Laughing, someone scatters the cards. They float in the air, faces blinding white in the sun. For a moment it seems they will actually rise. Then they settle to the ground in sweeping arcs, moving as slowly as a teenager's hours. In America, high school is where you Begin to Play in the adult league of life.
Freshmen enter knowing that they know nothing.
Seniors exit thinking that they ought to know everything. In between are a lot of firsts that parents never hear about. Much about this experience remains the same, generation after generation. The prom is still the prom - though today getting the date can be an elaborate ritual, as choreographed as the event itself. The trophies in the trophy case are still dusty.