The BSC Legacy - Book 1: Brave New World of High School

By: CNJ

PG-13

3: Extracurriculars

Claudia:

I am sooo excited about being on the yearbook, Visions. Caitlin Giotti and I both made ninth grade class photographers! We meet on Thursday. Mary Anne signed up for the SHS Beacon. I hope she got in. On Monday, Abby and Kristy made the soccer team and on Tuesday, Stacey made the Future Scientists Club.

"Claudia!" Mary Anne came toward me after the meeting and from the smile on her face, I knew she was officially on the staff. "I made it! Ninth grade reporter, one of three."

"Me too. Ninth grade photographer!" We hugged and congratulated each other.


Mary Anne:

I like being on the Beacon. I'm usually shy, but I find that I enjoy interviewing people one-on-one. I also like to write. I also like Gloria Getterstein, the head editor. She's very warm, open, and has a dry sense of humor.

And of course, there's Ms. Fedders, our moderator. At our first meeting, Ms. Fedders suggested an article the freshmen. It was Gloria who suggested that my first article be about lost freshmen.

"Tell me about it." I smiled ruefully. "The first day, I was groping my way through the hall to math and some big guy slammed into me and I almost cried."

"Ohhh, no," Gloria gave me a sympathetic grin.

"Maybe I can interview other freshmen and get their nightmares and how they survived their first day of high school."

"Good idea." Gloria grinned.


Around week three of ninth grade:

Kristy:

Abby and I love being on the soccer team. The other girls there are great. You know what else is great? At our games, the girls' teams get as much support as the boys' teams. I know that makes Abby thrilled.

We have cheerleaders at our games just like at the guys' games. Last week, Stacey toyed with the idea of trying out, but ditched the idea and is now in the Future Scientists Club. Abby told me she was glad.

"Cheerleading is demeaning to girls and women," she told me as we changed after practice. Outside, we met Mary Anne and Claudia.

"What's demeaning to girls?" Claudia asked.

"Cheerleading," Abby told her.

"In some schools, it's turned into a look-good popularity contest," Mary Anne added. Then she grabbed a tissue out of her backpack and for a second, I thought she was going to cry. Her eyes watered andher mouth and brows contorted. What's wrong? I wondered...then she sneezed. I then remembered that she was getting over a cold.

"Gezhundheit," I said. Her eyes closed and she sneezed twice more.

"I thick..." Mary Anne wiped at her runny nose. "I got this cold frob Jen..." she cleared her throat and struggled not to go into another sneezing fit. I remembered how she'd written in our BSC notebook that Jenny Prezzioso had had a cold last week. As Mary Anne was blowing her nose, Stacey came streaking up to us.

"Heeeeey! Waaaait up!" she called. She caught up and in between breaths, told us that there was definitely life on other planets.

"I know..." Abby laughed. "Klingons, Vulcans...maybe there might even be life on Mars."

"Not in this solar system," Stacey said as we continued walking. "But we in the Future Scientists Club are convinced that earth isn't IT in terms of life. Think about what we learned in history. You know how it was in Europe before the Europeans discovered the States and the Native Americans living here? And the Native Americans didn't know about the Europeans?"

"I know!" Mary Anne added. "The two continents each thought theirs was it for humanity! Stacey, you're brilliant!"

"Yeah!" I put in, finding the whole idea exciting. "Maybe in a couple of hundred years, we'll be living on other planets light years away and people from other planets could wind up living here."

"Could you imagine the BSC becoming worldwide, then UNIVERSE-wide?" Abby asked. Wow! What a thought!