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Va. Town Quietly Mourns 1 of Its Own
Safety-pinned to the outside of Bennett's tote bag is a piece of paper printed with the image of a black ribbon behind the letters "VT" and the inscription "R.I.P. Nicole White 4/16/07."
Bennett met White through a mutual friend at Smithfield High School, when White was a junior and Bennett just a freshman.
  This undated photo provided by Tim Piland, the senior pastor at Nansemond River Baptist Church in Suffolk, Va., shows Nicole White, a graduate of Smithfield High School in Smithfield, Va. White was among those killed in the shootings on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. (AP Photo/Nansemond River Baptist Church) (AP) 
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White was a lot of fun. She would gamely eat foods that students mixed together in weird combinations as they traded lunches, Bennett said, laughing. White also would amuse friends by walking down the street, singing classic rock tunes such as "I Love Rock N' Roll," a Joan Jett hit that was older than White.
Above all, White was always looking to help others. In high school, she was an EMT with the rescue squad and a lifeguard at the YMCA. In Blacksburg, she volunteered at the animal shelter and at a battered women's shelter.
"She was everybody's favorite," Bennett said, tearing up. "She never judged anyone and she saw a friend in everybody."
The message board in front of the 1,200-student high school is draped in maroon and orange fabric and reads, "We Are All One Family."
White lived not far from the school, just outside Smithfield's historic district, at the end of a cul-de-sac in a subdivision with large wooded lots and a private marina.
On Thursday, while Mike and Tricia White were still in Blacksburg, waiting for their daughter's body to be released, a group of men spruced up their yard and fixed railings on their porch. They did not want to talk, out of respect for the family, but said they work with White's father at Dominion Power.
Just up the street, maroon-and-orange ribbons were tied to three small trees at a playground and a small Virginia Tech flag was planted in a flower bed in front of one home.
There was more maroon and orange on the towering pine trees outside Nansemond River Baptist, the church in nearby Suffolk where White was a member. People have been placing roses, carnations and other flowers beneath one tree with a Virginia Tech banner tied to the trunk.
Exhausted and heartbroken, the White family wasn't ready to talk about her just a few days after her death.
Senior pastor Tim Piland said, though, that the Whites want people to know that "their daughter loved life, loved people and loved the Lord."
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