Grievances And Other Things

Teacher's Conference

It's a brand new day! Apparently. Feels like a generic day though. As if nothing new's happend, or as if an author of a book has regrets about every chapter's formula. But wouldn't an author just change that formula? Am I talking absolute rubbish? Yes. Ring-ring, ring-ring, ringating... The alarm clock plays it's usual jingle. After a lengthy process in the bathroom, I fly down the stairs and to the table, with some lovely, lovely breakfast toast. Toast-tastic. After a complete balanced breakfast, I get to the bus and after meeting Skyler, I see the building of good ol' Beacon High. It's a school and also a social meeting place, pretty much like all institutions of learning. Snow is falling however, making the cold a little more tolerable according to Skyler. I just laugh. "Back in Nuuk this would be scaldingly hot!" He rolls his eyes. "Yeah right." I just shrug. "Hey, I never said I was funny." Chloe and Penelope greet us and whisk me off to the magical room 135, according to legends it's a computer lab. Penelope quizzes me. "Do you have those in Nuuk?" I shake my head. "Nah, not really." Chloe stares at me. "Everything fine, Åle?" I shrug. "Yeah, just a bit burnt out thanks to school. I'm crossing off the days until the winter break!" She laughs. "Isn't everyone doing that?" We sit down and our teacher lets us use the computers. "The week before the Christmas holidays is always pretty relaxed." I nod. "Yeah, Penelope. Hey, does anyone of you have headphones?" They all nod and I plug in a triple adapter and we listen to some music. Chloe decides to ask us what we're doing for Christmas. "I don't know, I might fly to Nuuk. What about you?" Penelope shrugs. "Same as usual, meeting family et cetera at home. You know, sometimes I just wish they'd cancel the week before winter break." Can't say I blame her. I stare back at my notepad. My task: write something fresh and new and crowdpleasing or some shit. Apparently it's good to try fresh stuff. Well... I tried something... I don't know. I mean, it's angsty and all that jazz... But... I might need some help from Penelope. I'd have to meet her soon... Or I'll skype with her. Call me indecisive, but I've been kinda... Tired. And... Thinking alot. After faiting, I kinda started breathing deeply, and thinking for the first time. I kinda need a way to properly work through some stuff. And what better way than a song about hurt and angst. I jot down some notes. "Hold my hand, rip it off, be real cute and act real tough, jack of all trades, master of none, a rival to Hades, tell everyone to run. The world's gone wild, ignore the people, step on the child and honor the great shill. Hear the sound of the bombs on the floor, like a violent storm, begin the lie-based war, watch a new age of rebellion be born." Sounds good. Topical as well. Perfect! Parfait, as Madame Duibourg would say. Class, if you could even call it that, ends, and I join Penelope and Chloe on their way to the cafeteria. Suddenly, a loud shrieking interrupts our chatter. "Class is canceled for today, a teacher's meeting shall commence in approximately half an hour. Thank you." Miss Munblé at her finest. We grab our bags and Lyle and Skyler, and head out to town. "Hey, you know what? We could go to Cannon Hill!" I stare at Skyler. "Oh, Right. Cannon Hill is a hill near the center of town, and there's a lot of snow there, loads of people go there to go sledging and there's a great bistro there." Sounds great. "Let's get something from Starbucks first though, they've got incredible new things apparently." We all head to the Starbucks near the George Street Underpass and get something. Chloe comes in from outside to announce that the next bus to Cannon Hill is coming in a quarter of an hour. After nearly attacking the barista for taking her time, Penelope leads us out to the bus stop. After getting on, Lyle leans on me. "Tired, Lyle?" He nods. "It's Chester's time of the month again, it seems, and he's dumped me again." Penelope looks at him, in complete and utter mild shock. "Yet again? Are you okay, Lyle?" He nods. "Sure, I'm fine. It didn't really hurt me. This is the last time he gets to dump me." Chloe chimes in. "When'd he dump ya?" Lyle shrugs. "A week ago or so." Skyler raises his eyebrows. "Are you a doormat or something?" Lyle stands up and grins. "No, I have standards, unlike you." Ah, banter. The bus voice announces the next stop and we get off. Sure enough, there's a huge hill in front of us, completely covered in snow. People having sleigh-rides, making snow-angels, snow-based nuclear warfare, political debates on snow policy, the works. Suddenly I feel something cold on my back, I turn around and see that Penelope is armed and dangerous. I quickly duck and run. Splat. Snowballs collapse next to me. I hurriedly make one of those white bombs whilst Penelope's rant about her lack of aiming skills is cut short by a snowball to the face. from Skyler. Sensing an approach from behind I dodge just in time to dodge a furious Chloe and hit her with a snowball. Lyle beckons me behind a wall of snow, as protection, I guess. But my suspicions get proven wrong as he suddenly turns on me and pelts me with his collection of snowballs, only for Skyler to take him out with a surprise attack. I haven't had this much snow-related fun in years.

~~~~

Back home, I make myself a lovely hot chocolate as I hit up my laptop. Ah, Penelope's online. I send her an AIM or whatever the americans call it, and grab my mug, only to drop it on the kitchen counter because it's bloody hot. After nursing my red fingers with some cold water, the trusty AIM jingle alerts me to a new message. It's from Penelope. "What's up", I write back. I realise that I haven't asked her how she came to Beacon High, because she was a new girl about a year ago. As soon as I thought it, I ask her. She's typing. This'll be a long message. As she types I connect my iPod to some speakers and let some My Chemical Romance play. "They're gonna clean up your looks, with all the lies in the books..." Ba-dink. A new message. "Well, my mom and I moved here during summer break, because she found a job at a Lawyer's office here. I was kinda glad at the time, because at my old school, I was kind of a Wallflower. Mom and I looked at the schools here and found Beacon High. It wasn't too far away and seemed to be a pretty good school. And on my first day, Chloe and co. took me under their wing, and to this day I'm grateful that they did." Sounds like a much more glamorous story than my "how did I come to Beacon High" story. I chat with Penelope for a while and eventually walk up to my room. My GameBoy was here somewhere, I could have sworn... Ah here it is. I play a bit, to waste some time, and listen to My Chemical Romance. This day seems to drag a bit... I regret leaving this early. Oh shit. I just realised. I don't have anything to wear to the christmas ball. There's something for Aunt Lissa to know about. I get my phone out and tell her the surprising news. I stare outside. Snow falls like dandruff from someone's head. Kids are outside, playing and having fun. It's so odd, back home snow was a given, and here, it's basically celebrated when it arrives. Children go out and build snowmen, make snow angels, back home there was so much snow that it was boring. I can't believe it. Their laughter is a bit annoying though. Then again small children tend to be annoying. I lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling. Then I remember. My iPod's still playing downstairs. I rush down and it seems to have looped through the album back to the one song. "They say that teenagers scare the living shit out of me..." I disconnect it and plug it in to charge. Just 4 days to go until the christmas ball and I have nobody to go with. Who do I ask? Penelope's gonna go with Brendan for sure, and Lyle and Skyler are guys. Chloe, maybe? I don't know. I don't even know if I'll be able to dance. If not, I hope I'll have the talent to not absolutely embarass myself amongst a huge crowd of people. If not, then I'm fucked.