Grief is

Crying, then talking, then gazing into space occasionally when the memory comes back. Then, when the slightest joke is told, a suggestion that Kathrya's former beau (oh, Tybalt) is actually a robot, laughing almost hysterically for ten times as long as the joke merits, because it feels so good to finally laugh.

A Happy End of Calculus Dance

Calculus B.C. is over, thank goodness. Unfortunately, I can't discuss the questions, as I signed an affidavit (I actually don't think that it is an affidavit, it's just that I'm rather fond of that word. Too bad I don't know what it means) that I wouldn't.

The nice part about calc is that I got to leave school early after the test was finished. Naturally, The Diner was the chosen destination. Nyx and I left school and headed out. I got out first, and, seeing a car approaching from the direction of the typically closed side entrance, elected to take the shorter exit route. Just as I was pulling in, a freckled arm emerged from the window of the small car and began to make an odd sort of wave.

The car drew level with me and Boris called out "Go back. It's closed!"

He then drove away. I made a twelve point turn (as Nyx described it "I was going to go that way, but Tea's truck was sideways.") and exited by the more accepted route, where the security guard was, per usual, not bothering to check anybody's school-leaving-identification.

Excited. Exited. Two words that are spelled far too much alike. Regardless, I got to the diner without missing the turn (which Sergio, reportedly, did). I waited stood outside of the diner with Boris until Nyx showed up, then spent the time getting a table trying to explain to the hostess how I didn't know how many people were in my party.

By the time we hit the tables, we were seven strong. Upon discovering that only six fit in the booth we had, four people went to the second table (Sergio was, I believe, following Gnatta, which he can't seem to bring himself to stop doing. Then again, I still do the same to Mario, so I can't talk). Tybalt stayed with Nyx and I despite an announcement that "there was nobody at this table."

Apparently Nyx and I aren't people. Thanks, Tybalt. Thanks a lot.

Anyways, Mario and Dino soon arrived, Dino's speech replete with complaints about Mario's driving, to which Mario's response was "at least I drive better than Irving." Honestly, the amount he talks about him, its no wonder we joke about their nocturnal activities.

Nyx and I spent at least some portion of the lunch laughing at the way Mario wriggled his hands about (look! I'm flexing my finger muscles!) while speaking. Tybalt also finally formulated the perfect Dino-directed response for "Where's Kathrya?" which is one of his favorite questions. "Where's Lauretta?" seems to be functioning quite well.

Petty People

Dino is mad at me because I didn't offer to step down before New Englands.

I am mad at me because I didn't believe that Dino was a good enough person to let me keep my New Englands spot. I am also mad at Dino because he is refusing to speak to me.

Dino has now decided that he wants to go to prom with Lauretta (Vicky's buddy from U.S. last year, I believe). I have no idea if he has yet asked her. However, due to the fact that Dino is lacking in friends (I'm mad at him. I'm going to be mean) he can't get a prom group. So, he wants to join the one meeting at my house. However, he unfortunately can't bring himself to ask to join, so he had Tybalt ask me.

I told Tybalt that he could join if Dino would talk to me. Then I felt bad, because I would still like to be friends with Dino, and the only way we're getting out of this is if I don't get mad at him. So, I said that I wasn't going to be petty, so he could join regardless, although if Dino manages to get through it without speaking to me, I will be rather impressed with his dedication.

I will, however, still be angry. I mean, honestly, even Livny will smile back at me, and I can't remember the last time I talked to him.

So, Dino, please stop being a jerk. It is times like this when I am reminded why I didn't trust you in the first place.

Your Darling Tea...

...is something of a klutz. For instance, this very morning, I was walking down the hall with Gretchen, with Tybalt nearby. I tried to take off my glasses and eat crackers at the same time. I got out the glasses case while holding the open cracker container between my teeth.

"You sure you got that, Tea? Want me to hold anything?" asked Gretchen.

"Ahm good," I said around the plastic. I then sniffled once, my teeth shifted, and the entire container of crackers tipped over.

"Tea! I told you it would happen!"

"I'm always forgetting about how clumsy I am."

"You probably should have taken her up on that one," Tybalt advised.

"So I've noticed."

So much for a delicious snack.

The Myriad of Uses for a Free Period

I spent the entire period today sitting in the math/science learning center talking to Mario. Well, first I was talking to Mr. Booth, asking him to sign my National Honors Society application. So then we had a brief discussion on that application, and then we started talking math team.

Mario at least had the decency to act a bit surprised that I didn't make states. Then we got another motivational Beat Treeburg! speech from Mr. Booth about wanting to watch them squirm. Honestly, I think competitiveness should be more about being the best than watching the losers squirm, but Mr. Booth has a different opinion, I guess. Eventually, the Learning Center woman shushed the three of us and Mario and I returned to our work. Well, I checked my email, and he did something to the essay he was writing for Economics.

At some point, he turned around to talk to Bryant, who was taking a test on the other side of the room. "What would you say about this?" he asked.

Bryant ignored him, so Mario began commentating. "Oh, he's rubbing the ear, this must be a good problem."

This made Bryant look up. "It's decent. Not really that interesting." He went back to his test.

"Ooh, he's got the chin going now."

"Look at that pen twitch," I added.

"That," said Mario, "is a significant pen twitch."

"Is testing that much better with commentary?"

"I'd say so. Oh, look, he's moving back to the ear."

Bryant grinned but didn't look up.

"He's pretty skilled, to be able to test through that sort of distraction," I said.

"Yeah. Too bad he can't get a prom date."

"He has a prom date."

"No. Really?" He turned back around. "Bryant, you have a prom date?"

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

"It's Nancy. Stop distracting him," I said.

"Nancy? Seriously? Bryant, you getting Tybalt's sloppy seconds? You double tap her or something?"

This Bryant ignored completely.

"What?" I said.

"Tybalt went with her to Counties, right?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure that's precisely the language I would use, though."

He shrugged, and we both went and worked a bit more.

A later conversation:

"Oh, was it you who told Ms. Seltzia- oh, what was it...."

"The nipple thing?"

"No, she told us that was you."

"Damn, she told you?"

"Yeah. Then she wanted to know where you were that period- period 8- and I actually knew, which was kind of weird."

"Weird?"

"Knowing that many of your classes."

"Well, I haven't got very many, so it's not like it's difficult."

"True."

"You know, I never bothered to learn Scarlett's second semester schedule."

"Are you still...?"

He shrugged. "Well, I mean, I've developed this new theory."

"What's that?"

"I'm trying to figure out how to say it. It's like, the less invested I get, the better the payout. Like, when you try too hard, it doesn't work."

"A bit depressing." Why does that sound like a hint?

