Somebody To Lean On

Ah, thus my 3rd installment of one of the most awesomest weeks of my life.

Now, as you may remember I went to sleep at 1 am on the Wednesday night (Thursday morning, whatever) and I had a 5 am wake up on Thursday morning in order to catch a 6:25 train so we could be at school by 7:30. Saw Eunice at Glen Waverley which I didn’t expect because she’d previously said she wouldn’t. But meh.

She was in brown overalls and later bandaged up her head, because as Jack from Jack and Jill, she fell down and broke her crown.

More MacRob people arrived, and then some MHS guys in UNIFORM as well. Annie came on at Mount Waverley with a huge spoon. I thought it was a dirty metaphor until she said that Jen T is a fork, and they’re the famous (if not stuffed up) “dish and spoon” (you can see the stuff up because Jen T was a fork).

I was in this huge cape as Phantom Of The Opera (Yeah, I gave up on Mojo Jojo or the whole Powerpuff Girls thing, for that matter). The mask stuck out weirdly so I didn’t wear it. People thought I was Dracula. I was okay with that.

Eunice, Fel and I got off at Melb Central to go to Coles, and I thought it would be a good idea to buy a small box of tissues. Met up with Carmaine who was the train after us, and we took the tram up to school, getting off at Bowen (I’m just using these terms because I won’t really use them  much after this….sad) and going over the overpass. There were no bras on there, much to Eunice’s disappointment (there was a prank or something planned where we all tied a bra to the overpass…I don’t know). We went around to the Lakeside Courtyard where we were celebrating, and there were teachers standing around making sure we didn’t have fun.

Had some pancakes and fairy floss for breakfast, and then went on to start camwhoring. THERE WAS A JUMPING CASTLE! Went onto it 2 times, once with Sonam who landed butt first on my face, and the 2nd time with Julia and co., with the former deciding to test the side safety nets by pushing me repeatedly onto it.

Took photos for the first 20 minutes until woe woe woe my batteries ran out. I relied on other people for photos. And, of course, I became the camera mule, taking pictures for other people.

There were many amazing costumed groups, some of the memorable ones were:

The Powerpuff Girls (of course) and the Rowdy Rough Boys

The Soft Drinks Cans (they made these huge cans that they wore, and Huey especially wobbled in them)

The 2 Rubiks Cubes (I tried solving them. The girls inside asked what I was doing. I said solving them. They laughed.)

Bridezillas (it was freaking scary)

Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (Nug was a dwarf. I got to laugh) and of course the entourage of Evil Witches and whatnots

Bumblebee arm on Optimus Prime from Transformers (here’s looking at Bel)

Madeline and the French Nun Woman Whose Name I Forgot! Someone remind me.

Firemen.

The French Revolution people (I have no idea who they were meant to be, but they had good facial hair)

And of course, the Oompa Loompas and Willy Wonka, which scared the crap out of me. I meant the orange people though.

There were many others unnamed, and all of them were good and you could tell everyone put a lot of effort into it.

After much excitement and photos, it was time to go to the hall for the assembly. We yelled, we cheered, and of course we…but back up…background first.

For the previous week, it has been known that the clocks have been disappearing from every single classroom in school. While most of the year level knew that was happening, we didn’t actually know WHY. This wasn’t revealed until at assembly, Saf stood up there onstage and said, “Okay girls, on the count of 3 sing with me.” No one knew what song, and Saf said, “Just go with it ladies.”

“1…2…3…”

“I want one moment in…time!” And at that exact moment every clock that we had (which was every clock the school had) were raised to face the rest of the school behind us, and we all joined in a heartfelt, off-key, screeched out and by all means AWESOME rendition of One Moment In Time (the high-high-highlight being “when I’m racing with destiny” when everyone forgot EB’s advice to let the note envelope us and instead tried to shoot it from the top of our heads…it was nasty).

Then, the first act came on, and it was a lovely little dance number. I can’t recall all of the songs, but I just remember 2 scenes. 1, the first scene, when Mishie and Rach Tan (the former being a MacRob girl the latter being an “ENTER score” sought each other out through the crowd to Swift’s Love Story (“we were both young when I first saw you”). And then the 2nd scene was when Mishie was left by herself when ENTER abandoned her, and she sobbed out “ALL BY MYSELF!”

Then it was time for the video! Except there was a technical difficulty, so Amee went ahead with her piano improvisation. It brought tears for many of the girls, and started the mood for the video off.

