20 years later they meet at the alter… Sam and Rakel met at South El Monte High School in the summer of 1999, Sam was a Junior and Rakel was a Freshman. Sam was a drum leader for the school’s marching band and Rakel was the captain of the cheerleading squad and involved with ASB. They would see each other quite a bit, mostly at distance and nothing more than friendship. Sam and Rakel would always travel on the bus to the high school football games together.