Manchester High School



"I had so many friends over there, in high school. And I was just sad to leave, after I graduated. 'Cause I had to leave all my friends. I had the good life."

- Chris, ten years after finishing high school, crying alone in his dark, toy-filled bedroom

Manchester High School, located in Midlothian, Virginia, is a high school that Chris attended from 1996 to 2000 (ninth grade to twelfth grade). Chris portrays this period as among the happiest in his life, even though he proudly slept through a good deal of it. He would like nothing more than to use a time machine to return to these halcyon days.

Known accomplishments


Among Chris's classes were the usual subjects, two years of Spanish, Sex Ed, "Coping Skills", and a lot of art classes. According to Chris, he achieved an Honor Roll Grade Streak ALL THE WAY THROUGH M.H.S. However, according to the Manchester High leaks, he received a D+ in English in his junior year, having not turned in several major assignments and getting failing grades on most of the ones he did turn in. Chris proudly claims he was mainstreamed through high school, but the special education classes imply that Chris was mainstreamed to the extent that he attended the same school as his typically functioning peers, but not much more than that. He also rode on the "freakin' Handicapped, Special-Ed bus", an experience which haunts him to this day.


 * 10th grade
 * F on English assignment


 * 11th grade
 * English Class - 78%
 * Parenting Interview (grade 50/50)
 * Describing Development worksheet (grade 10/20)
 * Parenting worksheets
 * Empathy Belly essay (grade 30/30)
 * Amendment Timeline
 * Strategic Defense Initiative essay (grade 10/10)
 * Election worksheet (grade 18/18)
 * Canterbury Tales essay (grade 69%)
 * Japan War essay
 * Best President essay (grade 43/50 + 10)
 * Student Life essay
 * Standards of Learning essay
 * 13 Lucky Writing Tips
 * Spanish adjectives worksheet (grade 20/20)
 * Spanish "Las Profesiones" worksheet
 * Spanish "Las profesiones y nacionalidad" worksheet (grade 30/32)
 * Chemistry mock resume (grade 83.1/100)
 * Chemistry mock job interview (grade 33.1/40)
 * Chemistry "Getting Acquainted" worksheet
 * "Safety in the Kitchen" worksheet
 * "Kitchen Safety" outline
 * "Kitchen Safety" true/false worksheet


 * 12th Grade
 * September: Praise from his English teacher for the short story "How the Pokémon came into Our Poke Balls"
 * March: CD cover for Christian's Favorite Hits!
 * April: Naps in class for the self-documentary "A Week With Christian Chandler"

Social life
Most of Chris's friends were gal pals, not joy-boys. During his senior year, he had classes and ate lunch with them every other day (the high school had alternating "odd" and "even" days; on odd days he ate alone). He seemed to have had a strong dislike toward pupils he saw as immature boys, which might be related to Chris having been constantly picked on. Chris's purported friends:


 * Kellie Andes
 * Tiffany Gowen
 * Sarah Bevel
 * Miranda Mitchell
 * Molly Quarles, happy and giggly
 * Joseph Herring, fellow water boy for the basketball team (graduated 1998)
 * Brian, boyfriend of Sarah

In reality, few if any of those people can be legitimately said to have been a friend of Chris. As he himself admits, he spent little time with his "friends" outside of school hours and in his Song of Christian (written at age sixteen) he describes himself as being lonely and isolated. He couldn't go to pep rallies because they were "too loud".

Years later, Chris found out that none of his gal-pals actually liked him that much and hung around with him mostly out of pity, much to his devastation. In the Facebook post where he revealed this, he also made the bizarre claim that he hadn't really been bullied much because he'd never been beaten up or stuffed into a locker, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the vast majority of school bullying consists of emotional, not physical abuse.

Go Lancers!


Chris was a water boy (and a "manager", according to him) for the Manchester High Lancers basketball team during his freshman year, along with Joseph Herring. He got a certificate and an embroidery "M" for this work. Chris's servitude to the basketball team, probably the only meaningful interaction he had with other males throughout his entire adolescence, remains a cherished memory, so much so that he continues to obsess about it... over a decade after graduating.

