• September 2, 2006 Only two more days of summer. Yes. Then we go back and I start my new year. Bad news though. Fuzz can’t come back to Ann Arbor for awhile because he doesn’t have a place to stay yet. He doesn’t know when he’s coming back. Apparently he’s PISSED. Well, I guess I would be, too. My life is here, as is Fuzz’s. This sucks. I wonder how he’s doing. Probably not so good, since he can’t come back to his life over here. Damn eviction people. Why did it have to be the Dennises? On a change of topic, I went to the first Michigan football game of the season today. I think we won. It was hotter than hell in the stadium and I was wearing my gray coat and a long-sleeved shirt. Dad made us leave five minutes before the game ended, because the score was 20-7 (in our favor) and he wanted to miss the crowd. It was really fun to go to the games again. It was sort of weird not going with Cam, though. That was our thing. We would go see the football games and follow the band and such. Seeing as Anne of St. Francis isn’t online, I’m guessing he went with her. Whatever. I’m fine with that. I swear, those two are on the fast track to going out. We played Vanderbilt, which is some down-South school, I think. There was this crazy fan from there who was in the middle of our section and kept arguing with a dude like five rows above him. They went back and forth throughout the whole first half. It was most entertaining. We cracked up. There was another incident involving a beach ball. They throw the beach balls over the section and people hit them to keep them in the air. Well, a ball came our way. Michael said, “Yes!” and rammed his fist into one. It shot down the section and completely beamed an old guy in the head. I pointed and laughed at Michael, who was just kind of like, “Oops....” after it happened. And people say I’m clueless. Or they did. They don’t anymore, because it’s bad form to tell someone who’s not a freshman that kind of thing. Well, we have forty-eight hours of vacation left after today. Yay. School should be fun. Zach tells me that he leaves on the 7th of September. Their classes start the 15th or somewhere around there. Also, on another bright side, it’s only twenty-two days until my fifteenth birthday! I need to find out Zach’s birthday. It’s either the 1st or the 3rd of December. I can’t remember which. I just remember that he’s either a day behind or ahead of Michael, whose birthday is December 2nd. That would suck to be in boarding school during your birthday. Well that’s about it for today. Ehhhh, only two more days to survive... September 3, 2006 I’m listening to “Saints and Sailors” and thinking. Only twenty-seven hours left. Mom and Dad are out to dinner, so I’m just sitting here on my last night of summer, drinking yellow Gatorade. I’m sort of seeing a problem in the making for me.... but I won’t say anything yet. If what I’m thinking is true, then I’m in deep shit. On several levels. Whatever. If I find out that it’s really true, then I’ll write about it. But not yet. Dad and I went kayaking for the first time in the whole summer. We usually do more, but we just didn’t for some reason this summer. Probably because we were busy. It was fun, but it was taking a lot out of my arms and shoulders. I had forgotten how hard kayaking is. I was doing this thing where I would do twenty strokes and then rest for twenty strokes. It got to be a rhythm thing after awhile. I was glad when we were done, though. There gets to be a point where you just have to stop. I went to church for the first time in months. It wasn’t bad. Church is never tons and tons of fun, but some are more boring then others. This one was good on the boring scale. I had a prayer that I kept praying over and over, but I won’t talk about that yet. Not for awhile. We sang some good stuff and I really felt at peace. True peace. Interesting what church can do. I found some cool stuff on Blink-182’s songs on SongMeanings.com. People notice some weird things. They’re right, though. There’s something about this time of year that makes me want to listen to Blink. Well, Blink was a big escape for me last year at this time. I think my old love for “Feeling This” is coming back. I thought that was the coolest song back in seventh grade. I’ve been listening to the end a lot today, because someone said that at the end, you can hear someone singing, “I’ll be yellow, you be red”. I had never noticed that before. I found it. It’s at the very end, when they go a cappella and do a round type thing. Actually it’s not quite a round. One of the Blink guys is singing, “So lost and disillusioned” and the main guy is singing the main part. I had always wondered what they’re singing, because it sounds pretty sweet together. Turns out that’s part of the end. I caught it, but it took a couple times for me to really hear it. Someone else pointed out that at the end of “What’s My Age Again?” one person sings “please stay Wendy”. I completely didn’t hear that until I had listened to it about five times. The first time I really heard it was when me and Dad were on our way to the kayak place. Apparently Wendy was one of the Blink guys’ old girlfriend who ditched him, but he really loved her. Speaking of love, I’m having a conversation with Anne of St. Francis about Cam. I didn’t realize how much she likes him. I’m going to try to get it out of him soon, for her sake. I just don’t want to be the one to tell her, “Yeah, he doesn’t like you.” I know from experience what a bitch it can be to tell a close friend you like him (just look back in these pages to May 23, haha). I’m good at leading Cam through a conversation, so I should be able to pull it out of him. Also on that subject, I heard Zach broke up with his girlfriend. It was a long-distance relationship (similar to another couple I know). She dumped him and said that she saw him more as a friend than a boyfriend. Which sucks. Big time. I hear he liked her a LOT. I feel so sorry for poor Zach. She dumped him during his blaze of glory. Now he’ll be looking back on this and thinking, “Oh, yeah, but that was when I broke up with Jean.” I would have waited, if it were me. Not to sound ADD, but I wonder why Anne likes Cam. Sure, I did, but I’ve moved on, become more mature and all that. Cam reminds me of a certain Blink-182 song. And that’s about the time she walked away from me Nobody likes you when your twenty-three And you still act like you’re in freshman year What the hell is wrong with me? My friends say I should act my age What’s my age again? What’s my age again? That’s a great song, “What’s My Age Again?” and it really describes Cam. He acts about thirteen. Michael couldn’t stand him, nor could Mom and Dad. Actually, they thought that we were on the verge of going out. Which, at that time, we might have been. Good thing high school rolled around. This is another thing I have to get down. I saw Medical Incredible today. It was this amazing story. The kid on the show had Aspburger’s Syndrome! His parents actually cured him of it using something called the Son-Rise program. He’s social now and everything. I had to get that name down before I forgot it. I know why I was supposed to watch that show. Because of Jack. He’s our Aunt Laura’s kid, and they’re afraid he has it. It runs on the Deame side of the family, which is where David got it. Mom has a little of it and Grandpa has it, too. I’m going to tell Mom about it, and maybe she’ll tell Aunt Laura. Okay, I have to go now. See ya. September 4, 2006- Labor Day/Last Day Of Summer Vacation All right. One more day. Less than that, in fact. As of now, it’s really about ten hours. Yay! It’s strange to think tonight’s a school night, though. I think Michael’s totally bummed. He loves just relaxing, and he’s going to have to work really hard this year if he wants to get into one of the Academies. Ha, I’m still a sophomore. I have time. I do have to do