Graduation, interview, etc...

I spent Thursday night at the eighth grade graduation. It wasn't my choice, the whole newspaper staff had to be there to cover it. Alison showed up in a deep blue velvet dress, it was cute on her. Alison in a dress was strange, but I had to get used to it. Megan's dress was black and gold, also very cute.

Before the graduation, though, I ran into Marisol Luna. Remember I told you she was an eighth grader? Well I found out that next term she's going to Parkington. So you know I piped her with all kinds of questions about the school.
She says Parkington is a magnet school for gifted and talented young ladies. Since she's a dancer, she's enrolling in its acclaimed dance academy. She told me something else too -- about something called a deferred enrollment, which is what she did. She attended Adams for a year before going to Parkington and said that if I was thinking about going that it would be an option to think about.
Another thing: Her younger sister, Maitte, will be at Adams next year.
The next day was our awards ceremony for this year. I hate these because the teachers take too long to give them out. They gave out awards for clubs and activities and perfect attendance. I haven't missed a day of school in three years, so when they announced "Haley Hotchkiss, three years perfect attendance," I heard Meredith and some of the others sitting on the top bleachers yelling boos.
Kristy got basketball team MVP, Alison got soccer team MVP, Megan received the special principal's award for "going beyond the call of duty." A boy named Caelan Staub got highest average awards for math and science, I got mine for social studies, Megan got it for English, Katarina got for reading, and Hilary got her awards for highest average in spelling, winning the school spelling bee, district spelling bee, 2nd in state spelling bee -- oh, and she's going to nationals in July.
I was a little nervous when Mrs. Baldwin went to announce the 6th grader with the highest grade point average. "Haley, you know you're gonna get that," Harriet said with a nudge.
"Caelan's smart too," I reminded her. I don't know Caelan that well, he's pretty quiet and keeps mostly to himself.
"The sixth grader with the highest grade point average for the year -- Haley Hotchkiss with a 3.975."
"Haley, don't act like you didn't know," Kristy said. Meredith and her friends rained down more boos as I walked to receive my awards.
Speaking of Parkington, my interview was okay... not great, not bad. Just okay. They asked me about what I was involved in and what I wanted to do with my life. When I got ready to leave, they shook my hand, and I left.

Rambling about assorted stuff

Harriet went away for the weekend, said a cousin or something was graduating college, so she had to go. It wasn't the same without her around. Sometimes I'm jealous that Harriet has this big close-knit family, with her mom and grandmother and cousins and such. Both sets of my grandparents are already dead.

So, I was stuck today with watching cheerleading tryouts. There are 10 girls trying out for 2 open spots on the squad, so you can imagine there's a lot of competition. Alison and I just shook our heads and shrugged.

Two of them I recognized as 5th graders, the brunette gal and another girl in yellow, said she was Victoria something. She's got the blackest hair I've ever seen, and I can't pronounce her last name.

Remember I said the new cheerleading uniforms are hideous? Here they are:

On the subject of Parkington, I haven't found the guts to tell any of my friends about it, and it's a situation I really don't want to deal with. My parents do, however, know about it. They arranged it so my interview is Saturday, so I'm leaving town Friday evening and Vee and I are going to stay in a hotel Friday night. I did, however, tell my cousin Nicki about it, and she totally says I should botch the interview. Problem is, I can't see myself purposely messing up anything, especially after I've worked so hard to get this interview in the first place.
Speaking of Nicki, she is managing to throw ANOTHER wrench into my summer plans. She is coming down, starting when school lets out at the end of the year. And it's not just Nicki. She's bringing her brother Adam, who'll be starting 5th grade next year. I've told her that I'm gonna be with the traveling doll program most of the summer and she won't get to see very much of me, but she insists on coming down. Deep down I don't think she believes I actually signed up for the program. I hate when she does these things. She's my cousin and all, but a lot of the time she gets on my nerves. I hate to say it, but I wish she'd stay in Colorado. Oh well, you can't pick your family.

Clearing the Air

I know the last post seems to have caused a bit of a stir... especially with Ali and Kristy. I don't know what's going on with them, and it's not really my business to know, except where the paper is concerned, and Ali is on the staff and was not pulling her weight. So, I told her about it. She understood where I was coming from and that was that. The fact that she had Kristy with her had me a little unsettled, but my beef with her is over.
Anyway, tomorrow (it's after midnight here) is Hilary's birthday. If you wanna know what happened at the spelling bee, she did win district, so now she's going to regionals to compete against spellers from about a seven or eight county area.
As for tomorrow, Hilary's said she doesn't really want a party, but we're gonna have a little get-together at her place anyway, if the weather is nice we'll have it outside. She's a big Disney movie fan -- and I'm not talking about High School Musical and the like. I'm talking about Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, etc.
Speaking of Beauty & the Beast, one of Harriet's cousins works at a music store, and he happened to find the full original soundtrack, so today Harriet went to pick it up and that's what we're giving Hilary for her birthday.

Dullards and Deadlines

It's just dawned on me that I can't wait till summer.

As it is now, I'm swimming in deadlines. There's my social studies fair project, which I still haven't finished. There's my year-end book report for English class. There's the yearbook, which we still haven't started working on. And there's my article on gymnastics tryouts for the newspaper. That's as big a problem as any. And making matters worse, Bridget, the captain of the team, is not making things any easier.

