Chapter Four: The First day…and a jinx come true…
“ALICE, GET UP…NOW!!!”
Sure enough, it was the morning of the first day of school. For some reason, on the first day, I always have the urge to get in and out of the shower, make my hair look pretty, put on a hippie outfit, and throw my stuff together as I got in the car. Unfortunately, mom couldn’t do my hair in braids, so I was stuck with straightening it. (Just to let you know, I can’t braid hair) As soon as I entered my grandma’s house, I could feel my grandma well up into tears because of how ‘mature’ I have become.
“Alice…I’m just so proud of you…you and your grandfather…” My grandmother whined. I could tell she was about to, but lucky for me, she stayed cool.
I sat at the table with the corn flakes my father bought and I succeeded taking out of the house, my vanilla soy milk, and my soy yogurts. While I was eating, my papa decided to talk about how languages were developing in the world.
“There is hardly any French anymore…but if I was to pick it up from my father, I would have been more than happy to help you study it.”
“That wouldn’t do much good;” My grandma interrupted his thoughts “she is taking Spanish, not French.”
“Well pardon me,” My grandfather had a testy attitude. “I’m sure she would have taken it if I had learned it…now continuing what I was saying…” My grandma had a confused yet impatient look on her face as he was continuing, “It isn’t my fault that the Spanish are moving to America, that’s their problem. They should learn English. All they like to do, along with Asians, is block people out so that they can’t understand what we were saying…”
“So do the French.” My grandma mumbled under her breath.
Soon, after their conversation, papa was ironing again, being a grump for not getting his way. What could I say? I had a lot of friends who were or spoke Spanish and Asian. I guess it was an old person thing.
It soon broke up…but it still looked really funny to see him all grumpy like that.
By 7:45, I was ready to go on my bike and ride to Stonybrook…for my second year at that school. I felt like this was going to be a good year, but we will see how it goes, I guess.
“BE CAREFUL!!!” My grandma stared after me as I rode my bike off with my heavy backpack and a huge bag along side of me.
My tire wheels were turning to my school campus. I was greeted by speedy cars and new students with nervous looks on their faces.
I parked my bike in the bike rack, and decided not to lock it as I saw Emily exit her carpool with another student that didn’t look familiar to me. I hugged her excitingly and we entered the gym with my usually nervous face stuck on me.
I knew she was rambling on about something one of her teacher’s did to her in the past of her sophomore year, hoping that I wouldn’t be so nervous, anymore. However, it didn’t change much.
“Sheesh, you really do look nervous as hell” she explained to me.
“Well, I guess it’s just because the year went on last year the way I didn’t want it to. Winter Term was okay, but I still had a pretty bad year.”
“Did you develop to the school, yet?”
“It takes me about a year, so I think I’m good.”
“Good, because that nervous look is creeping me out.”
Me too
I laughed as we exited to the hallway, to find Helen entering were we just exited.
We screamed and gave her a hug. It was easy to twirl her around since she was tiny.
“Where are you going, and why aren’t you using your Founder’s locker?” Emily asked her.
“It’s just too tiny, and I had to register to get it…I just didn’t have the time or patience anymore.” She smiled, as I would always do in a situation (or any situation whatsoever) and entered where we had gone for pre-season to change.
As soon as Helen was finished with her locker, we entered the gym to put our stuff away, take attendance by filling out tiny slips of paper and dropping them in, and sitting down. Of course we had no pencils to find until Rebecca came by and sat down. While we were waiting, we started poking Helen in the back as she winced and sneered at us sarcastically as Annie told us to stop. Soon, the spokesmen came up on stage and started to speak.
The first was a male senior to speak about how bad his first year was, to move on with your life, and speak well-educated words to inspire the young freshmen, bore the sophomores, relate to the juniors, and try to be cool to the seniors. I wasn’t really paying attention, but they seemed inspiring enough to relate to us, I guess. He had a way with words…I was just too nervous to listen to them…that’s all.
The second senior was a female that I already knew. Taegen had been around the blocks. She was popular, pretty, smart, and well-known by everyone because her father taught WAC (World after Columbus) and her little sister, Kaelie, was in my sophomore class, plus my WAC class WITH her father. She spoke better words than the guy before her, because I could actually remember some of them: How she spoke about the Beijing Olympics and how her family thought it was extravagant…how a tall Asian man in the Olympics…so strong…yet so soft, held a little kids hand who was the hall monitor of a school that was recked from an earthquake, and risked his life for six kids because he felt it was his duty to save them. Those deep inspiring words moved me more than any senior I have heard about before. That was the best student speech given.
