First Day Back

Well, the first day back at the Academy was a blast. It was funny, though. At the Academy last semester, my brother and I were together pretty much every second, since we had the same schedules. But this time, the only time we saw each other was after my Creative Writing class in the kitchen when he went to get a drink, when Hied let the History out on a few minutes break, and then of course we sat together at lunch, and then we didn’t see each other until after the rest of the Academy was done. Well, actually, I did see him just before Speech began. I had walked in on him in the lunch room right before he had his Algebra lesson with Hied (dude, that guy teaches almost everything!). I had been wondering where he was, so I’d gone to check. I saw him, pointed at him and said “There you are”, then I turned and walked away. He looked confused, which was funny.

Writing class was great. Though, there are two Jacob’s in this class, so I don’t know how the teach is going to deal with that. She’ll call one, and get both. Haha. Though, one Jacob is close to my age, while the other I think is Middle School age.

Morgan from my Speech class is in this one, and Westley, from my brothers PE class, is also in there. That was a little surprising, since the kid is only like ten. I think he’s the youngest student there.

First day we just did introductions, and then the teacher pulled out some ice-breaker cards she’d wrote out. They all had questions on them that we were going to answer. We each did two. The younger Jacob got one that asked what the most embarrassing this was that he’d done. He didn’t want to share that (I saw that coming), so instead he gave the second most embarrassing. But it took him a minutes to figure out what that was, so the other Jacob went. I don’t remember all of them, but I know Westley got one that asked him what the weirdest thing to eat was, and Morgan got something asking her where she’d go for vacation, or something. Though, actually, that might have been the younger Jacob’s other question… I don’t remember. I remember my second one was about what was my favorite type of music and why, I remember that because the teacher had got that one mixed up, so we both had done it. And my first question was what was my best talent or characteristic. I couldn’t think of anything! So, I just said my imagination. Which is funny, because when I asked mom what would be my best talent or characteristic, she said the same thing, and I hadn’t even told her what my answer was. Hehe.

Once those were over, she talked about Acrostics. She said for homework we had to each do our name. And then she also wanted us to do a six word memoir for ourselves. High schoolers had to do both, but for the middle schoolers, they only had to do one, unless they wanted to do both.

Sarah said she wanted us to get a lot more reading in as well, because that would also help us with out writing, so she’s got us high schoolers reading two hours a week and the middle schoolers reading one. Ha! I got that beat. On average, I read about thirty hours a week, and that’s just on week days. Haha. The younger Jacob said he read about twelve a week, including weekends. But Sarah wants us to pick one of the books we’re reading and write on this sheet she gave us a few things about it. She said it really works, because then she can take out opinions and give them to others as well, so others can know if the book was good or not, or from what we said, if they would want to read it.

Next week we’re going to do brainstorming for ideas on what we each can write something on.

Then, after Creative Writing, we had, or, actually, I had, and hours break for studying, or doing whatever I wanted, as long as it didn’t bother others. Morgan had to rush to her Creative Arts class, and the younger Jacob had to leave. I don’t know where the older one went, but he was there later for the Chess Club, so. And Westley was doing something in the lunch room, I guessed he was studying.

During lunch, when Creative Arts was out, Sam asked me the dumbest question. I was wearing my glasses, so when I walked past him, he stopped me and asked ‘What’s with the glasses?’. I told him ‘There glasses, what do you think they are for?’ and the idiot actually stopped to think. I didn’t think he could get stupider. Or maybe he was just trying to be funny. I don’t know.

My brother went to PE while Max, Tristan, Dwight, Samantha, Morgan, Sam, and I went to Literature Art. Shannon officially has the largest class. Last semester, it was Tristan, Morgan, Sam, and Jessie. I think Tessa might have been in it, I don’t remember seeing her in the room, though. But, she lost Jessie, and gained me, Max, Dwight, and Samantha. The table was completely FULL. It was holding more people they it’s capacity was built for.

I think Literature Art is my favorite class. It’s very fun. Shannon had warned Sam, since he’d already read the book and tended to get carried away, that if he answered to many of the questions and didn’t give anyone else a chance, she would have everyone start raising hands. Well, he misunderstood her, so he made himself a little sign that said ME! and raised it up every time he answered a question. It was funny. That got Tristan to making a sign for himself. His said HI. So when class was over, he raised it real high it the air and Shannon asked if he had a question. He said ‘No, I just wanted to say hi.’ Haha.

Dwight and I had seen the movie, so we kept comparing the book to the movie. The book wins, BIG TIME. The fact that Chorin is brown and not white in the movie still pisses me off.

Shannon, later in the class, had pulled a piece of paper out with questions for it on ADHD. She said that she was going to ask us these questions and we’d answer. So we did. There were like ten of them, and I only raised my hand on about four. Haha. Shannon said I was the most normal in the class, which made my weird. As mom put it ‘Even when your the normal-est person in the room, you’re still the weirdest person in the room.’

I don’t remember what the last question was, but apparently it had been a good one, because it led me and Max to high five-ing. But after class, I just couldn’t remember it! Uge!

Max kept giving things away about the other books, which I didn’t mind, because I like spoilers. But, he said something about Sally turning Gabe to stone, but then he stopped and said he didn’t want to ruin it. I told him that if he doesn’t want to give anything about the book I am on away, then fine. But if you’re going to mention something that about the other four that makes me curious, you’d better spill it or I’ll smack you over the head with this book. So he spilled. It was funny. He knows I will hit him if he didn’t. Haha.