"Nah, I mean, once you change your attitude a bit, what really ends up happening is that you're putting in less effort for greater returns."

I shrugged, and we both went back to our respective work, which, by now, had evolved to him crafting a flow chart on Inspiration and saying "bam" every time he changed the shape of an object, and me flipping through xkcd cartoons, looking for good visuals for English.

Math Class (the jokes on who?)

Today, I walked into calculus late.

This is not surprising, as I frequently walk into class late. On this particular occasion, I was late because I had to print out my note packets for class. I printed a spare for Nyx, ended up giving it to Jeremy, and then none of us needed them in the first place because the seniors were getting a class picture taken, so Mrs. James had elected to spend the entire class period communicating with the juniors.

As I was saying, I got to class, and, as I'm sitting down, I notice Mario and his freshly-cut hair (I told him last week that it looked good. I'm not certain that it does, but don't tell him I said so) and then sit in my normal seat, next to Gretchen.

"Guess who's he-re" said Nyx.

"I already noticed."

"Really?" asked Gretchen.

"Are you that surprised?"

I got a small laugh for that one.

I'm going to spare you a play-by-play of the entire class period and give a few highlights instead.

Mario then spent roughly fifteen minutes repeatedly taking the square roots of random numbers just to prove he could. He then tried to teach the rest of us how to do so, although I blatantly ignored his explanation and Boris claimed it was unnecessary (Boris was wrong).

At one point, Bryant was fiddling with something on his ipod. I think this is primarily because prolonged separation from technological devices is damaging to his health. Mrs. James started ribbing him a bit.

"Bryant how did you get on that site in school?"

"Huh?"

"He must have used a proxy. That's what they're called, proxies, websites that let you access other-" said Boris.

"I can show you what I was on if you want."

"I really don't think she needs to see that," advised Jeremy.

"Oh, I wouldn't wouldn't worry about it," said Mario. "He can't really get into it without the sound."

Gretchen and I nearly died. As Tybalt said later, "I laughed so hard that I went lightheaded."

"What time do you think the seniors are getting back?" asked Mrs. James.

"Never."

"Yeah, definitely never."

"But I was going to teach!"

"What's the next chapter on, polar or something, right?" said Sergio.

"Yes, polar," answered Bryant.

"I remember polar," said Mario.

"Which one is that?"

"The circular graphs, with the Rs and thetas."

"Oh, THOSE. The butt graphs," said Jeremy.

"They don't look like butts," said Mrs. James.

"Oh, yes they do." Jeremy went to the board and drew a graph that looked rather like this, but turned sideways. "There's the right cheek." He wrote RC on that side. "The left cheek," he said, writing LC, "and I think we all know what that one is."

"I still don't think it looks like a butt," said Mrs. James.

"No, you're drawing the wrong graph," said Mario, jumping up from the seat he'd stolen from the invisible person who sits there ordinarily and taking Jeremy's marker. He drew something rather like this, but turned sideways, and with the upward facing petal elongated and the other two squished up so that it looked like certain male anatomy.

"Okay, that does not look like that at all!" exclaimed Mrs. James. "It is a three petaled rose, not a, a, a-"

"Penis?" somebody filled in.

"It's a thee petaled rose! And the petals are all the same size, like this-" she redrew it"-not like that AT ALL!"

I must say, I adore her for being more upset about the mathematical wrong than the impropriety.

After School Unadventurous Adventures

I left Spanish this afternoon with Gretchen and Avon, and we were the nearly last, if not the very last, people to leave. Avon went down the first staircase to catch her bus, and Gretchen and I sped up, soon overtaking Dino and Sonny, who, while moving at a reasonable rate, couldn't match what Richard calls Gretchie's ridiculously fast pace. We then proceeded to talk about Dino, but, despite his relative proximity, he didn't notice.

Then Gretchen ended up wrapped in some conversation with Sonny, Dino forged on ahead, and I followed far enough behind him that it didn't seem worth the effort to chase after him just to awkwardly disengage upon reaching the bathroom.

By the time I extracted my wallet from my backpack and journeyed downstairs in search of a bake sale, the lobby seemed almost deserted, and there was, alas, no bake sale. I located Nyx by means of her floral shirt (which is very pretty, by the way) and announced myself to her, Kathrya, and Tybalt by means of a request for food.

I was very disappointed to discover that Tawny's baklava, which had previously been in the locker she shares with Nyx, had been removed. I pulled out some pretzels, which Kathrya and Tybalt agreed didn't taste like "real pretzels," and Nyx left for the dodgeball game, and the three of us stood somewhat oddly in the lobby for a few minutes. Brian came by asking for members of his team, and a bit later, in a matching tee, Rodney walked past.

Rodney can be identified by the fact that, in my English class today, Ms. Seltzia mentioned tessellations. I said that they were my absolute favorite, and Rodney was, sadly enough, the only person in class who got the joke.

Kathrya, Tybalt and I eventually started walking towards the cars, and we saw Bryant walking towards us, and then we all turned around and walked out to the parking lot.

The only bit of the conversation I can remember is that something about Dino came up, and Bryant said, somewhat out of nowhere, that Dino has a really annoying voice. I then mentioned something about being really confused when he started laughing at me in the language lab until I realized that the audio system was making chipmunk voice, and there was a fair amount of me trying to figure out where to walk, because I didn't like being way out on the edge, because it's hard to talk across four people, but it felt sort of weird to drop back, so I think there ended up being a fair amount of weaving about, but I suppose it worked.

When we reached the vehicles, Bryant requested his ride to unstickered parking, and Kathrya and I both volunteered.

"You want to ride in the truck?" I asked. "It's pretty fun."

"It is," said Kathrya, "extremely cool."

Bryant consented, so we waved goodbye to the lovebirds (yes, I am going to call them that). I stood on that random black bar on the underside of the truck that is probably not random at all and meant for standing on to throw stuff in the back, and threw my backpack and lunch into the bed of the truck. Bryant seemed apprehensive.

"Do I need to put mine back there?"

"Just hang onto it."

"What do you do when it rains?"

"I don't. I mean, I haven't had a passenger when it was raining. Actually, wait, no, I drove Ginny home. She just held everything. It's a bit crowded, though."

He nodded, and I put in the key and rolled down the windows. As soon as power reached the stereo, Lady Gaga and Beyonce's "Telephone" started blaring at a somewhat inhuman volume. I turned it down a bit and pulled out of the parking spot.

"You mess with it," I said.

"This is fine."

"I hate this song."

He did something to the music controls that I didn't see because I was driving. Britney started singing "and I'm caught in between, counting 1, 2, 3-"

"Oh, that's loads better," I said.

