At 8:45 am, N and N's mom arrive in time to pick me up and drive me to the school, where the Freshmen Orientation is about to begin. At first entrance, we glance around the room to find a long line to get student ID's, and upon hearing that there will be an oppurtunity later to get them, N and I start heading to the cafeteria where we line up behind certain counselors who are in charge of certain letters for the last name (N and I go to the last, because both of our last names are near the end of the alphabet). There, the counselor asked how my sister was doing as she handed me a folder, an agenda, and my schedule. I sat down where N and another boy I knew were sitting and glanced briefly at the papers in the folder and looked through the agenda, though mainly scanned the schedule:

Block 1: AP [Advanced Placement] World History. Day: Y. Term: Year
Block 1: Health/PE. Day: X. Term: Year
Block 2: Drama 1. Day: XY. Term: Semester 2
Block 2: Earth Science 1. Day: XY. Term: Semester 1
Block 3: English Honors. Day: XY. Term: Semester 1
Block 3: Spaish II. Day: XY. Term: Semester 2
Block 4: Advanced Geometry. Day: XY. Term: Semester 1
Block 4: Biology. Day: XY. Term: Semester 2.

Ahhh...no elective until the second semester, so really no relaxation classes except PE every other day (which I would hardly classify as "relaxation" but may be considered that when compared to a college class.)

At around 9:40, amongst all the excited chatter among the crowd, a few teachers step onto one of the tables and begins a speech of sorts, and begins the day with a "fashion show" to best represent their views on the dress code, and this even got some laughs as one guy whom I had seen in many of the school's plays stepped on stage with a tube-top and a mini skirt with leg warmers underneath. After this we are told to go to our assigned classrooms, and the three of us check our schedules for the day to discover we won't be with each other. I frowned and took off for room 220 and stepped in the room, smiling just slightly to a girl who had been in my health class last year, and took the seat in front of her. Three girls enter and begin talking to us about what school we went to and discuss with us, in general, about certain rules and dispite the dreadful, over-repeated topic, it was rather interesting; one of the girls was so animated and made jokes, and the others were rather friendly as well. 

When the time came for us to switch classrooms, we took off to another classroom which was slightly more bleak, though perhaps it was the atmosphere. I sit down somewhat near the other girl once more and shoot her odd looks for reaction as the upper-classmen who are supposed to be teaching us simply stare, one eating her breakfast, and ask us bland questions until they stare uncertainly out the doorway and call us over for a tour of the school. It was very dull; they didn't seem enthused at all, and would continuously make comments to their partners or make loud jokes to the junior ROTC (some Air Force club...I really have no idea) members who seemed to be trailing behind us. 

When it ended, I sighed with relief and scurried off quickly to lunch, though found myself late. Seeing N just over the crowd, I shouted to her and ran over, setting my stuff in a spot where some friends were sitting and then went back to the line where I got two slices of pizza and a soda, eating hungrily and making sarcastic comments about my groups and asking about others. Some upper classmen threw some small plastic orange footballs among the crowd, saying that any with a written number on it could get a prize. A football soared over our heads and bounced against the table behind ours to roll around on the floor, and I glanced at it. I stood up slowly and grabbed it while every one else seemed too engrossed in their food to notice, and turned it over to notice it had a number six on it. I grinned and ran over to the prize table and claimed a small school flag/banner and took it back, finishing my lunch and then throwing out my trash, waving to N and heading towards my next assigned classroom.

There we wait just for a few minutes before C and S (two members of the fashion show, the latter  being the one with the red tube top and mini skirt; and both valued members of the drama club) walked into the room; I grinned. Despite the fact that the girl from my health class and I were the only women in the room, the atmosphere was rather comfortable and soon the room was filled with laughter and for some, mixed bemusement at the oddness of C and S. They tossed some pieces of starburst around the room- one of which I actually caught. C and S, who seemed to have no idea what to do with the almost useless time they had been given, gave a marker to a student and allowed us to play hangman, which we went through a few amusing rounds. 

After, C and S stared at the time and suggested that we play a few improvisation games to pass the time, and once they suggest one (involving a complaint department: basically, one person would come in and give several hints as to what this object may be and what is wrong with it, and the employee must guess what it is), I volunteer. C brightly suggests for my item to complain about to be an uncontrollably dancing Ken doll, and once the "employee" comes back in the room, I start describing rationally, with a completely straight face, the uncontrollable movements of this doll that lacks an on switch, and randomly, C decides to jump in with his own idea, brandishing wildly and screaming (his idea, by the way, was a punching Tickle-Me Elmo), which made me break character and burst into a fit of giggles. S, deciding that this would help matters, jumps in and gives clues that his saxophone is giggling rather then playing music, but not before turning to me and encouraging me to continue. I smile, and turn back to the "employee" and gesture wildly once more, voice turning shrill and continuing to act this until we hear the announcement to report to the auditorium.

