First Day

Link: Dora, check it.

Guess what, everybody- I survived. I am totally and completely intact. My dentist even said that my tooth is totally fine, and Mom and I were overreacting. I just spelled overreacting wrong, but spell check caught it and fixed it.

I've been infected with the blushing disease, which is, to say the least, highly annoying. Mere days after I decided that I don't really like Mario as much as I did last year, I start turning beet red when talking with him, about him, or when Vicky endlessly teases me about him. To make matters worse, he's in two of my classes this year (health and science research), so he might even notice! AAAAAAAaAaaahhhhh! I'm so embarrassed, I'm just going to start blushing more. This blushing reflex is very, very annoying, and Julie tells me that absolutely nothing I do is going to make it go away, which is highly annoying.

All of my classes today were fine except for English. I was the first one in class, so I picked my seat and sat down. Unfortunately, both the seats next to me remained empty. I swear, guys, I don't bite and I don't cheat. Also, the class size was really small, and Ms. Seltzia even remarked on it. When I told her that Gretchen couldn't get in the class, she seemed really put out, and wanted to know, specifically, who wouldn't let her into the class. Gretch, if you're still interested in switching (and I don't know if you will be), talk to her. She might be willing to pull a bit of leverage to get you in. Failing that, continue to pester the guidance counselor for the remainder of the drop period. If anyone drops out, I'll tell you, and you can go to her armed with that bit of information. Just, if I have to spend all year there, I think I'll cry. It's oh so very lonely. I was in such a good mood all day, and then, after that, it was just gone, poof, just like that.

It was quite tragic.

Dreamboat

Aren't you all glad that my fascinatingly imaginative subconscious is acting up again? I had this one at four in the morning last night.

It was the last day of school. I was with Nyx, and she, for some reason, had to talk to one of her teachers, so I was walking with her. There was some point thing on her report card (it sounded like the middle school point system, kind of) and she had to go talk to one of her teachers. She had 128 out of a possible 130, and I remember wondering if I had done better than that, but, because she was older, she knew and I didn't. Also, I wanted to talk to Dr. Verona, my ASR teacher for next year, but I didn't know who he was.

Then, Avon and Vicky showed up. When Avon heard about Nyx's thing, she immediately started worrying that her points were also messed up, so went with her. Vicky came with me to the third floor. We went up the stairs that are near the Continuing Ed. office. As we neared the top, we could see all the science teachers walking in the other direction. The orchestra teacher, Mrs. Kilmer (the one I actually like) came up behind us and told us to go around somewhere. Vicky and I decided that we didn't really need to see the science teachers, so we left. Also, Vicky's hair had the texture it does when it's wet, but it had a glowing color worthy of a shampoo commercial.

We went down the stairs, and they morphed into ones that looked like the double flight that went from the 5th grade hallway to the cafeteria in the elementary school Nyx and I attended. They were very crowded. As we turned to go down the second flight, Mario, who had been coming up the stairs, caught my hand. Vicky was pulled down the stairs with the rest of the crowd, and Mario released me.

"Oh, hi, bye," I said. "Have a nice summer."

"You, too. I'll see you at SHP next year."

"Yes." I nodded, and Mario went in for a hug. I was a little bit surprised, but went along with it. When we hugged, his shirt changed from white to gray and he got a bit taller, so I couldn't see his face as well. After a suitably brief hug, I started to pull back, but his arms were still closed, so I closed mine again, and then he started to pull back, but my arms were closed, so he closed his again, and then I unsuccessfully tried to untangle myself one more time before just giving in and staying there. We both laughed.

"So," I said, jokingly. "When should I be letting go?"

His voice changed, becoming harsher. "Yesterday."

"Huh?" I was confused. He was all flirty, and now he wasn't, and, aside from that, we hadn't been hugging yesterday, so the comment didn't really make sense.

"Let go. Now." His voice was firm.

"Oh," I responded, a little bit hurt, and extricated myself from his arms. Dora then came up behind me.

"Tea!" she called.

"Dora!" I squealed, and we hugged. Mario and everybody else was gone.

"I'd stay and talk, but I have to catch my bus. Bye!" she said.

I stood there for a moment before remembering that I had to catch mine as well. I went to chase after her, but she had already vanished. I emerged from the cafeteria stairs into the entrance hall of Paperclip High School. Nyx and Avon were standing there. "Nyx!"

"What?"

"I have the most embarrassing story to tell you."

She laughed. I looked out for my bus, but they'd all left. I had missed my bus.

Then I woke up. I felt more distressed when I woke than I felt the time I woke up in the middle of explaining to Peter's mother that Peter was dead.

Interpretations?

Forgetfulness and Remembrance

I completely forgot to post yesterday, and I'm very sorry for that. I'll do my best to be more consistent in the future.

Yesterday, I went to Nyx's house with Dora. We mostly just hung out for a very long time. I borrowed three of Nyx's sister's books (Dream Stone, Petals on the River, and The Elusive Flame, all of them utterly ridiculous romance novels). I even went swimming- kind of.