He laughed and did some different button pushing and the music changed again, to something instrumental, familiar, and yet somehow out of reach.

"Should I go right up here?"

"It doesn't matter."

"I'll go straight then."

I turned out of Paperclip, still trying to figure out what the song was. "It's Lady Gaga, singing, well, something, I just...."

"Bad Romance."

"Ah, yes. I probably ought to have known that."

I wasn't looking at him, but I could practically feel his shrug.

From there, we somehow managed to discuss both what house the blueprint on the dashboard was for (he read off my address, so I assumed it was my house, but it turns out that he actually read the builder's address label, and it was for a different project) and, after I took a turn a little bit too quickly, whether I was allowed to have passengers in the car.

I said that as long as he could pretend to be my twelve-year-old sister, we'd be fine, but I wasn't sure he could pull it off, and, oh, wait, my sister is actually thirteen, I totally know how old my siblings are.

I think I got a laugh for that one.

And then there was something about parallel parking, and then we were at his car, parked as crookedly as predicted, and he was gone, and I was coming to an intersection I wasn't accustomed to, trying to determine the best possible route to a pastry.

Here I Am, Blatantly Ripping Off Ginny's Stuff

My Six:

1-Mario

2-Nyx

3-Me

4-Gretchen

5-Tybalt

6-Irving (I think, for variety's sake, Bryant and Dino, my next to tags, shouldn't be repeated)

All 6 people move into the same house…

Who calls a bedroom first?
Irving. He just would.

Who goes straight to the bathroom to check their make-up?
Mario. And he's not checking his makeup, he's switching places with a clone.

Which person goes to the kitchen first?
Nyx. That one's easy.

You find out that friend’s number 4 and 6 are in the shower together. Do you care? And what do you do?
I would make sure he hadn't drugged her. Then I would make sure he didn't get her knocked up.

Which person has to sleep in the attic?

Mario, because he fights with Irving about the bedrooms and loses.

One room is a pink baby room, wants that room?
Nobody wants it, and Tybalt ends up stuck with it.

Who puts up so many posters that you can’t see the wall?
Nyx, probably.

House Party…(cause we're really the partying sort...)

Who decided to throw a party?

Nyx? Maybe? Or Irving? Nyx would probably get more people to come.

Who hides in their room while it’s going on?
Gretchen.

Who ends up making/buying all the food?
Me and Nyx.

Who starts a giant game of truth or dare?
I can't imagine any of us successfully pulling that off.

You find friend number 2 making out with the person you like, what do you do?
I would ask her how her boyfriend is doing, and take her blood alcohol level.

The Police show up, and friend number 5 called them… are you mad?
Nope.

You go to your room to sleep thinking everyone was kicked out, but you find some people you don’t know in your bed, now what?
Crash Gretchen's bed, since I've been fighting with Nyx about the boy.

Parents… (The day after your crazy party the parents of you and your friends pay a visit)

Who is grounded first?
Gretchen.

Who’s parents congratulate them?
Mine, probably.

Who is forced to move out for a bit?
Irving, maybe?

Who’s parents don’t care?

I don't know the guy's parents, so it's hard to say.

Who blames it on everyone else?
I blame Irving, he blames Mario, Mario blames me, and we all have a fun blame-shame triangle.

Back at the house…

Friend number 1 borrowed your Pj’s without asking, is that ok?

It depends on if I have spares. Also, I would want pictures of this ridiculousness.

Friend number 4 is blasting music, do you join him/her or shut it off?

Shut it off. Blasting music bugs me.

You have an exam tomorrow and friends number 2, 4, and 6 are being very loud, what do you do?

Tell them to go farther away. Alternately, move myself farther away.

Friend number 1 is hogging the bathroom all morning…
because all 8 of him have to shave.

Its April fools and someone took all your clothes and hid them, you have school in an hour, what do you do?

Run around screaming until someone takes pity on me.

Friend number 5 lost his cell phone… again!

He is permanently attached to Kathrya, so this is unrealistic.

You bought a really cute shirt!! What do you do with it?
Show it to Nyx.

Friend number 2 bought a dog for the house without telling anyone…
I'll warn Gretchen.

If there was someone singing in the morning who would it most likely be?
Me, probably.

If someone was considered the dad and the mom of the house, who would it be?
Ooooh. I don't know. Irving would attempt it, being the oldest, but Tybalt would be better, but Mario would beat out Tybalt, and I'm not sure if Mario would try to beat out Irving, but we would all like Tybalt better anyways. And the Mum would probably be Nyx. Or me. But I tend to need more mothering than her. Although, Gretchen could mother, but she can be a bit harsher.

If you wanted candy really badly and all of the 5 in the house had some, who would you take it from?

I would ask each of them for one sixth of their candy, and they would share, and then all six of us would have the same amount of candy.

If two people were caught making out in a closet who would it be?
Nyx would bring her boyfriend to visit, and then they would be caught wrestling in the kitchen. Does that count? Maybe not. Mario and Irving, then, definitely.

If someone had to watch you brush your teeth (every) morning, who would it be?
That's a really, really weird question.

There was two bags of chips bought at the store, but 20 minutes later they are gone. Who ate them?
Nyx or me. Possibly Mario.

Who would hate being in the house the most ?
Irving, definitely. Mario would be so happy Irving was there that he wouldn't mind.

Someone took (brand spanking new) pair of socks that were never worn, who is the thief?
Someone swept all the dirt under the rug, who was it?

If there was arguments in the house, who would be the ones arguing?
Gretchen and I would argue about my room being a complete and utter mess.

Who would be the one missing their boyfriend/girlfriend that wasn’t in the house with them?
Nyx and Tybalt both.

You walked down stairs in the middle of the night for a glass of water, someone is dancing on the table in their Leopard Thong, who is the crazy one?

I just mentally ran through the checklist of people and I am now so disturbed by the mental image of Irving in a leopard thong that I can't think anymore.

A pillow fight broke through, who started it?
Nyx, definitely.

There's a marathon of your favorite tv show, what is it? and who would be watching it with you?
I would be watching America's Next Top Model. Mario would be watching and comparing Tyra's advice to the advice in Cosmo.

Someone made a fort in the laundry room, who was the kid?
Nyx, most definitely. You fort builder, you.

There’s a prankster in the house that put plastic on the two toilets in the house, who are the pranksters?
Mario did it, but only because Irving told him to.

The musics too loud, who turned it up?
Nyx, duh.

Theres a mouse crawling on the floor all over the house,
a)who is the first one to scream?
b)and who is the one to jump is someones arms?
c)Who would be the one to kill it?

I scream and jump before realizing that it is a mouse and not a spider and calming down. Tybalt would do the manly thing and take the damn mouse outside.

