Laughter in a police state.

Tonight my brother and his friend brought me to my first ever high school basketball game. We showed up late and only saw part of the second half. Apparently, kids only go to these games to socialize and no one actually watches, according to my brother. I rather enjoyed the game. It was varsity basketball. Those guys are bruisers. There were many giggling girls drooling over my brother and his friend, both of which are apparently hot stuff as far as high schoolers go.

My brother refused to sit in the student section because "we're too cool to sit there." The three of us sat on an empty bench at the top of the bleachers. Joe and Nati were wearing their new wrestling sweatshirts and their most intimidating "I'm a wrestler" faces. It turns out they really are too cool to sit in the student section. Several people approached them instead. Joe and Nati didn't even have to move from their seats. Two girls kept looking back at the boys and giggling uncontrollably until I made eye contact with them at which point their faces turned bright red and they looked away. One little blonde boy who looked about eleven kept approaching Joe and trying to make jokes which were difficult to take seriously since they were delivered through fuchsia cheeks. Joe told me the boy was a freshman on the wrestling team. The boy was obviously trying to impress Joe and fit in with the older boys. I sat between Joe and Nati listening to them recount stories from their recent dance and various classes as they spotted people they knew.

Joe never ceases to amaze me. No matter where the family moves he always makes a million friends from different social groups who look up to him enjoy hanging out with him. In both Indiana and Michigan, he has conquered the American high school environment without having ever been exposed to it. He even makes friends with college kids who have either been to his high school at one point or who go to my college and have met Joe during a visit. He's the man.

What does amaze me, however, is the heavy police presence in American high schools. I guess I never thought of a school as a police state. There were four armed police officers in the gym during the basketball game. They spent a fraction of their time watching the game but most of their time inspecting every student who walked past them. The game ended and Joe, Nati and I slowly made our way down the bleachers and out of the gym. As we walked past the concession stand, some mother gave Nati two bags of brownies that didn't sell during the game. Nati started devouring the brownies as we walked out towards the door. One of the freshman wrestlers stopped the boys to talk about tomorrow's meet. We stood in the hallway and I listened to the boys. The police passed us slowly, looking Joe and Nati up and down focusing on the Ziploc bag of brownies. I guess police presence is supposed to be reassuring and perhaps it is an effective preventative measure but it seems a little exaggerated when they are staring down a hungry wrestler carrying some brownies. I've heard Joe's school is known for it's abundant drug use but I doubt any of these kids stand in front of parents and children with their bags of cocaine eagerly snorting off any available surface. The police would probably have to search beyond the obvious to discover as serious a problem as drugs.

On the other hand, Joe and Nati do look like hooligans. Until they open their mouths and you realize they're just goofy 16 year olds being cooler than everyone else.