Fussin’ And Fightin’

[Ice Box – There For Tomorrow, original by Omarion]

Day 16 — Someone that’s not in your state/country

Dear Cathy,

It was a toss-up between Dani and you for the previous letter. I’m kind of feeling guilty that you got this one, but just pretend that it’s the previous one as well.

You read most of what I feel in the plane letter I gave you – you remember, the one that made you cry – and since they were pretty private, I won’t say it here again. But I think you’re actually better off in QLD, seeing as what is happening currently in your life. Imagine having to go through that with THEM still in the same State as you! At least now you’re one step closer to getting out forever, am I right?

I still miss you like a cat on heat (wtf) but I know that ultimately we’ll still be friends, but you need to get out seriously.

I love you, Bobiboop.

Alex.

So Here’s My Goodbye

[Goodbye (I’m Sorry) – Jamestown Story]

Day 15 — The person you miss the most

Dear Dani,

When you first told me that you might go to Canberra back in Yr 12, I remembered that I cried on the spot, because I’d imagined university with you. But then you said that you probably don’t HAVE to go to ANU, and I was relieved. That was why I didn’t realize that the time when I was with you for the Speech Night rehearsal would be the last time I was to see you for almost half a year.

I know you were sad you had to go to ANU as well. So I won’t keep mentioning the fact that now, you aren’t in the same state as me. This might have to happen for the next 3 or so years, but I suppose there is always a way for either of us to see each other, right?

I miss you the most out of all the people I could have written about, mostly because in Yr 11 and 12 I got so used to seeing you everyday and always being able to see you when I wanted, that the sudden loss is shocking. I suppose, to bring in a Pokemon analogy, it’s like the party I carry around was very balanced, but I never noticed that I had one Pokemon in there who was key to this balance. And then suddenly that Pokemon was poisoned or had fainted, and the whole party got thrown off balance. You’re that Pokemon.

Good luck for semester 2, and I hope to see you soon! Otherwise, you’re only a phone call away, right?

I miss you, and I love you,

Alex.

Where Our Roots Have Grown So Deep

[This Is Our Town – We The Kings]

Today I caught up with 2 groups for reunions (coincidental planning), and dragged Jac along with me.

Dressed in the new hoodie I bought at Chadstone, I waited 2 extra trains for the as-ever-late Jac. We got to the city, where she went to do some Uni thing, and I waited for everyone to arrive.

Gil (Pearl, but I cal her Gil) and Pal arrived first, and they went to get crepes. Shortly after them, Cathy, Sisi, Alex+Jack (twins, who I will refer to as Jalex) and Cathy’s boyfriend Carey arrived, and we all decided what we’d do. We agreed on going to Chaplin to karaoke, as we did the last time we all caught up, but after FINALLY walking there we realized the place doesn’t open until 3 in the afternoon. So instead we went to the bowling venue in Melb Central, which had a lovely interior, with chandeliers and all that jazz. Jac came along halfway through the game, and we both watched (having bowled just the previous day) the others bowl.

Highlight? Gil’s thin fragile-looking arm seemed to snap back everytime she tried to bowl. It scared the crap out of me, and everyone else when I brought their attention to it. Pal pwned everyone, the underdog and what not.

I mucked around a lot while watching everyone bowl, including stealing Cathy’s hat and messing up her hair (she responded with tickling me) and also attempting to tickle/poke Gil at every chance I got. Then, when I went to hug Cathy, she freaking lifted me off the floor and laughed at my “flailing arms and legs”. Well she got her comeuppance when later her and Carey started playing DDR, and her failure rendered a completely random kid (around 4 or 5) coming up and trying to help her.

After that, we decided to go to lunch. Some people wanted Nandos chips, some wanted KFC chicken, some wanted sushi, some wanted Hungry Jack’s – but mostly Pal, Gil and me just wanted chilli food. So we all went our separate ways to buy the bits of food we wanted, and then all came together and feasted at Nandos – which probably wasn’t very nice to them but we DID buy stuff from them.

Jalex work at the Melbourne Aquarium, and they told us the story about how some people got drunk, snuck into the aquarium and went shark-diving at 3 am while plastered. Then, as conversations with the twins always do, sex-ed got brought up. The poor, innocent Jac sat at the end of the table mouth gaping open in shock.

After lunch, they headed to Chaplin but to our shock we realized that Jac and I were late. So after parting our ways at Elizabeth Street, Jac and I went back down to Glen to meet up with my 2nd reunion (yes Jac got dragged along to that as well).

The 2nd reunion was with the Glen Waverley train line from back in high school, and having shown up 1 hour late I was still greeted warmly by everyone. Nat had died her hair, Bee’s fringe had grown out, Carm’s hair is shorter, Eunice looked the same, Shaz still talked non-stop, Sneha got to meet the person who ACTUALLY went to the party she got tagged wrongly (by me) in, and Emily was still smiley as always.

Highlight? Nat was arguing against Shaz, and in a desperate attempt to win back a losing fight, she shouted to Shaz, “WELL YOU HAVE CAKE ON YOUR TEETH! HA TAKE THAT!”

We sat for about 40 minutes, but when Bee made acts of needing to leave, Jac and I decided to follow suit. We bid goodbye to everyone – me hoping to see them again, and them agreeing with what Dani said yesterday about how Jac looks like another MacRobbian – and bussed home. Now my feet hurt like fuck.

I will take pictures of my presents tomorrow, and edit the post later.

Alex.

We Are The Monsters

[Monsters – Matchbook Romance]

Day 10 — Someone you don’t talk to as much as you’d like to

Dear Catherine,

I miss the huge ass phone bills we used to rack up calling each other, and just not talking about anything. I miss the fact that I used to make you skip a class so that you can talk to me and hang out with me. I miss the fact that I ended up revising my English exam with you over the phone trying to explain to you what the book is about.

I loved it when we were just sitting at the picnic tables listening to my iPod, and I miss that pleasant shock when you started singing along to one of my favorite songs without me realizing you knew it.

Most of all, I freaking miss you. I hate how we barely talk anymore! And since you want to go to Monash…I suppose I have to make a bigger effort to talk to you even though I hate to be the reason you don’t get good marks.

Anyway, I love and miss you, and I hope you still read this!

Alex.

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.