Zebra-fan

At my current school, PE is taken very seriously. At the school I went to in the beginning of the year, anyone could care less about PE.

In the old school, we would get dressed in our PE clothes- Gray shirt with the school name, black shorts with school mascot or black sweats with the mascot. If we didn't have our PE clothes, we would have to get "loaners", which were PE uniforms that were old and were dyed some sort of bright color. Then me and my friends Kimmi and Promise would visit up with Jonathan, Maricel and Taylor in Ms Martinez's class, and when the bell rang, we'd go to the other side of the blacktop where Mr. Hamashita's class was. There were 4 classes, Hamashita, Martinez, Dean, and Garret. Mr. Hamashita was the easiest of all of them. Ms. Dean was the hardest. She gave out written quizzes and homework, and made them do these rediculous aerobics exercises every day. Mr. Garret was the next hardest, but only because he was real strict. Ms. Martinez was everyone's favorite because she was the youngest and could relate to the kids. She was into soccer and stuff, not a lot of running and tough things. Mr Hamashita was plain lazy. When we sat on the blacktop, he would get to class at least 10 minutes after all the other classes had started and after getting us into our lines, which was hard because we had a lot of 8th graders, he would just stand in front of class looking down at his clipboard and expecting us to keep quiet and sit. He'd look up occasionally and tell one of us to be quiet, and then when he was done he'd slowly walk to the other side of the class and we'd turn around. Then he'd say "double-arm-distance." and we'd walk to the left and sit down. He had us do about 10 different stretches, start to lecture us about the California Fitness test, and then the bell would ring. The whole thing was a big waste of time, and in the end everyone got no less than a B.

At the new school, things are a LOT different.

First of all, I have PE 8th period so my locker is the one way on the bottom, which sucks. :
The rows of lockers are close together. It's hard to get changed.
Loaners= this ugly green shirt/shorts with "LOANER" in giant white letters across the front. EVERY TIME YOU HAVE TO WEAR LOANERS, YOU RUN A LAP D: And the track at this school is bigger than the one at my old school. You're not allowed to wear sweats, either. Just shorts. And if you do wear sweats, you have to have your shorts under.  what the heck?
All 4 classes are combined into one giant class. There are role call numbers painted into the blacktop that we sit on. Exercise is taken so seriously. We have to do everything when they say it, and do everything simultaneously. The coaches are harsh.

And we have this new sport called "pumpkinball"... supposedly a combination of baseball and dodge ball. I have no clue how to play the dumb game, nobody explained it to me. And I HATE MY TEAM SO SO MUCH. There's this one kid, Derek, who just thinks he's better than everyone else and bosses people around. And everyone is an 8th grader!! AUGH. I don't know any of them and they all hate me. They scream at me when I don't hit the ball and when I do, they don't say anything. Yesterday we were playing and I managed to get safe. I was so happy. Next batter came up and I made it to the next base... and the next batter came up, I only had 2 bases to go, so I ran, and my team was just screaming "GO ANOTHER BASE! RUN! GO TO HOME!" So I ran, and then in the middle they started screaming "GO BACK GO BACK GO BACK!" So I ran back, and this dude threw the ball at me and it hit me, and it hurt too. Apparently that meant I was out... And while walking back everyone was glaring at me and saying "Jesus. we could have gotten a point!" and telling me "Why don't you just LISTEN?" and "this is the first time we've actually LOST THE GAME. Thanks." And every time I go up to bat they say "Sh*t..." and "Oh great, not her..." But when I do make a point, they don't even give me a "good job" or anything like they do when other people hit the ball. They're always mad at me for some reason or another. And when we get back in our team line to get called on to go to the locker room, Every time we get up, this dude looks at me and says "EMO!" ...wtf. This girl asked me "Are you emo?" once when we were playing. WHAT? What am I supposed to say to that? They think I'm "emo" because I don't talk to them and I'm quiet. And I guess usually I look kinda sad because they're always mad at me... But what kind of question is that, seriously? I just said "um... no.." and she was like "ok." Later on I heard her and some girls talking, this girl Candyce was like "Did you ask her?" "Yeah, she said no." "Haha, seriously?"  and then "shh.. she's behind us..." and they looked behind them at me and just smiled and laughed. I really hate pumpkinball. There's going to be a written test about it that will count for my grade, which is like, a D....

augh. 

