Truth or Dare

You could go for the truth...

Me: Truth.

Semibreve: Okay. What's your secret?

Me: Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........................
...
...
...
I don't think I've got one.

Semibreve: But you must do, because everyone has a secret.

Me: Okay... I don't like going in the water at swimming pools? [I lied.]

Crotchet: That's not a secret.

...But then when you haven't an answer for the question set, you're looking at an awkward moment.

So, you could go for dare...

Classmate: I dare you kiss that boy over there.

Me: *goes to do so having seen other people do dares*

*ends up looking mental to some poor victim*

...but you could be asked to do anything.

The best way is to avoid it altogether...

Person: But it's bad luck not to accept!/Oh, you're no fun.

...
...
I've never done this but this is the result I've seen.

Looking like a good person socially has never been more difficult and embarrassing.

So, what would you choose?

A Fiddle Fiasco

From Year 4 to Year 9, I had routine Violin lessons, always with the same teacher, on a Tuesday. The classes, once a good bit of fun and some extra education in Music, later became an excuse to miss half of my most hated subject - Geography. This wasn't even because I wasn't good at it, I had good marks and everything, but it was plainly not what I'd like - it had a lot more to do with people and later, economics, but I'd rather have learnt names of rivers and cities and stuff like that.

One advantage of having Violin lessons, apart from showing a bright spark in lessons while still missing as much as a quarter of them per week, was half a day out of school near the end of each school year to go to a Fiddle Fiesta (which were much more fun than being totally bored out of your skin in a stuffy classroom full of other students who would be disruptive all of the time). These tended to be good fun.

You'd be preparing for a Fiddle Fiesta for some weeks beforehand, getting all your pieces to practice, whether you were first, second, or third violin. In my first Fiddle Fiesta there were two pieces that were fourth violin, which is almost never used. I remember this because I was lazy and didn't want to do the third violin pieces. Me and B, (an old schoolmate from my Junior school who, like me, liked the Goodies, but unlike me, did not know about the Funky Gibbon) did this. But I am seriously going off track now and ought to explain about the Fiasco.

It was Year 7 that this fiasco happened. I had prepared like all of the other students across the town going to a Fiddle Fiesta. I was dead excited about missing Science and English - especially English which was almost unbearable (I realize later that this could be due to an undermining of my talents (they had me a level 4 instead of 5 like I actually was) and a low intolerance of noise (and that class was really noisy!)). I was also excited at going to a new place to do a Fiddle Fiesta - even if Moth didn't really like it that much (That just made me curious).

So it was the day of the Fiesta. I had my violin (which is an awkward thing to be lumbered with, let me tell you!) and there was some extra food in my schoolbag for eating later. I had to make sure I wasn't tempted by it at lunchtime. I ate as always before zooming off.

I zoomed off to a little area in The Quad, near to the front entrance, and milled around there energetically. Excitement brewing. All of that sort of thing.

I saw my Science teacher as I was jumping around. Without any prior experience or common sense, I felt I had to tell her about the Fiesta. So, I did.

Time went exceedingly slowly for the rest of Lunch, and then Registration, but finally, finally it was the end of registration and it was time to go to the Reception desk ready to leave, collecting our violins/violas on the way (they were kept locked in a room in the music corridor).

We waited in the reception area, sitting on the chairs and so on. Waiting, as business occurred between people and things, and a boy saying he didn't want to go. Hearing some of the business, it seemed that there was some issue up. It was something to listen to, and it did not exactly fill me with confidence. Although I had no idea what the heck was going on.

It had been a very very long time in waiting before the receptionist said to us to go back to classes. From what I can tell now, this is what happened: a parent had volunteered to take everyone to the Fiddle Fiesta. He could take us all - had permission and whatnot. Then his son backed out, and didn't want to go. So because of Protection Laws and whatnot, he now couldn't take the rest of us.

Great.

I wasn't exactly ready to go back to class. I had told my Science teacher that I'd not be there, so how could I? She'd have thought I was lying! And everyone else would stare at me for being so late. It would be so embarrassing. Was there any point of going for the last part of the lesson only?

I went and put my violin away, but I was very reluctant to go to science. I stayed in the music room, and it wasn't very long before English. I went, and got some whispers.

And that is the nearest I ever got to disruptive behavior.

First Day of High School - Part 3

Welcome to the third and final part of my first day serial - for previous episodes, go here and then here.

The next few bits were the basics of school life. The rest of lunchtime was spent outside in the warmth of early September. Then we had 15 minutes back in the form room before having a lesson. I think it was Music, so it would have been a doddle to get through, seeing as I had already done violin for 3 years by that point, and that early when no-one else had done Music, it would have been back to the basics.

The last lesson of the day was languages. The whole of Band B had to go to the hall this time. We had all said which language we wanted to do earlier in the day, so that the school could arrange us into language classes. I'd picked Spanish, copying my brother and sisters (Being rather annoyed at their constant teasing in Spanish, and not knowing what the hell they were on about. But then, they always teased me and I still don't understand the logarithms of teasing, so it wouldn't have helped!)

Spanish was the last language, and by that time, they just said 'The rest of you are in Spanish'. I was one of them, and I was tired of waiting, so I was glad to know that I would be in Spanish! (And get a walk to the correct room, of course)

That first lesson was not the best. There were two other boys and one other girl in the class, who were in my form. Though that bit isn't important. (Well, the girl was revolting, but she left the school after that year anyway)

The teacher first asked us if any of us had done any Spanish beforehand. No-one had, which made her job easier, and meant that we didn't have to take a test. Some teaching happened, but at some point nearer the end of the lesson, we were asked to copy down some vocabulary etcetera from the board.

