Before School: Well first of all, today is my best friend Bria’s birthday, so that’s nice. Second of all, today’s bus ride was pretty normal outside of 5 minutes where we were waiting for someone to come and they weren’t there as always so the driver just left. I got to school just in time to join in celebrating Bria’s birthday. While I opened my locker and put my stuff away, the friend group (Kaylah, Leela, ZJ, Solzy, Alex, Jarius, Layeth, Gabriel, Esmé, and Yaoyi) and Haile crowded around her while Kaylah presented her with a card. By then, I closed my locker and stood next to Haile behind the circle as we all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Then, we went to class. Hilariously, both me and Bria think her birthday is cursed since it’s on the 13th and she had Band (a class we both dread) first thing in the morning.

Study Hall: After some initial seating issues (we were supposed to sit where we did on Monday, so some people had to move around), we all got settled into the class. Our normal supervisor was off on a two-night trip with the grade above us since she was one of their Advisors, so the dean was our substitute. I did my English homework, but can I just take a moment to rant about how much I hate Study Hall this year? See, last year, we were allowed to sit wherever we wanted, move around whenever we wanted, and talk. This year, because they saw how crazy it got last year, the school decided to give us assigned seats and have us stay quiet during Study Hall. Oh, and did I mention that we’re currently not allowed to do group work, unlike last year? That’s not a problem right now, but it will be soon. One last thing: we used to have it in the Academic Center, but now, since there’s 3 Study Halls happening at the same time instead of one, we all use the classrooms (which are smaller) while the massive Academic Center space is reserved for scheduled one-on-ones between a student and teacher.

Science: In Science today, we started off with a “get to know you” activity, and shared three things with a partner (mine was Louis) before saying one of those things out loud to the whole class to prove we were listening. After repeatedly reminding Louis that I admired James Roberts’ writing, he kept asking what my name was to remember those things, and then kept saying my name during the class to show that he knew it. (And Cole made it worse by telling me, “At least he didn’t call you ‘gay-el.”) Anyways, after that activity, we finished our lab safety scavenger hunt, where we found emergency tools around the lab and wrote down when and how to use them, like eyewash and the fire blanket, and then did some stuff with scenarios of lab safety in jeaprody.

Spanish: Nothing exciting happened in class today. We just learned some new vocabulary, but that’s about it.

Lunch & Recess: Unholy things happened at lunch today, but first lemme cover the happy things. Bria came into the cafeteria with Jarius, who was carrying both of their plates, and she pulled up a chair at the head of the table (since it was her birthday). Jarius stopped her and pulled the chair back before setting her plate on the table. He then told her to sit down and pushed her chair in once she did. After that, he got a couple of napkins and put one on her chest to use as an apron and two in her lap to catch food. Now, onto the unholy things. Jarius proceeded to go to the area where they have the drinks (by the way, the cafeteria apparently wasn’t ready for us to eat lunch yet and didn’t get the lemonade out, so I was sad because I had to drink a liquid that smelled like apple juice but tasted like water) and returned with chocolate milk mixed with cranberry juice. (I’m guessing it was mixed with that because it had a dark red coloration.) As if that wasn’t bad enough already, he shook salt and pepper into the drink and then brought it back to the drinks area with Aliza. We all watched as they put ketchup in the drink, along with every available drink from the dispensers, and then mixed it all with a plastic spoon. They brought it back and told us we were gonna pass it around and each have a sip in celebration of Bria’s birthday. Esmé arrived and I caught her up on what had just happened, saying that this reminded me of one of those rituals or initiations you see in shows where you have to pass around and drink the blood of “a dead goat, or something.” (My exact words.) Thankfully, Jarius seemed to have immediately forgotten about that because he drank the whole glass in three long sips. Bria kept saying he was gonna vomit, especially after he picked up his chicken and took a big bite out of it. We took that as a cue to put our plates away (well, I had already gotten rid of mine) and head outside. We were halfway across the field when we saw Jarius come out and run towards us. We then scattered and ran (I followed Bria and Leela) as he hugged us, which “infected” us. Me and Alex were the only ones left, and they sent him after me, so I found myself running completely around the field to escape him. Once I got back to the group, ZJ and Leela tried to hold him down, giving me 5 seconds to get away before they released him. I ran for the bleachers, but cornered myself and ran around the field twice, my legs almost giving out each time. Eventually, I gave up and let him hug and infect me before nearly collapsing on the ground from exhaustion. (Keep that in mind, because it’s gonna be a slight problem two periods from now.) The whistle blew, and we headed inside, and I got there before most people because I wasn’t sure what class was next. It was a bit awkward, since half the grade was having their STS (Student to Student) classes now and were going to eat lunch while we had our next period. I checked the schedule and saw that it was time for Model Building, which meant going all the way to the commons and then to the art building, which would’ve been a quick walk had I stayed on the field. I groaned and made my way there.

