HELP!!

heyitsme · November 2010

OK so a guy and a girl, who knew each other in high school, move on to different lives/towns...

Then one day he is sent to see so-and-so. It's her, but he doesn't know it because her name has changed. As soon as he sees her, though, he recognizes her.

Despite him having the same name, she doesn't recognize him.

WHY? (This is what I need help on.)

His physique changed? His name is very common and they're not in the town where they grew up/went to school (or anywhere nearby) so she didn't think twice?

What are some other reasons why she might not recognize him?

TIA!

Chicklit · November 2010

Your reasons sound really plausible to me. Maybe his hair completely changed - he wore it long in high school and short now? Maybe so much time has passed that high school isn't even a blip on her screen anymore? Maybe something awful happened to her in high school and she does her best to block it out?

bnlchic03 · November 2010

How far in the future is this? How close were they in HS?

If they were close/romantically linked, then even if his name was common she would probably think of him when she heard it. Because even if someone was just a friend, if I heard the name of someone I was close to in HS today, I would think, "Oh, I went to high school with someone with that name," even if I didn't say it aloud and even if I was in another city. One option is that maybe he went by a kid-ish nickname in HS, but now that he's in the business world, he wants to keep things more professional. (Andy becomes Andrew or even Drew. Davey becomes David. Willy becomes Bill. Or maybe there are two people in his office with that name, so he has to be Drew, etc.) Or she just doesn't get his name (I'm not sure what the circumstance of them meeting are.) so she doesn't even think about it. That takes care of the name problem.

The appearance thing is another issue. I live in the town I went to high school in, so I run into people I went to high school with ALL the time. Sometimes I don't recognize them, but they recognize me (I was really active in HS and was on the board of a lot of clubs, plus in drama shows, so I usually assume that's why.) I know they're not in the same town, but my point is, if they weren't close, she might just not recognize him because we grow up and look different (for a point of reference, I graduated HS seven years ago.) If they were close, then it would have to be really far in the future, or he would have to have some kind of changes to his face - maybe he used to wear glasses and now he wears contacts and has a goatee. And also dresses really different. Or maybe he got into an accident and has a really bad scar or something, but I really don't think that's drastic enough.

OK. So. Wow. Long response. Hope it helps, though!

ashleemw · November 2010

I was also thinking what PP said, maybe he was AJ in high school but now goes by Andrew or something like that.

mmremshard · November 2010

I think it depends on the school, too. I went to a fairly small high school and even though people had nicknames, you still knew their real names just from being in classes with them. Example - There was a guy named Vincent, but everyone called him Brad (I wasn't friends with him, so I have no clue why). Every time we had a class together, the first day the teacher would call roll and call him Vincent. I'm not sure a nickname would work if they were close.

I do like the idea of him going by a completely different name. Could he have changed it? Maybe he always hated his name in HS because it was nerdy or weird or uncommon, so he just got it legally changed before he went to college and started real life.