There was a teensy problem with this: the writing was small tiny miniscule and I needed an eye test. So it was bleeding impossible to do it at the rate wanted. I was still writing by the end of the lesson, and I let whoever was collecting the books to collect it, although I did feel a little nervous. This teacher was not one who would tolerate... anything.

There were still one or two things to get through, though, after school. I was unsure about where to wait for Crotchet, as we were supposed to walk home together. I hung around the front gate, wondering if this really was the way out. Finally, after everyone had left, Crotchet walked up the pathway, and said he wasn't going to collect me from lessons, and I should wait at the lamp-post outside the school. We then walked home.

The route home was up the hill. It was very warm, and so for the most of it I had my water-bottle in my mouth often. However, as my energetic younger self it had less effect then it did in later years. We finally got home. It was a first day to remember, in a mass of many days I spent at that school.

First Day of High School - Part 2

Welcome to the second part of my three-part serial about my first day ever at the school I've now left - First part is here.

However, what we got was a one week system, and what initially was an issue of concern was now a good thing instead of a concerning thing.. At my previous school, any timetable was kept to - for about two weeks a year! This timetable was firm, and even had which teachers and the room numbers. I copied the room numbers but not the teachers. Who needed to know that when going to your next lesson anyway?

We were then introduced to our learning leaders. I was soon to learn that all they did was come come into form time and check our planners or take us for reading when our tutors wanted to talk about us to the form, without us. They had a different tie to us and I thought this part was cool.

The Learning Leaders took us on mini-tours of the school before taking us back to the form-room. When I say mini-tour, I mean, our group went round out of the T-block, down around the library (not inside, just the outside! And we weren't even told!), under an arch, and into the science block. We only stayed downstairs S-block as well, not going upstairs. As the only thing I ever touched downstairs was the Homework club (all being learning mentors and IL and stuff like that) it wasn't particularly helpful to know that!

Mini-tour over, we went back to the form-room, but soon it was time for break. I dispelled my energy by myself in a corner of the field. All of the bigger students had come, now, and they too were having break. I looked around at the field and surveyed it, but there was nothing there for my old (and weird, but imaginative) game. It was all spaced too far apart, and there weren't enough bushes anyway. I decided to put that particular game away, never to come back.

After Break, we were due to go to the lesson timetabled, which was Science. However, I was unsure of the way. I distinctly remembered an arch, only I could not see an arch. Maybe I had made that bit up? I panicked slightly.

And then, a girl from my form, Alice, joined me, and we went together from there. We went in one direction, and asked a teacher's help. Well, she did all the asking. I'd seen the science block while she was showing the map of the school in her planner to the teacher. I could also see the arch from here, and was relieved. At least I hadn't made that bit up. I said nothing about knowing this, though, and finally we made our way to Science. I never actually got lost after that one time.

We were by no means the latest. It was a large group of boys who were. The teacher was more annoyed with those boys than she'd been with us, speaking somewhat sympathetically to us, and far less so, in fact, impatiently, to the gang of boys. The lesson progressed after that.

After the hour of Science, it was lunchtime. Alice and I went to the canteen (which wasn't that far from the Science block). We both had packed lunches (and lunch cards that we were given in Form), but I bought a bottle of water from there as well.

Keep an eye out for Part 3 - which has a good tip hidden in it.

First Day of High School - Part 1

This is the first part of my three-part serial of my first day at my beloved High School.

For most people who are 11 years old, starting at a new school is a terrifying, nerve-racking experience that could only be beaten in the horrifying stakes by being ripped apart by tigers, while being watched by the people they loathe, and not being able to escape from the cage they were stranded in. They tend to stick with people from their own previous school only, until they are settled in and ready to browse the market.

I have never been 'most people'.

I faced only pure excitement at starting at the same place that my sisters had gone to and my brother still went. And even wearing the uniform. I loved it.

My brother Crotchet still got a lie in that morning when I went down to my first day ever. He would be there later. My sister Semibreve, who was just about to, or already had started at the local Sixth Form college, took me to the school, and had promised to show me the way to a shop in the area.

She never did. Instead, she dumped me outside the hall, where the other Year 7s would be gathering. I took a seat, and waited.

Once there were lots of people in there we had an assembly of a kind. One of the teachers had a strong accent, and it wasn't easy to decipher what he was actually saying. His voice was grumbly as well which didn't help. When it came to the form-lists I hoped that it was the other person who would say my name because I was not sure about him.

Then they did the form lists. I kept my ear out for my name. I knew it was planned earlier that me and another guy from my school would be in this certain form. Apparently this was learnt from taster day, only many people from my old school hadn't been to it, and that included me. He would have come after me, probably straight after, and I disliked him. 

The two teachers took it in turns to announce the names of the people in each form. The Maths said, and indeed it was, the guy with the strong-accented voice who told of the names of the form I was to be in. Thankfully, I knew he said my name, and I joined the form it was planned for me to be in a while earlier. And the male I disliked who was planned to be in the same form? Well, he wasn't. I was the only person from my old school in that class and I didn't mind a bit.

I was also the only white person in that form (not counting the form tutor). The rest were all Asian, apart from one black guy. This led to confusion, particularly when it came to males, who looked all the same to me at that age.

We went to our form room, and it was a delight. (We were lucky to have all our 5 years of form-time in that room, apart for one term where we were next door). There we sorted out our official business, which included planners, timetables, going through the rules, and lunch cards.

I had initially been concerned about timetables because Semibreve, who showed me her planner once, had a two-week system. How would I know which week was A and which B? What would happen after half-terms and holidays? I wouldn't know how to deal with it when that happened!

Keep your eye out for the second part - in which I get slightly lost...