First, the important thing ;_;

I went to PA again, like I do every year.

and I brought my stuffed rabbit, the one I've had for 4 years and still can't let go of.

AND HE'S GONE.

I have no clue what happened! I had him on the first airplane going home, and when I got to the airport, I sat down, got up to get a bagel, and sat down again. Then the second plane arrived and I couldn't find him anywhere D: And I had no time to look around because the plane was boarding!

He's like, really really really sentimental to meh. Like the only thing I own that has any sort of value to me at all. And he's gone! D:<

I feel so stupid, mahn.

I called lost and found like 5 times. You have to leave a message and they call you back ONLY if they find it. which MEGAsucks, because there's like 50 bazillion other people calling and leaving messages, so there's not a lot of hope...

And then I called the airline, which gave me a recording. and customer service just gave me the number to the lost and found.

And what's worse, I lost him at the O'HARE airport. The busiest airport in the US. I really hope some kid hasn't picked him up. -_-

GRAWRGH. I'll find him if it kills meh.

<3

<3

MOVING ON.

Pennsylvania was awesome. It's my favorite state. They have 4 seasons. California only has maybe 1 or 2. We have awesome Summers, and Falls I suppose. In PA, it's different. The Summers are really hot and sunny, Spring has plants and blue sky and all that. Winter snows. Hard. And the trees in Fall are so cool. They're like, blazing orange and red. And dusty brown and yellow. I wish I lived there, mahn. ._.

I don't see what's so cool about LA. It's filled with cars, people, smog, pollution, yelling, beeping, giant buildings, concrete, traffic. And everything is way more expensive than anywhere else. the beach is nice, I guess. But it's filled with people and pollution too. California would be beautiful if less people lived there.

But, the more people live there, the better job opportunities there are. There's really no decent jobs in PA for an average person. And I have noticed that there's a LOT of old buildings. The kind in movies. With boarded up doors and various broken windows, the kind that are made out of bricks and are covered in graffiti that got worn down by water. There's a lot of those in Wilkes Barre. But, the houses that are usable are plain on the outside but huge and really nice on the inside. the one's I've looked at have a basement, first story, second story, attic, and full backyard. And all of them are huge. The house I was visiting had a basement that had a kitchen, bar, storage room, bathroom, pool table, and a bunch of other stuff. I was like "@_@". First story had a lot of room too. second had 4 rooms. Attic, I didn't get to see. Backyard was bigger than mine. It was nice. And the whole thing cost a LOT less than my house, which has 2 stories and 4 rooms in the whole thing. Lulz, I sound like I'm selling something. o.e

But, yeah. We can't move there, I've done a bunch of begging and pleading. idk why we can't, all of my family is there and everyone wants us to, but my parents just won't do it. Probably something about money. I hate money T.T

I just transferred to a new school, for some long reason I don't want to discuss right now, having to do with grades and teachers, both of which my parents were not happy with.

The school I'm going to now is NOT BETTER. at ALL. But, if I complained about it in front of my mom, she'd probably slap me. [Not really, but, it was a lot of trouble getting me into that new school]

Basically, at the old school, I was bored out of my mind with the work that they gave us, and, I absolutely HATED the majority of teachers there, who gave me a hard time for anything I did wrong. In the beginning of the year, my report card was all A's and 2 B's, and as I grew to resent the teachers more and more, I pretty much just stopped doing the work, figuring since the staff there wasn't worth my time and effort, and the work was really easy anyway, I could do it all at one time near the due date for everything- NOT A GOOD IDEA. I got PILED UP with work and couldn't finish it in time, and my grades went down to the lowest I had ever gotten in my life. And other things going on made me want to transfer schools even more, so I convinced my parents to take me out of there. This place is horrible. The majority of kids there are stuck up, snobby, judgmental, unaccepting, gang-related, or drenched in makeup wearing a scrap of fabric as "shorts". One girl, Evelyn, for some reason hates me, when I've only been there for 2 weeks, have no friends, have no clue who this Evelyn girl is, and have never even mentioned her in my daily life until now. Unfortunately, she is backed up with a swarm of girls who follow her around looking cool; what I like to call, "barbies".

