The room was mustard yellow and smelled of day-old Chinese food. Against one wall rested a faded couch and a blue, straight-backed chair. A yellow light shone from the ceiling, exaggerating the original hue of the space. The only source of natural light came through a small window, awkwardly positioned halfway between the ceiling and floor.

   The room would have been entirely inauspicious if not for the four men camped on the sofa and chair, English teachers Bill Patterson, Michael Carriger and John Harrison and film teacher Jeff Kuhr. The four were brought together by a mutual friendship and common appreciation of the finer things in life: pop culture, food and movies.

  The reasons for their friendship are definite. However, how the friendship began is up for interpretation.

   “Before this we were a militant mime troupe, but we didn’t speak for a month or two,” Kuhr said.

   Patterson elaborated.

   “When Jeff was hired, I was assigned as his mentor,” Patterson said. “It was difficult to help, to tell him where coffee was and all because we were all mimes.”

   “No,” Kuhr said. “Actually, we met at a casting call for Beverly Hills 90210.”

   Despite Kuhr’s certainty in his second story, neither the first or second turned out to be entirely true. Patterson and Carriger met at Lawrence High in 2001. Several years later, Kuhr came to the school, and Patterson did indeed mentor the younger Kuhr. Harrison started at Lawrence High in 2007.

   Over the years the friendship has grown into something of a Lawrence High legend.

   “Usually I see them all hanging out,” senior Addison Frei said. “I’ve walked down to talk to Mr. Kuhr, and they’re all there crafting hilarious jokes and bringing their comedy routines to perfection.”

   Senior Alex Kincaid guesses that the four send emails back and forth for fun, while senior Derrick Weishaar suspects treachery.

   “[They] probably plot how to torture students,” Weishaar said.

   The teachers are often spotted walking into LHS together, and they have been seen sharing lunches. Carriger recalls the attempts of many to adorn the group with a nickname such as the ‘fab four’ and the ‘three amigos’ or ‘three musketeers’ before Harrison joined the mix. However, none have stuck.

   “We defy analogy, simile or metaphor,” Carriger said. “Why find an analogue for us? We’re digital.”

   According to Carriger, students seek to name the group in an effort to satisfy an exaggerated view of the actual friendship.

   “People are laboring under the assumption that we actually do stuff together,” Carriger said.

   Kuhr finished the thought.

   “And that we’re friends,” Kuhr said.

   Patterson was incredulous.

   “I hate this guy,” he said with a grin.

   As it turns out, the four teachers actually do consider themselves friends. Though they do not hang out on the weekends or keep in much contact over the summer months, there is a certain understanding and familiarity between them that goes beyond the traditional level of school acquaintances, and the friendship remains strong throughout the school year.

   “We’re able to catch up quickly [after summer] because nothing is ever happening in our lives,” Kuhr said with a laugh.

   Their dialogues are lighthearted and jovial. Each brings his own expertise to the conversation, yet the conversations are more than just a sum of the participants’ specialties. The gang is as comfortable looking up strange words on Wiktionary as it is discussing “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” or obscure country music.

   Though their conversations are more akin to competitive banter than philosophical discourses, the teachers also can assume a more serious tone.

   “We all rely on each other to make the bad days better,” Patterson said.

   Again, Kuhr felt compelled to finish his friend’s sentence.

   “And to make the good days terrible,” he said.

   When Harrison began teaching at Lawrence High at the tail end of the 2006-2007 school year, he found kindred spirits in Kuhr, Patterson and Carriger.

   “Mr. Patterson and Mr. Carriger were so accepting of me, and I can always go to them,” Harrison said of his arrival at Lawrence High. “This is the sentimental moment. It means an awful lot to me to know that I can come to school and see these guys.”

   Kuhr dismissed the sentiment with another quip.

   “But I echo everything John just said,” Kuhr said.

   The relationship is one that even these English teachers struggle to put into words, but perhaps Carriger came closest.

   “It’s one long, ongoing, somewhat infinite discussion, and occasionally something important comes in,” Carriger said.

Student Voice

   “Before school they’re always together, and they’re always in the teacher’s lounge together,” senior Alex Kincaid said. “They’re just buddies. They probably email all day long when they’re bored.”

   “I always see them walking down the hallway, and they come back with coffee in their hands,” senior Derrick Weishaar said. “[They] plot how to torture students.”

   “I see them in the talking in the hallways and eating lunch together,” senior John Fredrickson said. “They’re b.f.f.s.”

   “Usually I see them all hanging out,” senior Addison Frei said. “I’ve walked down to talk to Mr. Kuhr, and they’re all there crafting hilarious jokes and bringing their comedy routines to perfection. That’s the one identifiable trait; they’re all funny.”