Random English Paper/Story

The substitute teacher smiled at the class. Third one of the day and so far everything had been going smoothly. No out of control teenagers had disrupted her feeble attempts at playing "teacher." No one seemed to realize just how much she didn't want to be here, in this high school, instead of having the job of her dreams; with money to spare, a nice car…She shook off these feelings of bitter regret and made herself focus on the waiting class.
"All right class…All right! Please find your seats and we'll get started. My name is Miss Taylor and I am not an English teacher, but I'll do my best. I do know how to read, so we will be getting some work done today. Now please open your books to page 245 and start reading on your own. Mrs. Harriet wants you to get up to page 260 or further so that she can just continue with her lesson plans tomorrow. We'll discuss any questions at 10:45, so make notes if you have questions as you're reading. Please get started."
As soon as the students started reading, Amelia Taylor was starting to drift off into the past. She thought of the life she had been living in high school. How differently she had planned her life. She knew who she would be married to and how many kids she would have. Where they would live and what they would do together. Who they would socialize with and where they would be for what holidays.
But the dreams of the young are seldom realistic or final. The plans she had made were crushed after her graduation party. When she found the boy she absolutely adored, the boy who swore to love her forever, kissing her best friend. The shock of that sight had finally kicked in. Suddenly she wasn't the homecoming queen, daddy's little princess, cheerleading captain, get-everything-my-way-or-else little girl. She was a woman who knew that the world was a horrible, nasty place full of surprises that could turn everything upside down.
She said some pretty nasty things to them both, made them feel guilty, made them beg. She was going to drag it out for as long as she could, but she got fed up with her boyfriend's sudden obsession with her. She knew now that it was all fake. She had no clue how long that had been going on and knew that things would never be the same.
She had packed up and headed off to college, her plans changing drastically. She had planned on going to college and partying away all her parents' money. She wanted so badly to just go back to those innocent nights of the teenage years, before her world was shaken like a snow globe. But now she decided to take her major in architecture seriously. Everyone seemed surprised back in November at her choice of majors. But she knew that if she decided to pursue something, it could be something that sounded exciting and promised a fairly good paycheck. She didn't want to be living off Daddy's money forever.
She glanced over the classroom, took in the potted plants, the orderly setup Mrs. Harriet had going here. The shelves and shelves of books. Over the teenagers in the room. Her roaming eyes took in two girls giggling over a sheet of paper, a note from one of their boyfriends no doubt. She cleared her throat slightly, they're giggling stopped immediately and they focused very intently on their textbooks. She glanced at the clock. Only 10:15. She continued her surveillance of the students. Suddenly, she did a double take. There in the middle row next to the windows. A boy, so distantly familiar, yet she was getting chills.
He wasn't especially good looking. He seemed to be a loner of sorts. At least he seemed focused on his work. But that's not why he had caught her eye. Funny that someone so unlike Warren would catch her eye, after so many years. Funny that it would be someone so unlike her former boyfriend.
Warren: six foot two quarterback on the football team, forward on the basketball team, and pitcher on the baseball team. An all-around athlete. The ring leader of the popular jocks. This boy was scrawny, timid looking. He couldn't be more than five foot seven or eight. Warren had glowed with self confidence and an attitude that could easily come off as being cockiness. He was the handsome boy who everyone wished would notice them, even some of the younger teachers. He had so much going for him. This boy looked engrossed in his work and that was another major difference in them. Warren had been the loud, class clown who got away with it. Teachers would just shake their heads and try to move on. He hadn't been completely rude to them, but he got close many times.
Amelia shuffled through the papers in the substitute's folder Mrs. Harriet had left and came up with the seating chart. She found the boy's picture, obviously from the previous year. Underneath the picture of the younger version of this boy was the name: David Raymond. She knew that if his name had started with a "W" she might have had to go in the hall and take a deep, deep breath. As it was she decided to walk through the classroom to calm down and see how the students were doing.
"Is anyone finished yet?"
About seven hands went up in the air. She glanced at the clock. "In ten minutes we'll go over any questions, so just get as far as you can in that amount of time."
She started up and down the rows, glancing down at the open books and slouching backs. Along the way she woke three students, picked up five pencils, tripped over a few purses, and confiscated at least ten notes.
When she got around to the windows, she paused a few desks away from David Raymond. He was staring at the page as if he was reading intently what the author had left there. As she slowly made her way up his row, she realized with a start that he was not staring at the writing as she had thought. He was staring at the painting on the opposite page. It was a painting of a beautiful landscape, done by one of the European artists or another. She calmly walked right by him and sat at the desk again, as if nothing had happened.
The painting reminded her of another time of bitter disappointment in her life. Job seeking can be testing on anyone. But she seemed to take it harder. Rejection after rejection did not help her already negative outlook at on the real world. One time in particular. She was positive that the painting on the wall was a good sign. The same painting that was in the book. It was so pleasant, so inviting. And this was her second interview here. She had been hopefully. She had been crushed.
So here she was, a substitute teacher. She was living in a small apartment on a small paycheck. She worked part-time at the local grocery store. Her parents had wanted her to stay around. After that party, she had murder on her mind. She figured that moving a couple states away would help her cool down.
Someone's hand was raised. "Miss Taylor? It's been about ten minutes. Can we start discussing?"
With a start she realized that she had been daydreaming far too much and hadn't even glanced over the reading. She stood and walked to the front of the room, taking the big teacher's book with her, hoping the notes from Mrs. Harriet and the footnotes in the book would be good enough crutches for the time being.
"Alright. Does anyone have a question on a certain part of the story?" She pointed to the girl who had first spoken. Obviously a nerd. Amelia thought it before she could stop herself.
"When the king finally decides to let the brave captain go to fight the dragon, on page 255, third paragraph from the bottom…"
Half the class groaned. Clearly she had gotten much farther than they liked. Amelia guessed that they hadn't read it...
"Let's have someone read that paragraph so we can better understand what your question is." She glanced casually at the seating chart. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl raising her hand again, almost frantically. Amelia knew that she wanted to read it, but felt the need to do a kind of justice. "David Raymond. Please read page 255, the third paragraph from the bottom."
"No, thank you."
She felt her face getting warm. "I was not giving you a choice. You will read."
"I said, no thank you." She was positive she saw direct defiance in those eyes. Probably the only thing that David Raymond had in common with Warren: those hazel eyes speckled with gold. She set her jaw and walked up to his desk.
"What do you think this is? I asked you to read. We need you to read this section so we can better understand the question being asked. Why is this so hard?"
Warren when he would tease and poke fun at her, those summer nights when he would drive her out into the fields outside of town. When they would lay in the bed of his pickup and listen to the crickets. Then he would steal her shoes and start to run. She was athletic too, but he was too fast. He would run in circles around her, tossing her sandals in the air, catching them and running again as she lunged for them. Her jaw tightened until she could hear the grinding.
"To the office. NOW!" Her hand was shaking as she held it out, pointing to the door. He looked at her in disbelief. Then slowly, he picked up his books, stood, and strode silently out the door.
The pressure in her jaw suddenly ended with a pop and she could have screamed at the feeling of her jaw practically breaking. Turning her back on the class, she made her way back to the desk. The students were looking at each other as she laid the textbook and seating chart down and rubbed her neck. Three hands shot up, more following.
"Miss Taylor?"
She was staring at the seating chart. She noticed the star next to David Raymond's name for the first time. Turning the page over, she read the note. Dropping into the chair, she let the tears fall. Soon she was sobbing. She heard voices around her. Someone was going for the nurse and the principal. Someone placed a box of tissues at her arm. Faintly, she heard conversation going on around her.
"Didn't Mrs. Harriet tell her that David was dyslexic?"

