Our Freshman Year: September

~*~

Dear Mclean Family,

I hope you are anxiously awaiting your first year of high school. However, due to a newly found problem, your Freshman year will be a little different. It has come to our attention that Ashton High School incapable of holding the rising ninth grade class. For this reason, the ninth grade will stay at Ashton Jr. High for one more year. They will be taught the same curriculum as planned, just in a different location. We ask you all to attend a meeting on the subject this Friday night at 7pm. The meeting will be held at the Jr. High School and will hopefully answer all the questions you might have. We're looking forward to seeing you there.

Sincerely,
John Fabiar
Ashton Jr. High Principal

~*~

August 31, 2003

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I have the perfect outfit to wear! The most adorable pair of black capris, a red-flowered sheer shirt (over a white spaghetti strapped shirt of course) chunky black flip flops. (Am I breaking the Memorial Day/Labor Day rule? I'll have to ask Amanda later.) Guess what?!?! The school board decided that our high school is too small for our rising class so we get to spend one more year at Ashton Jr. High! So, not only did I rule the school in my 8th grade year, but I'm also going to get to do the same my Freshman year too. I'm a Freshman. A Freshman! That just sounds cool. I wonder what kind of privileges we'll get? We already get to switch classes this year. Oh, I forgot to mention, we will have the same teachers from last year because the high school teachers can't drive over for our classes everyday. That stinks. It is so unfair that I have to have another year of Mrs. P. for P.E. Well, I better go call Amanda and ask her about the white/black shoes thing. Her mom will know, being a fashion designer and all.

*^* Katie Mclean *^*

~*~

It was the first day of school and I had just found out I had the exact same locker as the year before, right near my sisters' and her friends.  Of all the lockers in the school, why couldn't I have had a locker on the second floor?  At least it would have been far, far away from Katie.  But no. Here I was, standing at my old locker, trying to ignore Katie, Amanda Jordans, and their whole posse.  Today the topic of choice was the latest Gap catalog.

"That is so adorable!"

"Oh my gosh, what was she thinking? White with white! That's so last season!"

"I wish he was my boyfriend."

"I'm glad he's not." The remarks were just flying and I couldn't take it. It was our first day and all they could talk about were each other's outfits.  They didn't even bother to ask how everyone's summer was! Although, Katie and Amanda had spent every waking second together at the pool, so, I guess they didn't need to ask.  I closed my locker door.  Inside I had stacked all my new textbooks. That was one nice thing about staying at the Junior High School; we didn't have to share lockers, unlike next year, if they ever started building.

"Hey Alz!" someone called. I could recognize that voice from anywhere. Walking down the hall were Casilda Sanchez and Burleigh Gales, the two greatest friends in the whole world.

"Hey guys," I called back. "What's up?"

"The usual," Casilda answered, piling her textbooks into her locker, "Although, Burleigh wouldn't shut up about his new book this morning." Casilda and Burleigh lived close enough to the school that they could walk together every morning. They often came in with entertaining conversations underway.

"What book?" I asked Burleigh.

"A stupid book all about names and what they mean." Casilda cut in. I shot her a dirty look. She didn't seem to care though.

"I happen to find the book quite interesting." Burleigh announced, satisfied.

"So what does your name mean, then?" Casilda asked, looking half interested.

"Well," he began, "It means meadow. But I got the name because my mom likes uncommon names. She wants her children to be unique." That was interesting, I thought. Burleigh. I hadn't thought about it until now, but it was an unusual name. Although, I wasn't one to comment, Alexz wasn't a very popular name either.

"Oh look! Here comes Jason and his gang." Casilda said, closing her locker.  I looked up from Burleigh's book. Sure enough, Jason Bell, Jason Arch, and Jesse Smith were heading down the hall, straight towards us.  Jason B. stopped right in front of me.  I glared at him.  He didn't seem fazed, however.  Annoying us in the mornings had become a tradition a long time ago.  I had hoped that moving to the High School would make them mature and grow up.  I guess, though, since we were still in Ashton Jr. High, they would remain immature forever.

"If it isn't the ABC's. What are you guys up to today?"  Jason B. laughed, "Learning the rest of the alphabet?"  He had been calling us the ABC's since the sixth grade.  Sometimes I would chuckle along with him, but most times I just ignored it.  I mean, was it our fault that our names were the first three letters of the alphabet?  No!

"You are so immature," I said, staring right at him.  "No one in ninth grade would bring that up." Jason B. looked at me before glancing back at his friends, "I think Alexz here is getting tired of us," he said sarcastically.

"Actually we aren't," Casilda said, cutting him off. "And I hope you don't get tired of this." She pulled out her water bottle and aimed it at them.

"What the…"Jason B. started, but it was too late. Casilda dumped it all over his head and his jacket. Then proceeded to soak his friends, as well. They just stared at her for a few seconds and then sputtered who knows what before stomping away.

"That was awesome!" Burleigh congratulated her. "They didn't see that one coming." We all laughed.

