Haibane -- just FYI, Americans who go usually enter college at about age 18 and finish at 21 or 22; four years is average, but longer or shorter isn't unusual.  Most Americans graduate from high school, because they're legally required to attend school until late in their teens; I don't know if an actual majority go to college or not, but it's extremely common, sounds like it's far more common here than in the UK.<br/><br/>I think a town of 40,000 in the U.S. is small enough that it's<em>possible</em>but not at all likely that a few characters might recognize each other randomly, but no more than a few; it's much more likely that they would share acquaintances, mabye knowing the same high school principal or certain old teachers, perhaps going to the same doctor or dentist, shopping at a few of the same stores and recognizing those employees a little, or watching the same local high school football games.<br/><br/>However, I'm assuming the high school is closer to 1000 students -- fairly average for a medium-size American town -- so, within a couple years of going there, all the faces (but not all the names) are familiar/recognizable.  1st year is Freshmen, 2nd Sophomores, 3rd Juniors, 4th and last is Seniors, graduating at 17 or 18.<br/><br/>Just read DA's post -- more or less in agreement with what I've said here.  However, it might be nice to know if the town is closer to 20K or 40K in population (Urban?); 20K makes it much more likely, but still no certainty, that more characters should know something of each other.