For most students, moving means saying goodbye to close friends they’ll likely never see again. But for two juniors, moving meant saying goodbye, only to say hello again. Juniors Katie Brucher and Colette Pansini were reunited this year on campus after the two both attended the same elementary school in Arizona years ago.

“We both went to Cerritos Elementary School,” Brucher said. “I moved in the spring when I was in third grade, I think it was 2006.”

The two were together in school for several years and then it was a bitter goodbye for the childhood friends.

“We were definitely close,” Pansini said. “I remember playing together during recess and we were in the same kinder class so we were around each other a lot.”

After a lost connection, the two were shocked to be reunited in Dirk Horst’s physics class this fall.

“I was reluctant to move my junior year of high school,” Pansini said. “I think it was the second day of physics someone said her name and I was like that sounds so familiar.”

The surprising meeting certainly was a shock for students and teachers alike.

“I didn’t realize that they had both gone to the same school together,” Horst said. “They’re both excellent students. Very polite and soft spoken and I’ve enjoyed having them in my class. But I guess because it’s such a big class I never realized that they went to school together.”

The shock reunion wore away with time.

“She was the one that recognized my name,” Brucher said. “It was strange at first but now I’m used to it.”

Now instead of having to look at old class pictures for a trip down memory lane, the two old friends simply have to look across the room.

“I think it’s kind of cool,” Pansini said. “It’s crazy seeing old pictures from elementary school and then going to high school and seeing her.”