Someone's crying, who is it and what happened?
I'm crying with Nyx and Gretchen because The Notebook was on TV.

Who made pancakes in the morning and almost caught the house on fire?
Tybalt. Definitely Tybalt.

Who gets sick of each other the fastest in the house?
Tybalt is ready to murder us after a week.

Someones tanning on the roof who is it?

Mario.

Who is the tallest in the house?
Tybalt, maybe? I don't know. I'm not sure how tall Irving is.

Who is the shortest in the house?
Gretchen, definitely.

Who is the loudest?
I'm not sure, to be honest.

Who is the clown?
Well, judging by their reaction when I screamed at the mouse, me.

Who is the most respectful?

Tybalt.

Who is the one you go to talk to the most?

Tie between Gretchen and Nyx.

Who is the one that always comes up with stupid ideas?
Mario, definitely.

Who's in bed first?

Mario and Irving. Together.

If someone woke everyone up with pots and pans who would it be?
Nyx.

Who is always dancing?
Me, most likely, dancing as I try to keep from knocking myself over.

Someone has the same sweater as you, so you get mad at them and who is it?

Irving. That sweater thief! How dare he copy my preppy v-neck!

You split ice all over the kitchen floor, who would be the one to slip on it first?

Me, of course. What kind of silly question is that?

The Reconvening of the Three Continues into the Wee Hours

Kathrya: Blog the Dino thing, I wanna see. Tomorrow, though.

Tea: Oh, okay. I don't have it though.

Gretchen: Why don't you have it.

Tea: It's on facebook. I don't have his gmail. Actually, he doesn't use gmail. He uses yahoo. Ew. Yahoo. What the fuck is he thinking.

Gretchen: Haha, google vs. yahoo, how cliche. Google always wins.

Tea: I was trying to explain to Mario that he should just route his emails through gmail because yahoo is crap, and Mario was trying to explain the same thing to Helga while I was explaining it to him, so he didn't really know what he was talking about, but he still wanted to sound like he knew what he was talking about. Oh, Mario.

Kathrya: Failure.

Tea: You arrogant bastard.

Gretchen: That you still like.

Tea: Why can't you have uglier hands. Sigh.

Gretchen: And arms remember.

Tea: He was wearing long sleeves.

Kathrya: hands??? really?

Tea: yes. Why the ???

Gretchen: it's kind of random.

Tea: it's a perfectly reasonable thing to like! I like his other parts as well. It's just, I see more of his hands, and he's always fiddling with things, like, turning a pencil over and over in his hand, or rubbing his thumb along the edge of his notebook repeatedly.

Gretchen: Vaccination has nice hands...

Kathrya: I can't say I've spent extensive time looking at Tybalt's hands.

Tea: Tybalts hands are alright, I guess. I dunno, not my type. I like Mario's hands better.

We Reconvene and A Somewhat Later Time

Gretchen: So...what's this I hear about Tybalt's eyebrows???

Tea: Do you want to hear the end of Kathrya and I talking? Because we just changed subjects again.

Gretchen: yes please.

Tea: If mine ever get to the point of bugging you, let me know. I always forget to fix them. Gretchen is back, by the way. Also, anyways, before Gretchen gets here,

Kathrya: mmhm

Tea: Mario alternates between "what am I thinking" and "I want to bone him," in the girl sense, because girls can't bone, obviously.

Kathrya: I love you. Cheat on Tybalt with me?

Tea: Oh, totally, I've already kissed two girls, I can handle another one.

Kathrya: hahaha, sorry, distracted by the luge boy who died.

Gretchen: Wait, I'm not sure I get it...your dream?

Tea: What dream? Oh, no Kathrya is Dream, cause that's what the nickname on the account is.

Gretchen: ohhh. Kathrya has kissed girls before?!?

Tea: No, that's me.

Gretchen: YOU HAVE?

Tea: Yeah. How did you not know this?

Gretchen: Well, I obviously did not know this.

Tea: Oh, well, uh, ninth grade, in a tent, in Amy's backyard, big slumber party.

Gretchen: ok...

Tea: well, Caroline wanted to know what it was like to kiss a girl, and I wanted to know what it was like to kiss anybody, and Karen didn't want to be left out.

Gretchen: wow.

Tea: it was just little kisses, not, like, making out or anything.

Kathrya: oh, no I know what you're talking about, don't worry.

Tea: I was still clarifying, though. But, yeah. Gretchen, how the hell did you not know that?

Gretchen: maybe I've blocked it out.

Kathrya: Probably. So innocent.

Gretchen: But it does ring a bell.

Tea: Yeah. It wasn't like, hugely memorable, although Caroline did end up feeling me up a few months later. It was kind of awkward.

Gretchen: ewwwww. I didn't need to know that.

Tea: Haha, sorry, just clearing the air and all that.

Gretchen: it's okay.

Tea: Now I don't have to worry about telling you later.

Kathrya: haha, that would be awkward.

Gretchen: Although when would that ever come up again. Oh, hey Tea, I was wondering, have you kissed a girl before?

Tea: Well, if we ever talked about kissing or something. I dunno. It's weird. Like, I don't know whether to count it as a first kiss. Because, you know it wasn't, really, but it was, technically.

Gretchen: ok, sure.

Tea: Is Kathrya even here?

Gretchen: Kathryaaaaaaaaa

Kathrya: I am, I was just trying to find pics.

Tea: Of my and Caroline. They're hottttttt.

Kathrya: Tea, you're always hot.

Tea: I know. It's the perfectly sculpted eyebrows.

Kathrya: Agreed. It totally is.

Tea: Mom wants to take me to get them waxed, actually.

Kathrya: I pluck mine. I've been meaning to do so for a few weeks. I suppose I should for tomorrow.

Tea: Kat. You're blonde. It doesn't matter. Also, Tybalt's are way worse. He's not going to care. He's going to spend the whole time going "omg, date, what am I supposed to do, it's Kathrya, ahhh" etc.

Gretchen and Tea add Kathrya to the Conversation cont.

Tea: "odd really like Kad"

Gretchen: Good boy. He can spell. Sort of.

Kathrya: Not at all, he fails at spelling, he will fail the English part of the SATs

Gretchen: He took the ACT.

Tea: oddked kar to prom?

Gretchen: What are you responding with?

Tea: "girlfriend" he said. I said "Kathrya and Gretchen are making fun of your spelling." Now he's mad at me for showing you our conversation.

Kathrya: Oh, lordy.

Tea: How many details am I allowed to share. Probably none right?

Kathrya: Pretty much.

Tea: I told him that he can get it from Tybalt, and it's a girlfriend, and if he says anything else, I'm telling him that I'm going to talk about my period until he shuts up.

