7th Grade Diary
Part 4

Janearo 24, 1984/6 (Freya's)

Interesting Story

Once there was a boy named Venk "Reptilia" Reddy. He had a very bad cold, and went home sick during lunch Wednesday.

This boy had a very good friend named Mark "Osteichtheyes" Osterman. On Thursday, at school, Mark came down with a very bad cold even though his friend was absent.

There was a girl named Suzanne Marie "Sandstorm" Saunders. She sat in front of Venk in English, beside Venk in Science, and for two days in a row sat behind Mark in Social Studies + was talked to so Mark would have someone to talk to when Venk wasn't there.

That Friday morning, Suzanne woke up feeling funny. After school she realized she was getting a sore throat. She thought she was getting a cold. Mark and Venk's cold, to be exact.

January 25, 1986 (Saturn's Day)

Blew nose avg. 67 an hr. today. If I'm sick tommorrow I'll kill fish + lizard (Osteichtheyes + Reptilia). Well, if I'm sick tomorrow, maybe I'll stay home Monday.

Speaking of [them], projected date for filming is spring break (end of March). With my ballet, Lok-yi's helping her parents in their restaurant, Lee + Venk's karate, Mark + Venk's violin, Mark's piano and Lee's orthodontist appointments, we seem to have two people who can't come, whenever is suggested.

My birthday was celebrated today [actual date the 26th]. I did get to see "Spies Like Us." It was great. And absolutely hilarious, like at the end the "disarnament talks" -- Trivial Pursuit questions on a Risk board! Needless to say, the Russians were losing. Got "Glowing Orchid" nail polish, new earphones, two pair socks and one unopened (for today) present.

Now, as soon as this Arcadia album is over, I think I'll go to bed and be miserable there.

Guten Nacht.

7:53 January zwanzig-und-sechs 1986 (Sun's Day)

So now I'm thirteen. How does it feel? Nothing different. I'm still me, with a terrible cold. Mom says I have to stay home from school tommorrow. Let's see...I can call Sarah for my math assignment, 1st + 6th period I won't need to call anyone and 2nd, 3rd, 4th...I don't desperately need my Eng., Sci. + S.S. assignments. So about 5:00 tommorrow I'll call Sarah.

January 27, 1986 (Monday)

I'm looking for cracks in the pavement again. It's boring here all alone. MTV, music television is showing boring videos like "Big Money" (Rush) + "Night Moves" (Marilyn Martin), there's nothing to read, etc.

Cold seems to be getting better. Only blown my nose about 5 times today and its about twelve. (noon) Hopefully I can go back to school tommorrow + tell tuna and lizard how mad I am at them. Tommorrow is good ol' Active Learning Experiences in Resourceful Thinking. There will be two new people in our class, "Messieur" Hinton said. A whole bunch of new people are entering ALERT + Tuesday is the only class that won't get totally split up. I wonder what the new teacher they're hiring will think of Mrs. McLellans math students + the 1st period + not 5th bit. My guess is Mrs. Powers (new ALERT teacher) won't really like it, but will have to live with it. Wonder who out 2 new people will be. Ginger, Amy H. + Eden have asked for Amy Powers, but even if that comes true, that's still another person. Hopefully a girl, but probably a boy because as of now we have 7 boys + 9 girls. Mr. Hinton will probably want to even out the ratio, but I'd still prefer a girl.

January 28 1986 (Tues.)

You know what?!?!?! n.k.l. made me stay home again. I've been looking forward to ALERT since Saturday + she made me stay home. According to her I should be back in school tommorrow.

February 1, 1986 (Saturday)

I dreamed that all the rockstars in the world including me were witches + we were fleeing a bunch of inquisitors. We were in a mall at one of the little courts and it was vitally important that we get to the first floor but all the stairways and escalators + elevators were blocked off, so each person had a giant necklace and 1/2 the people strung their long necklace across + where they sagged in the middle they got down. And the people with shorter necklaces put them in loops around the longest ones and slid then I woke up. I only remember two specific faces from all this -- Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck.

February 2, 1986 (Sunday)

Guess what? I got hit in the nose by the thingamajig on Nicci's swingset. Tammy accidently swung it while I was writing Nicci in the dirt. I had already written Wendy, Tammy + Suzanne in front of the swings, slide and sky coaster thingy. It hurt. Now, about two hours after, it doesn't hurt too much, but Mom talked of taking me to the doctor tomorrow. Probably not, because of Mom's basically expired her sick days.

