Robin Roberts: 'Queen of the Couch'

Sept. 7, 2006 — -- Long before coming to "Good Morning America," Robin Roberts was voted Most Likely to Succeed, Student Body Favorite, and Most Athletic -- and that was just during her senior year of high school.

"Everybody loved Robin," said her close friend Luella Fariconeture.

In high school, Robin was a member of the band, the French club, and on the yearbook staff.

But underneath Robin's high-achieving exterior was a fierce competitor from her pigtail-wearing days.

Just ask her older sister, Dorothy, about battles over the unofficial title of "Queen of the Couch."

"'Queen of the Couch' was an idiotic game we developed," Dorothy said. "When the commercial came on, we literally would tear each other off the couch. And when the show came on, whoever was on the couch was queen of the couch."

"I was relentless," Robin said.

"She would claw [and] really scratch," Dorothy said.

Adolescent mischief sometimes spilled over into the classroom, and one teacher wasn't so amused.

"She had a number of peers with her, and you know, to keep friends at that age group, Robin had to keep them," said Ms. Beck, Robin's former teacher. "I guess she forgot about me."

"There was a very popular song at the time, 'Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing,'" Robin said. "And so I would cut up in class -- and I remember this like it was yesterday -- and Ms. Beck was up in the front of the class. And she looked straight at me."

Ms. Beck had a quick response for Robin's mischief.

"I would say, 'Nothing from nothing leaves nothing from nothing leaves nothing. And you better have something if you want to be in this class with me,'" Ms. Beck said.

As the daughter of an Air Force colonel, Robin was accustomed to moving around and starting over.

In 1976, she arrived at the steps of Pass Christian High School in Mississippi to begin her freshman year.

Even for the most seasoned military offspring, it was a bumpy start.

"Sometimes she was a little nerdy," Luella Fariconeture said.

Robin noticed the stares from her new classmates.

"There was a little bit of a 'Who is she? Who's this?' Because they weren't used to getting new kids in town," Robin said.