Kathrya: YES.

Tea: Genie wants to know how many Apolo Ohnos Tybalt could lift. Also, have you seen She's the Man? Because that is the BEST MOVIE EVER and there's a scene where Olivia goes into the gym, and Duke is weight lifting, and she's like "how many of me could you lift?" and he's like uh, uh, tries to count on his fingers and then slams his head into the machine. I LOVE THAT MOVIE.

Gretchen and Tea add Kathrya to the Conversation

Gretchen: OMG, OMG, OMG.

Tea: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Kathrya: hahahaaa

Gretchen: aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tea: AAAAH

Gretchen: AAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Kathrya: good god you two hahaa. It's not that big of a deal :)

Gretchen: YES IT IS!!!!!!!!!!

Kathrya: hahaa. It's just a first datee relax.

Gretchen: did he ask you out? What movie are you seeing? Are you excited? omg.

Tea: AAAAAH. I NEED DETAILS.

Kathrya: nah, we're watching movies at his plate, which was kind of the general plan, as Tea can say.

Gretchen: oh

Tea: TYBALT HAS A PLATE. OMG.

Gretchen: haha

Kathrya: Plate? What?

Gretchen: place*

Tea: You said plate. Got it. Wait. What were the precise circumstances?

Gretchen: Yes, do tell.

Kathrya: Okay, okay anyways we were going to watch movies, and then Ali texted me asking what chocolate I liked and then Tybalt texted me telling me he bought it, and then she told me he was going to ask me out tomorrow and we had a conversation which I think all got relayed to Tybalt, because eventually he just cut out the middle man, so no one said it straight out but now it's like a date. Does this make sense?

Tea: Dino is yelling at me for not telling him why I'm leaving, by the way.

Gretchen: haha.

Tea: Anyways, YAY KATHRYA!

Gretchen: Congrates :)

Kathrya: haha thanks.

Gretchen: that's so cute!! ahhhhh. This is more exciting than the Olympics.

Tea: AAAAAAH I KNOW!

Kathrya: hahaa

Tea: Gretchen and I have been going OMG for like EVER

Kathrya: really gus??

Tea: yes!

Gretchen: YES

Kathrya: hahaa. Well, I'm glad I can entertain you guys.

Tea: I'm going to need a big report afterwards. And also, Dino is still yelling at me.

Gretchen: Haha.

Kathrya: tell him to go away.

Gretchen: second. By thew way, do you (Kathrya) mind if we bug Tybalt when he signs onto fb.

Kathrya: uhmmmm yes. Feel free to do so after tomorrow though.

Tea: Okay.

Gretchen: ok

Kathrya: I feel like it's not official enough. I don't know, I'm fairly confused, cause he didn't say it straight out, but it like, is, so whatever.

Gretchen: When it's on facebook, it's official.

Tea: Don't put it on facebook, that's awkward.

Gretchen: I guess...not that I would know.

Kathrya: Well, it's just one date. We'll see. I sound like Avon.

Tea: Dino is now threatening to remove friendship. I wasn't aware we were friends.

Gretchen: Just tell him you're going to help your sister with something, or just tell him you have to go. The end.

Tea: But we're getting into a really good fight. It's fun? and BACK TO KATHRYA. AAAAHHH OMG OMG OMG OMG cough.

Gretchen: OMG OMG OMG OMG

Kathrya: I'll take it this means you approve?

TEa: YES DUHHHHHH.

Kathrya: hahaaa

Gretchen: Kath, you have no idea, Tea and I have been FREAKING OUT.

Kathrya: it's okay I was freaking out earlier. It went from OMGGGGGGGGG YAY to OHNOESWAH to COMMITTMENT PHOBE TIME to YAY. :)

Gretchen: Stay at Yay :)

Kathrya: I plan to.

Tea: Be married to someone else on fb, and then don't worry about it, because if it's not on fb...

Kathrya: hahaaaaa if it's not on fb then I have privacy.

Gretchen: Kathrya, will you marry me?

Tea: I PROPOSED FIRST. I DID. WITH MY SHIRT.

Gretchen: WHAT!?!?

TEA: SO THERE.

Kathrya: with your shirt.

Tea: HA. HA. HA.

Kathrya: SO TRUE

Gretchen: MINE WAS SO MUCH MORE OFFICIAL

Tea: MINE WAS FIRST

Gretchen: MINE WAS BETTER

Tea:AND WE LIVE IN A FOURTH DIMENTIONAL WORLD

Gretchen: ?

Tea: WHERE TIME FOLLOWS A MOSTLY LINEAR PATH AND WE CANNOT GO BACKWARDS BECAUSE WE ARE NOT FIFTH DIMENSIONAL BEINGS. BOOYAH!

Gretchen hey, does facebook let you marry more than one person?

Tea: polygamy.

Kathrya: No, it doesn't, stupid. I wish it did. But anyway, I just took my relationship status of facebook. I think that just solves a lot of problems.

Tea: I agree. Also, Dino is still yelling at me.

Gretchen: ABOUT WHAT??

Tea: WHAY DO YOU THINK

Gretchen: AMC? beach coverups?

Tea: I told him I was leaving, and he said why, I said can't tell, he says TELL ME, I say no, etc., for like ten minutes.

Gretchen: I'll tell him you're talking to me, and I'm hogging you.

Tea: NO. Then he'll think it's about you and Tybalt. Sorry.

Gretchen: Then suffer. WHAT!?!?! Did you mention Tybalt?!?!??!?!

Kathrya: what??

Tea: he says it's that KATHRYA HAS A CRUSH ON TYBALT. He came up with it by himself.

Gretchen: OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tea: What the hell am I supposed to say.

Kathrya: ommmmmmmmmg WHY IS HE TALKING ABOUT ITTTTTT

Tea: I don't fucking know.

Gretchen: DON'T SWEAR. just log out...

Tea: Then he'll think it's true.

Kathrya: just tell him it's none of his business and log out.

Gretchen: woah, I said log out first. Credit it to me.

Kathrya: Also, why do I feel like EVERYONE knew he liked me before I did.

Gretchen: :P

Tea: Oh, shit. I swore at him. Now he says Tybalt likes Kathrya.

Gretchen: Well, he's not wrong.

Kathrya: This is true.

Gretchen: Kathrya is very likable.

Tea: He blatantly just told me that Tybalt likes Kathrya, by the way, so he's clearly a crappy confidant, and I should have told him this sooner, because then you would have found out sooner.

Kathrya: Well, it's cuter this way. I like the Valentine's Day theme.

Gretchen: What's he saying now.

Tea: WHAT'S THE SECRET TEA? ROHO. ROJO. BASTARDO.

