So today was my first day back at school, after two and a half weeks of being away from it. I started to really miss school after I was out for a while, and last night I was actually so excited about going the next day I couldn't sleep. (How dorky am I?) I always forget about the negative aspects of school surprisingly quickly. And it always only takes one day for me to remember again.
So first of all, I'm pretty severely behind in everything. I chose a pretty sucky time to get sick - the semester ends in less than three weeks. I therefor have two novels to read, three tests and two quizzes to make up, the remainder of that stack of physics worksheets, and a research project which is due in a week for (ah!) bio. I have an 80.5 in bio, and the only reason it's not lower is because of some heavily weighted group projects. (In this class, I am the group project mooch.) I am guessing she is not going to give me an extension, since I have asked for an extension on just about every major project in bio, and no one has started the research project yet anyway. But I have so much extra stuff to do, and I always do so terribly on everything in bio, even though I can never really see what I did wrong. No matter how extensive and detailed I try to be, I am never extensive or detailed enough for her. Eugh. I really should have taken chem.
Surprisingly, out of all of my teachers, Rogers is being the most understanding about this. When he announced that there was a quiz today and I sheepishly raised my hand and asked if I could not take it, he launched into this whole speech about how block schedualing sucks because it makes it almost impossible to catch up, and it's too hard on kids, and what are people supposed to do when they get sick or if they have problems at home or something? He said that if it were necessary, I could even take an incomplete for physics and make up work after the term ended. After he finished the speech, he said, "So no, there will be no quiz today."
Some of the more naive members of the class who are not used to Rogers cheered.
"...For Aidan."
"Awwwww."
Z-Tron's being pretty understanding too. Too bad her class is going to be the easiest to catch up in. Ms. Bio, who I'm pretty sure has just lost patience with me, obviously expects me to have her class as my first priority (not unreasonable) and to get caught up pretty quickly. And Mr. Sampson just has too many students to spend much time explaining what I have to do or to care much about what gets made up when.
So anyway, we started a new unit in Odyssey while I was out, which means new groups. That wouldn't be too bad, I told myself. I mean, there was only one person who I really couldn't tolerate as a group member. When Mr. Sampson showed me the list of groups, I scanned for my name, and then I scanned for his...
and they were in the same column.
I walked over to my new group with a slight sick feeling in my stomach and announced that I was in the group. The other members besides Adam were Steph, Vajra, and a very friendly, rather strange kid who will readily strike up a philosophical conversation with you before he makes small talk or even introduces himself. We will call him Steven. Steven and Steph greeted me. Adam said, "Oh. You."
For the entire class, I literally shook with rage and hatred as I watched him sneer at the (imagined) relative stupidity of his classmates, mouth things to himself, pretend to conduct, shake his head at statements which in his mind were wrong, nod at intelligent things Mr. Sampson said as if he already knew them, stretch his neck, admire his class ring, adjust his glasses, and provide an answer to every question I asked Mr. Sampson and the class, whether it had a clear answer or not. When, in our small group, we were discussing Taoism, I said something like,
"I kind of feel like I don't understand Taoism well enough to make statements about it and how it affects Chinese culture. I mean, did we even really go over it in class?"
"No," said Steven, "but it's actually a pretty simple philosophy - I mean, it's not something like existentialism that has lots of beliefs and can be interpretted lots of ways, it's pretty straitforward. It's basically just -"
"May I provide a sort of Taoism primer?" said Adam, who had been animatedly scribbling on a piece of paper and stretching his neck.
There was a pause, during which I'm pretty sure there were a few "what?" looks exchanged between the other group members.
I was right on the verge of saying, "No," when Steven flashed Adam a small friendly smile and said, "sure."
Adam launched into a long explanation. But not the way a normal person would explain something - like he was reading a passage from a textbook. As if he were the definitive fucking source of information on all things Taoist. "Adam -" I said softly, willing myself not to explode. I could hear my voice shaking.
He may or may not have heard me, but he kept going. "Adam -" I said it a little bit louder this time. He kept going. "Adam! I know what Taoism is. All I'm saying is that I feel like I need to understand philosophies beyond their textbook definition before I make statements about how they influence culture."
He then proceeded to tell me exactly how Taoism influences Chinese culture.
I have no clue how I'm going to get through this unit without stabbing him in the face.
At lunch, Eric and Dave made fun of me for having had mono.
"Eric, I didn't get it from making out, okay?"
"Oh, right, sure. Let's have a vote on this."
"Alright, I'm ready," said Dave.
"Can I count as more than one person?" (Julian laughed without looking up from his chem homework.)
"You're... One and a half. Okay, who thinks she got it from making out?" Eric and Dave raised their hands. Then Eric reached across the table and raised Jenn's hand, and Dave reached across the table and raised Julian's hand. He laughed a little and turned a little pink and kept his hand up. "Okay four. Who thinks she got it from a water bottle?" I raised my hand. So did Jenn and Bonnie. Julian went back to his chem homework. "Oh, three and a half, looks like we win."
After school was varsity jazz band. I am actually doing okay in jazz band now. Now that I'm not worrying about sucking anymore, I get to enjoy the hillarity that ensues when Mr. Casto interacts with some of the wierder jazz-bandies. Mr. Casto is funny when he wants to be, but he comes across as being pretty quiet - interacting with people doesn't seem like a natural thing for him. He is also one of those people who is so completely blunt that it's almost refreshing. As in (talking to Noah and Stonerdrummer)
"Drummers, be quiet. You know, if someone had told me three years ago that someday you two would eventually be my highschool jazz band drummers, I would have said 'pf, no way.' But look, here you are. So... be quiet."
And
"RJ, did you work on that solo?"
"...Yes."
"See, that's a no. The way you said yes, it means no. You didn't work on that solo, did you?"
"Well, I intended to..."
And
"Noah... What was that?"
"Oh I just uh... I just wanted to, you know, mix up the beats a little, you know, I thought it would be like a sort of..."
(Rob) "You see, a passing cloud of funk floated over us and -"
" - Okay! everybody, measure thirty."
This brutal honesty makes me feel better about the time I asked to take a solo in JV jazz band and then screwed it up. After practice, I said, "Er, Mr. Casto, sorry about that solo..."
"Oh no, that was fine. The important thing is that you actually asked me if you could take a solo, and then took a solo. That's what we're looking for in jazz band. The actual quality of the solo is secondary to that. And the solo wasn't even terrible, I mean, the phrasing was good - there are just certain notes you want to avoid, and you hit... a few of them. But keep working on that. You know what - we can actually make it so that that eight bars repeats a few times, and maybe you and the guitarist and somebody else can all take solos. Hey, it's not like I've never clammed during a solo. I understand."
Julian's mom drove me home and made me tell her all about the mono. Julian sat in silence as she asked me lots of questions and I told her about everything - the giant tonsils, the dehydration, the hospital, the missing school. She said that sounded terrible, and she was glad I felt better. Then there was a pause and she said to her son, "So how are you?" to which he replied, "Um... good." sounding like he felt awkward. It was a really wierd moment. Maybe I should have laughed out loud instead of to myself in the back seat. We talked about music for the rest of the ride to my house and Julian's mom complimented me a lot, which she does whenever I see her, which makes me kind of embarrassed.
Then I came home and my parents were kind of touchy and rude and I didn't do nearly enough homework. (Ah!) And I am going to bed.
Oh, one more thing: I hate romantic literature.
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