Bridget O'Shaughnessy used to be BFF with Hilary Lang, but they began growing apart this year. So that's what Hilary told me. Bridget's into gymnastics, dance, theater -- anything that involves performing in front of a crowd, that's where she'll be.

So, anyway, on the second day of tryouts, I asked Bridget if I could sit in and watch again, and she tried to cop a Meredith-like attitude.

"You can't close down tryouts!" I said. "Who do you think you are?"

She didn't want to, but she let me sit down anyway. A few moments later, who walked in but the paper's regular sports reporter, Alison McCann. And she had Kristy in tow. I had to admit the closeness of their relationship over the last few weeks made me just a little bit uncomfortable. They were always touching each other, holding hands and stuff.

"Alison," I shouted as Bridget did her stretches, "this is your baby. You haven't been pulling your weight. If Megan finds out --"

"Megan's not going to find out, is she?"

I shook my head. Alison could be such a basket case sometimes. "So who's going to write the article, Alison -- me or you?"
She looked at me and shrugged. "Haley, why are you so bossy? You're not the editor."

"Maybe not, but I've been covering gymnastics tryouts, and as sports editor that's your job."

I could see Kristy peering at us off to the side. She and Alison had gotten quite close over the last few weeks.

"Okay, Haley, I tell you what," Alison said. "Give me your notes from the tryouts and I'll take it from here."

Believe it or not, I had mixed feelings about this. I wanted to prove that I belonged on the newspaper staff. And on the other hand, covering the tryouts was Alison's job, not mine. I had other things to do.

On top of all this, I have to find something to wear to the open house coming up. As sixth grade class president, I have to be there and make a presentation to the incoming students. And all this at a time when I don't even know if I'll be at Adams this fall.

What About Your Friends? Part Deux

"How'd it go?" Harriet and Hilary asked in singsong voices.
I shrugged. "It didn't go at all. Kristy still won't talk to me."
"Haley," Hilary said, "you did the right thing. I would have done the same."
"It's been a week and she's still upset," I said.
Harriet offered to talk to Kristy for me, but I wasn't sure what would come of it. As it is, she's spending a lot of time lately with her new BFF, Alison McCann. I know her from the paper. Ali's forgotten more sports trivia than I ever knew.


Anyway, I tried to listen in as Harriet tried to talk to Kristy. Kristy was, in Harriet's words, "just being stubborn." The situation was hopeless, and I thought I'd never get through to her. I had to admit, it was a huge setback in my attempt to be friends with her.
Just then, though, Meredith and her gang came up to me again, and again they asked me to do their homework for them. When I kept telling them 'no,' they kept on asking. And then I heard someone's voice: "Leave her alone."


I looked up. It was Kristy!
"She ain't gotta do YOUR homework for you!"
"Hey, you don't want me to slam you in your locker, do you?" Meredith asked.
Kristy stared her down. "As if YOU can slam anyone in a locker. You'd be too afraid to even break a nail!"
"You wanna play tough?" Meredith asked. Before I could blink, Kristy had pushed her beside a wall.
If there's anybody that hates Meredith Hopkins more than I do, it's probably Kristy. After all, Kristy says, ever since she came back after having moved away, Meredith has made her life miserable. Kristy says Meredith, passing by with her family in their fancy car, spotted her at her favorite fishing hole, took pictures, and circulated it all around the school, yet to this day Meredith denies ever doing it.

School Newspaper?

Today my English teacher, Mrs. Baldwin, asked to see me. "Haley, I've looked at your essays, and I was wondering -- have you considered writing for the school newspaper?"
I had to admit, I'd never thought about it.

"I just thought, you know, Haley, you're a good writer. You have talent. I just think it's time to put your talent to some good use."

Harriet was waiting for me outside the door when I came out. "Are you going to do it?" she asked.

"I don't know," I whispered.

Just then Meredith walked by in her cheerleaders uniform. I'd forgotten there was a pep rally this afternoon for the football team. And I was reminded once again of why she made me sick.

When I walked into the library where the newspaper staff was meeting, a girl with stick-straight red hair -- hair even straighter than mine, if that's possible -- and wearing a yellow dress approached me. "Hi, I'm Megan Ryder," she said in a cheery voice. "I'm the editor of the newspaper. You must be Haley. Mrs. Baldwin said you were coming."

She did? I wondered. I'd never told Mrs. Baldwin I would come.

Megan shook my hand hard. She then introduced me to some of the other staff members. "Keisha Vance is our music editor. Ask her anything and everything about music and she'll tell you. Alison McCann is our sports guru. She's memorized all kinds of cool stats and plays three sports herself. Katarina Engel speaks three different languages and was even born in Germany. Whatever you want her to research, she'll find."

Alison called me over to sit at the table with her, Keisha, and Katarina. She was a scruffy looking sort, with long messy blond hair that she kept running her hands through. It didn't look like she ever washed or combed it.

Just then Mrs. Baldwin came in. She introduced herself as the faculty adviser. She then said there needed to be a back-to-school edition of the paper.

"Well, what can we put in it?" I wondered.

"Anything you want, as long as it has to do with all of us coming back to start a new school year."


For the next few minutes, we talked about ideas for the issue. We finally settled on interviewing students on what they thought of the beginning of the year. Question was, who were we going to interview?