Gretchen: HAHAHA.

Tea: I responded with: TALK TO TYBALT. ROJA. BASTARDA. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Gretchen: Presuming he understood that much spanish.

Tea: We've devolved into all caps. I should probably just log out, but I'm enjoying myself way too much.

Kathrya: This is amusing. I vote stay put and keep us updated.

Tea: I think he's giving up. I need to give him something though. He's starting to stop responding.

Kathrya: Something what?

Tea: Am I allowed to end with him finding out or not? Because otherwise this is just cruel.

Gretchen: Well, he basically got it.

Tea: I just dropped a massive hint and he stopped responding.

Gretchen: My dad is playing dramatic classical music in his room and I can hear is and it totally fits!!!!!!!!

Kathrya: I like dramatic classical music.

Gretchen: It's Beethoven's fifth symphony. duh duh duh DUH.

Chat with Gretchen

Gretchen: hello

Tea: hey. so. OMG.

Gretchen: I KNOW OMG!!!!!!!!!!

Tea: AAAH. also, packing.

Gretchen: oohhh, have fun in mexico!!

Tea: thanks. I'm trying to make Kathrya log into gchat also. OMG, OMG.

Gretchen: haha

Tea: AAAAAHHHHH

Gretchen: OMG, WHAT? WHY ARE WE STILL SCREAMING?

Tea: still Kathrya and Tybalt.

Gretchen: oh, okay. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Tea: BECAUSE IT'S EXCITING

Gretchen: !!!!!!!!!! I AGREE. I yell in my head when it's caps

Tea: me too.

Gretchen: haha, do you think Tybalt thinks that Kathrya told us? Do you think he's avoiding

facebook?

Tea: omg. Dino is talking to me on fb right now.

Gretchen: about?

Tea: he just said question.

Gretchen: umm

Tea: I'm resisting the all caps urge.

Gretchen: with Dino?

Tea: I CAN'T STOP. AAAAAHHHHH

Gretchen: haha. ME TOO. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tea: AAAAAHHHH

Gretchen:GAH. WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?!?! What's Dino saying now? have fun in mexico?

Tea: he's asking if I'm going to The Challenge/taking the AMC

Gretchen: ohh. So I take it guys don't talk about going on dates? or at least Tybalt doesn't tell

Dino?

Tea: I don't know. Maybe not yet.

Gretchen: Are you going to The Challenge?

Tea: no, I'm taking the AMC.

Gretchen: is it the same day?

Tea: yeah :(

Gretchen: ohh. Is he going?

Tea: I'm working on Kathrya, she's almost in gchat!

Gretchen:? How is she almost in gchat??

Tea: I'm working on her. "I don't know which buttons to push!?"

Gretchen: haha. Does she have gmail? When she figures it out, make a group chat. Please.

Tea: Also, I'm like this close to telling Dino to go bug Tybalt.

Gretchen: HAHA

Tea: thisclose

Gretchen: are they good friends?

Tea: I dunno

Gretchen: like would they talk about that kind of stuff?

Tea: I'm not sure if Tybalt is one of Dino's friends that doesn't like Dino.

Gretchen: haha

Tea: it's kind of sad really

Gretchen: is Dino still talking about The Challenge? what's sad?

Tea: no, now he's not talking. We're on the AMC.

Gretchen: okay, but what was sad?

Tea: That Dino's friends don't like him.

Gretchen: aww. Are you sure Tybalt doesn't like him.

Tea: Gretchen

Gretchen: Yes?

Tea: Add this email to the chat.

Gretchen: I can only invite current friends.

Tea: add it then!

Gretchen: I'm doing it.

Tea: GO

Gretchen: is that Kathrya's email.

Tea: it's my other email. Kathrya is on it right now. go go goooo

Gretchen: hold on

Tea: also, I just told Dino I have too many beach coverups, and he goes "I have the same

problem"

Gretchen: what beach coverups? What are they? I sent Kathrya an invite to chat. Tell her to

accept, then when she shows up in the contact list, I can make it a group chat.

Tea: They are dresses.

SAT Scores

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

I dreamt that I went online to get them, then woke up before I could see them.

This was at 5:40.

I tried to go back to sleep.

I had a sneezing attack

I couldn't go back to sleep.

I got up, blew my nose, and tried to call the snow line.

The phone was disconnected because we are avoiding the superintendent's early morning calls.

I go on the computer to check snow days.

I type "snow de" into google before remembering the SAT, and then replace it with "college confidential" because I'm tired, followed by SAT scores.

The page loads. I click SAT scores.

Critical Reading: 800

Mathematics: 740

Writing: 770 (multiple choice 750, essay 10)

I stare at in shock, trying to decide if it's higher than a 2200, since the total isn't posted. I realize that the average is above a 750, so it must be.

I get out my TI-89 to add the thee numbers. 2310. I start squealing and waving my arms about.

I restrain myself from running upstairs and showing my parents and climb back into bed.

I get back out of bed and check facebook. No one is online. I resist the urge to brag. I hear a noise and go upstairs, thinking my parents might be up.

I return downstairs without waking them.

I discover that we have a two-hour snow delay.

I check on line again to look for my score report, with the questions I got wrong on it.

I start beating myself up for getting those one or two math problems wrong. After all, ninety-seventh percentile isn't really that good.

Decide that it's really, really stupid to get mad over that, and hope that at least one of the Vaseline brothers didn't get an CR 800, since I'm certain they both aced math.

Write blog post.

Attempt to go back to sleep.

Explicit Conversations (PENIS!)

Gretchen, you may prefer not to read these.

I was sitting at a table in the library with Tybalt, Kathrya, Boris, and Bryant during my free today. Eccentrius came over, sat on the table, and began talking to Martin. I was listening a little to Tybalt and Kathrya, and Bryant was doing homework. Eccentrius leaned over to Boris and said, "hey, do you know Martin?

"Yeah, why?" responded Boris.

"Have you seen him?"

"I said I know him."

"No. Have you seen him."

Boris simply looked at him.

"Martin" said Eccentrius, in something between a stage whisper and his normal voice,

"has a big penis."

"What?"

"His dick is huge! Seriously."

"Why would you say something like that?"

"Because it's true!"

"Right, like you would know."

"Oh. I know."

"What, do you look at him in the locker room or something?"

"You don't?"

"Of course not!"

"Why not?"

"It's weird!"

At that point, I started cracking up and leaned over into Kathrya, interrupting her conversation with Tybalt. She joined my hysterical laughter for a moment before asking what was so funny.

"I'll tell you later," I wheezed.