good this year though. It’s good I have such good teachers. It does piss me off that I have no unknown quantities this year. That’s half the fun. I didn’t know any of my teachers last year. Most of them ended up all right, except Ms. Bryant and sometimes Goebbel. Sometimes. September 5, 2006- First Day of School Yes! We’re back! The first day was pretty good. I have good people in my classes. Hurley seems to be in all of my classes. Paul’s in my English class. Wyatt and Sarah are in my Geometry class. Last but not least- the Walrus is in my Earth Science class. Okay, about seven months ago I would have been overjoyed about that. I know I have to break up with him. I just didn’t have the guts to do it today. I didn’t even see him until right after lunch. I meant to have a serious talk with him about how I didn’t think it was going to work out, but he just seemed so glad to see me. When he hugged me he lifted me clear off my feet. I realized I still love him, but just as a friend now. I have to find some way to do it without hurting him because we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other this year. Band is going to be fun. Currently, I’m sitting between Zach Baker and Ashley. On her other side is Caleb. We’re going to have some fun until Mr. Roberts changes it up. I think our tuba section sounds like a law firm. They’re Anderson, Toner, and Blogin (attorneys at law). It sounded even worse with their whole squad. Sounded more like a police force or something. Not that Luis Anderson is tough enough to be on the police force. I could see him as some kind of lawyer, though. He’s really smart. I have to say that Mr. Fox is the most sinfully boring person I’ve ever met in all my born days. He droned for the whole hour. Didn’t even take attendance. I sit next to a guy named Kevin Arabejo, who’s a friend of Michael’s and currently a captain on the lacrosse team. He strikes me as a bit of a dumbass. He actually lives in California but is here for USA hockey. He’s odd. To say the least. It really didn’t help that I was sooooo bored. Mr. Fox already gave us a speech to prepare. I think he looks like Josh, my assistant squad leader from last year. I really like Mr. Kim and Mr. Wilson. They’re both great teachers. Mr. Kim is really clear and seems like a really nice guy. I’m questioning whether Mr. Wilson is straight or not, but he also seems like a good guy. I already like him because when he called my name in attendance, he didn’t say, “Mike’s sister?” That pisses me off, when people do that. Mr. Kim said that, but he let it go. He actually gave us homework. So did Mr. Drake. His was the hardest. It was picking supporting points out of a paragraph and I’m really not sure if I’m doing it right or not. I hate the student teacher already. She seems really stiff. Mr. Drake I think is going to be okay, though. I’ve just got to find a way to break up with a certain member of that class and I can enjoy it. I hope he doesn’t take it too hard. I don’t want to hurt him. Latin was horrible. I’m really not sure about Mr. Julius. He’s more lenient on some things, like having food and stuff like that in the room, but he just doesn’t seem like a very good teacher. It’s not helping that everyone in the room knows each other from 6th hour. There’s only three of us from the original class. Me, a girl named Annahid, and Nate, who’s really quiet. We all had a nice conversation at the end of class, though. They were always nice to me, even though they were juniors and I was just a punk freshman. That was really the extent of my day. I’m going to go and reiterate all this to Mom. ‘Bye. September 6, 2006 David is recharging his iPod, so I’m listening to that. I would never admit it in a million years, but I really kind of like some of the stuff he listens to. Right now I’m listening to a song from Rent. It’s really good. Helps with me about to be having a breakdown. I need to break up with the Walrus. I can’t do it, though! I have plenty of opportunities, but I can’t seem to tell him. He sits right next to me in Earth Science and I don’t want to lose him. This is messed up. I spend my whole lunch period running from assorted stalkers with Amy and then I go to face him the next hour. It’s getting to be hell and it’s only the second day. Yay us and our whacky relationships. Band is getting to be fun. I’m now sixth chair, which is an improvement on ninth (also known as Dead Last). I sit next to Caleb and Matt Stern. It’s funny, because this is almost the same as last year with me, Caleb, Ashley, and Luis. Yep. Luis. The tubas are directly behind us. So it’s the same only the editorial comments come from behind us instead of next to us now. I’m happy. Really. There’s no one like Luis. Actually, there’s the whole wrestling team, but you know what I mean. I know I don’t like him anymore, but I really think that I would be open to being his friend. Never mind that Michael hates him. I don’t mind him. Not at all. I think I’ll always have a special place for him. Hey, he’s the guy I fell hardest for. I would rather not tell him that, though. He would either laugh or not care. Damn tuba players. Zach’s leaving for Interlochen tomorrow, according to him. He’s flying into Detroit Metro tomorrow at about eight. I’ll have to remember to think of him during Mr. Kim’s class tomorrow. Something tells me that he’s having problems with his parents, because he mentioned throwing a fifteen-pound-weight at some furniture. He got pissed off at his dad. It’s probably for the best that he’s leaving. This does mean that he’ll be getting all stressed out and distant, though. Too bad. I love that guy. I’m sort of wondering how and where Alex is. I’m still waiting for him and Amy to break up. I know that sounds terrible, but it’s going to make things so much easier. He hasn’t been online. I think we all serve as vents for each other. Talking to them always helps me when I’m having a bad day. It just sometimes scares me how adult they are. More Zach than Alex. I swear, Alex is just a less mature version of Zach. I like ‘em both a lot, though. This happened a few days ago. The Crocodile Hunter died! I was seriously shocked. I loved that guy a lot and I watched Animal Planet obsessively when I was about in sixth grade. He got killed by a stingray, which has only happened, like, six times in the history of the world. Which sucks. I posted a prayer for him on the Pendragon forums, which I’ve taken to arguing on. People caught on and I counted six or seven prayers on that forum. Okay, I’m going to head out. Peace. September 7, 2006 No math homework tonight, because I did tonight’s assignment last night. Now all I have to do is finish Mr. Drake’s homework and write up a summery of my current event for Mr. Fox. Nice life, as Alex would say. It truly is. Sophomore year is a breeze so far, but then again it’s only the third day. I realized recently that school’s not that hard. I just make it hard because I’m an idiot. I also had another thought today. I don’t want to switch out of Mr. Julius’ class. I like Mr. Kim a lot. Also, I’m fo’ sho’ going to get an A. I know everything this man is throwing at us. He’s going to be sick of me, though, because our class is full of dumbasses and freshmen. I know they probably think I’m a genius. Mr. Julius asks obvious questions. It’s really not that hard. And let’s face it. He’s not a bad guy. He’s just not Mr. Vogel. I just have to remember to be a credit to Mr. Vogel while here. Band was fun. I really like the new seating arrangement, although I did forget my lyre today. I thought I was screwed, but Mr. Roberts was overloaded and we didn’t get to play. I had some nice conversations with Luis, Ashley, and Caleb, though. They make me laugh big time. It’s almost as good as having Luis back. Almost. He got really arrogant since going back to tuba. He was going on about how awesome Concert Orchestra was and how we would