In the auditorium, I manage to catch a glimpse of my friends and run toward them, telling them gleefully about what had just happened though turning to face forward as they begin to play a movie, which though it had sounded dull, included a few comedic moments and actually caused me to smile. By the end, I headed off to get my ID while N went off to fix her schedule. Finishing before N was done, I begin to pae randomly and finally once she finishes we head outside, only having to wait a few minutes before N's mom is back to drive us home.

I am very glad that I managed to get on before leaving. We leave in a little over an hour, and I still have to pack...

I will miss you all so dearly! However, I may actually be able to get something good out of this whole experience: proving to my sister that I can handle a few days without role-playing! That means that whenever I feel withdrawl I must appear as happy and normal as can be, which means occupying myself in other ways. My parents have also forbid me not to "lock myself in the room and be unsocial all day." So, that means only spending a healthy time in the room reading and watching TV and the like. We will, of course, be expected to visit all of the older relatives (great aunts and uncles), which is difficult because most confuse my name with my sister's and talk about family matters that I do not understand, but they are kind to me. I look forward more to seeing my cousins.

Anyway, I am currently being kicked off, so I hope to see you all once I get back. I may not be able to get on until the next day, or something, but I hope to see you anyway.

Dad has ordered me to spend a day at a friend's house so that he may work in peace. *sighs* Tried contacting J as she lives the closest by and I haven't seen her since school ended, but I only got her answering machine. So after recalling multiple times, I called N because C and M live farther away and got her on the first try, and asked if I could stay at her house for the day. She said I could so I went back downstairs last night feeling accomplished, and settled down to watch a House rerun. Once House was over, my sister asked me to come downstairs where we began watching "V for Vendetta," which is awesome...though we didn't get to finish it. I really want to see the second half of the movie, because it was very good. Anyway, I have to leave in about an hour, and I will be back before dinner, so I may be able to lurk before then but I basically will be away from role-play.

I'm back! And very excited to be  back. It took a little while for us to get out the door, first saying goodbyes to my grandma after eating a slow lunch. Once we left and got back in the car, I pulled out my iPod though waited for a few minutes to start listening as we stopped at one of the many Wawa's in New Jersey to buy sodas (you pass at least ten on the way through New Jersey, and I am dead serious!). As the playlist continued on many random songs, I put on my headphones and began to listen to Rent, which was actually odd combined with a few of the songs they were playing...my favorite combination: "Light My Candle" from Rent coupled with my sister and her friend singing loudly along with "It's raining men." I stopped Rent a few times as I heard some songs that they played that I really loved, though for the most part I listened to the soundtrack. Once it ended, I put my iPod and headphones away and rested my head on my pillow, simply listening and singing along to songs on the playlist that I loved. We were faced with traffic a few times, and the playlist turned out to be a little too short, but I was fine with that. We came upon the last few songs, the fourth to last being "La Vie Boheme," which was awesome because it was simply my sister, her friend, and I almost belting all the lyrics to that ridiculous song as we were crossing the Bay Bride in Maryland. The song died out to the "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago which my sister's friend and I began singing to. It seemed to take a long time to end, as the last few songs were even longer than La Vie Boheme and the Cell Block Tango. The second to last song, "Free Bird," was around ten minutes long though the second half of it being simply guitar solo. I do love that song, so I was bobbing my head to the guitar solo until the last song, "I would do anything for love but I won't do that," played for twelve minutes. Silence filled the car for the first time in hours. We had some CD's still, so we listened to a little bit of Mamma Mia! as we faced yet even more traffic, this being much more significant and far more painful. I simply closed my eyes and tried to fight off the car sickness, but it was clear that my sister's friend was far worse off...almost whimpering as my sister drove on. She stopped the CD to listen to the radio for traffic reports, and in a serious need of a boost I pulled out my iPod again to listen to the Scarlet Pimpernel, and closed my eyes, simply trying to relax. It was a startling discovery that I had not even payed attention enough to the road when I looked up to see that we were out of traffic. I stared about in wonder, and asked "We're moving?" (Yes, very redundant question, I know). I smiled and continued listening to the music, though stopped it as we came upon our house. This made our trip equal 5 hours and 30 minutes, usually compared to 4 with no traffic. In addition to the annoyance of a fly that was constantly zooming around the car and when you opened the window, it wouldn't leave, it would seem that the trip was absolutely horrible, but I didn't find it that bad. I found a way to enjoy myself, and I didn't get carsick!