The next was from Ned Parsons, varsity hockey coach, great teacher, head of the faculty department, and a great person. He talked about how the Olympics touched him, too, and how Harry Potter strived to help both himself and his friends, doing what was best for the common good…and how only the line, “I love magic” sounded great in a British accent. Just as always, like the time he talked about how the world was going too fast and to stop and smell the coffee, his words meant something to me.
The next…was Woody Hess. My dad loved his name, and made fun of it, so when I said hello, he would only nod because of my father’s joke of him saying, “HEY WOODY, WHERE’S BUZZ?” He spoke not so inspiring words, only to know that his words were still as bland as Life cereal without the milk. It tasted like cardboard. It was always about the rules. Rules…rules…rules. And that was the end.
And lastly, was our new headmistress, replacing our headmaster, Mr. Wiegal, from the Grote and Wiegal company of deli meat. Her name was Sheila Colbert, and she had a heavy British accent. I whispered to Helen, “Can she say, ‘I love magic?’” And we laughed.
You could tell she was well educated, how she was very fascinated about World War II, and how she mostly talked about The Great Gettysburg. She seemed interested in history, and she also had a great heart, by how she entered the new freshmen into our welcoming community.
“I guess I will say what Mr. Parsons said before: Your teachers are ready, they are eager to challenge them…they are waiting, so let’s get started.”
A round of applause rose up as she exited the stage, as we did the auditorium. I babbled to Helen and Emily for a second, and I headed to my first meeting, which was with my new advisor, Mr. Howe. I had to wait for a few people to enter and exit, and soon it was my turn, and I had to explain to him where my new and improved schedule was, since my old was screwed up.
“Well, go get it.” He said to me. I was already running to my mailbox to the farthest building on campus, and I was eager to get my hands on my new schedule. As I ran past Hutch, my track coach and the hardest Spanish teacher on campus, I said hello, and she said, “See you in class.”
*Wait, what?*
you jinxed it again, Alice…do you remember when you said you wished you didn’t have Hutch…
*But….oh no*
Oh yes
As the smiley and wonderful Mrs. Dexter (MY FAVORITE TEACHER!!!) unlocked my mailbox, I noticed there was an envelope with my schedule in it. I scanned my schedule…and sure enough, there was the proof. Hutch was my new Spanish teacher, I had Mrs. Conger for a bio teacher instead of Mr. Holcombe, I had Mrs. Grinspan for an English teacher instead of Mrs. Archibald…and I had to sprint back with my changed schedule to my advisor’s office on the other side of campus.
I sprinted back waving to everyone who saw me. They smiled and waved back…except Woody Hess, himself. That was okay.
I entered his office and he reviewed my schedule. Sure enough, he was pleased. “Well, my schedule was right.”
Good…if only that was my schedule instead, that way I would have filled my planner out the right was instead of having to erase a whole term’s worth.
He said goodbye to me, and I headed off to my work job, but before I got there, I was greeted by someone I wasn’t expected to be greeted by.
“I know you are not going to escape without giving me a hug.” She shouted.
It was Katie…no not the Katie that liked Jake, but the Katie that was ACTUALLY my really good friend.
Originally, we had gotten into an argument, but we were all better now that I had said I was sorry, but I apoligized again just in case.
We headed off to the gym as she explained she had to help out with the cage. (It was her work job) It was a little hard to say ‘Equipment room’ when I was so use to call it the cage. (I had my terms confused last year)
“So how’s Skippy?” (It was her boyfriend she mentioned during the summer, that Chris on our bus talked about often and sang the Peanut Butter and Jelly song when he thought of his name) I asked because he had made it into Stonybrook, too.
“SSHH!” She hushed. Then she sighed. “We never…really dated…we just had a relationship…and it feels awkward and under water right now…and we haven’t talked in a while.” I felt really bad after her saying that to me. It reminded me of me and Jake….and how I was afraid our relationship was under water because of that Ashley girl and how I tried calling him and “A Millie” came on and then someone hung up when I called. I felt upset then…and now.
Soon, we were at the cage as Katie explained how her time went with the program to get to know her class went by. We hugged and I went to class. Her pain felt like mine with Jake’s. That brought me down like a wet blanket.
Before I knew it, I was in the Chaffee student lounge, ready for my work job assignments. As soon as I walked in, there sat the boy that I thought was a man last year in the beginning, until he turned conceited and started speaking sexual innuendos. His name was Andrew.
Andrew was a funny character. He was really nice and sweet in the beginning of the year, and as soon as Thanksgiving break ended, he turned into the person he was today. He looked and smiled, and I smiled my bright, braceless smile that came into my life over the summer vacation. He looked like his normal, conceited self next to Sarah, Bianca’s old roommate. That was okay, because I had freshmen, Mark, and Spencer to talk to.
