Who we are: Yearbook Day

By ROSS TAYLOR : The Herald-Sun
drt@herald-sun.com
Apr 1, 2002 : 1:33 pm ET

DURHAM -- Four girls in the school cafeteria cluster like grapes around a small, red book.

"Oh, look at him; don’t he look good!" one of the girls says. Another exclaims, "Look at me. Look at my hair. Look at my hair!" They burst into laughter and flip the page.

It’s lunch period -- pizza squares and boxed milk await them -- but the girls couldn’t care less. This is the day for which the eighth-graders have long waited.

Yearbook day.

They’re all best friends: (from left to right) Ashley Peaks, 14; Tanya Turrentine, 13; Marquisia Lee, 14; and Iris Murray. It’s their last year at Shepard Magnet Middle School.

"I thought you said you look good," says Turrentine to Peaks, kidding her. "I look better than you." They giggle.

"Basically, it brings back memories," Turrentine says. "It’s like, when we’re older we can pull this out and be, like, ‘Oh, look how I looked in eighth grade, or how I acted in eighth grade. It’s basically good memories of this year."

A group of boys near the girls lean, poke and laugh at each other. The cafeteria is abuzz.

For three lunch periods, students from all grades shove the pizza and milk aside to look at themselves and share a timeless moment.

"Basically, it’s one big, happy thing -- everybody coming together, everybody remembering things," says seventh-grader Haley LeClair. "When we leave to go to high school, we’re going to have the signatures and memories of everybody from our school."

"Everybody just seems really happy," LeClair says, and smiles shyly. "It’s a good day. It’s a really good day."