My Lit/comp teacher basically doesn't know how to control her classroom and needs to retire. If you have anything lower than a C, rather than helping you, she sends you to a counselor to take care of it because apparently she can't do it herself. She doesn't keep track of ANYTHING. She loses homework all the time and doesn't take the blame for it if there's no credit. And she assigns homework every day. Lots of it. You literally never get a break.

My Band teacher is the reason I didn't go to this school in the beginning of the year in the first place. My mom would do anything it takes to keep me from having her "teaching" me. And the one from before was really good. But this woman doesn't even conduct. She sits in her office and calls on a student to stand in front of her music stand with a stick and actually conduct the class. And I'm stuck with this girl who sits and talks the whole time instead of playing; it's VERY annoying. And, like most teachers, she doesn't want to waste her time teaching students, even though that's what she's getting paid to do, so if you're not good enough, YOU HAVE TO STAY IN 7TH GRADE BAND WHEN YOU GO INTO 8TH. Therefore missing the band trip to Disneyland, which is pretty much all 7th graders have to look forward to. 

I can already see this is NOT going to work. But, neither did my first school. I guess school in general doesn't work for me, can I just skip it? -.- 

Sorry if I didn't make it clear before; Brandon [soyllama] was one of Larry's best friends. Brandon [the shooter] was a totally different person. There's 2 Brandons. 

Thank you a lot for the comment, Moderngeek. I agree with everything.

Lets see, really, what is happening in my life? My grades are worse than ever. To tell you the truth, I could bring them up at any time, but I don't think it's worth it and I'm not up to it.

My friend Taylor and I were prank calling after school, something we are very well known at school for doing. This has happened multiple times before, but here goes:

Taylor used my phone to dial a random number, of course, *67 first. She got a normal "Hello?" and replied with "HAAAY, I'M DELANIA MCGARVEY, AND I'M HERE TO ADVERTIZE SHOCKOLATE. IT'L MAKE YO BAYBAYS GOOD AT SPORTS. THEY'LL RUN ABNORMALLY FAST." [from a youtube video]

The lady said nothing.

Taylor: "HELLO? MA'AM?"

nothing.

Taylor: "MA'AM, I NEED TO GET PAID. I NEED YOU TO BUY THIS AMAZING PRODUCT SO I CAN FEED MY 12 BABY GIRLS AND 14 CATS."

Woman: "This is the Simi Valley police department."

Taylor: [no longer using a ghetto voice] "Oh, god. uh... sorry, I think I got the wrong number." 

Woman: "Are you messing with a phone?"

Taylor: "No mam." 

Woman: "Okay, well I'm gonna need to send some people over to check that out."

Taylor: [who's face got filled with fright instantly] "...that really won't be necessary..."

Woman: "You're playing games through someone's phone which is rude and unlawful."

Taylor: "I'm really sorry..."

Woman: "No sorries. Don't give me that. I'm gonna need to send someone over." 

Taylor: " Please don't do that..."

Woman: "I'm gon-

[hangs up]

Me: Who was that?

Taylor: The police... 

Me: uh... " O_O "

Sam: RUN!

So then, kids, we planned on running into our Literature teacher's classroom and do homework. But, my phone was with me, and if a teacher saw it on campus, it'd get taken away instantly. So we went behind the school and hurredidly  changed my voicemail to "Hi, this is Amanda. I'm not here right now, but leave me a message and I'll get back." And my name is not really Amanda. Then I turned off my phone, and ran into Mr. M's- But they have meetings every Monday. So we had to sit outside, in fear that the police might come and ask us for our phones or something. So we made up this big story about how we were trying to reach Kim Sanchez, a made up person, because it was her birthday and we always prank called her on her birthday. But she had gotten a new phone and told us that was the number, so that rascal Kim Sanchez had gone and pranked us, isn't that ironic? ^^;

If they asked for Kim's old number, we would make one up off the spot that had hopefully been disconnected.

