High School Reunion Blog

Hypocrite is the word that comes to mind when I see Jessica continuing to attack Maricela. Maricela may not have been forthcoming about her past, but I’m really not sure it matters. None of us came to the reunion to discuss our past aside from high school. Mari said she was an educator so that’s what we believed to be true. Look -- everyone has done things in their past that they’re not proud of, and I’m sure that many of us would be devastated to have our secrets put out there the way that Jessica did to Maricela.   

The irony of Jessica saying Maricela threw HER under the bus -- when she was the one revealing a “secret” that could tarnish Maricela’s reputation forever -- was disturbing. 

The fact of the matter is that Maricela made an effort to get to know everyone in the house and Jessica did not. My opinion is that Jessica had a preconceived notion of how she would be welcomed when she came to the reunion, and when things didn’t transpire the way she imagined she felt it necessary to attack the one person she could. There often appeared to be a one-sided competition between Maricela and Jessica. While it was clear that Jessica felt like she was in competition with Maricela for the attention of the group -- as well as for Scott W. -- I didn’t see that same sense of competition from Maricela. I’m fairly certain this contributed to the tirade that Jessica unleashed on her. 

While the accusations were flying, I don’t think anyone in the house knew who to believe. The only thing we can base our opinion on is their behavior and judging from Maricela’s behavior I have to believe that what Jessica said wasn’t true. Though Maricela never really denies the allegations, she doesn’t confirm them, either. But we have no reason to believe that Maricela has a past as a prostitute. 

When Jessica first arrived, she expressed to Maricela that she was at the reunion to spend time with her. She and Maricela both claimed that they were still friends. But friends don’t reveal secrets about each other unless there is some sort of self-serving agenda involved. From the beginning I think that many of the classmates questioned Jessica’s intentions, but we gave her the benefit of the doubt as we did with everyone in the house. The difference is that Maricela, while she may (or may not) have skeletons in her closet, did seem to be a caring person and very much wanted to be a part of the group. 

We witnessed firsthand the theatric way that Jessica was able to turn her emotions on and off when necessary. None of us could be inside Jessica’s head and I think her perception wasn’t what we saw of Maricela -- we didn’t see her being judgmental or negative about Jessica. We certainly didn’t feel that the attack on Mari was warranted.  

The apology from Jessica was definitely surprising! While I think Jessica knew that it was the right thing to do, she made it very clear that we “didn’t matter” to her. I am glad that she apologized to Maricela -- I think she needed to hear that. Even so, I felt the emotions were much more real from Maricela than Jessica. It was almost as if she was just going through the motions.  

The issue isn’t really whether she is or is not a prostitute, but rather the ugly confrontation between two friends and the betrayal of a friend. Scott W.’s reaction to the accusations was to be expected. He had connected most with Mari.  Anyone in the same situation, faced with that news, would need to take a step back to evaluate things. I don’t think it really mattered that much to Scott, though. He knew Maricela as she is now, not who she may or may not have been in the past. 

It has to be awkward for Tom and Kara to be putting their relationship out there in front of everyone. All of us really like the two of them, and care about them. They are two great people -- but can they be great together? It seems like they've taken turns pushing and pulling each other closer and away throughout the course of the reunion. But maybe with the air cleared now, they can get down to deciding if there's still hope for a future.