The First Day of School - Pony
May 27, just less than a month before the end of school, was my first day of Livingston High School. I got my schedule from Marlena on Sunday, and she showed me hers to compare. They were almost identical.
"Hey, Ponyboy. We have four classes together. I'll introduce you to people who are in your classes. You know, who you should hang with and who will try and destroy you."
Wow. That was harsh. Maybe this town isn't so different from Tulsa after all. And maybe that isn't a good thing. "Hey, don't seem so scared, Pony. There are plenty people who are nice. I'll just point them out to you. It takes a really good judge of character to figure out what took me 4 years in only 4 weeks. I've seen many a good person go to the dark side, you don't want to."
"Okay. Sounds good, I guess."
That morning, Marlena and I both got up incredibly early, ate breakfast quickly, and were taken to the school by her dad. Marlena immediately started talking about how to get to this class and that, but I was too tired. The high school started at eight o' clock! It's insane. But I still managed to catch a lot of what she said, miraculously.
"Well, we have homeroom together, but periods two and three are separate." Then I zoned out, only to catch her colorful descriptions of periods seven through nine. ""Got all that? I'll catch you up at certain points during the day." We got out of the car, and Marlena waved to her dad as we walked to the building.
"You'll need to explain it again. I barely caught any of that!"
"Really? Darn! Maybe my friends are right when they say that I can't explain anything without confusing people. I'll try better next time."
"It was a fine explanation, but it's too early for me for me to remember anything."
"You'd better zone in soon. Mrs. Budrow in period one isn't exactly mean, but she loves to catch people who fall asleep in class." I made a mental note to be a little afraid of Mrs. Budrow, whoever she is.
Period one was English. There were group skits being presented from Julius Caesar, which I learned was the "book" they were just finished reading for class. The groups had worked three weeks to present their scenes that they were presenting. Actually, the assignment was to examine a scene and write an essay about it, but the skits were extra credit. Apparently a lot of people needed it, since all groups had one. (I stole an assignment description from Marlena. That's how I know this.) It looks as if got to choose their groups, since no group had both boys and girls.
Marlena's group did very well. Both she and one other girl in the group were clearly experienced at acting. Some people in the other groups stood up there and stared like a deer in the headlights at the back wall and mumbled their lines. Everyone in Marlena's group was decent, but Marlena herself seemed really comfortable. The other girl was amazing. She swept around the stage like she owned it, and her performance was topped off with some sort of accent. Marlena's performance was more down-to-earth, definitely something more befitting such an early hour.
At the end of the presentations, I was now thoroughly awake. Then Mrs. Budrow went to the front of the room and introduced me to the class and mentioned that Marlena's family was allowing me to live with them. One of the boys (who had acted horribly in his skit) leaned forward to Marlena and whispered something. Marlena glared at him spookily, which shut him up. Then we were allowed to talk quietly until the end of class, which was about six minutes.
Marlena introduced me to her friends in the group. There were four others. The actress one was Ariana Caploni. (To be honest, I really didn't learn any of their names that day. Marlena told me again later so I could write them down.) When Marlena introduced her to me, she gave a low bow, which frightened me a bit, and said, "Charmed, dahling." The next one was Talia Dahlman, who chided Ariana to not "scare the poor child!" I grinned nervously. The last girl in the group was a very quiet girl who you couldn't hear when she was on the stage. She seemed to have a lot of personality, despite her lack of volume and her name was Anne Arrat.
By the time the bell rang, my ears were ringing similarly. Who were all these people? Greasers? Socs? No! They were Livingstoners, but surely I can narrow it down? I guess not. Because before I could say anything to Marlena, we were being whisked off to period two. As we left, the one who Marlena glared at stopped to be mean to her. "Well, Friedman, I never thought I'd see a boy stupid enough to spend more time with you than necessary."
"That's funny, Capucelli. I thought I never thought I'd see you act less believably than when you were telling me that your GPA was higher than mine. But today you really outdid yourself, Brutus."
