Nicole Scherzinger, the favorite to win this season of Dancing with the Stars and lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls, went to my high school…and I have absolutely no memory of her! She was two years ahead of me, so we must have walked past each other in the hallways or back and forth from the Youth Performing Arts School where I took band classes. But there were 1600 people at my high school, and there’s no way I could be best-est friends with everyone. I was doing pretty well to have any friends, quite frankly.

Recently, I dug out my old yearbooks to see if I could jog any memories of Nicole, and certainly not because I hoped her yearbook photos would be as embarrassing as everyone else’s, proving that even beautiful, famous people were once ugly-duckling nobodies like the rest of us. Sadly, neither hope came to be. Here is Nicole in 1995:

Pretty darn pretty, just like today. And here is me in 1995:

I had way more curly hair than I could possibly handle. Here’s her senior yearbook photo in 1996:

Even in the red drape they made everyone wear to match school colors, she’s still gorgeous. And here’s me in 1996:

This photo was snapped just as I was reaching to take out my retainer. Good one, anonymous photographer dude! Anyway, it’s good to see an alum doing so well professionally. I wish her the best of luck and I hope she wins that mirror ball trophy in the finals!