Candlestick

It has only been three days since my dad went to Chicago. But it feels as if it has been a lot longer as I sit in the heavy humid air of this Thursday evening. I have the window unit on as I wait for the room to cool down enough so that I can turn it off and actually hear the television without the roar of the air conditioner. Comfort doesn’t come with out a price. It also isn’t the safest thing in my mind, with my mom working double shifts and not getting in till much later that night and my grandmother in the next room sleeping while my dog thinks of more ways to wake her up it would be difficult to hear if anyone just happened to break in.
Yes, I know that it is a silly idea that just because my dads away and I’m home almost alone with the light of the day slowly dissipating and darkness drawing closer something bad will happen. Despite the fact that I know how ridiculous and paranoid my thinking is the candle stick that usually stands out in the hallways now occupies the space by my bed and will continue to do so until my dad comes home next Thursday. I look at it this way of someone was to come into my house I would be ready to defend my self with the sharp metal spear attached to the top of the heavy, carved wooden base.
I have to some how survive the next two hours and thirty six minutes, but how with all the creepy sounds that I hear and all the sounds that I know are there but I can’t hear what they are because I’m trying to focus my attention away from them. As I’m trying to get all of this out of my mind the motion sensor light outside turns on I jump up from my bed to look over the window unit to see what cause the light to turn on. I feel a rush of excitement and relief as it is my best friend coming to keep me company for the next two hours and eleven minutes until my mom gets home from the late shift at the hospital. As nine O’clock roles around we patiently await the results show of So you think you can Dance and watch as the dancers get eliminated. Yes this is how I spend my summer nights in front of the television set watching the one show that I cant get enough off and waiting for the next commercial break to get something to drink. And even though I am paranoid and worried about what can be happening downstairs while I am mesmerized by the television set it doesn’t seem to cross my mind.
The bark of my Yorkshire terrier, Toby startles me but I sit there hoping that the commercial break will come soon and I can down and see what’s going on I’m just happy I’m not sitting here by myself. Thirty seconds later the commercial break started and my dog is still carrying on with his bark. And even though I am not here by myself and only have one hour and nine minutes left and my dog happens to bark at everything he sees or hears including the wind I still get a knot in my stomach.
Jessica my friend goes first not caring she’s used to having an empty house and really doesn’t see much of a difference, she doesn’t even notice when I pick up my candle stick and follow her down or that I’m scared. She’s just curious as to what my dog is barking at and as me approach the bottom of the stairs she turns around saying “Where’s the light- hahahahahahaha” and almost falls down the last two steps.
She had finally noticed the candle stick in my hand and broke out laughing. After we got downstairs saw that my dog was once again barking at his own reflection and got something to drink we headed back upstairs to sit in the cold room. And for the next hour I got to listen to how funny my caring the candlestick actually was we didn’t stop until seven minutes before my mom got home and she was on her way. I really got to see how amusing it is when I have nothing to be afraid of and when I’m not acting my age. This will be a story she will be telling for years to come and at our high school reunion.

High School Preparation

Back in middle school (which seemed like a lifetime ago) we had so many presentations to prepare us for the upcoming high school years. For some reason, none of them could put out my fear of the huge school I was about to attend. This was where all the grades started counting. I feel if I screw up just one test, my whole life is messed up. It’s not a good feeling. When we had a tour of the high school, I remember thinking “Man, this place is enormous!” To my horror, I found out I was looking at only one third of the school. Each third of the school is a different house: Fitts, Townsend, and Pequot. I got stuck in Pequot, the great house with no air conditioning. Each house is color coded… like that’s supposed to keep my fear at bay or something.

Next stop on the tour of confusion and frustration was learning about the schedules. Back in 6th grade I felt overwhelmed at the thought of having a schedule… and I thought I had problems then… There’s not a single day that’s the same schedule, no, they had to make it as twisted and messed up as possible. One day you’ll have period one at the end, beginning, or middle of the day and same with all the other periods. It’s like someone just randomly threw together all the periods in one huge collage of chaos. There must be some kind of purpose to making this schedule. Some of the kids that were giving high school presentations told us that even they hadn’t mastered the high school schedule and they were seniors!

Even in this confusing new place there are a few safety zones… the cafeteria. Just the vastness with all the lunch tables and the food waiting in the open doors of the lunch lady zone beckons you in and you already know that this is the best place to be in the whole high school. Luckily, I’ve visited the high school before; I’ve only been in the large gym for a chorus festival and on the upper level of the gym for wrestling practice. I think it helped a lot to get to know where my PE classes are going to be around the school, just another problem to cross off the list of doom.

When I visited the high school, I found a lot of mixed emotions about how students in the high school felt about the place. Usually, the presentations are hosted by the student council members or some other student club that helps the school out with stuff. But, as you walk down the halls, you’ll hear kids trying to freak you out, screaming at you from the cafeteria that high school’s going to kill you. After that, the last thing I needed to be informed about is that the first Friday you have of high school is called Freshman Friday. It’s when everybody else in the school chases down freshman and spray paints “frosh” all over them. Sometimes, they’ll even roll you down a hill in a garbage can and stupid stuff like that. I asked a senior where good hiding spots were… he said there weren't any. Thanks… I think I’m going to wake up sick that day…

I can’t believe there’s so much to worry about with high school. It’s the last thing I want to do over the summer but I guess I can’t help it because high school is basically unavoidable. It’s far too late to think about staying back now. People say it flies by but I just can’t understand why. With so many opinions about such a confusing place, it’s nearly impossible to tell about what high school is going to be like. All I need to know now is that it’s going to be harder than any other school I’ve gone through and my goal for this summer is to try and wrap my mind around that. You may laugh at me, but think back to how you felt right before your freshman year…