With that, she swept out of the room. A little agitated, she growled,
"Okay, Ponyboy, we both have math next. But I have Mrs. Huron's AP class, and you have been placed in geometry with Mr. Lotran. He's amazing." At this point, she seemed to have forgotten the annoying Capucelli kid. I made a mental note to ask her what his problem was later. She continued, "You are in class with Byron and Ahmal, I think. They are so cool. You might need to get used to Ahmal, but Byron is so sweet, he'll definitely help you feel at home. Just say you know me."
"Er, Marlena, if we aren't going to the same place, how will I know where to go?"
"Good point. I'll walk you there. My class is right downstairs, just below your classroom. Your science class, that's period three, is right across the hall, but down a bit. Byron or Ahmal will show you, wait, Ahmal is in that class, so he'll go with you, probably. I'll meet you there to go to fourth period, just wait until a bit after the bell rings."
We walked through the hall silently, since I was too stuck on the annoying kid from period one to say anything else. He seemed like a Soc, but of course they didn't have those here. I didn't want to mention him, so I just said nothing. Marlena said "hi" to many people as we walked to the room. She pointed to my class, and kept walking, greeting several people on her way. "Hi, Mrs. Vogol! This AP test coming up is going to be so hard! Not like your class at all. This teacher won't give extra credit or partial credit . Hey, Alexia! Did you get any further in that book I recommended."
I walked into the geometry class. I wasn't too worried about this, since geometry was the only math I really liked. And Marlena had said that Mr. Lotran was good, so I had nothing to worry about. I saw Byron and Ahmal talking in the corner. I knew it was them because Mr. Lotran said,
"Please, Byron, Ahmal, sit down right now, the class is starting." I sat down in a free seat near them. Mr. Lotran didn't acknowledge me out loud, but he looked my way a few times to show that he knew I was there. I talked to Byron and Ahmal after class a bit, between math and science. Ahmal was really off-the-wall, and Byron seemed nice enough. But I couldn't help feeling like he was my opponent in something. It wasn't coming to me, though, so I figured that I'd forget about it. Ahmal and I had the same science class period 3, so we went together. "You know Marlena?" I asked him.
"Sure. How do you know her?" He asked.
"Oh, I am kind of an exchange student. I live with her family now." It seemed so final when I said it like that. Remember, this isn't permanent. I am going home soon.
"I see. Marlena's cool. She's definitely more knowledgeable about the high school than the average freshman. She even beats me to orchestra almost every day!"
"Sure, she seems to know stuff. By the way, do you know any real annoying kid named Capucelli?"
"Nope, don't think so. Why? There are loads of annoying people here, though. You could be talking about almost anyone. I don't know the name. Well, here we are." Apparently, no one really cared to talk about annoying people here. Maybe they didn't confront each other as much as in Tulsa. That's odd. I never knew about two groups who hated each other but still just lived on verbal insults. Whatever.
Science was fine. After that, I had Global Studies with Marlena. As promised, she materialized at the Biology room door just thirty seconds after the bell rang to signify the end of the period. (She later explained that her science teacher usually wraps up the class early and ends with a discussion, so people have time to pack up, thus giving them an unbalanced advantage, but it was cool at the time.)
In Global Studies, we learned about the age of monarchs in Europe, a unit we did a long time ago at school back home, so I was pretty impressive in the class. I answered a lot of questions that no one knew. Even Marlena, who seemed to raise her hand for every question, didn't know some of the stuff I did. Well, I had a leg up. At the end, Marlena introduced me to even more people I didn't know, making me feel stupid after a time of feeling smart.
"This is Lorraine Kaplan." She said, gesturing to a girl with a long blonde braid and a natural smile. "Hi," said Lorraine. "And this is Marina." Marlena and Marina? This was almost sadistic! How did anyone keep their names straight? It was easy to tell them apart physically, though. Marina was easily about a foot shorter than Marlena, so I didn't worry about that. Than, thankfully, it was now lunchtime.
