Starwberry Passion Awareness

The most interesting thing I learned in the seventh grade was how to balance a can of Fruitopia at a forty-five degree angle.



I learned this during lunch, from my friends Debbie, Amber, Doug, and Holly. They were the coolest, because they were in 8th grade. And every day at lunch, each of us would buy a can of Fruitopia. Sometimes we varied this with Chocola or Country Time Pink Lemonade, but it was usually Frutopia's Starwberry Passion Awareness. For some reason, we didn't actually eat lunch, just drank those tasty beverages of the 90s. Sometimes Doug got tater tots and I would bum some. I can't remember why I didn't eat lunch...but it must have had something to do with the other girls not eating. Hmm...latent eating disorders?

Anyway, we would drink the first half of the can really fast. Then we would balance our cans. We would spin them in slow circles on the long cafeteria tables. (Although "cafeteria" is a stretch; the school set up tables in the gym, which also contained a stage.) Only a few times was there a spill. And when that happened, the home ec teacher, Mrs. Arnette, would grumble goodnaturedly and get us a rag to clean it up. We liked her, she laughed at our jokes.