December 17, 2019:
Of that group there's only one I choose to be in contact with. She's brilliantly nurtured her talents into an artistic career I enormously respect. Far as I know the rest became what they'd been singled out to become: academics, middle managers, white-collar professionals. Good girls and boys being what they're told.
There's the erstwhile s8tkid who became a lawyer for landlords, evicting tenants across the region. The skinflint multilinguist who became a skinflint alcoholic language teacher in another country. The adults who live in their childhood zip codes and send their kids to the same gifted programs which damaged them. A couple of computer programmers and one pathological narcissist who thinks she's a witch.
There was a moment when, as a group, they reached out on social media. I accepted for a few weeks until their smugness put me off. Same as they ever were. No redeeming accomplishments but plenty of unearned self-confidence.