February 8, 1986 (Saturn)

The new people in our ALERT class turned out to be: Amy Powers, Electra Gaffos, and Sean Martinez. Amy's nice, Electra's even nicer, and Sean's a nerd. Electra + Amy make the class just as good as before but the nerd seems to make things different. I hope it's absent a lot.

I think I'll try to get out of the witchcraft thing, at least at school. Markandvenk refuse to leave me alone about it. They call me old witch + go "So you want to be a wizard, eh!" Venk is worse about it. In S.S. when I just talk to Mark he seems to not really care but whenever I talk to just Venk or both they tease me. O.K., I admit sometimes I bring it on--purposely check out The Witch Herself of something like that, but I'm getting tired of this. I wonder what a Trixie Belden siege would do.

February 12, 1986 (Wednesday)

I do say, hello. Guess what?

What #1: I saw The Breakfast Club (remember "Don't You") on Cinemax. It was great. Characters: Claire (the school princess) Andrew (a jock), Bryan (a brain) Karl (practically a criminal) + Alison (a basket case) all have all day detention one Saturday. They yell are each other for a while, then start talking. It's a great movie.

February 23, 1986 (Sunday)

Williamsburg [gifted program overnight field trip to recreation of colonial settlement in Virginia] notes.

I'm going on March 4-7. Sarah, unfortunately, is going on Feb. 25-8 next week. She's rooming with Margy, Dee Jai + Erica Huggins. I'm rooming with Jordan Crim, Michelle Butler and Christy Something-or-other. I can't believe it's week after next!

February 27, 1986 (Thursday)

Sarah wrote me a poem. It's the piece of paper I stuck in here, but I made some small revisions because of a few inaccuracies.

I stayed home today because of a cold. I hope I give the cold to Mark because because of him I was sick on my birthday + tomorrow is his birthday.

February 28, 1986 (Freya's)

No luck on Operation Mark-the-Aardvark.

Last weekend our class had a spelling bee. I was runner-up to Margaret Trimble. She was absent the day the run-off between Ms. Hommel's English classes took place, so I took her place and ended up as runner-up to someone named Tom Thompson. He was absent today so I took his place in the school spelling bee. Guess what I placed as? Runner-up. The winner was some 8th grade boy. So far I've messed up on: sufficient, allegiance, and cashier. The last I knew I misspelled as soon as I said "e" instead of "i." I wonder what may happen next Saturday (district competition).

We went into the pre-algebra book in math. It's boring. We're doing sets you know A={1, 2, 3}, B={2, 4, 6}, A U B={1, 2, 3, 4, 6}, A ∩ B [if anyone knows how to get the upside-down U intersection symbol into HTML, please mail me!] Gawd! Lucky Sahrah, she missed all this by going on Williamsburg. I still can't believe Williamsburg's 4 days away! Only one full school day! We leave school 4th period Tuesday, y'know. Let's see. Caroline's going, so are Electra, Ginger, + Amy H. Amy H. (as opposed to Amy P.) said Sean C. (as opposed to Sean M.) wasn't going + I know Kenyon is, but other than that I don't know who in my class is + isn't going. That leaves 11 unaccounted for.

Naturally I'm taking this diary with me on the trip. I've been to Williamsburg before, but this is different -- no Mom! 4 days + 3 nights of luxurious reading, writing, talking, T.V., possibly music, without her! She doesn't want me to go. But I paid + I'm going!

I got this neat book, about the size of a diary, (book to write in, that is) with Aquarius, a picture of the constellation, + a map of the zodiac on the front. On the endpapers it says stuff about ruled by + metal, gem, stuff like that. On the top of each 2 pages it has the symbols for the signs, in order. Aquarius is an equivalent sign in math, oops not equivalent, I mean approximately equal to, like 13 and 1/3 is approximately equal to 13.333 repeating . [More symbols I can't find a way to express in in HTML.] Anyway, I wrote down all the things that happen in school it it, like Harriet the Spy. And any song lyrics that are running through my head go down too.

March 4, 1986 (Tuesday)

"On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again..."

