When Playboy Playmate Holly Madison was a teenager growing up in Astoria, Oregon, the now-very-popular blond wasn't all that popular. She admits that she wasn't all that focused on doing well in school either, until she realized that getting good grades would be the key to getting out of her small town.

"Other people would describe me when I was 17 as, like, a freak or aloof," Madison says on this week's episode of "When I Was 17." "I was always, like, white makeup, black lipstick. Like, I wasn't particularly hot in high school, but I guess nobody was where I was from."

While her fashion sense was developing, so was her flair for academics. "For my first three years of high school, I really slacked off and got horrible grades, always trying to push the boundaries," she recalled. "I was always caught skipping school. But when I was 17, I realized if I ever wanted to get out of my small town, I needed to go to college. So I got my act together really fast, got straight A's.

"I just couldn't wait to get on with my life," she added. "Move into a big city and just make things happen. I was kind of bored."

But before she could head off to Portland State University, she had one more matter of unfinished business to complete before finding fame in Hollywood. "My senior year was definitely memorable. I had a lot of fun getting ready for prom and my mom made my outfits for me so I got to design them," she shared.

Unfortunately for Madison, the night didn't turn out all that happy. "I went with my boyfriend, who was a couple years older than me. By the time we got to prom, all my friends kind of split up [from dinner], and sadly my most memorable moment of my prom was finding out my boyfriend had cheated on me with this potato-headed girl." So instead of forgiving her beau, she let him go. "I was so angry. I drove him home, dropped him off, broke up with him," she said. "And that was that."

"When I Was 17" — this week featuring Holly Madison, Dwyane Wade, and Joel and Benji Madden — airs Saturday at 11 a.m. on MTV.