Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, where the terrific team over at The Broke and the Bookish give us excuses to make lists and indulge our inner OCD tendencies.

I’ve got to be honest, guys. I looked at the topic for this week, and I just about skipped it, because I’ve got nothing.

But then I was sad, because Top Ten Tuesday is my favorite meme, and I always enjoy coming up with my lists and seeing what others come up with. Plus, I’ve seen Galaxy Quest enough times that “Never give up, never surrender” is kind of emblazoned on my psyche, so admitting defeat wasn’t really an option.

The good news is that my psyche is apparently not opposed to a bit of cheating, so I decided to tweak the topic to one I could do.

So here’s the topic I was supposed to do:

Top Ten Characters Who Remind Me Of Myself Or Someone I Know In Real Life

Yup, complete blank. Part of the problem is that most of what I read is YA, and I am just…A. But even if I think of myself and my friends from back when I was in the YA age bracket, I still came up blank. Not a lot of authors tend to write books featuring characters who enjoy Star Trek and Scrabble. Comic books, maybe, but that’s probably because characters in books are on the verge of developing superpowers, and my friends and I never developed superpowers. So. This topic wasn’t going to work for me.

Here’s the one I’ve decided to do instead:

Top Ten Characters I Think I’d Have Been Friends With If We Went to High School Together

(That’s close enough, right?)

1. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter. I was a big nerd and a squeaky clean kid. So was Hermione. We would either have been BFFs or arch nemeses, because that’s the way it works with smart kids.

2. Simon, The Mortal Instruments. I have only read the first book in this series, but Simon was my favorite and I could totally see us hanging out and not wanting to go to clubs together.

3. Kent McFuller, Before I Fall. I can’t say anyone I was friends with in high school actually wore a bowler hat, but I still think that Kent would have fit right in.

4. Angela, Twilight. She’s sweet and soft-spoken and kind of hangs back while her friends arm wrestle for attention. I can relate to that.

5. Peeta, The Hunger Games. Okay, it’s highly probable that Peeta would be too cool to be my friend because he’d probably be on the football team or something like that, and not in the marching band with me, but I’m going to hold out hope that we’d be buds.

 6. Chuck, The Maze Runner. Granted, we will probably never know what Chuck was like before the Maze, but he seems like the kind of kid I would have joked with in study hall.

7. Kate, Die For Me. Assuming her parents never died and she never moved to Paris and never fell for the undead Vincent, we’d probably have gotten along pretty well. She’s quiet and bookish and not one for large groups of people, and that was pretty much me in high school.

8. Beth, Little Women. I love Jo and all, but Beth is the one I think I would have clicked with. She was probably the type that was quiet in groups, especially when there were strong personalities present (like, you know, every other member of her family), but was lots of fun one-on-one. Some of my best friends are like that.

9. Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride. I’ll admit this one is probably just wishful thinking, but wouldn’t it be great to be friends with teenage Inigo? Maybe he’d have been an exchange student. I never actually befriended any exchange students, but I probably would have if Inigo was one.

10. Marlee, The Selection. Because honestly, Marlee would have been friends with everyone in high school.

So there you go. Sorry I cheated.