I Saw Her Standing There

Today I went back to the ol' routine after two days of AP tests followed by ISS. It was all right; I kind of understand calculus now, Spanish is still fairly mind-numbing but bearable, and on the whole everything should be easier now that there are only a few more weeks until school's out.

Yesterday was my day in ISS. I had been hoping to have Mr. Hamlett as the overseer (he was my sixth-grade English teacher), but he wasn't there; instead I had a woman, who seemed nice enough but didn't say much. April, who had ISS the day before, said that Mr. Hamlett talked the whole time. There are two "assignments" everyone has to do: write out the rules and write an essay about why you're in ISS and what you can do to avoid coming back, or some such thing. The first half of the day was pretty boring; everyone was quiet, and I didn't have much to do. Later, teachers sent work for me to do, like Spanish. I love doing mindless worksheets, at least when I don't have anything better to do. After lunch, things loosened up a bit. Everyone was like, "You must be so smart!" to me, just because I have glasses, I think. I pretty much look like the stereotypical "nerd." At lunch, this one kid was tossing an orange up in the air the whole time, and then, right after the bell rang for the end of lunch, he peeled it. The lady yelled at him, saying that he couldn't eat it, and after a prolonged argument, he had to throw it away. Two hours of mostly silence later, he said into the void: "Man, I sure miss that orange." I burst out laughing. In second and fifth hour, we had bathroom breaks; we walked down the hall in a big group. During second hour, I was embarrassed that someone in AP bio would see me, but I found out that they were dissecting crayfish yesterday. So, actually, it was a very good day to miss, because Brian'n'Chris gave me all the answers on the crayfish worksheets, so I got the points without having to mess with what was undoubtedly disgusting.

Today, when I walked in the school building, I had my ID on, facing out, but the hall aide called me back after I was halfway down the hall to look closely at it and make sure it was mine. I laughed it off then, but as the day went on I grew more angry about the incident. I don't know what I'm going to do. Does it count as "harassment"? I thought about going in a different door, but April said I shouldn't let them bother me, and it's true that I don't want to inconvenience myself by walking around to the other side of the school because of one annoying hall aide (it's always the same one). I saw her again at lunch; Sonya and I were (supposedly) helping Mrs. Flowers sell flowers and candles for Book Club. When we walked past the hall aide, who was guarding the doors to the cafeteria, she asked me where I was going (calling me by name) and yelled at me not to walk past a set of doors. I'm so thankful that the year is almost over; otherwise, I don't think I could put up with this.

The other main incident of today was that I got asked to prom. Okay, so maybe this was kind of my secret dream, but not really the way it happened. I was hurrying along the hall after school, a bit worried because I was running late and didn't want to miss the bus. Andrew Raridon saw me and said, "Hey, Colleen, can I talk to you for a minute?" I told him I had to catch the bus, and he put his arm around me, pulled me to the side, and said, "Well, I have to talk to you right now." I had no idea what could be going on. "Do you want to go to prom?" he asked me. I stammered, "I don't know..." He continued, "Do you want to go to prom with Brandon Hamilton?" Brandon Hamilton writes for the newspaper, mostly short articles about stars and planets; he's extremely quiet, and I kind of doubt that I've ever spoken two words to him, or vice versa. He seems nice enough, but I really don't know him. I stammered something again, and Andrew said, "Do you want to think about it? Your face is really red right now." I said, "Sure." As I walked away to go to my locker, Sapna came up to me and asked, "Did he just ask you to prom?", to which I responded, "No; he asked me for one of his friends..." Sapna seemed really excited for me, as did April when I told her on the bus, but I'm not sure if I'm going to go. I can't dance; I'm not a big fan of the senior class; as aforementioned, I really don't know Brandon, or even Andrew, that well. It would be kind of cool to go to prom, but I just don't know.

Just one more day to get through till the weekend...I have a world history test tomorrow, which I think is insane, three days after the AP test. I am sick of studying for history. I don't really get to sleep late this weekend, though; I have the SAT on Saturday. I don't know whether I should study. I didn't at all for the ACT, either time I took it (on a Saturday and at school as part of the PSAE), but the jury's still out on how I did, so it might be good to at least do a practice test on the College Board website.