A few references were slipped into the comic. Manchester High was featured heavily in Sonichu #7. It begins with Chris hanging around his old school without being there on any official business. Magi-Chan then brings Chris and Sonichu back in time to 1996, when Chris was a fourteen-year old waterboy. Based on his actions in the comic, his "manager" job consisted of leaning against a wall. In Sonichu #9, Megagi La Skunk was depicted wearing a Lancers cheerleader outfit.

In August 2010, Chris made a handful of characters and a vehicle in ModNation Racers to commemorate his time with the basketball team. The Manchester High ModNation collection includes the team bus, two of the players, a cheerleader, and Chris himself at age 14, looking as if he's afraid of being jumped by something just behind him.

On 9 August 2013, as Chris continued to fantasize about his high school years, Chris uploaded the logo of the team on Facebook. In November he revealed his "fantastical" Lego high school, which was festooned with a number of Lancers stickers. It featured a basketball court, gymnasium, showers, and locker room.

The Bus


At age 15, Chris was "demoted" from the regular school bus to the Special Ed bus. He would be scarred by this experience of being forced to spend time with the seriously mentally handicapped, or "slow-in-the-mind" as he calls them. The school switched him to the Bus of Doom after a confrontation with another student on the Normal Bus.

In Chris's version of events, he and a black boy were "in constant competition" to be first off the bus; one day, the other boy punched Chris in order to beat him out the door. At this point, Chris's recollections are inconsistent – in one version, he did not fight back, did not bleed, and his glasses were broken; in another, Chris punched back and ended up a nosebleed; in yet another, his glasses were unbroken.

Chris's parents then met with school administration, who placed Chris on the Special Ed bus while the other boy "got off scott-free".

Given Chris's propensity for framing himself as the victim and his unrealistic assessment (a high school freshman isn't going to care about a race to get off the school bus first, especially against a mentally slow student, and if he had, and assaulted Chris for it, the school would have thrown the book at him), it's likely the events unfolded a different way. Chris, in his autistic zeal to be first off the bus, might have simply bumped into the other student, slipped, and fell.

The Senior Prom
Unknowingly foreshadowing future events, Chris took his mom to the seinor [sic] prom. His gal pal Tiffany Gowen felt sorry for him, and so she asked him to dance, which they did so for what seemed like hours to Chris (and arguably seemed like hours to Tiffany too). Chris hopes to re-enact this historic moment at an upcoming high school reunion. That is assuming there aren't security guards there for the express purpose of keeping him out.

Graduation


For Chris, graduation was an emotional experience. Prior to the handing out of the diplomas was an award ceremony recognizing gifted students. Chris became jealous and upset that he was not given an award for his art class assignments. Chris was so upset about this that, many years later, he fantasised about going back in time and slipping in an award for himself. When the diploma ceremony rolled around and it was his turn to receive it, a despondent Chris took his diploma, slapped away the hand of the presenter when he offered a handshake, then ran off to cry. The Star pin has since been lost.

In his own words:



In another retelling, Chris reveals more straight anger:

More recently, however, he has rewritten the story to incorporate his nostalgia for lost friendships:

The evil Count Graduon's name was derived from Chris's feelings about his graduation.

Yearbooks


The yearbook bore the title MASALA, a Hindi term for a "mixture". Chris bought two yearbooks, apparently because he gave order forms to both Bob and Barb to fill out. Nobody signed his yearbook because they weren't delivered until after graduation. Chris enjoyed looking at (and mass debating to?) the image of his old gal-pals and included many yearbook images on the 2007 DVD. In 2009, he threw his yearbook around the room in a demonstration of strength. In 2010, Chris showed the yearbooks during his abortive attempt to scare up a class reunion. The yearbooks survived the 2014 fire with smoke and water damage. In 2017, Catherine and Al saw the yearbooks at 14 BC.

Lingering attachments
"I left my heart back at Manchester High in Midlothian."

- Chris

Generally speaking, Chris's memories of high school still hold great significance for him. This is unsurprising, given that high school was the last time he regularly got out and about in a social environment that seems to have at least partially accepted and tolerated him, though this was most likely because snapping at an autistic child in a public school can get you suspended.