There, I met too many people to count, but I decided to simply concentrate on talking to the people to I had already met and talked to. Ariana and Tahlia were there, as well as Lorraine. Byron was there, too, at the next table over. Now that I was fully awake, I asked Marlena to explain the rest of the day's schedule. There were four periods left.
"Okay, periods six and seven, next, we have separately. You have two study halls, since freshmen usually have two electives, but you came too late in the school year to get one. Study halls are held in the library, so you can just go there after lunch. I have a class on A hall after lunch, so it's on the way. I have my electives then too. I'll meet you there after period seven to go with you to period eight, which unfortunately is Gym."
"You don't like Gym?"
"Hell, no!" exclaimed Marlena. The rest of the table laughed at my question. I laughed too, not too amused.
"Ponyboy, that's a good one. Especially when we have Mr. Calegari," said Ariana.
"Let me tell you something," said Lorraine. "Mr. Calegari is a sadist. I'm convinced of it. He made Marlena run 8 laps around the track just to get a B."
Marlena nodded, and added, "He did that just because I told him that I couldn't be a good runner if I tried. He seemed determined to make me try. That was incredibly mean. Singled me out in front of the whole class."
She grinned as she said the last part, and something told me she didn't mind being in front of a whole class. Her performance in English was a hint at that. But she really didn't like gym. That was different.
"Ponyboy, after that, we both have language. You take Spanish, right?"
I nodded. "I take French, but all classes are right near each other on the same hall, so I'll show you where it is."
With the rest of the day planned, I sat back and relaxed in eating my lunch, having the conversation waft over me as I tried to decipher clues about my current surroundings.
After, as promised, Marlena and I walked down to the library. She introduced me to the teacher in charge, and then left. "So I'll be in Advanced Programming. See you for gym!" With that, I retreated to the back of the library and attempted to identify anyone there. I didn't expect to see too many of Marlena's friends here, since they all seemed pretty smart. They probably wouldn't take a study hall, I don't think. I was right. The only one I even remotely recognized was Capucelli! I sat across from him and opened a book from a nearby shelf to see if he would initiate conversation. I certainly wasn't going to.
After a few short moments, he started in.
"So, you're friends with that geek Marlena Friedman?"
"It wasn't my choice. I got put with her family when I was taken away from mine."
"Pity. You really don't want to be seen with her. She's a real nerd. Only A's, all advanced classes. She's in every academic extracurricular, and not a single sport. She absolutely sucks in gym. Awful. Such a pity that a guy like you needs to be branded with her company."
His tone was positively evil, despite his calm outward appearance, and guise that he was helping me. I wanted to slug him then and there, but I had a feeling that would be too much of an anathema for this town. So I countered his verbal threat with what I thought to be a stunning defense.
"She may be intelligent, but that doesn't give you the right to attack her coolness. She's loads cooler than you. Besides, why are you so into what she does and doesn't do? Maybe you're hiding that you have a thing for her?" I had used this trick on people in Tulsa, so it wasn't a completely on-the-spot thing, but I still thought it was impressive. It did catch him off guard, but he soon came back with a nice retort.
"It's impossible to miss her academics. She shoves it in everyone's face. And it's obvious she's had her eye on valedictorian for years. She is nuts. No sensible guy would go out with her."
"We're not dating, for Christ's sake! You have such a one-track mind! You know what, shut up. I have no tolerance for you. Stop."
"Pretty ballsy for a newbie. You are going to be eaten up by LHS. See if I'm wrong!"
With this, I tired of the argument. I left to finish my book, and then reviewed some math. At the end of period six, Capucelli left and he was replaced by Lorraine, who recognized me instantly and ran over.
"So how have you been? Like that book? I'm not much of a reader myself, unless it's Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, though that book you have there doesn't look bad. How was your first study hall? Boring, I bet. It always is."
"Er, well, I guess. Capucelli was just here, and I was thoroughly annoyed by him. But he's gone now, so that's over."