"Friends?"

so i've been told that i need to keep up with this. so i will.
random update on my life: recently one of my best friends for about 3 years told me quite clearly that she no longer wanted to be so anymore. i had been feeling a sense of change around her for a while but chose to ignore it and try to move past it. but it got worse and worse until finally i confronted her about it. she said nothing was wrong. then later i asked her again and she said that we had nothing in common anymore. which is in no way true. i had nothing to say to her after that although i considered many things. but i decided to be the bigger person and give her space.
in talking to other good friends about this whole deal and getting some outside opinions on the matter, i realized a few things: others were noticing that she was pushing me slowly out of her life (for another "best friend") and that i had real friends waiting to show me what the word friendship really means. i realized also that i had been shutting out some friends because of my closeness to these "best" friends. i felt terrible that i had been ditched. but relieved that i now knew who i could truely trust. i had been struggling to figure out what i had done wrong that made her treat me this way. but i then realized that i didnt need to do that. i prayed about it and talked to some people and worked out some things in my mind.
first: there is nothing i can do to make her be my best friend. best friend is a choice on both individuals' parts and cant be forced or cant be real.
second: a true friend wouldn't do this to a best or even good friend without a good reason. maybe its true that we don't have as much in common as we used to.
three: she needs time to decide if this is really what she wants to do. she's said and done a lot of things that she may not have thought about all the way through.
four: i have other friends out there for me. she's not the only one i've got. now i can focus on the friends that really care for me and have always been so. the ones that i've shut out unknowingly, yet still are there for me now. and the ones that i cant thank enough for that fact.
over all i think this experience has been very good for me. i had my good cry about it and found out who my true friends are.
i just want to say that no matter what happens...i am still her friend. if not her best friend anymore..im still her friend. at first i wanted to say and do all sorts of mean, horrible things to make her feel sorry for doing this to me. but thats not what God wants and not what she deserves. she may have hurt me now, but who knows what i can do for her later in life. i just want her to know that im here, and will be even though she said she doesnt want to be there for me. this is the love that God shows us. and the love that im trying to show her with God's help.

PITTSBURGH!!!