Actually thats not true. We have been in this bus since 12:45 and it's 5:30 (well, a 20-minute stop at a boring place. I bought 6 candy canes for Tammy's birthday present-souvenir. I'm about brain-teasered out. We have a packet of nine + I've done all of four and parts of four more. We are supposed to write an essay each night. I already wrote tonight's. Mr. Hinton says he'll take off the last one if someone compliments us everyplaces we go. Come on, people, compliment!

March 5, 1986 (Wednesday)

Well, Williamsburg, here we are! I greet you. We got in about 9:30 last night. My roommates, Jordan, Michelle + Christy are really nice. We spent the whole day at Colonial Williamsburg. Tomorrow is our dinner at the King's Arms Tavern + Colonial Dancing. I will describe the whole trip on the way home.

March 8, 1986 (Saturday)

Okay, okay, I admit it, I have a crush on Justin McKinley. The entry in my Aquarius book (I keep a short file on my math class) on him says: extremely quiet, got 66 (highest in class) on 1st Mathcounts test, weird (Sarah wrote that last). He went on the Williamsburg trip. Stuff I learned: according to Michelle Butler, he blushed when we called him a perfect gentleman when he let us get off the bus first, right before the King's Arms tavern meal. On the reproduction of the Susan Constant (a ship) at Jamestown, everyone dashed for the top end of the boat + when we were up + I'd looked around, then I go, "Now, to get down!" because there was only one staircase and people were still coming up. Anyway Justin happened to be beside me + he said that he'd like to get down too. And on the bus he asked me about my neil's Book of the Dead.

Speaking of neil's Book of the Dead, I just bought it Thursday + it's by Nigel Planer, or neil (the hippie from "The Young Ones") and it's really neat.

Back to Wednesday. We got up, ate, + went to Colonial Williamsburg. The 41 people split into 2 groups, Mrs. Guthries + Mr. Lowes. I was in Mrs. Guthries + so was Lee, but not Justin.

The docents led us all around the town, then after lunch we went to th College of William + Mary. I took 6 and 1/4 pages of notes through this day. That night we had a choice of essay topics and I picked being accused of a crime, tried at the courthouse, + found guilty. I picked witchcraft for my crime, and I won that category! Also that night was the Lanthorn, or Lantern, tour. We went and saw the apothecary, the printer + bookbinders, and the bakery, at light, by holding lanterns.

The next day we spent the morning with the docents and the afternoon off on our own, although we had to stay in groups of four or more. I stayed with my roommate Christy (Freeman) and her friends Bonnie (Beck) and Bethany (Brant). That night we had the meal at the King's Arms. I wore Mom's white blouse and pink skirt. Ginger Norris wore a long (to the floor) and almost lowcut dress. She would. Ted Metzger wore jeans. He would. All the other boys wore suits + stuff like that. They looked nice, especially my two.

Then after that was Colonial Dancing. The people asked for volunteers, but they didn't get any so they just picked people. I didn't get picked (Thank God) but Justin and my new friend Bonnie did, along with a bunch of other people. None were any good.

The next morning was the 4 person group study again. We were supposed to interview a craftsman. Bonnie, Bethany, + Christy did printing. I did the milliner. Then we went + ate at a place called A Good Place To Eat. Then Bonnie, Christy + I showed Bethany the maze at the Governor's Palace gardens because our docent had shown it to us and hers hadn't.

Then we went to Jamestown. First we saw a reproduction of an Indian Village. When this is packed up somewhere in a box, my journal should be somewhere around; take a gander at the notes on the village. [Sorry, no immediate plans to put those online, even if I were sure where they were.]

Second there was a repro. of the original village. The whole thing was made of wattle-and-daub with thatched roofs + a fence of pointed logs (palisade) around it. The man-woman ratio there was about 40 to 1.

Last there were reproductions of the ships the colonists came over on: the Discovery, the Godspeed + the Susan Constant. The Susan Constant is the biggest + the only one you could get on.

All three nights my roommate wanted to stay up and whisper + giggle, mostly about sex. I listened but the only interesting thing I heard was supposedly Patrick (or Pak as he's better known as) dropped his pants including underwear on a dare at a party. Sounds like an interesting party.

P.S. 4th day, on our self study at Wmsbg., it snowed. It was so beautiful...