For homework, we have to look up things about Centaurs. Dwight offered to look up how to play Pinochle, since Shannon wanted someone to. And we read six through ten in ‘The Lighting Thief’.

After Literature, Tristan and me went straight to Speech. Lydia wasn’t in the room yet. I don’t remember what Tristan had said, but it had me hit him over the head with my book. He asked why I was beating on him since we were friends, and I told him ‘I beat my friends worse then I do my enemies’, then Tristan said ‘who needs enemies when they have friends like you.’ We both laughed.

Lydia came into the room with Morgan shortly after. It was odd, Lydia only had three people this time. But because of that, we can get a lot more work done in our hour and a half.

For out first exercise, she wanted us to practice our diaphragm breathing by trying to ready a passage from something while holding our breath in. If we took a breath, we had to stop.

When Lydia asked who wanted to go first, Morgan said she didn’t, so I said, Morgan did. But then Tristan said he didn’t want to go first, so Morgan and I both pointed at him. He was sitting between us, so it made it even funnier. I ended up going first. Drats. Haha. I can’t hold my breath in well, so both Morgan and Tristan had read more then I was able to.

After that, Lydia wanted us to practice our listening. She had us sit for five minutes in silence so we could pick out what we could hear. I told her when we were done I was tempted to poke Tristan in the ribs so he’d yell ‘ow’, then I would have had at least one more noise to add to my list. I actually did when I’d said that, and he really did yell ow. Haha. I have bad hearing, so I didn’t get as much as the others did. Though, everything I did have, when I listed them, it had everyone laughing. Mainly because I was noticing things no one else had.

After everything else, for our last exercise, Lydia wanted us to practice out facial expressions and how well we could express and emotion. I was funny seeing the other two standing oddly. I got brave, sad, and another, but I don’t remember what it was. Sad was funny because Tristan wailed out and dropped to the floor. Haha. But when we had to do shy, pride, jealousy, and joy, I had a little trouble. I’ve never been shy, I’ve never been jealous, and if I’ve been proud, I don’t remember. I wasn’t sure what to do, so Lydia described what I should feel, and I did the best I could. For proud, I just stared at the ground with my hands on my hips, while Tristan and Morgan both did something looking up at the ceiling. Lydia asked me what I was doing and I told her I was pretending I was looking down on people, thinking they were smaller then me. She said that had been good. She said I had been acknowledging others, but still thinking I was better then them, but Tristan and Morgan had been looking up, not acknowledging others.

For shy, I just turned my back to everyone and hide my face. That made Tristan laugh because he wasn’t sure what I was doing. Tristan and I both laughed at Morgan, because for her shy pose, she had dropped to the floor and hugged her knees to her chest as she stared at the floor. She wined because she was the only one who’d gotten on the floor (Tristan’s sad pose on the ground didn’t happen til after the shy one). For jealousy, I still wasn’t sure what I was suppose to do, so I just looked angry. She said I did good because I looked tense, but she asked why I looked angry, and I said if I’m suppose to be jealous of someone, I’m thinking I’m going to hit them. Made her laugh.

For joy, I had just spread my arms, like I was being thankful, since I was suppose to be happy, but apparently people don’t do that when their happy, because she said I didn’t look happy. Haha. I can feel emotions, but apparently, when it comes to body language, I just can’t show it. Haha.

Lydia had started talking about how actors and people like them have to use diaphragmatic breathing, then she said we were being just like actresses then. I made a comment right then. I said ‘Tristan, you’re a girl.’ He looked at me and confused, and insulted. He asked why. I said ‘Well, Lydia said we’re all like actresses, and she didn’t say any of us were like actors, so, you’re a girl apparently.’ That made Lydia laughed. Tristan laughed as well. Lydia corrected herself then went on.

For homework, all we have to do is think of an embarrassing moment for next week. Since Lydia packed us full last semester, since she didn’t think she’d come back for a second, we won’t have as much a work load this semester. I was expecting to have to have a ten minutes long speech ready for next week, so it was a relief not having so much a load. Though, I had to ask if I could just think of an awkward moment. Because, honestly, I’ve never been embarrassed my whole life. People have tried, but honestly, I don’t really care what other people think, so I just don’t get embarrassed when something happens that should be embarrassing. So she said I could come up with an awkward moment.

I already have mine. I don’t remember how old I was, I think maybe ten, or nine, but I was in the doctors office with Grandma, my brother, and my cousin Ryan. This old person came in. She was about my Grandma’s age. She sat down across from us and started talking to us like she knew us well. Then she started to talk to me. I just could not remember who she was. She seemed to know me so well, but I just didn’t know who she was. She stopped talking after a few moments, I guess after seeing the look on my face. She asked me ‘You don’t remember who I am, do you?’ and I replied ‘honestly, no. I have no idea who you are.’ And she laughed and told me she was one of my other cousins grandma. I still didn’t really get who she was until she’d left and my Grandma explained which of my cousins she was talking about, and when I’d actually meant her before. But it had been awkward. I was suppose to try and talk to her like I knew her, but I mean, I had no idea what to say. I honestly thought she was just an stranger.

Hell… My fingers hurt! Haha. I think this is the longest Academy post I’ve made. Heck, I think it’s the longest post I’ve made on here period.