When we got out to the beach in front of Nyx's house, Nyx ran right out into the water, Dora went in up to her waist, and I waded in almost to my knees before deciding that it was, really, far too cold and gross for this sort of thing and got back out. Dora soon joined me, but Nyx had already made it out to the raft and untied her boat. She paddled it over to us.

"How about I ferry you out?" she asked.

"No way," I responded. "You'll tip me in!"

"No, I won't."

"Will too."

"I didn't even have the idea until you suggested it."

"Hmph," I said. Dora had already climbed onto the little Laser. "Fine. But no tipping."

"Fine."

I climbed into the boat and Nyx pulled it over to the raft. Then she climbed onto the raft and then onto the boat. The whole thing tipped with the addition of her weight. I squeaked and quickly moved to balance it out. Nyx lay down on the front of the boat and paddled like it was a surfboard. When we came next to a buoy, Nyx climbed in and scrambled towards the side of the little sitting place.

The boat tipped dangerously. "Nyx!" I said loudly, moving to the side as a balance again. Dora even squeaked a little bit. "Don't do that! We might fall in."

"Hmmm," said Nyx. "I have a plan. Tea, hook your feet under that strap and lean all the way out of the boat."

"No way!" I said.

Dora laughed, and Nyx leaned out anyways. The boat tilted sideways, but didn't fall over, fortunately. Nyx eventually came back in, and we made it to the raft without further incidence.

We sat there for a little while, just talking, when I realized that it was starting to tilt into the water. I laughed as a memory of last summer came back to me.

"What?" asked Nyx.

"Last summer, in New Hampshire," I began, "we met another family that was staying nearby. They had a guy my age and a couple of younger girls, and a raft in front of their house that we'd play on."

"Was he cute?" Dora, of course.

"Yeah. Bit short, but very cute." I smiled, a little bit dreamily. "We'd basically hang out on the raft a lot. We played king of the raft, which pretty much involves wrestling everyone else off."

"Wrestling is fun," said Nyx.

"And, one time, we got my Dad to come on, and everyone stood on one corner and the whole thing just tipped right in and we all fell off. It was fun."

"Sounds like it."

"Yeah. Anyways, the raft tipping reminded me of it."

Ah, remembrance. I'm really beginning to look forward to vacation.

Tripping Tea Strikes Again

This morning, before my Spanish final, I was walking up the stairs. My foot caught on the edge, and I tripped forward. I looked back, hoping nobody had noticed, and that my skirt hadn't flown up. The guy behind me said, "Don't worry, nobody saw."

Except him....

In other news, the waiter at the restaurant we went to for dinner looked eerily like Lysander, only different, and with a possibly fake Italian accent, and no glasses. It was utterly bizarre.

Also, we had a pretty awesome impromptu party at my house; Ginny, Tierra, Dora, Avon, Nyx, Vicky, and Gretchen all came over, although Nyx didn't get there until almost everyone else had left. Regardless, it was a fun time.

I hugged Opmin during my last day of U.S. History. I was like, "this year was awesome, can I hug you?" and she went "Okay!" so I did. Horribly exciting, no?

Also, I might as well share a story from U.S.

I was sitting in my quartergroup with Emma, Joanie and Charles. Emma was talking about going to college, and how she wanted to go to University of Florida but that, since her sister (who is currently training to be a sex therapist) hadn't gotten in, wouldn't either.

Joanie responded with, "Well, was it a target school, or no, because it makes a difference."

and Rachel immediately butted in.

"Don't say that!"

"Um..."

"It's rude and cruel."

"Look, Rachel, I said a target school, it wasn't anything interesting."

"I told you not to say that!"

At that point, Charles mostly just looked confused, and Peter and I were cracking up.

"I have no idea what word you're talking about."

"Retarded. You said retarded."

"She didn't say retarded, she said target," I said.

"No she didn't." She looked at Peter and Emma for agreement.

"She definitely did not say-"

"STOP SAYING THAT!" Opmin interrupted.

"I didn't say anything in the first place," grumbled Joanie.

Oh, Rachel. In the beginning of class, Michael pulled out a pair of large silver headphones and put them over his ears. "These are great," he said. "I can't here Rachel at all!"

My table, at least, was in hysterics.

Also, there are suspicions that the gatorade was spiked. Charles was drinking it, and he said, "Wow, this gatorade tastes funny."

"It's blue gatorade, what do you expect?"

"No, I mean, it doesn't taste normal. Don't drink it, okay?"

"I wasn't planning on it."

"I'm serious. It's spiked or something."

I gave him an incredulous look. "Whatever you say."

A few minutes later, Daniel turned around.

"Charles," he said. "I think the gatorade is spiked."

"I know, dude. Weird." He turned to me. "See, it's corroborated. Don't drink it."

"I already said I wasn't going to."

"Good."

Vampires and Zombies and Spaceships, oh my!

This is another dream, courtesy of Tea's twisted subconscious. Enjoy.