Chris has mentioned that he frequently dreams of his days in high school, recalling his teenage years in a nostalgic tone. A May 2010 YouTube video features a flood of wistful reminiscing from Chris, as he laments having to move away from the suburb where he went to high school: "I had so many friends over there, in high school. And I was just sad to leave, when I, after I graduated." A good half dozen of the women he recalled in his archive of "gal pals and past sweethearts" (and most of the ones who weren't trolls) were girls he knew in high school.

There's also the matter of the aforementioned Count Graduon, in whom Chris may have created an embodiment of the concept of leaving high school to be the dominant villain of the entire Sonichu saga. His graduation ceremony is perhaps one of his most painful memories, and it's particularly fitting that Chris transforms the experience into a villain in his own comic book, all things considered.

In 2013, inspired in large part by My Little Pony: Equestria Girls (his second favorite movie of all time), Chris made a Lego model of his school, complete with labelled mini-figures of his old gal pals, because Chris being Chris, he obviously doesn't realize how creepy making effigies of his former lovers is. In October, he showcased his creation in a YouTube video, a few days after discovering that his high school gal pals, being brave and compassionate souls, only tolerated him and allowed him near them out of pity. Not that Chris appreciates such charity.

When his house burned down on 10 January 2014, the Lego high school partially melted, and was photographed and salvaged by Chris the very next day. One of his first orders of business after moving into his temporary home was to rebuild the school, which he accomplished by March, rededicating it to MHS. He continued to expand it into the summer, and used his high school yearbook to make Lego figurines of the entire staff.

Reunion plans
"I know it was Promised, because at the end of the slideshow they had at the Prom, it had a HUGE Message stating, "See You at the Reunion in Ten Year." I am no longer going to take the insubordination and belaboring-to-no-promise-keeping sitting down anymore."

- Chris on his "Promised Reunion"



Chris's intense yearning to return to high school manifested itself in a protracted focus on attending his reunion. He imagined his reunion almost exclusively within the context of reconnecting with his old gal-pals, specifically Tiffany Gowen, who he planned on asking to dance. In his "Gal-Pals and Past Sweethearts" page from the CWCipedia, Chris noted that he didn't know exactly when this would take place, but he made no effort to find out until mid-2010, as he assumed somebody from the school would have contacted him by then. He decided to be proactive and took several clumsy steps to bring the reunion to fruition. He planned to call the principal and demand action. He made a post on Classmates.com announcing the event. He personally typed up a list of his classmates' names, and on 27 August 2010, uploaded a video address to YouTube, a desperate plea for help in organizing it. Then he left it up to his father to field the incoming calls. Nothing came of this apart from weening. In November there may have been a class reunion, but either way, Chris did not attend.

Three years later, still missing his old circle of gal-pals, he tried again, this time for a fifteenth annual reunion, even though it would be two years in the future. In August 2013, he contacted and friended everyone in the Class of 2000 he could track down. He sent gifts to some of them and started to refer to his class as "My Family." "I feel this is of utmost importance; I do not want anyone absent from the main reunion I am rounding everyone up for," he emphasized. With the assistance of smarter people than himself, he produced a flier, and used his personal Facebook page to provide updates. Simultaneously he engrossed himself in the parallel fantasy of constructing his Lego Manchester High School. However, a combination of general apathy, troll shenanigans, and his Facebook friends' exposure to the bizarre and assholish sides of Chris thwarted his efforts. The roof caved in on 30 October, when he learned that his so-called friends had been nothing more than "hired help." He sank into depression and stopped caring about the reunion. The following summer he grumbled, "F***ing, D***ed Facebook, Ruining socializing and making reunions considered outdated and obsolete). ]:(."

2015 came and went, no reunion is known to have been held, and Chris has apparently stopped caring about it. With his ideal fantasy of high school shattered into pieces, it is likely Chris has completely given up on this universe of being happy and well liked in High School and has shifted his attention to a different universe where he is all powerful and worshipped as a goddess. In any case, it's fairly likely that Manchester High has long since banned him from setting foot on it as it happened with PVCC.