never be there. Nice guy. What he SHOULD have done was challenged me if he didn’t want to be last chair. Hell, I better not start missing him again. Earth Science was.... interesting. I’ve decided that our class is extraordinarily dumb. We were going over the homework today and I knew all the answers, but I kept my mouth shut except for a few because I don’t want to be accused of being a superbrain. I think Mr. Drake likes me. He nods and smiles at me when I make a good answer. Well, I like him. He’s a really good teacher. He believes in homework about as strongly as Mr. Julius doesn’t. So, our dumb student teacher went over the homework. I got 16.5 out of 20. Which isn’t bad. She insisted on going over every single answer. That was incredibly boring, because it’s really self-explanatory. We got off track and some girl asked a question about the moon. Mr. Drake answered, “They’ve found that the moon is moving toward the earth at a rate of an inch every hundred years.” A black chick screams that we’re all going to die. The conversation went back and forth like that for some time, including what would happen if the moon went too close to the sun, would it explode, wouldn’t the earth explode, isn’t there an asteroid coming towards earth right now? I couldn’t stop laughing. These people are truly clueless. The black chick screamed that we were all going to die, right? The Walrus came back with “Yes, you will die someday!” “From the asteroid, right, yo? Gonna blow up the Earth?” “There is no asteroid!” Mr. Drake finally put an end to it. I was cracking up for most of the hour. Hurley was in the back, laughing and shaking his head. He’s probably the smartest kid in the class. He’s in my English, Speech, and Earth Science classes. Great guy. I’m liking Matt Hurley a lot more this year. I didn’t like him so much last year until the end of the year, when we spent lunch together on a weird-lunch-schedule day. I know he’s a good guy. He’s another one that grew on me. Paul and I are also getting really close. I sit next to him in English. He tends to be easy to talk too. I see why Amy liked him, even though he’s not really my type. Another good guy. I’m going to go knock out Mr. Drake’s homework. ‘Bye. September 8, 2006 Well, the first week of school is over. Today’s Friday. Freshman Friday, to be exact, the biggest day of hazing that the school year sees. Anne was fine, I think, although she mentioned that she was scared. Which I get. That stuff gets freaky. I’m going to the football game tonight. I’m breaking up with the Walrus. It’s got to be done. I can’t keep going on like that. And also, I think I have a problem. Big time. I just have to trot out a sob story for him and make him understand that it’s not his fault, it’s my parents. He’ll buy that. People seem to and it doesn’t invite many questions. Okay, my problem started this morning when I was walking across the senior lot with Michael. I was roughly half asleep and just wandering. I don’t know what he was doing there, but Hurley was cutting across the lot towards us. He approached and pointed at me, which is kind of our new greeting. I pointed back, which is custom. “Do you have the science homework?” he asked me. I rolled my eyes. I knew what was coming. “Yes...” “Can I have it?” Hurley asked, grinning. Sighing, I said, “Only for you, Hurley.” I pulled out my Earth Science binder and said, “Look, here’s my binder. Give it back to me in Drake’s class.” “Thank you so much!” I rolled my eyes again. “Sure.” So that’s how it started. I didn’t see him first hour, that being Geometry for me and Latin for him. We do see each other in English, though. While Mr. Wilson was going on about something, I tried to scowl at him from across the room, but it didn’t seem to be working out. I couldn’t not smile at him. Then it was Speech. It was Current Events Day with Mr. Fox. Hurley joined our group of all girls, seeing as he didn’t have an article. After everyone presents their article, each group has one person read the most interesting article out loud to the class. I wasn’t exactly volunteering for that. The whole time I stood next to him and we were making snide comments the whole time. It was fun, I have to say. Okay, I’m sure you can draw the obvious conclusion from all this. I have such issues! I’m jumping to every single guy in the group! I’m turning into Melanie. Crap. Only she actually told them when she liked them. I never plan on telling ANY of them. Although I think on some level they already know. This totally does not help me right now, though. It’s going to be hard for me, since Hurley and the Walrus are both in my Earth Science class. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Something tells me I’m in majorly deep shit here. Wasn’t my life hard enough without adding this? To speak the truth, I don’t mind liking guys. Makes stuff interesting. This is just complicated, though. Five or six months ago I would have thought that I would never land myself in a situation like this, due to the fact that my thing for the Walrus was never going to go away. Huh. Bullshit. Okay, I haven’t a clue about what to do next, but I guess I’ll just play it by ear. Whatever happens was probably meant to be. I think I’m going to take off. ‘Bye. September 9, 2006 The football game was fun. I didn’t see the Walrus, but apparently he was there. I sat with Anne of St. Francis and ol’ Mataeso, who I love. It was her first game ever, so she was having fun. Until a guy from the other team went down and she freaked out because she really has a heart for humanity. Took the poor guy about a half hour to get out of the stadium. Otherwise, we had a lot of fun. Mataeso and I were rehashing all of our best Latin moments. Most of them had to do with Mr. MacDonough and his reactions. He was only nine years older than me, so he and I really connected. He would tell me when I was an idiot, and we would tell him when his teaching sucked and make fun of his assignments with him in the room. Great guy. I really miss him. So, anyway, we did a bunch of those. We’ve got a million. Now I want to switch into Latin even more. It’s the old class plus Hurley! How great is that? I’m so jealous of Mataeso! I just have to pray that Dad will absolutely hate Mr. Julius and order me straight out of that class. Which I’m actually thinking he might. He’ll probably say that he doesn’t have the right values or something. Okay, there’s hope. At least I hope there’s hope. Wow, that’s a retarded sentence. Whatever. I watched, like, five hours of the Discovery Health Channel today. It was all interesting. I love stuff like that. Maybe I’ll be a bariatric surgeon. That seems really cool. I would love to help people, especially fat ones, because I know what it’s like to be fat and no one likes you. It sucks. Big time. That would be cool. September 10, 2006 I’m sort of working on my collage for Mr. Fox. I’ve been printing out pictures from the Internet, but we don’t have a color printer, which sucks. I took a few pictures from the Brasswind catalogue and added some pictures of Bailey. It’s okay, I guess, not my best, but okay. I’ve been Anne of St. Francis’s acting shrink. I’ve introduced her to the concept of dream-telling. She tells her dream to me and then I tell her what it means. I’ve looked at enough dream dictionaries to get a general idea of what things mean. She tells me that it helps to talk about her and Cam and how the whole thing is going to go down. Maybe she’ll tell Cam tomorrow! That’s what she told me, anyway. I hope they do go out. Everyone who knows them can see that they’re obviously meant to be together. This whole thing with Anne and Cam has got me thinking. I think I want to be a clinical psychologist. I just have to stop laughing. Anne says I would make an awesome therapist. Maybe. I know it would be kind of cool. And there will always be screwed up people, so that’s good job