March 15, 1986 The Ides of March (Saturday)

A week after I got home, I'm getting post-overnight-depression. And now I can't even look forward to Washington next year because n.k.l. is going to move to Florida (ugh!) and already has the house up for sale, but I've been hoping and praying no one will want to buy the house, or really that mom will find a good job here before she finds one in Florida, or that she just won't find ont in florida. Please God!

Of course, there's still the Halley's comet overnight, but that's so small I probably won't even get depressed when its over. You see, on April 11, the night Halley comes closest to earth, Mr. Hinton + a lot of the ALERT students will go up on the schools PE field + watch it. He has a telescope. Not everyone will stay all night like Mark + Venk + Suraj + Margaret who have the State Mathcounts competition on April 12 + Erica, Chris, Amy, Ginger, Jenny M. + me (+ any other chorus people) because the Carowinds Chorus festival is Apr. 12 too.

Speaking of which, our Columbia College clinic was yesterday. It was neat. Before lunch we worked with a guy named Mr. Warren, a clinician. This was just (all) the Soprano-Second Soprano-Alto group. R.E. Davis where Mom teaches were there. Then 20 min. for lunch. We were down first to do our solo performance. We did "A Voice From A Dream." The 2 other SSA groups, and about 9 Soprano-Alto-Tenor-Bass (including the Wright Singers [the 8th grade chorus from my school] did their solos. Then all the SSA's did "Fly Away," "Old Joe Clark," + "Oklahoma." Then all the SATB's did several songs, the only one I remember is "Ol' Dan Tucker." Then everyone did "With A Voice Of Singing."

The Mathcounts Team were on Mr. Knozit [local TV show aimed at young kids]. I watched but it was boring. Margaret was the only girl there (of course). Everyone (Mark, Venk, Margaret, Suraj, Teddy Peleckat (alternate) + two kids from other schools) looked bored to death and I don't blame them.

Something I need to add. On the Wmsbg. trip, the way up and back, Lee slept on the bus. How can he possibly go to sleep on a bus?

St. Patricks Day (Monday)

I figured out that we average 2 and 1/8 people per table in math, so I asked Mrs. McLellan who we should cut up into eighths. She said Ted. Then Lisa goes, "I don't want one-eighth of Ted sitting at my table!"

We had a CTBS pep rally today but it was blah!. The cheerleaders did dumb cheers + the percussionists banged on their drums, we sat there. Pee-yew!! [CTBS was an annual standardized achievement test the whole school had to take.]

March 19, 1986 (Wednesday)

CTBS is BLAH! They won't even let you read after you finish the test. [In previous years they had, but some decision was made was that being allowed to do anything other than sit doing nothing after finishing a section encouraged students to hurry through the test.] We missed a day of ALERT for this? Ugh!!!

March 26, 1986 (Wednesday)

I've been watching The Monkees on MTV. It's an old 60's show starring rock group the Monkees (Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, Davey Jones, and Peter Tork). Peter's cute. He acts rather like a dum-dum, so innocent, on the show. He seems pretty normal on the two episodes not actually a show. They were -- one about all their concerts on tour, and in that one there's a bit where its just him and he says, "After a concert my ears are ringing. I need to find a place where I can get away, absolute quiet..." so forth and so on. The other not-a-show show is when they're in Paris.

Who cares? Actually, me. I'll finish this later.

May 22, 1986 (Thursday)

Ballet recital! We have emerald green leotards with thin floating green skirts this year.

June 1, 1986 (Sun's Day)

Yesterday I went to a party that Patrick gave. He invited all our ALERT class, but only 7 people came. Me, Caroline, Electra, Mark, Venk, Edgar + Lee Fletcher! I got there when Edgar, Patrick, Mark + Venk were playing ping-pong so I watched them + ate (on porch). Then Electra, Caroline, + Lee arrived. The boys when inside to play pool + Caroline, Electra + I played in the hammock. Then I lost to Electra at ping-pong + she played Caroline at one game for 1/2 an hour. Then we played softball. Me, Patrick + Electra vs. Mark + Venk. We won. Pak + Electra took turns pinch-hitting for me + all I had to do was run. At the end of the game Caroline joined our team + Lee stood in for Venk who had to go. Right after that I had to leave but the score was 11-2 so we probably won.

June 3, 1986 (Tiw's day)

School is out. I don't want it to be. Now I'm so lonely, knowing I may never see my friends again...

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On to 8th grade part I!
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