowy statement, “No one in that school understood me.” Katie said this to me almost every day and I produced only mixed reactions to her claim. I thought it would take more than a few short years of high school to completely understand a person. And frankly, not everyone cares about another’s problems, especially high school kids—most of them care about themselves and their status only. Sadly, I admit I fell into this group and didn’t get out until I found my appreciation for Katie. Throughout the year I kept Katie’s words in mind and they started to make sense.
Seton Catholic was a small high school, so it wasn’t too long before everyone knew “Crazy Lanie”. That’s the nickname the boys at school gave her. Katie’s physical appearance and loud-mouth intimidated the young Catholic school boys, but her oblivious attitude caused her to be unaware of this. Katie was very opinionated and spoke out in class on a daily basis. These habits were annoying when you were trying to learn, but they came in handy in our Economics class. There was one word that every Seton Catholic student used to describe the Economics teacher—torture. Then Katie came and turned that class around. Her first love is talking, then politics and current issues. So she talked up a storm in class, eventually strayed away from the subject at hand, and turned our class into a current issues debate team. A lot of us appreciated Katie’s unintentional deeds and some didn’t. One guy in particular who didn’t take pleasure in Katie’s existence was Mike Reckliss. Mike was an on the edge type of guy who only cared about his motorcycle and class—that’s where he got most of his shut-eye. Katie, Mike, and I had Business Law together every day after lunch. By the time we got to class, Mike’s stomach was full and he was ready for his afternoon nap. But with Katie there, baby Mikey was a crabby pants. On one particular day, we were discussing a person’s rights to property. Our teacher explained that his neighbor’s tree branches were hanging over onto his property, so technically he was entitled to cut down the branches that extended beyond the property line. Before our teacher could finish his story about property, the light in Katie’s head turned on.

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