The video was great, even if I do say so myself (and on behalf of my fellow committee-ers). It brought laughter where it was wanted, gasps where it was planned, and tears where it should be. Mr Rus- as Superman was amazing (and it was the first time I saw that skit, so I laughed so hard I teared), and all the other videos were of top-notch standard. People said afterwards that not a single video in it was boring, every one of them was great. That was the best compliment we could have gotten.

After the video, the tissues I bought came in handy, as those around me started bawling (I got the aloe vera kind, so it was good on their noses).

Then Pru- and Mari- went onstage and sang “Lean On Me”, during which Pru- cracked up which cause most of everyone else to cry (I still didn’t cry…which was weird).

Later on, when the rest of the school had left (we all did a standing ovation for the Yr 11s and others who were with us. I NEARLY felt like tearing at the thought of leaving Catherine, Fa and Julia L)  we started on the awards of “Most Likely”. And, true enough, Bel and Julia got “Most likely to be each others bridesmaids”. Mari- got “Friend Whore” because she was the most frequently mentioned person in the 3 categories “Most Compatible Pair” “Most Unlikely Pair” and something else.

After everything, after farewells to everyone, we headed out to leave. The Yr 9s gave us a human tunnel for us to leave by, each of them saying “we’ll miss you! Good luck!” and we all agreed, perhaps this bunch has some hope left yet.

Had a final Form get together at the picnic tables, where Jen and Nay handed out these little envelopes and in it they’ve described each person as an element. I was Sodium. It was a salty (not sweet) description, and it was lovely.

Left with BRuCE, Fel, Dani and Zara to Dani’s place for an impromptu BBQ. I felt sleepy by that point. Called Julia L to wish her a happy birthday and turned out she cried!! What a darl.

And thus ended my career as a high school student. In less than 1 month I will be free. Free from exams. Yet at the same time free of the protective and familiar environment that I’ve grown accustomed to over the last 4 years, and free of the faces that I’ve come taken for granted to see. And I don’t feel like it’s a good thing at all.

Alex.

I am Ninja, TOO!

Ah, my second Ninja day of the year.

Today’s dress up theme included Pirates vs Ninjas. I decided to be a Ninja. Took the early train to school (unnecessarily it turned out), so that Dani could help me get more gear on.

Zara and Dani arrived sort of just before the bell, and they helped me put on quite a few pieces of material (three to be exact) around my head to make the ninja head-gear. Then some red fabric around my forehead and around my forearms and I became Ninja #4. All the way down the corridors the minions below me looked on in awe, “Wow, so cool, a ninja!” they gushed. And I smiled. But you couldn’t tell.

Ah! Nearly forgot to mention Dom’s awesome black belt. Funny story. Dom is a black belt in karate, and so I borrowed his black belt to look H.C. I was wearing it and showing the name on the belt “Sempai Dominic T-” and Dani and Carmaine (at different times) said, “Oh, did he buy a belt and get it custom made to have his name on it?”

“No,” I said, “he’s actually a black belt.”

Dom, I took a picture holding up your name in the belt. Will get it to you when I have it. Ha…

Ghosted quite a few people. For some reason being in Ninja gear (albeit stuffy and hot) made me very silent. I ghosted Shaz halfway down L2 before she saw me out of the corner of her eyes and jumped.

I snuck up on quite a few people and simply stood there staring at them (with my Asian Ninja eyes) until they noticed me and jumped.

And for some reason, wearing Ninja gear made me invisible to people I was walking towards, face on, until I was breathing on their face. They jumped.

April, Dani, Zara, Runa and myself all dressed almost identically. So at recess and lunch we just sat together, and people kept on asking us, “are you plotting something?”

I know we looked intimidating.

Eating was hard. I had to remove the face piece for a while, to breathe, to drink, to eat. Still. I looked awesome.

Oh, Periods 3 and 4 saw Dani and I taking a round of the school, just looking into class windows and waving.

People jumped.

Carmaine took photos for us at lunchtime. Haven’t camwhored like that in a while.

Had to eventually take the gear off. Too hot and public transport…

It was a good day. Pity Catherine and Bee weren’t there.

Oh and when Dani and I walked past Eunice’s Chem class, she (Eunice) did the Ninja chop. In class. While her teacher was in there.

Alex.

P.S. This Year 10 thing is getting out of hand. What a time waster. I am said my 10 cents, I am moving on. If I get into trouble for this, then I’m sure the entire Yr 12 body will back me up. That is all.

A Night Out With The Beast

(No, I’m not talking about Dani’s cleavage. Ahhh in-ish joke.)

I am extremely glad I have something I can post under “social life” again.

Last night I had a really full night, because it was Julia’s birthday dinner as well as Beauty and the Beast, the combined musical by MacRob and MHS.