A bit later, after Eccentrius had, much to Boris's relief, left, Kathrya said something about Mario and his man-crush on Irving and added that Tybalt had some support for that, leading him to launch into a story from his weekend:

So, on Saturday, we were all hanging out working on the challenge stuff, and Mario was on facebook, and, right before he x-ed out, Irving came over and wrote in his status is considering cock? but Mario didn't notice and closed the window anyways. Then the rest of us were cracking up, and he was like "What? What? What's funny?" and someone told him to check his facebook. He opened it up and, completely straight-faced, he read the message. He didn't react at all- he just clicked on it and replaced it with is sucking Irvings fat brown dick and closed the window. We were staring at him and said "Mario, you know people can see that, right?" and he was like, eh, whatever, they won't think it's me. Then, about ten minutes later, Irving gets a text from Melissa telling him he ought to look at Mario's status.

End of story.

The Search For the Perfect Pair

Today, in Science Research, I was sitting at a computer between Mario and Julie. Julie was doing science fair stuff. I didn't want to work, so I looked over at Mario's computer. On it was written the following:

Mario: The Boss

Owen: Mr. Reliable

Irving: The Answer

Bryant and Tybalt Vaseline: The Dynamic Duo

I snorted and he looked over at me.

"Sorry for staring over your shoulder, but, The Boss? Really?"

"It's for Mrs. Macdonald. I'm trying to persuade her to keep our team intact for Moody's."

I looked over the list critically. "Do you think Tybalt and Bryant ever get sick of being referred to as one unit?"

He shrugged. "I like the names, though."

"I don't know, 'The Boss' is a bit egoistic."

"Yeah, but look at Irving. The Answer isn't really modest."

"But you're the one writing it."

"I'll send it from a fake email address so she won't know who wrote it."

"I have a feeling she'll be able to guess."

"I wonder if I can use one I already have. I used to have one for Tom Smith, and I still get phone calls about it."

I gave him a confused look.

"Well, you know those free things on the internet? I made a separate email address for them, and I always said my name was Tom Smith."

"You gave them your phone number?" I was shocked.

Wallace, who was on Mario's other side, made a garbled noise that sounded vaguely like a laugh.

"I wanted the free stuff!"

"You're not supposed to give out your phone number!"

"It's not like they knew my name. Besides, I moved across town later, and now it doesn't matter."

I shook my head and returned to reading an article for anthropology. A few minutes later he turned back to me.

"You know, I think you might be right. Dynamic Duo is a bit unfair to Bryant and Tybalt, cause they both really are smart in their own right. I think I'll do Batman and Robin instead."

This after he asked Garrett whether shape-memory polymers could be used to make a bat-cape.

"Which is Batman and which is Robin?"

He rewrote the statement to say

Bryant and Tybalt Vaseline: Batman and Robin (In no particular order)

"It still makes it seem like only one of them is useful. And people are going to assume that Tybalt is Robin, which is kind of unfair."

"True. Anyone know any more even superhero teams?"

"Superman and Superwoman," suggested Wallace.

I started cracking up. Mario searched 'dynamic duos' in google and clicked the wikipedia page. I searched superhero teams and got a list on wikipedia.

"You know, I think Mrs. Macdonald is more likely to have heard of these," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"That page is about the Korean pop group Dynamic Duo."

"Oh. Oops." He went to the same page I was on. "X-men?"

"Mystique is a girl. And there's more than two."

"Fantastic four! I wish there were only four of us, that would have been perfect."

"What about academic duos?"

"Scientists work alone."

"Watson and Crick?"

"These must be real DNA geeks, if you're calling them Watson and Crick," interjected Wallace.

"Who, Tybalt and Bryant? I guess so. They aren't really bio people, though," I said.

"Not Watson and Crick. Newton and [weird German name]? Everyone thinks they worked together, but they actually didn't."

Wallace and I looked confused.

"Maybe not. Hey, Dr. Verona, do you know of any famous pairs? Superheroes, or scientists, or something?"

"Batman and Robin."

"Where they're of equal standing," said Mario.

"No power imbalance," I added.

"What about the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper?"

"Alpha-beta-gamma?" I laughed.

"Look it up!" said Dr. V.

Mario searched it, and this wikipedia page showed up.

Dr. V spent about five minutes explaining the various reasons why this paper was cool. I laughed a lot, and Mario may have smiled a bit, but not a heck of a lot. When Dr. Verona left, Mario returned to google and typed something about famous pairs. He got a page with a few more on it. The fourth one down: Kirk and Spock.

I started laughing. "That's perfect! Bryant even looks like Spock."

"I can't believe it took us this long to think of that. Dr. Verona, why didn't you suggest Kirk and Spock."

"They aren't super heroes, they aren't really even a duo."

"Doesn't matter," said Mario. "It's perfect."

Electrocution

is really, really fun. I know I've told all of you about it already, but, really, I want to record this for posterity, seeing as it was, you know, completely f**king awesome.

Yes, the two asterisks are necessary. Just as necessary as they were last week when somebody modified my science research paper to say some very rude things about my mother. Then again, they said f***e. I'm still not sure what the "e" is for.

So, today in physics, Mr. Mubble comes in with a giant metal ball on a big plexiglass stick ("Oh," said Kathrya, when I told her this. "Was it...big?"). "This," said Mubbs, "is a Van de Graaff generator."

Mr. Mubble poked at the generator and asked, "has anybody ever been electrocuted?"

"On a lamp," I said. "It hurt."

"Me too!" said Umber. "Well, it was basically a lamp, but it, like, wasn't making light, and I was going to change the bulb, so I put my thumb in the socket, but there wasn't a bulb."

"Did you get shocked?" probed Mubbs.

"Well it hurt a lot, so, like, yeah."

Nobody bothered to ask why she bothered to put her thumb in it anyways.

Then Dino went into his bit about sticking a paperclip into a socket in eighth grade (I always knew he was daft), but Caroline started telling me her electrocution story, about a live wire she had to plug into a high voltage lamp for Les Mis, at the same time.

Mr. Mubble wanted a demonstration of what happens when people get charged up. I was selected as the participant because my hair is relatively thin and of a good length. Sergio tried to get a chant going of "Tea, Tea, Tea," but he was, per usual, unsuccessful, and it didn't take much persuasion anyways.

Becca brought over a bunch of textbooks for me to stand on so that I couldn't discharge into the ground. Apparently, that's really uncomfortable, although it seems doubtful that something could be more uncomfortable than getting charged up. I stood on the stack of books, making Mr. Mubbles, who is already shorter than me, look diminutive.

"Put your hands on it," he said.

I slowly extended my hands and touched my fingertips to the metal surface.

"It'll go faster if you add your palms."

I flattened my hands. I stood still for a few seconds, the entire class watching. "Oh my god, my arms are tingling," I said.