security. Psychology is pretty interesting, even though Dad says it’s really hard. September 12, 2006 Okay, good day. Anne told Cam! I am literally bursting with pride. It went well. Like, really well. She said, “Cam I really like you” and he said, “Ditto”, which is sooooo Cam. Apparently it’s true, though. I questioned him about it after band. He shouted down the hall, “How long has Anne been planning it?” I laughed and shook my head. “For friggin’ ever, dude.” Cam is the only guy I call “dude” these days. We walked up the stairs together and he told me how it happened. She was apparently bursting and it just came out. I am so relieved. Maybe I was expecting the worst, like Anne was. Now everyone’s happy. Probably not Laura though. She was after Cam a bit. Ha. She’s out of the picture. This is great. This is the way it was meant to be. To quote Pendragon, although “the way it was meant to be” is getting a little out of hand in Halla. Other than all that, I had a good day. Speech was fun, even though I’m pretty screwed about my speech, because I 1) forgot my poster and 2) forgot my speech and outline. So why was it fun, one might ask. Guess. Just a wild guess. Yep. And the freshmen left for a meeting, so our class was significantly less annoying. We had fun. I sat in that annoying freshman’s seat, which is next to Hurley, incidentally. We had a lot of fun. He had to work the Power Points while their owners were presenting. I don’t think I remember the presentations. There was this girl who was like from Chile or something, which is the only thing I remember. My eyes were in a different direction. It reminded me of the line from that Lifehouse song, “You and Me”. “And I don’t know why I can’t keep my eyes off of you”. Only I’m pretty sure why. That was originally Gary’s song, at about this time last year. We analyzed it for English for the student teacher. She was under the impression that Lifehouse is way cool or something. Funny stuff. She tried soooo hard to be cool. It was hysterical. So, yeah, Speech was fun. It’s nuts how much I feel it when he walks over. It’s like I have Spidey sense or something now. And then I had to remember that the next hour was Earth Science with Mr. Drake, starring both Hurley and the Walrus. This is how people get breakdowns, I thought. I just tried to enjoy it while it was there. He ended up drawing on the back of my left hand, a long line. I stared at it for a minute, so he drew and S along the line. Now my hand says “is”. I don’t know what “is” is. Whatever. Maybe I’ll just never wash my hand. Yeah, right. That’s not practical. Is it possible that he could like me? Maybe? Again, yeah right. Although Amy did say that he was flirting with me a lot last year and I just didn’t notice. Okay, I should stop this. I know he doesn’t. He has obtained a song, though. “Of All The Gin Joints in All the World”, Fall Out Boy. Good song, which I stole from a Michael CD. Good news, though. Mom and Dad say they’ll switch me into Mr. Vogel’s class! On one condition, though. I have to find a good math teacher that teaches 6th hour. I don’t know if this is an undertaking or what, but I’m going to work it out. I love Mr. Vogel. Mr. Julius is bad. He’s a pleasant person, but he’s a terrible teacher. I can’t stand his class, which is full of idiots. I’m the only one that EVER answers. It’s because they know I know it all, so they don’t bother to respond and Julius isn’t really a fan of “let other people have a chance”. Okay, on that note, I’m going to head out. ‘Bye. September 13, 2006 Also known as The Worst Day Ever. I’m officially stuck with Mr. Julius. Mom could have switched me into Vogel’s class, but she chose not to because of a bad math teacher I would have had. I could have done it, but I guess I’m just to dumb to get that point across. I’m a failure anyway. Who cares. September 14, 2006 Wow, that last entry sounded a tad emo. Okay, a tad and a half. I swear I’m my own worst enemy sometimes. I’ve decided today that if there’s nothing to be done about it, then that’s it. I’m done bitching. Mr. Julius is okay, too. He lets us eat and drink in class and I’ll get an A. It’s enough to know that the old class misses me, I guess. I saw Mr. Vogel today. I told him that no one will answer and that I give all the answers. He told me I was doing good, keep it up. So now I have to be a credit to him and get along with Julius and get an A. I can do it. Today actually wasn’t bad. I got to skip Speech in favor of the sophomore assembly. I sat with Amy and we carried on a conversation the whole time. It was great. The people around us were really stupid and funny. Amy told me about her terrible Earth Science teacher, Snapke. Apparently Snapke threw her out for giving her “attitude”. Amy’s smart, and I can tell she’s bored. I thanked God a million times over for Mr. Drake. Mr. Vogel even said once, “I want to be just like Mr. Drake when I grow up.” He’s the best teacher I could have ever gotten. I told Amy to try to switch. Snapke and Amy don’t seem to be getting along, what with the whole weedhead class and all. I bet she would like Drake. He’s smart and teaches really well. One of these days I’m going to snap from that class, though. I’ve been being really quiet and the Walrus leaves me alone. It’s hard, though, with the combination of him and Hurley. Luckily for me there’s a really cool girl who sits next to me. She dresses all Goth, but she’s really awesome and funny. She copies me sometimes, but I don’t mind. After all, the Walrus and Hurley copy me all the time. They copied me today, in fact. Hurley asked for the homework and I handed him our assignment. He said, “Crap, I forgot we had to do this. Thanks for reminding me.” I rolled my eyes. That guy owes me a hundred times over. So does the Walrus. He did tell me today that if I ever need anything, just ask (he copied one of the three sheets Mr. Drake assigned). My closest friends, ladies and gentlemen. I guess I’m now The Smart One. The sophomore meeting was hysterical. The gist was, “Don’t drink, don’t smoke weed, don’t beat up freshmen, and don’t vandalize.” They could have sent us an email saying that. No one listened and the administrators flipped out. “Some people still find this meeting a joke,” snapped one of the people. “Well, what exactly would you call this?” I muttered to Amy. She cracked up. I did have to go in and out several times to avoid being seen by the Walrus. On the first time I went in, I wasn’t watching and I completely crashed into Luis Anderson. Wonder what a junior was doing around a meeting aimed at sophomores. I know Amy still suspects me of liking him. Hell, at some times I suspect myself of still liking him. It’s a damn good thing I can count on one hand the number of people that know I once liked him. I don’t think it meant much to Fuzz, though. They don’t really know each other. I remember praying that he would come back. Now, even though he’s on tuba, it’s almost like he’s back. He misses us, I can tell. Maybe now he’s realizing what he gave up when he copped out. Blogin and Toner aren’t really funny, and Caleb, Ashley, me, and Blake are. He’s always trying to get in on our conversations. We’re just kind of like, “Yeah, whatever, Luis.” It’s good I have no more deep emotional attachments to him. That could get messy. My nose has been running like crazy today. No allergy medicine helps. Maybe this means my allergies are peaking. I hope they’re gone soon. They’re an inconvenience, especially in Mr. Kim’s class, when I have to go all the way around the room to go get kleenex. Oh, I got twenty-nine out of thirty on my Geometry quiz! I swear it’s a true miracle. I’ve found that I miss Mr. Samulak, though. He was my second-favorite teacher last year. I was bummed when I found out that Sarah switched out of our class in favor of Algebra 3/4. Now all I have is Wyatt, who sleeps the whole time. I call him Sleeping