"Oh yeah, he's an idiot. Don't listen to him, he's so into pop culture he's blind in terms of anything besides dating and partying. He even drinks too much, or so I've heard. Stuff goes around." With that, she whipped out her math book and requested that I quiz her on Algebra for her test the next day. I obliged willingly, and that was enough fun to hold me over until gym, and freedom from that dull place.
Marlena and Lorraine talked all the way to gym, which we all had together. Ariana was also there. Between the three of them, there was as much joy about the class as there is when Two-Bit walks into a final in history class. In other words, they all were incredibly bummed to ever go to a gym.
Mr. Calegari wasn't that bad. Not to me. He introduced me nicely to the class, then let us all outside to play softball and tennis. Marlena chose softball, and I have never played tennis, so I softball was the obvious choice.
"Okay, everyone. I have a strategy so we can finally win a game." Marlena addressed the team. "Dan! Listen!" She specifically pointed out one curly-haired boy and commanded his attention. "Good. Now, I'm telling you they will catch a fly ball. Ground it. Bunt, if possible; they won't expect it. Please! I'm sick of losing." The last sentence was half to herself. Then she spoke to me. "Pony, I like softball, and I play it well, but here no one wants to win, and I get sick of it after a while. But it's better than the average gym day."
We lost. I hit a nice grounder that pounded all the way to the outfield, through the incompetent shortstop and left fielder, so the loss was softened, and Lorriane told me "it's the closest we ever came to a win, so it counts as a victory." I agree. Then, we all split up to go to the last period of the day.
"See you at the front door at the end of the day, Pony. Have fun!"
Ariana was in my language class, so I was entertained the whole way to the class. She was really funny, and told me about some extracurriculars that were available to the students. I was so enthralled! There were so many things that I was interested in. I felt guilty for feeling this, but LHS is not so bad. I almost wanted to stay here. Then, my confused thoughts interrupted, we arrived at the class. We had an amazing class; our teacher was really nice. He basically reviewed for the final, and went over some more difficult language concepts through the year. I felt a bit behind, but with the review, I managed. Then, I floundered over to my locker near my homeroom, and met Marlena at the front door.
I certainly had been given a lot to think about.
May 27, just less than a month before the end of school, was my first day of Livingston High School. I got my schedule from Marlena on Sunday, and she showed me hers to compare. They were almost identical.
"Hey, Ponyboy. We have four classes together. I'll introduce you to people who are in your classes. You know, who you should hang with and who will try and destroy you."
Wow. That was harsh. Maybe this town isn't so different from Tulsa after all. And maybe that isn't a good thing. "Hey, don't seem so scared, Pony. There are plenty people who are nice. I'll just point them out to you. It takes a really good judge of character to figure out what took me 4 years in only 4 weeks. I've seen many a good person go to the dark side, you don't want to."
"Okay. Sounds good, I guess."
That morning, Marlena and I both got up incredibly early, ate breakfast quickly, and were taken to the school by her dad. Marlena immediately started talking about how to get to this class and that, but I was too tired. The high school started at eight o' clock! It's insane. But I still managed to catch a lot of what she said, miraculously.
"Well, we have homeroom together, but periods two and three are separate." Then I zoned out, only to catch her colorful descriptions of periods seven through nine. ""Got all that? I'll catch you up at certain points during the day." We got out of the car, and Marlena waved to her dad as we walked to the building.
"You'll need to explain it again. I barely caught any of that!"
"Really? Darn! Maybe my friends are right when they say that I can't explain anything without confusing people. I'll try better next time."
"It was a fine explanation, but it's too early for me for me to remember anything."
"You'd better zone in soon. Mrs. Budrow in period one isn't exactly mean, but she loves to catch people who fall asleep in class." I made a mental note to be a little afraid of Mrs. Budrow, whoever she is.
Period one was English. There were group skits being presented from Julius Caesar, which I learned was the "book" they were just finished reading for class. The groups had worked three weeks to present their scenes that they were presenting. Actually, the assignment was to examine a scene and write an essay about it, but the skits were extra credit. Apparently a lot of people needed it, since all groups had one. (I stole an assignment description from Marlena. That's how I know this.) It looks as if got to choose their groups, since no group had both boys and girls.