My sisters (Genie and Shelby) and Mario and Nyx and I started in this dark graveyard at night, using our magic powers to keep someone else from reaching the gravestone we are guarding. The graveyard itself was a cross between the one in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Goblet of Fire, so I suppose, in that context, these actions made sense.

Everyone else had normal magic powers, spell flinging and whatnot. I was a good vampire, and the vampires in this dream didn't drink blood; instead, when they were killed, they became a spirit that had to take over a dead body or a doll. Dead bodies could be possessed indefinitely, but dolls must be replaced after only a few days or hours, proportional to their size. So, when a spell was about to hit Shelby, I jumped in front of her, taking the hit. I dissolved, leaving behind a rotting corpse.

The others, unable to fight them off without me, went home. I followed them, trying to find a new body. I got back to my room and try to find a suitable replacement. I considered my Spring Pearl doll, but she was rather tiny and won't last for long, so I decided to use one of Genie's porcelain dolls instead. Even so, I would need a new corpse soon. While I was floating, I found my Spanish textbook and workbook, which had been missing.

I found Dad and Shelby on the front lawn of the house. There was a fairly large crowd assembled, angry about the vampires. I heard Shelby say something about Mario, and I panicked that she was telling everybody that I liked him, so I made Dad shut her up. However, I didn't want to tell an angry crowd that I was a vampire, so I went looking for Mario.

I needed to ask him to go back to the graveyard and find my a dead body, but by they time I found him, he was already in the mudroom, preparing to leave. Abruptly, I hugged him, because I was happy that he was going to find me a body, and because, in dreamworld, I was into him too. He was surprised for a second, but hugged me back. I gave him a look that attempted to communicate "I like you. Please don't die." He squeezed me and said, "I don't know," before letting go, although I don't know if he was referencing the liking or the dying.

I passed Dora on my way back to my bedroom. "I don't think I like these vampires," she informed me.

In my room, Nyx and my sisters were sitting around. I tried to tell Nyx about hugging Mario, but then I realized that my sisters were listening, and considering Shelby had been talking about it ten minutes before, I didn't want to give her more ammunition. Nyx told be that she hadn't slept for two days and needed a nap. I had been dead that morning, so sleep wasn't really that big of a deal, but I figured a nap couldn't hurt, so Nyx, Genie and I squeezed into my teeny tiny bed and went to sleep. Shelby was supposed to keep watch, but she soon dozed off as well.

That was when the villain chose to strike. I woke up to see Richard (the boy in Nyx's lab group with the twin cousins who harass Gretchen) standing in the doorway. He looked pretty much like Richard always does, only something about him appeared vaguely evil. I rushed towards him, trying to fight min off, but he glided right past me. I tried to take over his mind (which vampires can do to each other) but I'd never been very good at.

"Look at her, trying to attack me. Ha!" he said, and pushed back, making me into his automaton. He then made me stand still as he hit me with a spell, killing me again. The porcelain doll fell to the closet floor, cracked and dirtied, as my spirit dissipated.

Dad then came in, and Richard informed him that they will be spared and I returned if they'll do Richard a few small favors. Dad agreed, on the condition that he got me back right away, and Richard informs me that there are a few dead bodies out on the front lawn for exactly that purpose.

Richard wanted us to steal three electrophorysis trays from my church. When we got there, they were in the middle of Bridging ceremony, but it was the weirdest church event I'd ever seen. A girl wearing a buttload of makeup was standing in the front, wiping it off, layer by layer, using little round handiwipes. We decided to get the trays by pretending we were supposed to be fixing them, so my sisters and I walked up to the front and took them.

However, just as I was walking back, the woman holding the handiwipes intercepted me. "Hold these," she said, and I passed the machine to Genie and accepted the wipes. I went to put them between my knees for better holding purposes, only to realize abruptly that I was naked, and I then proceeded to pass out.

The next thing I knew, I was clothed and on a spaceship with a tall, thirty-something black guy wearing what was, for all intents and purposes, Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

"We have to complete a quest," he told me.

"What?"

"A quest to increase your powers. The quest of the moonfrogs."

"I was thoroughly confused, but there wasn't really much I could do about it. We came to the moon, which was shaped like one of Mars's moons, but with a hole drilled through the middle. On the outside, there were winds and floating moondust, and I became worried that they'd put me out there. Even if I couldn't die, it looked rather cold.

Instead, we flew inside the hole. We passed through a weird field, and, suddenly, I was in a store with Dad, Genie, and Shelby. We had to put the correct items into our cart in the correct order, without running out of time. I got into a fight with Genie over whether to pick cheerios or rice krispies, and then I woke up.

Anyone who can interpret this wins a gold star.

Star Trek

Which I am seeing with Nyx, Vicky, Dora, Tierra, and possibly Ginny as well. We'll see. I am looking forward to it immensely. Hopefully I can stop hacking for long enough to actually watch a movie. Stupid mild allergies.

I was going to add another English essay, but I discovered that the next one on my hit list had already been added here. Early March seems so ridiculously far away. I didn't even have readers then. How utterly absurd.

Ah, well. Have a couple of cartoons from xkcd.com to cheer you up.