Mubbs laughed. "Do you want to stop?"

"No, I'm good, it's just kind of....weird."

Mr. Mubble said some stuff about the science behind it, with me interrupting every few seconds with relevant statements such as "I think my shirt is sticking to me."

"That's supposed to happen." He looked over the progress of the charge. "A few more seconds and your hair should start to stand up. I wonder if we'll get it all the way over your head."

"Wonderful," I responded with a grimace. Predictable, I could see my hair starting to curl up at the edge of my vision a few moments later.

The class started laughing. I stayed there for a while longer, my hair on end, until Mr. Mubble declared me fully charged.

"Anyone want to discharge her?"

Dino, who'd been inching further away from the generator with every minute, scooted backwards another half a foot.

"I'll do it," said Tybalt.

I reached towards him a bit, but I was afraid to touch anything, so he ended up standing and reaching out. I touched his knuckle with the tip of my pointer finger and yelped.

The class laughed.

"Ow!"

"Do it again," said Mr. Mubbles. "She might not be fully discharged."

It hurt more the second time. I squeaked and moved backwards, falling off the books. "That hurt!"

"You might want to touch something metal to get rid of the rest," said Mubbles.

I reached cautiously towards the board and squealed again when I heard the zapping noise and lost some more electrons. I still hurt. I was afraid to do it again, so I went back to my desk. When I sat down, I got shocked again, eliciting another yelp followed by another laugh.

Countdowns

Number of...

...midterms left: 2

...English essays to write during the midterm: 2

...rice crispy treats eaten during midterms week: 2

...cookies: 3

...blueberries: 726

...pills taken: 23

...minutes remaining with Mrs. Hirten: 35

...free periods thus far: 0

...free period in the rest of the year: 7

...twins in that free period: 2

...other friends discovered in free period: 0

...pages of science research paper: 12

...pages of research paper left to rewrite: 10

...colleges visited: 3

...visited colleges in Forbe's top 15: 2

...top 127:3

...times I have looked up RSI on college confidential: 612

...times I have worked on my Rockefeller application: 0

...practice SAT tests taken: 2

...days until SAT: 4

...people I owe clothing to: 1

...friends in the hospital: 1

...minutes on phone with Avon: 102

...percentage of that time in which Avon talked: 11

Signatures

There are many forms of signatures. There are signature traces of elements that could be used to identify the composition of distant planets. There are also signatures at the ends of emails. For instance, Gretchen always signs off with:

--

Gretchen

Even on one-line correspondences, Yuma is partial to:

Thanks,

Yuma

Ginny signs off with her phone number, cell phone number, and an alternate email followed by an admonition: "If you received this message for any reason and are not the intended recipient, please delete this message immediately. Thank you" and brainy quote of the day.

My personal preference is ~Gretchen, but that tends to confuse people who don't realize that I am using mathematical logic to state, in case they weren't aware, that I am not Gretchen.

My least favorite signature is "Sent from my iphone," because it's a really annoying product placement.

There is also the matter of real signatures, those lovely, loopy things used to sign important legal documents, such as driver's licenses. On my license, I ran out of space, so it only has the first two letters of my last name. Apparently, that doesn't at all render the signature invalid.

During physics on Monday, Gage was trying to create a fancy signature for himself. The desks were all messed up, so I was next to him and Tybalt was in front of us, and he asked us which signatures we liked best (he'd covered an entire page with possibles). He was trying to decide between two, but both of them had these funny little hearts on the end that came from however he made the last letter of his last name, and once I pointed them out, he decided not to use those. Hearts are, after all, very girly, especially for a guy who walks as if his arms are too big for his hands to reach his thighs. All the Gs in the beginning looked funny, so I suggested that he just leave off the first name all together, since Gs are extremely difficult to draw nicely in script. Ls are, after all, much prettier in cursive.

I'm not sure what he ended up choosing, but I'm sure it looked nicer than my signature does. Why did I have to have first letters that look so downright awful?

On a totally unrelated note, I saw that Rube had sent me a facebook chat I hadn't seen. It was completely simple, just "Hey, Tea, have you seen Avatar?" and yet, after I read it, I found myself leaning towards the computer and grinning stupidly.

I keep logging back on to facebook to see if he's come online so I can respond.

I'm beginning to think that Julie can't have him.

Math Geeks and Prom

Because, of course, we need to be thinking about prom dates already. Although I was having perfectly reasonable conversation with Ginny, Tybalt, and Gretchen, the group in the back had other ideas. Owen couldn't figure out who to ask to senior prom, so Mario suggested that he ask a junior or sophomore- if you ask down, the girl is so excited to even be going that she'll enjoy it more. Because that worked so well for Mario, who barely talked to his senior prom date (he is, by the way, actually going to Counties with Rachel. This still pisses me off. A lot. I wish I could tag along a cackle gleefully over their awkwardness, because, as it is, I'll just be stuck trying to sleep and being accosted by horrible images of what they could be getting up to. HCl, HCl, HCl). They consensus was that Irving put out an advertisement on the morning show and request applications, two recommendations needed. This started because of some brief mention that Dino was in need of a fembot, as Irving and Owen had only just noticed that Dino talks like a robot, and they seem to find this the funniest thing in the whole world.

They were laughing as much as Kathrya did this morning when she said I wanted to see Mario without any pants on and I started throwing shirts at her, and she decided that meant I was proposing marriage and crumpled to the floor, dissolved into hysterics.

I told this to Gretchen, and her response was to look at me, confused. "You want to see him without PANTS on?!" "That's not the point," I responded.

Anyways, after the math meet, I was walking towards my truck with Melissa, Tybalt and Bryant.

"So, Tea," Melissa said. "If, hypothetically, Dino asked you to prom..."

"Hmm?"

"If, hypothetically, and I'm not saying he will, it's just that I'm supposed to find him a date and I think I need to start asking early, Dino asked you to prom, would you say yes?"

"Well....." I trailed off.

Tybalt and Bryant laughed.

"I mean, I don't have any big vendetta against him or anything, and I can't see any reason to turn him down, so I'd probably end up saying yes, but...don't make me your first choice, okay?"

"Sure. It's just, you're nice, so I thought you'd say yes."

"I need to get meaner."

"It's alright, I'll start looking for sophomores. I figure if I find someone now, I can introduce them and give them time to get to know each other before hand."

"I don't want to be mean to him, it's just that, well, if we went together, we'd just end up insulting each other the whole time."

"Awwww. It'd be like a love-hate relationship!"

I snorted incredulously. "Bye!" I called and then split off to go to my truck.

I think Tybalt or Bryant said "bye" back. Melissa definitely didn't.