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The secret to getting ahead is getting started - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Today is starting out favourably. Right now I am in English class, which is fortunate for my situation. Our warm-up assignment is “10 minutes” of writing stream of consciousness (my stream of consciousness tells me that ten minutes of writing will actually be half an hour of writing and class will almost be over by the time we start the lesson). Because I was in an early IB program at my old school (I miss it), this school put me into the eighth grader English class. There are no familiar faces, not that I’m familiar with any other faces yet. There is a kid in the class who is also writing the assignment who I think is the teacher’s kid? I don’t know. He couldn’t be a student, could he? He looks like he’s like five. But I could swear that I saw him in the hallway yesterday. Part of me wants to ask him, and the other 99% are not going to get into that awkward situation. The girl next to me just complained that writing by hand is slow. It is if you write it at THAT speed. I think she has about two sentences down. Her name is Hurley (I looked at the top of her sheet). Oh no if I talk to her later should I pretend I don’t know her name? What if she asks how I know it? Is it creepy that I looked at her paper? She’s the one who initiated conversation. Okay I’m almost finished one of my journal pages. I’m going to switch to some loose leaf so I don’t waste my good paper with random thinking.
•••
I’m sitting in math and Magnus’ voice is in my head telling me to go talk to Lup. I don’t want to though! But I do want to kind of. Am I being a bad person if I don’t go talk to her because she dresses differently? What if someone decided that they didn’t talk to me just because I wore a Shakespeare shirt? I mean, maybe there’s a difference between a Shakespeare shirt and seven piercings, black makeup, and died hair, but it’s the same principle. I’m going to go talk to her. I’ll be back with my findings.
…
LUP IS GREAT
Okay so. Class is almost over so I’m going to write quick. I went over and at first she was looking at me like “who are you and why have you entered my lair?”, but then I told her that I knew Magnus and Taako and she was like “Oh you’re Lucy! Taako was talking about the new kid yesterday. That’s you?” And I said yes and I don’t care that I normally don’t like it when people call me Lucy because I wasn’t going to say anything because Lup is really intimidating in a kinda good way now? I don’t know it’s hard to explain I’ll write more at lunch class is [EDIT: over.]
•••
I hate when I have to go back and finish sentences. So Lup. Lup is nothing like I expected. As soon as she heard that Magnus and Taako knew me, she was all smiles and jokes. We had math and then science right after and she told me that I should come sit with her and Barry at their table. Barry’s nice too. Really quiet. Lup is the exact opposite. She was talking the whole time and asking me a bunch of questions. It was really nice to feel like I was getting to know stuff about somebody.
Things I’ve learned about Lup so far:
- sister of Taako
- wants to be a scientist
- has three separate plans on how to take over the world (all humane of course. she just wants to take over for the “idiot grown-ups”
- wears a lot of black because it’s her favourite colour
- (other than green which she also likes. she has green laces for her high tops and green streaks in her hair)
- she likes makeup, but hasn’t been doing it for very long, and doesn’t have enough money to buy “the good s***”
- on that note, Lup swears a lot. I heard 24 uses of the s-word, and at least 14 of the f-word in our interaction
- wants to play in band, but she only has an old violin, and we don’t have any strings in band
- her and Taako were the new kids last year (they move around a lot) but they still have some good friends already
There was a lot more, but she was honestly talking so fast it was hard to remember it all. I wanted to write it down while she was talking, but mom already talked to me about how that’s rude and I super shouldn’t do it when I’m meeting new people. Lup also gave me the names of like ten bands that I should listen to. The only one I knew already was Panic! At the Fantasy Disco. Lup was wearing one of their shirts today, which is how we got started on that conversation in the first place. I will update with my findings later about how good her music taste is. I just looked up and saw Magnus waving for me to come join him, Taako and Lup at their lunch table. I’m going to put away my journal now.
•••
Drama was fun today. Leon said I should pick out a monologue from his list to start practicing. I was totally lost, but Taako came over and picked one for me. It’s one of a queen making a big speech to her people. Taako said that I was perfect for the gravitas it needed. Well, not in those words exactly. More like “you’ve got enough of a stick up your butt to play royalty”. Still. I think it was a compliment.
I think.
Compliment or not, I think I’m doing well. Taako gave some surprisingly good tips, and he even managed to help Magnus remember a good half of his lines.
I think that I’m getting the hang of this new school thing. Maybe it isn’t as bad as I thought.
The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. - Obama