"Come on guys," I said, trying to control my laughter, "It's time for class and we need to get away from the crime scene as fast as possible." As we headed down the hall, towards first period classroom, I couldn't help but think that I was really lucky to have such great friends.

~* ~

Cory's First Day

7:43 A.M. Cory gets in the long line to pick up his schedule and textbooks.

7:47 A.M. The second line seems to be moving faster. Cory decides to switch lines.

8:17 A.M. Cory glances at the clock and realizes that he is seven minutes late to first period and has missed homeroom, but is stuck behind an exchange student who is having trouble with his schedule.

11:46 A.M. P.E. ends and Cory dashes to get to lunch early. Mrs. Dirang stops him in the hall and asks him if he's seen Renée Martin. Cory explains he doesn't know who she is and ends up being late to lunch. His food is served to him cold.

1:24 P.M. Mrs. Courte assigns the Latin II class a review Vocabulary quiz on Tuesday, over all the words they've learned.

1:32 P.M. Cory calculates that the quiz will cover over 2000 words, most of which he doesn't know.

2:10 P.M. Cory stays behind after Latin II. His next period is Latin tutoring. Mrs. Courte spends the entire period quizzing Cory over his vocabulary words.

2:34 P.M. Cory finally recognizes a word - amo, I love.

3:00 P.M. School is over. Mrs. Courte tells Cory that he has a lot of studying to do if he plans on passing the quiz tomorrow. Cory packs up and leaves. He concludes that he doesn't need Latin because professional basketball players never use it.

~*~

School was finally over for the day.  Now I could get home and start all my homework.  Why do the teachers give you homework, especially on the first day back from summer?  Once you get home all you do is homework and sleep.  Then you come back to school again in the morning.  It didn't make any sense to me.  Why didn't they just keep us at school all day long?  We could go to school from eight to eight and then sleep in our off hours. It seems like that's what we do, anyway.  Okay, I'd have to admit that would really stink. So, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.  At least when you are at home the teachers aren't there. But at the moment, I didn't want to get home.  I had a Latin paper due tomorrow and I wasn't looking forward to writing it.  School was such a bummer.

"Hey Ashley!" Todd Brackner said, approaching his locker, "Want to come pick up my sister with me? All she talks about is you. Who knows why?"

"Sure" I replied. "Amber's sweet."

Todd laughed, "Um. whatever you say. But you live a day with the six year old brat and then we'll talk about whether she's sweet or not."  I grabbed my coat and shut my locker door.  "You're lucky," he continued.  "You don't have a younger sister always in your face about this or that."  Now I couldn't help but laugh.  If anyone understood about sisters, it was me.  His might be six, but mine were fourteen!  They were my age, in my grade; in most of my classes, and well, anyone could see where I was going.

"Just think of my sisters." I reminded him. He looked at me and then started laughing as well.

"Fine, fine. You beat me," he said. By now, we were away from Ashton Junior High and were almost at the Elementary school. As the topic changed to our Latin papers, I started pouting again. How come I had this gut feeling I wasn't going to do too well on that paper? We rounded the corner to the school and saw tons of kids yelling and screaming. "Help me find her in this mess," Todd directed. I easily found her sitting on a bench with a bunch of her friends.

"Hey Ashley!" she greeted me, "Where's my brother?"

"Somewhere around here" I said, grabbing her lunch box. We looked around the jungle gym, in the parking lot, and near the picnic benches. Just when I thought I was going to have to walk Amber home myself, we found him talking to some second graders. Todd walked over and took his sister's hand.

"I was asking them if they had seen Amber," he said. "But it looks like you've already found her." Amber shook Todd's hand off. "Excuse me, you have to hold somebody's hand," he ordered, reminding me of my own mom. Amber stuck her tongue out at her brother and slipped her hand into mine.

"It's cool," I told Todd. "I'll hold her hand."

"Fine," Todd snapped. We walked to the Brakner's house in silence. It seemed like hours before we reached it. When we got there, Amber let go of my hand and dashed up the driveway.

"See ya tomorrow," Todd called, running inside after Amber.

"Bye" I called back.

~*~

"Mrs. Gales, thank you for having us over," Casilda said as she got out of the Gales mini van. It was after school and Casilda and I had gone to Burleigh's house to do our homework.

"Come on guys we can claim the living room," Burleigh said, grabbing his stuff and heading indoors. I always enjoyed the Gales' home. Each room had a different theme or was from a specific country. The living room was from Africa. I felt like I was on a safari ride every time I was in the room. Hurrying behind Burleigh, I grabbed the zebra love seat. Casilda followed and took the animal tooth chair. It was completely made of different exotic animal teeth. Burleigh came in last, carrying sodas and chips. He sat down on the leopard skin sofa, with pillows made from elephant tusks. Now, why couldn't we do something this fun in our house? I had been in this room many times, but I always found something new with each visit.