Beauty. He’s a good guy, though. It’s good to have him for moral support in math. I need all the help I can get. I’m about to head out. Peace out, yo. September 15, 2006 Last night sucked. I got into this huge blowup with Mom and Dad about my schedule. I was mad, and I told both of them just to let me make my own decisions from now on. They didn’t take that one well. I think they might be thinking of sending me back to infamous Shrink Bob. Apparently they’re worried about me. Dad read me this whole thing about how families are supposed to look after each other and help each other and make each other feel better and all that jazz. “Michael is the only person in this family who makes me feel better,” I snapped at Dad. It’s perfectly true. He worked his magic later on last night, too. He completely calmed me down. I really don’t know how he does it. Maybe it’s because I know he went through the same things I did, and I’m not so sure about Mom and Dad. Either way, I trust his opinion more than anyone else’s in this world. That includes all my friends. Put together. Today was better, though. Michael and I were late to school due to the retarded traffic system of Huron High School. When we finally got to the senior lot, of course there were no more spots because they put in more handicapped spots than there have been handicapped people in the history of the school. Apparently, by law they have to have so many. Luckily we didn’t have to get red passes. Michael took it up with the administration and they gave us yellow passes. I added some songs to my iTunes. My favorite so far is “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. I’m not usually a fan of them, but that song reminds me of Queen’s style or something. I also got “Stay With You”, which is a Goo Goo Dolls song. Michael is currently obsessed with it, but he hasn’t seemed to have worn it out yet. Songs these days are easy to kill. I nearly killed “Never Let You Go”. No football game tonight. It’s in Flint, which means no one’s going to be going. We probably won’t win. Huron’s team kind of sucks. Okay, a lot sucks. Our quarterback is apparently a junior, which isn’t good, I guess. I do like the junior class, though. They’re good people. My class has some great people in it, too. I don’t know about the new freshmen, though. All the guys wear these tight pants! There’s this guy who’s walking around in this leotard thing (leopard print and all!) and it does NOT look good. Samantha (my new friend in Earth Science) and I were discussing it. Josh Gustafson was the only person of our class who used to do that, and I don’t think he does anymore. He got a bad haircut, though. It’s long in the center and bald on the sides. Looks terrible. He’s a weird guy, anyway. I’ve decided, now that I’ve “found” my phone, I’m going to tell Alex to call me if he feels so inclined. Same with Zach. I’ll just have to make them swear by God and their country that they will NEVER tell Amy. She would probably skin me alive. I hate it how she acts like she owns them, but she can get jealous. And I guess it’s understandable, since Alex is her boyfriend and all. Alex might actually come out to Ann Arbor at some point. That would be kind of cool. Amy told me that she might not let me meet him, but Alex told me himself that he would want me there. I think he finds Amy the tiniest bit annoying. Well, she’s apparently the clingy girlfriend. “Another presence would be helpful,” Alex said to me a couple nights ago. I’ll just have to swear that I’m not going to do anything. I mean, come on! This is ME. I don’t try to pick up guys at random times. All right. Here come the parents, so I’m out. Adios. September 16, 2006 I slept on the couch last night. I swear, that’s the most comfortable couch in the world. Dad woke me up at seven to give me allergy medicine. I was having some odd dreams, though. It was a really confusing one. The first part had something to do with me and a psychic. I had two sisters, who took me to a palm reader. They gave the psychic enough money, but I only had ten dollars. The psychic said, “Okay, I’ll give you ten strokes.” My sisters left and she took my hand and studied it. “I’m glad you came to me,” she said. “This is very important. For the next ten days, your sisters will be trying to assassinate each other.” I then looked up and I saw my sisters both holding a gun to each other. The rest of that part was dark and confused, with quite a few guns and a lot of danger. Then I fell to the ground and it was pitch-dark. I heard an introduction of a girl who was a dancer. I thought, “Okay, I have to get up now.” I stood up and the room flared into light. It was the Huron band room. I was the girl who was a dancer. I was dancing with my group and we were trying to figure out whether or not to hire a little girl. I wanted the little girl, but they were against me. I got mad and strode away. I saw Amy nearby, watching us. She was standing there, tapping her fingers on a tuba, the same tuba I saw in the band room yesterday that Laura was playing. I knew then that Amy was a tuba player. I wheeled around and was facing the percussion closet. My eyes fell on none other than Luis, playing the marimba. He was playing it well, too. There were a couple little kids around him, who I knew were his brothers or something. I turned around the other way to ask Amy about this, and I saw a man with both legs cut off at the knee moving past me on crutches (I don’t know either). That’s about all I remember. Crazy stuff. I think the dream may mean something about Cam and something about Luis, because Cam is the only notable person that I’ve known who would play any kind of percussion instrument. I usually connect any kind of tuba with Luis. But what would that have to do with Amy? She’s also a low brass player, but euphonium, not tuba. The thing with the psychic was weird. I don’t have any sisters. But, in the dream, I had the same amount of sisters as I have brothers. The number ten seems to be popping up a lot, though. “I’ll give you ten strokes”? What does that mean? And why ten days? Odd stuff. Amy told me today that it sounds psychic. Like, a vision. Now, I may believe in that kind of stuff, but I don’t have it. I’m not psychic. I’m trying to ignore the little voice that’s reminding me of the time where I knew that Amy and Alex had hooked up. I DON’T have it. Nor do I want it. I just want to be normal and lead a normal life. On a more normal subject, I gave Alex the go-ahead to call me. I don’t know why I have such an aversion to the phone. I figure it’s okay. I know he’s who he says he is. I’ve been wondering how he’s going to sound. On the way to the library today, it occurred to me that it’s likely he has a Boston accent. He grew up in the suburbs of Boston. He’ll at least have a New England accent. I actually hope he calls soon. I made him swear that he wouldn’t tell Amy. Sometimes it seems like he doesn’t like her that much. Well, if I was a guy, I wouldn’t date her. She’s much easier to get along with if you’re a girl. Or Fuzz. Well, Fuzz gets along with anyone. He’s a good guy that way. Wonder where Zach is. I think classes started for him today or last Friday or something. I’m going to tell him the same thing I told Alex. Call me if you want. Just don’t tell Amy. I think I know how he’s going to sound. I have an idea from what I’ve read of his personality over AIM. I bet I’m going to sound completely different from what they’re expecting, though. I have an unnaturally deep voice for a girl. It never used to be that way until seventh grade, when we had to record something for math and they played it to the whole class. I didn’t recognize my own voice, it was so deep. Actually, last February, Zach told me to call him. That was the thing that started the whole grounded-until-the-end-of-the-world bullshit. For some reason, I didn’t want to call him. I was halfway falling in