The evening/night started when school ended and I headed off into the city with Sonam, Tiff, Vania and a bunch of others who, to make this blog more coherent, will only be named and censored when need be. We planned to meet up with Julia, Bel and Jen (and a similar other bunch) later on at the restaurant.

The plan had originally been to go to this cafe on Little Collins to let Tiff perve on some hot guy. We were slow getting out of the school so we powered up Little Collins (Town Hall side) only to find that the cafe (assuming it was the one April recommended) was closed. So we powered back down to the other end of Little Collins where we were about to enter Laurent. It was full so we went down a causeway and went into an Asian-run Italian themed cafe. It wasn’t bad, quite cosy, but it wasn’t as good as Giraffe (and I forgot its name).

After drinking and paying for coffee (I read my drink price wrong which held us up for about 10 minutes as Lisa tried to compensate for my stupidity) we went back down to Swanston St to catch a train up to the restaurant. There was some sort of giveaway going on and there was a mass of people on the opposite side to the Town Hall. I thought it was a gig but apparently not.

Went up to the restaurant. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but it was Italian and you get there via the Glen Iris tram stopping at Stop 31. Most of the people arrived and we started eating. There were pizzas and gnocchi and pasta and so forth and we all had a pretty awesome time joking around and making fun of Jen – who is such a good sport – and eating. A while into dinner we realized that the other end of the table was definitely having more fun than our end, so we tried to think of something fun to talk about but all Jen could do was bleat (literally).

Then food finished and we all made a racket taking pictures and singing happy birthday AGAIN. Jen and JenT tried to harmonise for 5 minutes to no avail. Then, when Tiff went to the bathroom Suse had the bright idea to hide under the tables so that when Tiff came back out she wouldn’t know where we were. We did it, and we were totally idiotic, with us giggling and hissing “SHH” all the time.

Got told off by the owner of the store so we paid and left, and decided to walk to MHS instead of tram.

Had a pretty interesting conversation with Lisa on the way there. I had to find a bathroom halfway down and unfortunately got lost coming back out (IT WAS MAZEY OKAY?!).

Got to MHS with time to spare, and waited around for Fel, Bee, Shaz, Mash and Fel’s friend Ryan. Turned out they’d passed me and were inside already (despite Bee saying she called my name I was annoyed and cold). Met Ryan, and saw a Yr 10 MHS guy with uber long/big blonde hair. I can’t describe it. It’s sort of punk/skater boy, shoulder length, huge fringe etc. He was an usher so I kept on trying to see his hair.

My English student teacher sat in front of me, coincidentally, and I wasn’t sure if it was her because her hair had changed. But it was her.

I don’t think I’ll give a review of the musical because I can’t be bothered, but I thought – and this was agreed upon – that this was the best one in the 4 years I have been here (and I went to every single one of them). The costumes, especially Cogsworth’s, was SO COOL! And Mrs Potts ACTUALLY had steam coming out of the spout of one “hand”. Or the hand of one “spout” whatever.

So, if you have the time, there is one last show tonight at 7:30 at MHS in South Yarra. Tickets aren’t that expensive and it’s totally worth it. No idea if it’s sold out.

Afterwards, we said bye to Ryan and (OH YEAH I saw Khanie during intermission and talked for a bit) Fel’s dad drove us home. I slept at 12:30 in time to be woken up at 6:00 by my dad forgetting to turn off his alarm (he was on conference so of course he wasn’t there to shut it).

“Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme…Beauty and the Beast.”

Alex.

Faking My Own Suicide

I’m faking my own suicide.
Because I know you love me,
You just haven’t realized.

Faking My Own Suicide – Relient K

I dressed up as a ninja today, and it was heaps fun. April had this little scary (blunt) dagger and I had the nunchucks borrowed off Dom (which, by the way, were so much fun to just hold ‘cos people kept on wanting it haha). I went up to the stage when it was Oreads’ turn to parade, and I did the HYAH! thing all ninjas do. It was heaps fun. Heaps. Fun. Oreads had so many awesome costumes, but I think I might have to admit Gen and Pras-‘s hakka was the BEST! And they won it fair and square too.

As to the song, it was just stuck in my head today. Nothing meaningful.

Mai (aha, here’s the mention) dressed up in traditional Vietnamese costume and it was really really yellow. Julia Yr 11 dressed in a Korean costume and that was so bloody cool except she had trouble climbing up onto the stage because of it.

No more dressing up for Multicultural Week anymore. I saw Ca- today at Glen Waverley station. She graduated last year and when I told her that today was the parade, she “aww”ed nostalgically. She’s doing med at Monash. Figures.

D.F.