By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Walk up the stairs to the second floor at Bishop Blanchet High School, turn right, and you will see the office of Father Gordon Douglas. Perhaps his door will be open and you will see him, sitting cross-legged in his chair, in front of his hundreds of photos and bits of memorabilia gathered throughout his 30-year career as a school chaplain. He will probably look almost like he does on the cover of his first book (which hit store shelves nationwide in December).

Over the years, thousands of kids who attend Bishop Blanchet have come to him with their joys, their sorrows and their questions, which often start with "Hey Father!" - the title of Douglas's literary opus. At night, Father Douglas goes to the Magnolia home he shares with his two dogs, just blocks away from the house he grew up in. If the day has been moving in some way (as many days in a priest's life are) he writes down some his experiences and thoughts in a journal.

Many of those experiences, both good and bad, have made it into Douglas's book. Each chapter tells a true story that leaves the reader with a life lesson - many of them are old and familiar ideas on how to live but still bear repetition.

Of course, Bishop Blanchet itself is the backdrop for many of the stories and a number of former students are characters.

Back in 1971, Douglas was finishing off a three-year stint at his first parish in Longview, Wash. Yet even there, Douglas said, modern problems such as drug use existed. Helping local teens organize a widely acclaimed anti-drug fair in the area brought Douglas to the attention of the Archbishop of Seattle who thought that Douglas would make the perfect new chaplain for Blanchet.

Unfortunately, that wasn't where Douglas saw himself at all. He had envisioned leading a traditional parish, helping people through all walks of life - not hanging out with kids all day. However, Douglas did agree to take the post for a three-year term.

He hasn't left yet.

"I found out I was good with kids," Douglas explained. "Most of the time I go home laughing because kids are so funny - whether or not they know it."

But Douglas has learned a lot from the kids too - like how to make religion interesting to teenagers, one of the world's toughest audiences.

"Kids make you bloody honest," Douglas said. "You can't communicate Christianity effectively unless you can communicate it to high school kids. If I had stayed in a parish I never would have learned how to communicate our Christian faith. A lot of what I've done ... is what Jesus did - tell stories."

Douglas said he doesn't consider himself a writer, so it must be the practiced storyteller in him that decided to arrange his experiences into book form. He started writing "Hey, Father!" two years ago but set it aside, questioning the value of his work as many authors do. A year later, when someone asked whatever happened to the manuscript he had been working on, Douglas decided to send the book to Servant Publications, a Christian publishing company in Ann Arbor, Mich. The company picked up the book soon after.

Since its publication, "Hey, Father!" has helped Douglas get back in touch with at least one former student. While finishing up his book, Douglas called many old friends and acquaintances who he mentioned in the stories and asked for permission to use their names. However, one girl he wrote about, a young, single mom who had given up her baby for adoption, couldn't be found because Douglas couldn't remember her name even though other details of her story were fresh in his mind. Douglas decided to leave the story in the book and make up a name for the girl.

When an article appeared in a daily paper about "Hey, Father!" that single mom e-mailed Douglas the next day - it turns out the name he picked out of the air for her was her real name. Far from being angry, Douglas' former student wanted copies of the book to share with her family and her son who is now grown-up and who she hopes to be able to get back in touch with.

Douglas said that one of the most satisfying things about the publication of "Hey, Father!" is hearing from teens who read the stories and enjoyed them.

In fact, some students who buy the book are benefiting themselves - Douglas said that all the proceeds from sale of the manuscript will go to provide scholarships to Bishop Blanchet for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. That way, kids can get a taste of priestly wisdom in writing, and then walk down that long, second-floor hall for the real thing.

"(The students) need to know there's more to life than Northgate shopping mall," Douglas said. "In many ways, I think that's what a priest's job is."