love with him, and I was scared. It was almost like he would be a real person if I called him, not just an online personality. That slapped me in the face when he showed me a picture of himself. He was showing me a picture of his friend who had gotten a Marine cut, and that led to him showing me other pictures. Finally, I asked him, “Can I see one of you?” I had only seen one picture of him, an old one of Amy’s. I knew he had dark eyes and hair, but I couldn’t remember much beyond that. Turns out, Zach’s really a great-looking guy. At that moment, it struck me that he was an actual person. Well, I knew he was actually a person, but for some reason it added a whole new dimension. Then he told me to call him. I got scared and wimped out, hence making up a convenient lie about me getting grounded. It worked. Helped in some ways. So now I’m trying to get over that. I like people, I like phones, I’m a social person. So what’s going on? If Mom and Dad take me back to Shrink Bob, I’m going to ask him about that. For sure. It’s too weird to ignore. My head has been throbbing like hell today. Dad says it’s the Sudafed he gave me for my blocked ears. Ugh, I hate allergy season. I’m going to sleep on the couch again tonight, though. See if I have more notable dreams. I love dreams. Dreams are interesting. I’m going to see if there’s a field in psychology that has to deal with dreams and that pays decently. I’m a master dream interpreter by now. I helped Anne with her dream which concerned elves in planes. I know. I cracked up, too. Turns out it held all these hidden messages dealing with her and Cam. Which I saw coming. They say you tend to dream about the person you like. I’ve had that experience. There was actually a dream that went down in history between Amy and me. We call it the Coat Stealing Dream. I didn’t tell her this dream for awhile, because I didn’t want to tell her I liked Luis. In the dream, I was walking down the 4300 with Amy and Fuzz, in Formation (Amy in the middle, me on the outside right, Fuzz on the outside left). I looked down at myself and I realized that I had stolen Luis’s coat and I wasn’t sorry. I was wearing it, though. We reached the end of the hall and who should show up but the owner of the coat himself. I was embarrassed, because I was wearing his coat! Amy gave me a look and said, “Claire, why the hell did you steal his coat?” I didn’t really have an answer. I think that’s the most notable dream between Amy and me. Amy had a lot of dreams concerning the Fairy March, all of which I interpreted. It was Amy who first started me on dream interpretation. If I ever write a book about us, I’m going to put our dreams in there. I might have to have the book deal with sophomores, though, because books with freshmen are so cliché. No one cares about sophomores. We’re unsung. Unsung sophomores. Sounds good. I could use the names for all of our crushes as a title. The Fairy March, Peaches, Dexter, and the Walrus. And the Penny Guy. But he was an add on. I made up all of those except for Peaches, which was a Fuzz creation. I picked Dexter for Luis (Amy later changed it to Salad Boy) because he sat completely to the right of the trumpet section. “The Fairy March” was the book Amy was supposedly “looking for” when she went into the library to stare at him. The Penny Guy was Paul, because he gave Amy a penny that she kept with her for like two weeks. The story about the Fairy March was a funny one, though. Somewhere in February, before first hour. Amy and I walk down the 4200 hallway. Amy: “Claire, can we go to the library?” Me: (distracted or thinking or something) “Hm? Oh, sure. Is it the reason I think it is?” Amy: (blushing big time) “Yes.” Me: “Okay. Let’s go.” Amy: “We can’t just walk in and do nothing!” Me: “Sure we can. It’s the library.” Amy: “No we can’t!” Me: “Fine. Pretend like you’re looking for a book or something.” Amy: “What book?” Me: “I dunno. Say you’re looking for... “The Fairy March” by... someone.” That was the beginning. What can I say, the name stuck. To this day Tommy Howells is the Fairy March. We kind of dropped use of the Walrus after the whole story came out. The whole nickname thing started with the Fairy March’s former name, the Asshole. We dropped that one after Amy realized she actually loved him, not hated him. Well, I’m going to take off. ‘Bye. September 17, 2006 I feel like crap today. It may be allergy, but I’ve never had it this bad before. Also, David’s pissing me off. I played foosball with him for the first time in months today. I had forgotten how annoying he was. Things were fine when it was Michael and me against Mom and Dad, but Mom gets all upset because Dad can’t win and he gets pissed off. Somehow I ended up looking like the unreasonable one, as usual. Today was... not bad. I guess. Typical day. Did some homework. Crap, think I forgot to call Amy back. Whatever. Think I’ll just talk to her tomorrow at school. Peace out. September 18, 2006 Whoops, I’ve been putting down the 19th as the date all day. Oh well. The teachers will get over it. Today was good, in general. Alex is coming to Ann Arbor over winter break! I’m trying not to get too excited, but let’s face it. I am. I’ve wanted to meet that guy for, like, forever. Same with Zach. I hope I get to meet him. Sometimes I like him better than Alex. He’s better-looking for sure. I liked darker-haired guys. Now I just have to find a way to make Amy be okay with the three of us hanging out. Alex mentioned he didn’t want to be alone with her, because she’s apparently extremely clingy. Amy would dump him if she knew he had said that. She doesn’t want me imposing my so-called awesome personality on him or something, so she mentioned she wouldn’t want me there. I promised her that I would just make a camio appearance and take off, which I don’t know how to slip past Mom. I don’t think she would like the idea of Amy and me and Amy’s boyfriend all together. I actually hope Alex calls. Wow. Isn’t that Amy’s line? That would be one form of meeting him. I just hope he isn’t too repulsed by my awful deep voice. I’ve been keeping my phone on. I wonder if he thought I should call him or something. What I don’t want to do is put him in my contacts, just in case Amy wants to see my phone and sees his name there. I could list his name under something like.... “Steve” or something like that. Oh, yeah. About that dream I had, with the psychic and the sisters? I think I know what it means. It means I have until the 27th of September to decide something. The two sisters are the two ways I feel about the issue. Me pulling a gun on one sister means I have to choose how I feel in the end. I can’t be feeling both ways. I also think I might know the issue, although I don’t want to tell Amy until I’m sure. I think it might be: do I still like Luis? I know. Crazy. But sometimes I think I do. Like today, when he passed me in the hall, I thought I felt the old feelings starting to come back. Then I thought, Crap, we have a problem. That way of thinking started from the other part of the dream, when I saw him. Like I said, the only other notable person who played percussion was Cam. I was extremely close with Cam, almost to the point of us going out. Maybe that means something? Hopefully not. I went through a hell of a few months there. I don’t want for it to happen again. Well, I have until September 27th to come to a decision. Speaking of Cam, I heard something really sad. His grandfather finally died. The guy’s been in a nursing home forever. I was really sad. I was really close to the Ferris family at one time, and that’s enough to make me feel it. I still know a lot of what Cam’s feeling a lot of the time. “Kindred” was the word I used to use. My fourth-grade teacher used to use that word all the time. Actually, he used to use “kindred spirits”. That’s what we were. And are. Good news. I pulled out my best acting and swayed