Then I hid my phone in the back pocket of my rolling backpack. Waaay in the back.

After that we sat and "read our books" outside of the classroom, jumping at every sound and twitching at every person. If they came to our school saying some girl prank called the police from a cell phone, they would probably punish the whole school until someone confessed, then take away our phones, call parents, which would get us both grounded and probably suspended, and the whole school would resent us for the remainder of our years. ...we didn't want that. So we waited until we found the courage to venture outside of the school; my dad was going to pick me up soon. We walked out coolly, and sat in the grass watching the street for any possible police cars. Taylor joked with me when a bus moved. "Oh my gosh, there's a SWAT team behind that bus!"

Well, nobody came, but we sure were scared. I still haven't turned my phone on to check messages, either!  Grrr... well, that's the last time I'm prank calling.

...for a couple weeks. :) 

Awkward title? yes.

One of my classmates, Lawrence King, has passed away due to a tragic event that took place at E.O Green Junior High School. He was shot once in the back of the head, and another time in the back. The shooter was Brandon McInerney, who I went to karate class with. Both of them were great people, until Brandon snapped for no apparent reason. Larry was 15 and Brandon 14. The reason Larry was shot? He was bisexual. 

There are many rumors as to why Brandon did this. One of them is Larry said "I love you" to Brandon, so he decided because he didn't want to be involved with a bisexual person having a crush on him, that he would shoot him. Another is that he shot him simply because he was different, or because he was a foster child. But whatever the reason, Brandon's actions were WRONG, UNNECESSARY, and flat out SICKENING. 

Larry had seemed to be doing fine for the first couple days of hospitalization. He could communicate with others and he was showing signs that he would live and get better. But the day before Valentine's day, Larry's brain swelled up due to the surgery, and he had a stroke.

Larry passed away just before Valentine's day.  

This left many people in shock. The counselors all had to go to that one school. There was a spot for flowers, cards, and stuffed animals in memory of Larry just below the American Flag. There were 2 peace walks for him, a memorial service, and a public speaker. I went on one of the peace walks with my friends: Brandon, [a very close friend of Larry's] Christian and Taylor.  There were cameras everywhere, cars honking, and people shouting Larry's name. It was a good experience. Brandon, who you may remember as soyllama, appeared on the cover of PEOPLE magazine. Well, his back did. 

This event was deeply saddening for everyone who knew Larry, went to school with him, or even people who didn't know him.

Larry was a brilliant person who was kind and creative. He was NOT afraid to show who he was. He was amazing and I miss him. He had always had a hard time in school, and that was only because of the people around him. The area I am in is known for having inconsiderate cruel slobs as residents. But why did it have to come to this? He was different. He had an individual mind. He was unlike any other person you will ever meet. To think that someone AT A MIDDLE SCHOOL could do something so horrible, immature and disgusting? Sick. 

A few days after, ANOTHER shooting took place in L.A, also at a school. I still don't have the details.

A year before, a young girl named Abigail Magadia was murdered by her own uncle. She was the BEST FRIEND to my friend Samantha. It shook her up. A LOT. She almost killed herself.

YESTERDAY, Samantha's cousin was kidnapped. She has been found, but is in the hospital. I don't know why yet, Sam isn't talking about it much.  

What has the world come to? And is it the entire world or just California? America? USA? I want out of here. I want to move somewhere safer. But the thing is, you can never be safe all the time.

These events have really turned me into more of a misanthropic than ever.

~R.I.P LAWRENCE "LARRY" KING.~

~R.I.P ABIGAIL "ABBY" MAGADIA.~ 

We love and miss you. I pray this doesn't happen again.