At first I talked to these new freshmen, but she automatically seemed like a snob. The weirdest part was that her last name was Hess.
Where’s Buzz?
*Good one*
Spencer looked at my schedule as soon as the new freshmen ditched me, and he high fived me for being in both the same Geo and Bio classes with him!
*YES! NOW I DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TWO CLASSES BEING BORING!*
Good thing
“May I have your attention, please?” Ms. Lytle entered the room with a smile on her face, and she took attendance by naming our work jobs for the term.
Soon, she was on to my name.
“Alice Sparks, you will be doing Southwest bookshelves.” I wrote that down as soon as she said it so I didn’t have to worry about it later. I waited until she was finished with everyone, and daydreamed about the possibilities of how the school year would turn out.
“Well…have a good school year and good luck to you all!”
We left in a flash, and I was ready to enter my class, when Mark stopped me.
“You do know we still have a half an hour before classes start, right?”
We waited for Mike from our old WAC class to catch up, and we headed down to the SNUG (stands for students nestled underground) and Mike left to go to the gym to put his stuff away. We entered the SNUG with food surrounding us, and we sat as everyone talked about their summers. I for one, talked about how France was both beautiful and messy. Paris was a mess and was rude, with the exception of one resteraunt, and Normandy was beautiful. One of the people who toured with me to France with his sister was sitting right at the table, and said that he went with me and his sister, Sara, who had just entered Stonybrook as a freshmen.
“She was right, and the Frenchmen were very rude to us…” he added and trailed on.
We were off to class once the twenty minutes we were there was over, and I had Bio. (Biology) I was nervous about dissection, but it had to mean more then that…right?
I entered the classroom and saw many nervous looks on the freshmen faces I saw. (The class only had four sophomores, and the rest were freshmen) And so I welcomed them with a big hello, and a big smile. Automatically, those frantic faces went away and turned to smiles. Spencer came in after me, with his crazy funny attitude, and scratched his name in the back of his notebook, and flipped it so it was like a label for a desk indicating a name. I could tell this class was going to be fun.
Already freshmen were talking to me and smiling at the things I said. It was a good, welcoming feeling from the freshmen, and I could tell they were easy to get along with.
Sure enough, our Bio teacher came in with a welcoming smile, and soon she got us started with an experiment as soon as we took attendance on hypothesis. We started off with a cube and what colors and numbers could possibly be the last one. We talked it out and realized that it would be red and a four…and sure enough we were right. Since it was thirty five minutes, it went by too fast, but I knew it would be a fun class, and so did Matt, who greeted me outside of class talking about how the sophomores should all sit together and ‘rule the class.’
I headed to Founders to find my next freshmen class with frantic looks on their faces, too. I told them all how Hutch was actually the hardest grader for Spanish, and their eyes grew wide. Sure enough, Hutch came in two minutes after my explanation. On the bright side, this class seemed to have a liking to my intro, too.
As I was talking to Victoria, a new freshmen buddy I found after liking her converse, I explained that I entered from a middle school where learning Spanish meant mix and matching words with pictures…which was the easy stuff.
“ME TOO!” She said after I explained. I did notice that she looked like a Spanish teacher I had from my old middle school and I told her that she looked a lot like her and explained her name.
“OH MY GOD…I HAD HER, TOO!” She screamed.
“WHAT A COINSIDENCE!!!” I screamed.
Hutch gave us a funny look that only I could understand, and she moved on with her intro, as she pointed me out as one of her track athletes. Everyone smiled as she pointed me out, as they just found who I was, too.
As soon as she finished explaining the packet, we were dismissed to our next period, which for me, was lunch. Sure enough, I had a guest.
“Do you have a free next?” She asked with a smile. I could already tell she was a boarder because she didn’t look nervous at all.
“Yes I do, thank god.” I answered back. She greeted me as Alex.
Before I knew it, we were in random conversations, like Andrew, the guy that I liked became a jerk, that I was bisexual, and it just so happened that she was too, and was thinking about joining spectrum, and we found we had a lot in common. For example, I was a hippie, and she was too. We were all hyper and easy to greet all the time, and friendly. Plus we had a guy that was crushing on us. For me, his name was Jake. For her, his name…well, I forgot, but all I knew was that she told me he questioned everything you said. We put our trays down, and talked for a while about random stuff. Soon, we were greeted by a guy Alex called Emu, and even though he hated it, he allowed me to call him that, too. Soon, the guy that had a crush on her also sat at our table. As soon as I started a story, he did just what she told me he did….he questioned me. After eating lunch, we were both headed to founders in that flooded path we had to walk through, and we hurried to get to our next class. For her, it was Philosophy with my XC coach, soon to be hers because she was joining XC too, and I was headed to choir. We sat and sang to Sublime and Bob Marley as a familiar faced guy came through to door. I recognized him from a WAC trip, and he recognized me, but he wouldn’t tell me his name only that his nickname was two letters.
