Crazy Lanie

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 kidsÐ'--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 teacherÐ'--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 classÐ'--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.

"Hey! I have a story about property too!" she said frantically waving both hands in the air, as if the teacher couldn't see her in our classroom of ten students.

"Oh boy, let's hear it, Crazy Lanie!" my teacher replied.

"Okay, so likeÐ'...I was at a strip club this weekend, right? And this stripperÐ'..."

"Kaaattieee!" I said clenching my teeth.

Ignoring my plea, Katie continued, "Hey Mike, wake up! I need you to stand up and pretend you're a stripper." Surprisingly, Mike went along with her demonstration and stood up. "So this stripper was all up in my face," waiting for Mike to transform into a stripper, "Mike you're supposed to be all up in my face!" Mike took a cautious step forward. "And then the stripper like totally copped a feelÐ'--Mike don't even think about it! But yeah, so I like told him dude back off, these twins are my property!"

In a state of shock and confusion, I wondered what provoked Katie to share this information with our Business Law class. I also wondered how her story related to my teacher's rights to cut down tree branches lingering on his property.

This is what people did when it came to KatieÐ'--they wondered. At times I envied and admired Katie's no fear approach to embarrassment or shame. What I didn't know was that Katie was filled with lots of fears, her biggest oneÐ'--death. Soon after her father died in the spring, I noticed Katie was changing. Katie told me she was going to take a few days off from school and asked me to bring her work to her house by the end of the week. That Friday, I pulled up to Katie's house and saw her sitting in her car, her hands clenching the steering wheel. I knocked on the window, "Katie, what's wrong?" Her face and neck were dripping