Marlena's group did very well. Both she and one other girl in the group were clearly experienced at acting. Some people in the other groups stood up there and stared like a deer in the headlights at the back wall and mumbled their lines. Everyone in Marlena's group was decent, but Marlena herself seemed really comfortable. The other girl was amazing. She swept around the stage like she owned it, and her performance was topped off with some sort of accent. Marlena's performance was more down-to-earth, definitely something more befitting such an early hour.
At the end of the presentations, I was now thoroughly awake. Then Mrs. Budrow went to the front of the room and introduced me to the class and mentioned that Marlena's family was allowing me to live with them. One of the boys (who had acted horribly in his skit) leaned forward to Marlena and whispered something. Marlena glared at him spookily, which shut him up. Then we were allowed to talk quietly until the end of class, which was about six minutes.
Marlena introduced me to her friends in the group. There were four others. The actress one was Ariana Caploni. (To be honest, I really didn't learn any of their names that day. Marlena told me again later so I could write them down.) When Marlena introduced her to me, she gave a low bow, which frightened me a bit, and said, "Charmed, dahling." The next one was Talia Dahlman, who chided Ariana to not "scare the poor child!" I grinned nervously. The last girl in the group was a very quiet girl who you couldn't hear when she was on the stage. She seemed to have a lot of personality, despite her lack of volume and her name was Anne Arrat.
By the time the bell rang, my ears were ringing similarly. Who were all these people? Greasers? Socs? No! They were Livingstoners, but surely I can narrow it down? I guess not. Because before I could say anything to Marlena, we were being whisked off to period two. As we left, the one who Marlena glared at stopped to be mean to her. "Well, Friedman, I never thought I'd see a boy stupid enough to spend more time with you than necessary."
"That's funny, Capucelli. I thought I never thought I'd see you act less believably than when you were telling me that your GPA was higher than mine. But today you really outdid yourself, Brutus."
With that, she swept out of the room. A little agitated, she growled,
"Okay, Ponyboy, we both have math next. But I have Mrs. Huron's AP class, and you have been placed in geometry with Mr. Lotran. He's amazing." At this point, she seemed to have forgotten the annoying Capucelli kid. I made a mental note to ask her what his problem was later. She continued, "You are in class with Byron and Ahmal, I think. They are so cool. You might need to get used to Ahmal, but Byron is so sweet, he'll definitely help you feel at home. Just say you know me."
"Er, Marlena, if we aren't going to the same place, how will I know where to go?"
"Good point. I'll walk you there. My class is right downstairs, just below your classroom. Your science class, that's period three, is right across the hall, but down a bit. Byron or Ahmal will show you, wait, Ahmal is in that class, so he'll go with you, probably. I'll meet you there to go to fourth period, just wait until a bit after the bell rings."
We walked through the hall silently, since I was too stuck on the annoying kid from period one to say anything else. He seemed like a Soc, but of course they didn't have those here. I didn't want to mention him, so I just said nothing. Marlena said "hi" to many people as we walked to the room. She pointed to my class, and kept walking, greeting several people on her way. "Hi, Mrs. Vogol! This AP test coming up is going to be so hard! Not like your class at all. This teacher won't give extra credit or partial credit . Hey, Alexia! Did you get any further in that book I recommended."
I walked into the geometry class. I wasn't too worried about this, since geometry was the only math I really liked. And Marlena had said that Mr. Lotran was good, so I had nothing to worry about. I saw Byron and Ahmal talking in the corner. I knew it was them because Mr. Lotran said,
"Please, Byron, Ahmal, sit down right now, the class is starting." I sat down in a free seat near them. Mr. Lotran didn't acknowledge me out loud, but he looked my way a few times to show that he knew I was there. I talked to Byron and Ahmal after class a bit, between math and science. Ahmal was really off-the-wall, and Byron seemed nice enough. But I couldn't help feeling like he was my opponent in something. It wasn't coming to me, though, so I figured that I'd forget about it. Ahmal and I had the same science class period 3, so we went together. "You know Marlena?" I asked him.
