End of Chapter 2

So I've ended chapter 2... but now I'm not convinced I'll ever get out of 6th grade. I've set it up so that now I have to be in 6th grade for chapter 3. I don't know, maybe I could do the quantum leap type thing and just bounce around, but that might be too confusing. We'll see. Anyways here is the end of chapter 2. Find the beginning here. Word count is at 6143. Again, not quite where I want to be at when I am really going for NaNoWriMo, however not bad. It has been 4 days and that is excellent progress. Most people on the NaNoWriMo forums suggest 1500 words a day, and I can see that. I don't think it is the best strategy since it leaves you short in 30 days. Either way all this writing is great practice, and that is definitely one of the reason I started this blog. I was reading in Richard Hugo's book "The Triggering Town" and it talked about one of the best ways to get better at writing was simply to practice. And it makes a lot of sense because there aren't many things you can get better at without practice.

Chapter 2

The bell rang and we were off to Math. You see we had a rotating schedule so everyday of the week was different. I knew fewer of people in my Math then any of my other classes, but that was alright. My math teacher had an interesting solution for motivating his students to do well on tests. We all had assigned seating, but after each test we could choose our own seat, and there were some seats that were more in demand then others. The seat that was actually not as nice as it seemed was in the very back of the classroom. It had a little table with a plant on it and had a chair with cushions. Only one person could sit back there at one time, and it usually went to the person who got the highest score on the test. I got it only once while I was originally in sixth grade, I don't know how I pulled it off and then I immediately went back to pulling in my mediocre grades so never got that seat again.
The reason I say that seat is not actually as nice as it seems is because it is so far back that it is far easier to get distracted and not pay attention to the lessons. When you are in sixth grade and learning the stuff for the first time it is important to pay attention. I didn't really need to pay attention this time around so that back seat suited me just fine. It was interesting because no one questions when you get better at math since it is a course that has a definite right or wrong answer. If you start only filling in right answers they assume that you understand everything now and that you were just confused before. It was nice to not worry about how much I excelled at least in one course.
I opened my eyes with a start and looked around. I was a little confused as to where I was. And there was a belling ringing. Then I realized I had fallen asleep in class. I quickly got my stuff together and started to leave bu my teacher, Mr. Brick, called my name. I slowly walked over to him.
“Yes, Mr. Brick?” I asked try to suppress and after sleep yawn.
“I saw you sleeping in class today. Don't let it happen again or I am going to move you back to the front of the room.”
“Yes, I'm sorry Mr. Brick.”
“I know you've really started understanding the stuff in class, but that doesn't mean you can disrespect me or the other students in the class.”
“I wasn't trying to disrespect anyone.”
“Well try harder. Now get going.” Mr. Brick walked back to his desk. I hated being reprimanded, but I suppose I deserved it this time. It was another thing I had to get used to. Older people talked down to kids my age, as if we didn't know anything at all. And really when I was as old as these adults I know I talked down to kids. None the less I still didn't like it.
Classes were over for the day, I only had two after lunch. Essentially I had free time for thirty minutes and then I had to do some planned sporting activity with the rest of the boarding kids. It was never very good, but it beat the alternative of just going straight to study hall. The school had a pretty simple plan of keeping us busy all of the time with breaks no longer then 30 minutes. The idea was that if we were doing other stuff we couldn't get ourselves into trouble. Except on Wednesday when we were allowed to walk into town and buy stuff at the store. Soda or candy usually, maybe McDonald's, stuff that kept sixth graders happy.
Today was not a Wednesday. We all gathered together as they did role call for everyone that didn't need to go to study hall. There were about 30 of us, the boarding program wasn't very large. We all trudged out to the field next to the faculty parking lot. The great thing about this field though was that it wasn't actually level. The north end of the field was roughly seven degrees higher then the south end of the field. Now this isn't really noticeable difference so the school never fixed it. But it was great when you were playing soccer and the ball just started rolling on its own.
Out on the field we were told to split into two groups and that we were going to play kick ball. Crappy orange bases were arranged in the typical baseball diamond and they rolled out a red rubber ball. It felt funny to see all this stuff again. As an adult when I saw this stuff I got nostalgic, as it was, it was hard to be nostalgic. We all circled up and were told the importance of stretching.
The game itself was actually quite fun. I don't really know why there aren't really any adult leagues for kickball. It is a fun enough sport and you don't have to be terribly skilled to play. My young body wasn't terribly in shape for kickball, I had forgotten that as a child I was a fatty. I was breathing hard fairly early in the game with just running around a little bit. But really in kickball, like baseball, there isn't a lot of real movement so you can be pretty lazy if you know how. Just find a part of the field to cover that never gets kicked to. I played it fairly safe for the rest of the game, trying not to expose my weakness to physical exertion.
We all headed in, tired and ready to shower; however, we had 30 minutes until study hall. They were right about keeping us busy, we never had time to get into trouble. Well we did, just not as much as we probably would have. I head to my room and found Alan in discussion with Vinni.
“Hey guys, what's up?” I asked as I plopped down on my bed, still feeling winded from kickball.
“Oh nothing, hey I'll see you tomorrow Alan,” Vinni said and then head out.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Nothing, we were just discussing doing something this weekend.” Alan said. I knew Vinni was trouble. He had gotten kicked out of school for breaking into someone's house and getting high there in eighth grade. He wasn't the smartest kid and he wouldn't care about taking someone else down with him. I figured Alan probably was going to use Vinni to help him cheat.
“Really? Anyways we still on for studying tonight?” I asked trying to see if my predictions were correct.
“Um... yeah, we can do that. But later right?”
“Yeah, whatever. I'm going to shower. I'll see you at study hall,” I grabbed my towel and headed into the bathroom. I wasn't pleased because I guessed I was correct about Alan wanting to cheat with Vinni.
I got in the shower and let the water hit my body. It was cold, but I liked the shock. I found that the water cleared my head. It also let me think about what was happening. It occurred to me that it was possible that I might not be able to change the future as much as I thought I could. Perhaps I could only effect the outcome of my own life. No, that was ridiculous. Everything effects everything else. I was a big believer in the butterfly effect. But here was something that seemed to happen regardless of my interaction. Maybe not, maybe this was an alternative outcome and it still could have other outcomes. I didn't like the idea of it, but it was to early to really know how all this worked. Maybe tomorrow I'd wake up and I'd be back in future, or rather the present. God, I hope not.