"So, what do we want to do first? Goof around or study?" Casilda asked, as she grabbed a Coke and some Doritos.

Mrs. Gales popped into the room for a minute. "I have something you can do," she said. "Take Burleigh's name book and choose some names for the baby." Mrs. Gales was very pregnant and due any time.

"You haven't found one already?" I asked.

"Actually, I haven't started looking," Mrs. Gales admitted. "But I'd appreciate the help. Just remember think different. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to go lie down. I'm feeling a little bit faint."

"Sure thing mom," Burleigh said. Hmm, I thought, what would I name my children when I grew up? Daniel? Michael? Leslie? Carmen? It was a good thing I was only fifteen. Immediately we got to work and picked out some pretty weird names. When our list was done, we began our schoolwork.

"Does anybody know what 'salus' means?" Casilda asked, stumped.

"What's the sentence?"

"Salus populi suprema lex esto."

"Why don't you look it up," Burleigh recommended. Casilda grabbed the Latin Dictionary off the bookshelf.  To go with the safari theme, it was covered entirely with moss.

"Here it is," she announced. "It means welfare.  So, that means the sentence says 'Let the welfare of the supreme law be the people?'"  I thought about it for a second. It didn't seem right.

"Doesn't it mean 'Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law?'"  I suggested.  We all looked at the sentence again.

"I agree with Alexz," Burleigh said.

"Ugh, I just hate Latin" Casilda moaned, rewriting the sentence.

"Don't we all," I laughed. I placed the dictionary back on the shelf just as Mrs. Gales stuck her head into the room,

"It's five o'clock. Time to go, girls" she smiled.

"Ok" Casilda and I chorused.

"See you tomorrow, Burleigh," I said, packing up.

"I'll be online tonight," Casilda yelled from the coat closet in the hall.

"Want to meet at seven?" Burleigh asked.

"Seven o'clock sharp" Casilda called back.

~*~

Alexz, Burleigh and Casilda's List of Baby Names:

Girl:
Thirza (Hebrew) - "delight"
Isolda (Celtic) - "the fair"
Hypatia (Greek) - "surpassing"

Boy:
Searle (Teutonic) - "wearing armor"
Leland (Old Enlish) - "from the meadow"
Ignatius (Latin) - "fiery"

~*~

"Fettuccini Alfredo, Caesar salad, and breadsticks," Mom was saying to Ashley when I walked in the door. A meal at our house could be a big event. Usually everyone was so busy they didn't eat together. However, since it was the first day of our Freshman year, we were all going to sit and talk. Well, more like we kids would sit while our parents asked us about every little detail that that is happening in our lives. I shook my head. Parents.

"I'm home," Dad called. Mom went out to greet him while Cory and Alexz finished setting the table.

"So, did everyone like your outfit? Alexz asked me. You could tell she was trying to start a conversation with me.

"Well of course," I said, pretending to be hurt. "Everyone loves my outfits. Amanda and I do set the trends at our school, don't we? Unlike you, I happen to look good all the time and people notice." Ashley gave me a weird look, but I chose to ignore him.

"Well, you looked nice," Alexz said, going back into the kitchen to get something.

"Everyone loves your outfit?" Ashley asked, when Alexz had left. "I think you were a little rude to her."

I shrugged. "Whatever. I'll be back. I'm going to go email Amanda."

"What about supper? Mom wants us all to tell her about our day."

"Fine, fine. I'll hurry up," I sighed, really loudly. Brothers could be really annoying at times.

~*~

Instant Messages between Alexz, Burleigh, and Casilda:

OddBallABC - Hi Alexz

QuadrupletABC- Where's Casilda?

OddBallABC - I have no idea

QuadrupletABC - Did your mom like any of the names?

OddBallABC - She likes Thirza. Only because she wants a girl.

QuadrupletABC - I don't blame her. She doesn't need another boy like you

OddBallABC - Not fair!

EspanolABC- Hey

OddBallABC - You're late.

EspanolABC - I know, I know

QuadrupletABC - And you were the one who said 7pm 'sharp'

OddBallABC - You guys, I need to go.

EspanolABC - But I just got on!

OddBallABC - Sorry, but my dad is supposed to call from Africa

EspanolABC - Cool, tell him I say hi.

QuadrupletABC - I'm going to go too. I have a little bit of math to finish.

OddBallABC - See you tomorrow

QuadrupletABC - Bye

EspanolABC - TTFN

QuadrupletABC - Casilda that is so old!!!

OddBallABC - I'll tell him you guys say hi. Now I really have to go.

EspanolABC - Thanks.

EspanolABC - Alexz?

EspanolABC - Alexz? Are you there? Why aren't you talking to me?

EspanolABC - Alz?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Readers ~

If any of ya'll have read my bio, then you'll recognize this as Vogue La Galere, just under a new title. Let me know if ya'll can understand the switching of POVs. It could get a little confusing. I understand.

Review, review, review. My decision to continue will come from you.

Till Next Time ~ Alexz Lynn