"Sure. How do you know her?" He asked.
"Oh, I am kind of an exchange student. I live with her family now." It seemed so final when I said it like that. Remember, this isn't permanent. I am going home soon.
"I see. Marlena's cool. She's definitely more knowledgeable about the high school than the average freshman. She even beats me to orchestra almost every day!"
"Sure, she seems to know stuff. By the way, do you know any real annoying kid named Capucelli?"
"Nope, don't think so. Why? There are loads of annoying people here, though. You could be talking about almost anyone. I don't know the name. Well, here we are." Apparently, no one really cared to talk about annoying people here. Maybe they didn't confront each other as much as in Tulsa. That's odd. I never knew about two groups who hated each other but still just lived on verbal insults. Whatever.
Science was fine. After that, I had Global Studies with Marlena. As promised, she materialized at the Biology room door just thirty seconds after the bell rang to signify the end of the period. (She later explained that her science teacher usually wraps up the class early and ends with a discussion, so people have time to pack up, thus giving them an unbalanced advantage, but it was cool at the time.)
In Global Studies, we learned about the age of monarchs in Europe, a unit we did a long time ago at school back home, so I was pretty impressive in the class. I answered a lot of questions that no one knew. Even Marlena, who seemed to raise her hand for every question, didn't know some of the stuff I did. Well, I had a leg up. At the end, Marlena introduced me to even more people I didn't know, making me feel stupid after a time of feeling smart.
"This is Lorraine Kaplan." She said, gesturing to a girl with a long blonde braid and a natural smile. "Hi," said Lorraine. "And this is Marina." Marlena and Marina? This was almost sadistic! How did anyone keep their names straight? It was easy to tell them apart physically, though. Marina was easily about a foot shorter than Marlena, so I didn't worry about that. Than, thankfully, it was now lunchtime.
There, I met too many people to count, but I decided to simply concentrate on talking to the people to I had already met and talked to. Ariana and Tahlia were there, as well as Lorraine. Byron was there, too, at the next table over. Now that I was fully awake, I asked Marlena to explain the rest of the day's schedule. There were four periods left.
"Okay, periods six and seven, next, we have separately. You have two study halls, since freshmen usually have two electives, but you came too late in the school year to get one. Study halls are held in the library, so you can just go there after lunch. I have a class on A hall after lunch, so it's on the way. I have my electives then too. I'll meet you there after period seven to go with you to period eight, which unfortunately is Gym."
"You don't like Gym?"
"Hell, no!" exclaimed Marlena. The rest of the table laughed at my question. I laughed too, not too amused.
"Ponyboy, that's a good one. Especially when we have Mr. Calegari," said Ariana.
"Let me tell you something," said Lorraine. "Mr. Calegari is a sadist. I'm convinced of it. He made Marlena run 8 laps around the track just to get a B."
Marlena nodded, and added, "He did that just because I told him that I couldn't be a good runner if I tried. He seemed determined to make me try. That was incredibly mean. Singled me out in front of the whole class."
She grinned as she said the last part, and something told me she didn't mind being in front of a whole class. Her performance in English was a hint at that. But she really didn't like gym. That was different.
"Ponyboy, after that, we both have language. You take Spanish, right?"
I nodded. "I take French, but all classes are right near each other on the same hall, so I'll show you where it is."
With the rest of the day planned, I sat back and relaxed in eating my lunch, having the conversation waft over me as I tried to decipher clues about my current surroundings.
After, as promised, Marlena and I walked down to the library. She introduced me to the teacher in charge, and then left. "So I'll be in Advanced Programming. See you for gym!" With that, I retreated to the back of the library and attempted to identify anyone there. I didn't expect to see too many of Marlena's friends here, since they all seemed pretty smart. They probably wouldn't take a study hall, I don't think. I was right. The only one I even remotely recognized was Capucelli! I sat across from him and opened a book from a nearby shelf to see if he would initiate conversation. I certainly wasn't going to.