Model Building: I sat down at the same table I was at on Monday, with Julia, Sahaana, and, in a few minutes, Duncan. Bria also arrived and joined us there. We got our blades and began to cut out the cardboard-paper-thingy outline, which we would then score so we could bend each side and then we’d bend said sides and glue them together to make a simple pyramid. Duncan scared us a few times when he moved around and, at one point, had one finger on the wrong side of the safety ruler, which was dangerously close to the blade. By the time class ended, I had finished cutting out the outline and scoring each of the needed sections. I knew the next class was PE, so I didn’t make the mistake of going to the [​REDACTED] school building and then back to the field. On the way there, I spoke to Nicky, whose first day of school was today since he had been quarantining after his parents caught COVID.

PE: Just remember that my legs are still tired from running from Jarius before you start reading this part. Today was day 3 of 5 for soccer try-outs (it was either trying out for a sport or going to PE if you didn’t want to try out for a sport, and my mom is making me try out for soccer), and today, we started off with our usual lap around our side of the lower field. (It’s slightly smaller than the upper field, which is where recess is, and we had about 3/4 of it to ourselves for class.) After that, we got into groups of three and did some exercises, with me getting in a group with Jai and Layeth. As a full group, we’re then split down the middle, with half of us going with one coach and the other half going with the other. Our group played Rhondo, which is basically just monkey-in-the-middle, but with a soccer ball and a square, and the ability to move around within said square. After that, we rotated and my group played a shooting game where we basically just kicked four different balls into the goal while trying to not let the goalie get it. When we were all called to huddle around the coach, 7 people decided to walk instead of run. This earned us 7 laps around our 3/4 of the field, but luckily, the coach stopped us after I had finished my second, but my legs were basically dead by this point. After a brief talk about what just happened, we were dismissed. Just so you know, my legs still hurt a bit when I bend them. My mom says I need to exercise and stretch more, but I say I need to quit trying out for soccer. Luckily, she told me an hour ago that we’d see what happens this week and then maybe I can just do PE instead of soccer.

Community Conversations: Instead of having seventh (History) and eight (Math) period, with Advisory in between, the rest of our afternoon was taken up by an extra-long third Community Conversation session. By now, me and Bria’s theory that her birthday (and possibly mine, which is on the 13th of February) was cursed was basically proven, since our session was 15 minutes longer. Today, we talked about Native American boarding schools. Now, isn’t that fun? I’m not trying to sound rude, since I am aware that people’s relatives did go through this experience, but this was kinda a waste of time since we already learned about it last year and talked about the exact same things during the session. Things were slightly awkward, since Tamir kept commenting (while sitting between me and Bria and ZJ was sitting next to me, before he left early) about the white girls’ statements and stuff. We did, however get a short break, during which me and Isaac talked about Dungeons & Dragons. We also talked about if there were any similarities between us and the lives of the Native Americans in the short account we read about the boarding schools (which was by one of their former attendees), and all my group (me, Kavya, and Dom) could come up with was that we all liked spending time with family. At the end of the session, we began moving the chairs back into place from the circle formation we put them in for the session, as well as the desks, which we moved out of the way so we could have more space. During this time, me, Bria, and Tamir (mainly Tamir) had a not-so-intense argument with Isaac about the chances of Black people (like us) getting shot and how they were still high. Originally, we were supposed to have 15 minutes at the end of the session to go outside the field, but since the field was wet from heavy rain, we waited around a bit before Ms. Clementine said we were told to go to the junior varsity gym. Me and Bria rushed after Tamir to get there before everyone else, since by the time we got there, we’d only have about 5 minutes before we had to leave to get to our buses and stuff (we all rode the bus back home, but separately). We arrived before everyone else and basically just wandered around the gym the whole time, before Ms. Hall told us we could all leave early, so me and Bria rushed down to the field, where we ran into Kaylah, Leela, Layeth, and Gabriel. Gabriel gave me a quality spring and micro-sized water bottle (aka the top of a pen) from a pen that Brandon had broken as we both walked into the school building before exiting it to go to dismissal. (I say dismissal because he was getting picked up and I was taking the bus, so I was generalizing.) For those wondering why we didn’t just take the quick route and go from the upper field to the lower one to the buses, we didn’t want to get run over by moving buses.

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Sorry I haven’t posted these for the last two days! On Monday, I forgot to do it until it was too late, and last night, I fell asleep and woke up 14 minutes to midnight. (I have a rule that I can’t post these past midnight because I want to publish them on the day of.) However, for those who want some mini-School Stories, on Monday, I was assigned during English to sit at a table with Theo, Sol, and Stella, my crush, which was nice. Yesterday, since our English teacher was also the 8th Grade dean, she went on the trip with them like our Study Hall supervisor did. She’ll be back tomorrow, but for yesterday’s class, we all got to go to the library, where me, Bria, and Leela looked through several sections, namely Bria’s “favorite” (sarcasm), the Natural Sciences section, which has all the books on stuff that’s too gross for the teachers to talk about! Anyways, see y’all on the next School Story.