I could never guess it, and soon it was time for choir. I found Bryan along the way, gave him a hug, and we moved into the Chapel. We all sat down in our spots to begin attendance and our warm ups. Mrs. Chryz was a great teacher as I have known her by auditions. She was very sweet and had a warm smile on her face often. With a bright, high voice, she called out my name. I answered back. She smiled and said hello as she carried on. We started scales and small little songs we would sing like children’s songs. It was time to go before we knew it, since it was only thirty minutes.
The next place I had to go was the building farthest from Founders, where I would have English. I was scared that I would have a bad class. I walked in to find all preps and rich people, but soon Victoria and a foreign exchange student come in, and I sat beside them. Thank god they were in the class, or I would have had a heart attack.
Soon, Ms. Grinspan walked in and wrote her name on the board and reassured us that the summer reading test was easy and we would do well on it…if we read our summer reading, including the all school, which this year, was Mr. Pip. I actually liked a good amount, except Old School, but at least I got that over with.
As soon as she got into the Sophomore Writing Workshop class, I could tell by the description she gave that it would be like a lecture hall type thing. Booooorrrrriiiiinnnnngggg. At least we had a sophomore retreat to cancel one of the classes…or so I thought.
“-And because you have sophomore retreat on one of your classes, guess when you’ll be making it up? Friday!”
*Good God!*
Ha ha, sucks for you.
*You’re my guardian angel to help me, not ridicule me*
It was time to go, and Darius, one of the hottest guys on campus, asked who had Trenchard next for Geometry. Rebecca responded. Good god, thank goodness Spencer and Dru were in it.
That was what was up next. Very first thing that happened was Spencer made a sick joke, and the teacher jumped on him for it. And soon she explained the rules.
She seemed dull at first, but after talking about going into class and making sure you say hello, and to treat everyone with respect, I sort of liked her in my own way. I guess you never really judge a book by its cover.
Then we played the name game. On this one, everyone had to say their name and what they would bring. First was Matt. He was going to bring monkey bread. Then it was Rebecca and she was going to bring Rhubarb. Next was Brandon, and he was going to bring a burrito, and after was Margret and she was bringing Mashed Potatoes. Dana was bringing doughnuts, I was bringing apples, Spencer was bringing spinach, Dru was bringing a Danish, Darren was bringing a dog, Darius was bringing…and it turned to a blur from there. After everyone was done, the teacher was able to name us all and the edible stuff we were bringing. (If you want to count a dog edible) And the bell rang. Finally, the first day of school was over.
Just when I thought my troubles were over, sure enough, I had lost some of my handouts stapled together. And the worst part was they were Hutches.
As soon as I had realized this, I ran upstairs to Mr. Howe’s office and asked if I could get another packet. He was on the phone as quick as possible to Hutch as claimed he would tape it on his door and I would pick it up after XC. After apologizing five thousand times, I left and was ready to run. I sat down and waited for instructions. I sat with Lydia and Helen, and was later greeted by Alex…and I waved to other freshmen, and surprisingly, one of them seemed to look at me like I was an old friend. Soon, she came over and asked me if I remembered her. Sure enough, it was Bianca’s tour, KV. I thought about the winter hat she wore in the middle of spring and how good it looked on her. Soon, after all of that, I was greeted by another person who was a junior and also had the prettiest eyes, and they stayed with me to see how it was possible to do foot drills. Later, we did two laps around the track, and dynamic stretching, and even thought it seemed painful to them. The newbies split from me when they did the course and the pre-season runners, including me, Lydia, Helen and everyone else who did pre-season, were going to do thresh holds. We ran to the meadows and I overheard Hutch as she asked if I had my packet, responding saying that I would get it after practice.
After running to the meadows, Lydia and I were our own group. We were supposed to be at a pace that you could only sneak a few words in. Apparently, that was exactly the way it was for us. After the torture was over, we were done, and after I ran back from my run, I met up with Megan’s dad, another student that went to France with CCC. That was actually where she was going that night. After talking to her dad, Helen and Lydia told me how nice I was, and my parents came after everything came to a close.

After getting home and starting my homework, the phone rang and my mom answered it. Obviously, it was grandma. All of a sudden, she started crying…and I knew it was about grandpa. She hung up and was ready to say something.
Get ready for this…
*Wait what-*
“He has cancer in his throat!” She started to really cry. “And he doesn’t want to do anything about it!”
Oh…my…god.
I told you not to jinx it, Alice.