So on Friday, I awoke early. When I say early, I mean 4 o'clock in the morning early. I showered and dressed and made sure that I had everything that I needed. I hustled to the school to meet the bus at 5. We packed our stuff into the bottom of the bus, made sure everyone was there, and headed out. I was wide awake and hyper as anything, which is quite unusual for me at such an hour of the morning. But after about half an hour, I was getting a bit stir crazy. We stopped at a rest stop after about two hours.
Then after a few more hours of driving through the snow ((blizzard like conditions actually)) we arrived at Falling Water. This is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most famous architectural wonders. We had a walking tour of the house and we able to take pictures from a little vista of the waterfall and the house. It was very interesting, far more so than I thought it would be. It was also very, very chilly and windy.
After departing from Falling Water, we drove for a bit more before stopping for lunch. I must say that fast food may be cheap and easy, but if that is all you eat all weekend, it does get a bit old. Anywho… Soon we were off again and didn’t stop until we got to the Station Square Sheraton in downtown Pittsburgh. We unloaded our bus, claimed our baggage, and headed to our rooms to unwind and relax before dinner. I was rooming with Alexa, Kayla, Emily, and of course, myself! We watched some television and had some photo time.
Then we had an adventure finding the conference room where we were supposed to be meeting for dinner. Finally we just asked someone and we got there, still very early. We ate, or tried to eat the pizza, which wasn’t all that good. But there was some rather good salad there that I did enjoy. After forcing us to answer trivia questions and shoving candy in our faces for bribes, they dismissed us to our rooms to prepare for the Pittsburgh Symphony.
The girls in my room had some adventures along the way. But we got dressed up, did our hair, and took lots of pictures and once again boarded the bus. When we got to Heinz Hall, we took a group picture in an outside courtyard. Then we headed inside and found our seats. The program was all Henry Mancini’s music and then his daughter, who is jazz singer Monica Mancini, sang along with the orchestra in the second half of the concert. The hall was beautiful and our seats were good.
We got back to the hotel later than we expected. But we were tired and got ready for bed. The girls stayed up and talked until about 12:30 or 1:00. We had to wake up by 6 on Saturday, but we all decided that between the four of us taking showers and getting ready, that wouldn’t be early enough. We set our alarm for 5:30. We managed to wake up, shower, organize, not forget anything, and get to the bus on time and all in one piece.
Then we were off again. We went to the Duquesne Incline, where we got some pretty aHmazing pictures of the city!!! After that we headed of to our drop off point a couple blocks from the Carnegie Art and Natural History Museum. We had an hour to get breakfast and have some free time to shop or just window shop. As we were walking down the street, we found a Rue 21 store and decided to check it out. It is officially my new favorite store! I went in and spent $17 on six things! I was sooo excited. But then we couldn’t find the museum. Until we found Mr. Jordan, who knew where he was going so we followed him.
The museum was interesting. But they had a problem with my bag apparently. I had been carrying it for at least 45 minutes and suddenly it had grown to such a size as to steal a painting in!!! Egads! So our group had to go find the lockers and try to stuff our bags in it. After trying two and losing at least a dollar in quarters, we gave up and decided not to go near that area anymore, as no one else seemed to have a problem with my bag size. But once again I was stopped. I told the nice lady that her beloved lockers ate my quarters and wouldn’t give back the key. So we were directed to the front desk, where they found us a locker that worked, paid for the locker, and refunded our dollar. That made the whole situation a bit better. So we wandered the museum for a bit more.
We headed to the Station Square Mall, which is basically a glorified Zern’s, AKA not that exciting. I got some cheese fries from the only food place in the “food court” and then played some Dance Dance Revolution with Katie. She won by a lot, but I still had fun.
We meet outside for the Just Ducky Tour Boats. Which I got to drive and I have the sticker to prove it! I was the only one who could keep it in a straight line. I guess that means that my future in driving is hopeful!!!
We then headed to the Mattress Factory, which is like the Google Works in Reading. If you don't know what that is...It's a place where artists are asked to come and create art, whether it be for permament display or otherwise. So it's not really a factory. And we didn't get to make any mattresses. But we did get to make puppets at the end. Mine was not very inspired at all but I tried. After that we got back on the bus to head back home. We stopped along the way twice for food and bathroom stops. It was still along ride, but since we were going home and we were tired, it seemed shorter and not as exciting.
But after all the drama and lack of sleep, it was definitely worth it and I will always remember that weekend.

Some Exciting Things....

Since Lydia just had to ask...

I do have some things coming up that are...open to the public shall we say?

~Monday, November 12th, 7PM at Trinity EC in Boyertown. Vetern's Day Service. I will be singing with show choir, making a small speech type thinger, and possibly playing in it.

~Thursday, December 6th, 7PM, Boyertown Jr. High West. Chorus concert. Just concert choir and show choir. not too long...all singing...very fun indeed...at least for me!

~Thursday, December 13th, 7PM, Boyertown Jr. High West ((at least so far..may be changed to the High School)). Orchestra concert...not as exciting...but still...and I get to make a speech as president of the dorkestra...I mean orchestra!

And I'm sure there are other events that I can't think of off the top of my head. But thats all the major stuff that you can attend...and they're free!!!

Well, I have to say that my life is busy right now. But nothing that fun or exciting or outstanding is happening...but things are coming up quickly! So soon there will be pictures and stories galore! Trust me!!! =D