Mr. Fox today. I told him about my extreme stage fright. I made it sound a lot worse than it actually is. I’m a good liar. Mr. Fox did a methodical face and agreed to let me do it tomorrow at lunch. With no one there. Yes! I hate presenting in front of people. It’s not a bad phobia. Usually it’s because I’m not prepared in the case of auditions. Like the last audition I did, the chair audition. Ooh, the chair audition. That went down in history. I faked sick on the day of the audition and pushed it back as far as I could until I was auditioning with the clarinets on the last day. I did pretty bad, too. Oh well. Now I’m sixth out of eleven. I’m fine now. Okay, I’m going to go. ‘Bye. September 19th, 2006 Today was good, I guess. The good news is that Mom just gave me the go-ahead to go on the Florida trip for band! That means I’ve got to be extra good so they can’t hold it over my head. It should be fun. Also, I got this Red Hot Chili Peppers song that I wanted, “Make You Feel Better”. I’m listening to it right now, in fact. Good song. If I remember rightly, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are Mr. Vogel’s favorite band. I think I’m starting to care less what people think of me. A couple days ago, Hurley and I were discussing favorite bands. I came right out and told him Dashboard Confessional was my favorite band. For some reason, I wasn’t scared of his reaction. I figured, everyone’s favorite band is a little whacked out. I also admitted to being a huge Blink-182 fan and a Dave Matthews Band fan. Last year I couldn’t bring myself to admitting anything. It was the weirdest thing today. I sort of got into a fight with the Walrus. I wouldn’t tell him the alleged “secret” that’s been keeping me and Amy from hanging out. Truth is, I just want some alone time with my best friend. And Amy hates them all. We told him we couldn’t tell him and then I guess he felt like I mistrusted him or something? I’ve got to break up with him. This can’t go on. Mataeso got in on the act somehow. I don’t remember how. She saw us talking and she led me away by the arm and asked what was going on. I told her nothing. “Don’t lie to me,” she said. “I can spot human emotion ten feet away.” Well, she’s right. After the Walrus made his exit, she went with me upstairs and we found Amy. We informed her what was going on, which led to an impressive pep talk. A stern one, at that. Now, I should tell you. Mataeso Mbala-Nkanga is the nonnegotiable, absolute, ONLY person in at Huron High School that’s allowed to yell at me, because she gives good advice and she’s two years older than me. I won’t rehash the details, but I’ll say that it went on for awhile. Amy stood there, stunned. I don’t think she’s ever heard anyone talk to me like that. Mataeso pretty much said that I need to take care of my own self first. Myself and my family come first, and everything else is secondary. I realized, she’s totally right. I come first, in terms of well-being. I think Amy was even more amazed when I gave Mataeso a hug. She deserved it, because I totally needed that. She kind of acts like my big sister at times. We’re playing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in band. It’s awesome, because that’s one of my favorite songs. I was singing it nonstop today, it being stuck in my head and all. I see a little sillhouetto of a man Scaramouche, Scaramouche Will you do the Fandago? Thunderbolt and lighting very very frightening me That’s probably my favorite part. With the exception of the “Galileo!” part. I realized today that I know every word. I think Caleb does, too. Well, pretty much everyone knows that song. I read some stuff on it today, and it turns out it’s about nothing. They just kind of made it up. There’s no big meaning or anything. I really kick ass this year in band, at the risk of sounding arrogant. Last year I felt really in over my head, but this year it’s just awesome. I love band, and I think I love trumpet again. Band hasn’t been this fun since fourth grade, when Michael was the only private teacher I had. I have a really good sound, even with my bad trumpet. Mr. Roberts gave me a complement on my air the other day, and, even though I don’t like him all the time, it was so good to realize I was getting better again. I’m nearly as loud as Caleb these days. The tubas still suck. And we have to sit in front of them. Today, Ashley compared their sound to a whoopie cushion constantly being sat on. That was the best I’ve heard so far, along with “sounds like a garbage disposal”. It’s even funnier, because there seems to be a discrepancy about who’s first chair. Toner (a freshman who’s also in Julius’s class with me) says he’s first, but Luis says it’s him. That would make sense, Luis being the junior, but I think it’s likely that Toner’s first chair. Luis is not a musical person. Hence him winning the Last Chair Award last November. Though, I guess I shouldn’t be talking. I’m going to go and get some food or something. Vale, which apparently means “be well” when translated literally, not goodbye. September 20, 2006 Hey! In five days, I’ll be fifteen! Yes. Can’t wait. It’s hard enough being the youngest in your class, except for Karen, who’s the only one I know of that’s younger than me. Today was pretty good. I did my speech during lunch for Mr. Fox. He’s a good guy. He gave me a book about conquering stage fright. Maybe it works for trumpet auditions, too. I’m actually liking Speech a whole bunch. I don’t know why people make such a thing of Mr. Fox being boring. Same with Mr. Drake being this superhard teacher. Today Mr. Fox showed this video about the grand concept of “communication”. It was twenty minutes, and we’ve been watching it for the past three days. You do the math. It’s cool, though, because Mr. Fox has this huge wall that he projects movies on, so we get to see it like a movie theater. Whenever Mr. Fox would stop to make a point, he would cut off an interview, and almost always catch the person with a retarded facial expression. I think we have a test tomorrow in Drake’s class. Earth Science is becoming increasingly worse for me. I need to break it to the Walrus. Then, I guess I can like Hurley as much as I want to. Today, I was doing a density lab with the Walrus, but I found myself only watching Hurley. I make sure to sit next to him in Speech. A freshman tried to take his seat yesterday, so I said, “I really wouldn’t take that seat if I were you.” I think it came out a little more threatening than I intended. If anyone asks why I now sit in the back, when I started in the front, I can just say I like to rest my head against the wall. Which is true. I would have gone to sleep if Hurley hadn’t poked me. I told him, “It’s your fault if I fall out of this seat.” Speech is fun. I talked to Zach for the first time in weeks today. He sounds good. He made second chair in orchestra, which is a huge achievement at Interlochen. He told me about how they had started making Chinese food, which is predictably bad. He’s at rehearsal right now. I’m glad he’s doing good. Okay, I’m out of here. I haven’t eaten dinner yet. Adios, amigos. September 21, 2006 In four days I’ll be fifteen. Yay. Turns out I have the same birthday with this one black guy in my Earth Science class, who I used to think was an ass but I now like. We had a test in there today. It was easy as hell. Took me forever to get Mr. Drake’s stupid graph right, though, because I mixed up the independent and dependent variables, which led to the graph being wrong. As you might guess. I had the best time in Latin, believe it or not. We had a sub, because Mr. Julius was sick or something. I did some major bonding with the other people in the class besides Annahid and Nate. First, the sub took ten minutes to take attendance, because he was this man who must have been about ninety. He obviously hadn’t ever taken Latin before, because he pronounced