You did NOT expect to see her back in your hometown.

Since you first met growing up, Kari has had something to prove. Top of the class, every class. Soccer all-star and a consistent #3 on the district tennis ladder. They said she was accepted into law school at 16. That's PROBABLY not true, but you know she got into Stanford. Everyone knew she was going to be an all-star journalist at a place like the New York Times.

And now she's running the front counter at the rinky liquor store, a whole three blocks from where you all went to high school. Kari DOES NOT seem to be in a hurry to talk about it.

Still, for how intense she was about academics, you two were sorta-friends for a while. You quickly learned not to invite her to play video games (she was really bad AND she got super competitive), but there was a sweet and goofy person underneath all that competitive hype. What happened?