After a few short moments, he started in.
"So, you're friends with that geek Marlena Friedman?"
"It wasn't my choice. I got put with her family when I was taken away from mine."
"Pity. You really don't want to be seen with her. She's a real nerd. Only A's, all advanced classes. She's in every academic extracurricular, and not a single sport. She absolutely sucks in gym. Awful. Such a pity that a guy like you needs to be branded with her company."
His tone was positively evil, despite his calm outward appearance, and guise that he was helping me. I wanted to slug him then and there, but I had a feeling that would be too much of an anathema for this town. So I countered his verbal threat with what I thought to be a stunning defense.
"She may be intelligent, but that doesn't give you the right to attack her coolness. She's loads cooler than you. Besides, why are you so into what she does and doesn't do? Maybe you're hiding that you have a thing for her?" I had used this trick on people in Tulsa, so it wasn't a completely on-the-spot thing, but I still thought it was impressive. It did catch him off guard, but he soon came back with a nice retort.
"It's impossible to miss her academics. She shoves it in everyone's face. And it's obvious she's had her eye on valedictorian for years. She is nuts. No sensible guy would go out with her."
"We're not dating, for Christ's sake! You have such a one-track mind! You know what, shut up. I have no tolerance for you. Stop."
"Pretty ballsy for a newbie. You are going to be eaten up by LHS. See if I'm wrong!"
With this, I tired of the argument. I left to finish my book, and then reviewed some math. At the end of period six, Capucelli left and he was replaced by Lorraine, who recognized me instantly and ran over.
"So how have you been? Like that book? I'm not much of a reader myself, unless it's Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, though that book you have there doesn't look bad. How was your first study hall? Boring, I bet. It always is."
"Er, well, I guess. Capucelli was just here, and I was thoroughly annoyed by him. But he's gone now, so that's over."
"Oh yeah, he's an idiot. Don't listen to him, he's so into pop culture he's blind in terms of anything besides dating and partying. He even drinks too much, or so I've heard. Stuff goes around." With that, she whipped out her math book and requested that I quiz her on Algebra for her test the next day. I obliged willingly, and that was enough fun to hold me over until gym, and freedom from that dull place.
Marlena and Lorraine talked all the way to gym, which we all had together. Ariana was also there. Between the three of them, there was as much joy about the class as there is when Two-Bit walks into a final in history class. In other words, they all were incredibly bummed to ever go to a gym.
Mr. Calegari wasn't that bad. Not to me. He introduced me nicely to the class, then let us all outside to play softball and tennis. Marlena chose softball, and I have never played tennis, so I softball was the obvious choice.
"Okay, everyone. I have a strategy so we can finally win a game." Marlena addressed the team. "Dan! Listen!" She specifically pointed out one curly-haired boy and commanded his attention. "Good. Now, I'm telling you they will catch a fly ball. Ground it. Bunt, if possible; they won't expect it. Please! I'm sick of losing." The last sentence was half to herself. Then she spoke to me. "Pony, I like softball, and I play it well, but here no one wants to win, and I get sick of it after a while. But it's better than the average gym day."
We lost. I hit a nice grounder that pounded all the way to the outfield, through the incompetent shortstop and left fielder, so the loss was softened, and Lorriane told me "it's the closest we ever came to a win, so it counts as a victory." I agree. Then, we all split up to go to the last period of the day.
"See you at the front door at the end of the day, Pony. Have fun!"
Ariana was in my language class, so I was entertained the whole way to the class. She was really funny, and told me about some extracurriculars that were available to the students. I was so enthralled! There were so many things that I was interested in. I felt guilty for feeling this, but LHS is not so bad. I almost wanted to stay here. Then, my confused thoughts interrupted, we arrived at the class. We had an amazing class; our teacher was really nice. He basically reviewed for the final, and went over some more difficult language concepts through the year. I felt a bit behind, but with the review, I managed. Then, I floundered over to my locker near my homeroom, and met Marlena at the front door.
I certainly had been given a lot to think about.