the name of our book as “essy ro-man-y” (the name of the book is Ecce Romani, pronounced “ek-ke ro-mahn-e”). Anyway, he gave us an assignment from Mr. Julius, which we assumed wasn’t going to be collected, because nothing is. Michael Toner, a tuba player, and this junior guy were playing tic-tac-toe on the board. I went up to the board and said, “I play winner?” The other guy, his name is Garrett, said, “I’m going to go get a drink, but I’ll play you when I get back.” So I ended up playing it with Michael Toner for awhile. Turns out he’s a nice guy. I told him I hope he’s first chair, and some warnings concerning Luis Anderson. I don’t want that guy becoming too attached to him. I’ve made that mistake before. I told him that it’s probably more than likely that he’s first chair, but to let Luis think what he wants to. I told him the whole story of how he used to be a trumpet (well not the WHOLE story, if you know what I mean) and how he left. Too bad Toner really likes him. Damn tuba players. I spent the pretty much the rest of the hour with Toner and Garret. We drew on the board and sang the Bohemian Rhapsody a couple times. They’re actually really funny. Garrett had an endless supply of these mind games that he kept pulling on me. I played tic-tac-toe with him a few times, won some, lost a few, and blocked him a lot. The first time I blocked him, he raised his eyebrows and said, “Ahhhh, you’ve played this before.” I laughed and rolled my eyes. Now I know Latin is going to be okay. It may not be Mr. Vogel’s class, but maybe I’m supposed to know what less structure feels like. I just felt bad for Nate, who’s not the most sociable person. He was just sitting there while I was having a good time. I’m just glad to find out that the people in that class are okay. And let’s face it. Garrett is damn cute, even though I don’t usually go for blonde guys. I got forty-eight out of fifty on my speech. It’s a miracle. I think Mr. Fox went easy on me, but it’s still awesome. My grade is fine in there. It’s such a relief. I hate public speaking, and I don’t have to worry about another one for awhile. I can do the next one on something I’m interested in. I’m thinking the Aztecs. Crap, I have a current event due for him tomorrow! Earth Science was actually okay, since we only took a test. I didn’t have to talk to anyone and make an idiot of myself. The only bad part is I had to go to the bathroom really bad and I couldn’t figure out the damn graph. I think I did okay, though. A monkey could have taken that test. I asked to go to the bathroom during the test and Mr. Drake told me to finish the test first. Once I did, I turned it in, and he handed me the hall pass. “Fly away,” he half-whispered. I don’t know why, but it felt significant. Band was great, as usual. I’m glad we’re in the order we are. I get to sit next to Caleb and Ashley but still play an easy part. It’s the best. It sucked that MacArthur had to be a conductor today. Or lack thereof. We went at senior citizen speed. He kept doing the same five measures over and over at a terrible speed. After awhile Luis muttered something about how he thought we could handle a little more speed. Ashley agreed and said, “Yeah, I think we could go a bit faster...” MacArthur stopped dead. It was almost scary. His mouth completely tightened and he completely went off on her about how that wasn’t “a healthy way of thinking”. We laughed because after he started talking it sounded ridiculous, but I felt kind of sorry for Ashley, because Luis had said it first. We’re getting a picture of us taken tonight for the church directory. Oh boy, lots of fun. Not. I hate pictures of me. Amy says I’m like a guy. No, I just tend not to take good pictures and I hate seeing myself. What if it’s bad? I think this’ll be the first picture in existence of me with contacts and a new hairstyle. Good. I need some better pictures of myself. That’s about it for today. I’m out of here. ‘Bye. September 22, 2006 Ahhhhh, I love Fridays. I can just sit on my butt and do nothing this evening. It’s awesome. I’ll be even happier on Monday, though! My fifteenth birthday! Yes! A good day today. School was good overall. I think yesterday in Latin served me well in the long run. I just feel closer to that class now. I still can’t ask stuff that I would be comfortable asking in Mr. Vogel’s class, but this is going to be okay. I actually fell asleep today in Latin. Nate and Annahid were chuckling behind me because I kept sliding around and kept falling off my fist. Annahid missed a great day yesterday. We’re now watching the movie Augustus. I don’t think we’re going to be watching the whole thing, it was just a filler for Mr. Julius. Michael Toner and Garrett joined our little island for the movie. Garrett sauntered over first, and then Michael Toner wandered over next, looking uncertain. I grinned and tapped the seat behind Garrett. Michael Toner smiled back and took it, and we all watched the movie together. I’m making some serious progress. Band was cool, as usual. We actually played the Bohemian Rhapsody all the way through. At a damn slow speed, but still all the way through. “I bet he’s never heard this song in his whole life,” Caleb muttered to me halfway through. We actually had a lot of fun today. At the beginning of the song, Ashley attempted to flip her music page, and her lyre snapped in half. She, Caleb, Blake, and I didn’t even try to keep playing. We dropped our trumpets and howled with laughter. MacArthur scowled and told us that it “wasn’t that funny”. He’s wrong. It was hysterical. Another good thing about me branching out in Latin is that I can turn around and strike up a friendly conversation with Michael Toner in band. He plays tuba, which puts him right behind us. I did it a bit today. Maybe it was just me, but I thought I saw Luis watching me suspiciously. He probably doesn’t want me corrupting his precious tuba section. Whatever. Michael Toner is only a freshman right now. He’s got plenty of time to change who he is and what he will become. I got a B on my Geometry test. I’m so proud of myself. I have a B in that class. Also a miracle. Poor Wyatt already has a C-. Amy and I agreed a little while ago that Wyatt may be smart, but he’s just not suited to the books. He did tell me that he wants to be a meteorologist, though. I could see him on the Weather Channel. “Wyatt Camps, reporting.” He would be one of those people that blows off the teleprompter and improvises and makes lots of dumb jokes. This song reminds me of last year, at the old trumpet arrangement. The very original one. That was an awesome lineup. It was back when Caleb was a little more lighthearted, Ashley laughed at anything, and Luis was so funny and less arrogant. And me. I don’t know what I was. More naive, maybe? This whole Blink CD reminds me of how things were last year during September and October. Their Greatest Hits CD. It’s got to be one of my favorite CDs ever. Speech is a lot more enjoyable now that I’ve done my speech and it’s out of the way. That stupid freshman keeps taking Hurley’s seat, though. I know she’s totally into him and she’s just trying to annoy him or something. Huh. Freshmen. I came to a very odd conclusion today, though. Mr. Fox asked Hurley if he knew a movie that a girl had told him about, and he shook his head. Mr. Fox said, “That’s very surprising. Matt’s the movie guy.” That’s kind of when it hit me. I realized, Matt Hurley is a fifteen-year-old version of what David would have been like, had he not had Aspburger's! I sized him up for the rest of the hour, and I realize that we could pass Hurley off as my brother. We actually look something alike. He could definitely pass as David’s little brother. Which is just plain scary. Which sort of gave me an idea for a story. It would be totally cliché, but I bet I could make it

• No Comments

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!