I know it's not Friday, or Free-Write, but I do know that it's the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! YES YES YES! TODAY, SINCE I AM SO HAPPY I HAVE DECIDED TO WRITE IN ALL CAPITALS....TO SHOW HOW I FEEL. *screams of joy* THIS YEAR HS BEEN AMAZING ESPECIALLY SINCE I'VE SUED COMPUTERS! COMPUTERS HAVE HELPED ME LEARN A LOT(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), AND SHOWED ME HOW MY LIFE WILL BE AFFECTED IN THE FUTURE (IN GOOD AND BAD WAYS). COMPUTERS ARE REALLY FUN TO LEARN WITH BUT KIND OF HARD TO USE SOMETIMES. COMPUTERS CLASS IS REALLY FUN BECAUSE IT'S FULL OF WATCHING VIDEOS AND DOING PROJECTS YOUR WAY! WHAT WAS ESPECIALLY FUN WAS THE ZOO PROJECT! THE ZOO PROJECT TOOK LOTS OF TIME AND EFFORT BUT CAME OUT AMAZING! I AM SO THANKFUL I CAME TO COMPUTECH BECAUSE IT REALLY SHOWED ME....LIFE. THIS IS WHEN IT STARTS AND THAT CAN BE GOOD, OR BAD. IT'S ALL UP TO YOU. MIDDLE SCHOOL IS WHEN YOU MAKE DECISIONS AND MAKE MOVES. YOU GET YOUR OWN LIFE. I. Don't. Want. To. Go. But. I. Really. Do. This is just life?!.....haha. Thank you for reading my posts (hopefully somebody is reading them) Hope everyone has a fantastic summer.
Today is my last Free-Write Friday. :( So saddening. I will miss my homework, 6:00am bus ride, and my uniforms. NAH JUST KIDDING! No, what I'll really miss is my friends, teachers, and my tigers as the eighth graders leave and I become a big kid again. This summer is going to be amazing though. I am not going to have one day of rest, because all it's going to be is sports, camps, clubs, plane flights, car drives, swimming, and camping. Nothing else could make this summer better. I already have just what I need, and it's going to stay that way. I am so happy today is Friday! Although I only have 2 days off I have 2 WHOLE MONTHS coming up here soon. Here in Fresno it's so hot. Everyday I go home and swim. Then of course....homework. But, just to think, no homework in like a week and a half. I only have one B, and if I can raise it....IPHONE 4S HERE I COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus, my birthday is on Sunday so I am going to have one heck of a weekend. I am so excited to be 13! I have a list of all the movies I am going to watch with my friends! Man! This summer is going to be A-MAZ-ING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally I'll get to sleep in, party all day, stay up all night, eat lots of candy (as if I already haven't eaten enough for a lifetime!), and hang out with my friends WAY more often then I normally do! I am so sad to stop 7th grade, but so happy to start a summer! I am dying waiting for when the teachers say, "Goodbye we will miss you!" Plus, I can't wait for my new baby sister! The day after school she's going to arrive. Yay! My whole family is so exited!...including me, even though I'll have to share my "birth-month". It's okay though...I have a whole summer! Bye readers! Thanks! I hope you learned a lot! See you next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"The park? It's November." My aunt Luna stared blankly at my cold face. "Yes," I tried to sound casual. "No Riley, you need some sleep." She tossed me a blanket. "No," I said pushing it away, "I'm serious." I honestly was. "No, I'm serious. It's November and freezing." I rolled my eyes and whined, "But all I've done is sat on the couch and thrown homework around. I haven't even seen-" my voice broke. "Who?" Luna nudged me, "Riley?" I started to cry but held back my third tear. "Kate." I wiped my eyes with my sleeve, "Kate Rodgers." My aunt Luna smiled, "I'm sure we can work something out."
"Tonight?"
"Honey, you'r tired. It's 11:00 pm. It's time for bed." I coughed, "Luna I need to see Kate. It's been almost a year, she's in eighth grade!" My tear started up again. "You're a thunderstorm Riley-" she was cut off by Jacob walking through the front door. "Jacob!" I screamed. He looked really startled. "What?" he asked dropping his coat. "You need to take me to Kate's hou-"Not tonight." Luna pulled me off of Jacob with a huge tug. "NO!" I screamed as if someone was burning me. "RILEY!" Luna yanked me onto the couch. I was stuck and couldn't
It took about a year to finally move on... for my whole family. My aunt Luna came and stayed about 6 weeks and basically shared a room with me but used Jacob's when he was out-which tended to be most of the time. My aunt Luna cooked while my mom worked-she recently found a job at a clothing store-and took me to school. When I finally stopped going to school, we started home-school and that was sure a dread. Aunt Luna went from cooking to homework in five seconds, and I constantly had potato crumbs and spills of my sheets. My dog went nuts. My mom started an online clothes store and stopped working at the one down town. She had a really hard time sewing so Aunt Luna saved the day again. My Aunt Luna seemed to know it all but never seemed stressed...How jealous I was! My mom felt like she could just start a business and soon enough catch the hang of things, but everything just turned out to be another thing for Luna. One night when Jacob took my mom to the park for a picnic-she was on the verge of losing it again- I found Luna relaxing on the sofa. "Luna...?" I asked. She jerked her head up and rolled her eyes to look at the ceiling when she saw the homework I was holding. She patted the seat next to her, "What do you say we just give up this whole 'homework' thing." I smiled shyly, "It wouldn't get done even if we didn't." Luna grabbed half my stack of papers and smiled, "One three, we are going to throw these stupid papers behind us... literally and mentally. And leave them there." I relaxed in the couch and steadied my papers in my hand. "One, two, THREE!" I thought the papers would fall a lot quicker but Luna laughed and pointed out the pages we had spent countless hours on before they hit the ground. "So much for Algebra." I hugged Luna and she stared at the large snow papers we had int he living room. "Even when things go, we have to let them go, or else we find ourselves stuck and going nowhere." It was quiet. It was sweet. And it was the most amazing thing other than playing on-top-of the baseball sand.
It was when I realized I needed to go back. Because I left something there.
It was just before school started up again my father died. He died tragically and didn't deserve what happened. My family was so hurt. Sometimes, it was hard to get out of bed in the morning. Coming back from the funeral was the hardest. Seeing all my dad's letters, clothes, and memories made me want to disappear... to anywhere. My mom was just as bad as I was, she didn't make any meals, do the laundry, or clean the house. My brother half the time was busy, but you could tell he wanted to comfort my mom or disappear like me. It was only after about two-and a half weeks he asked me to help him with dinner. We served some to mom, who we hadn't seen in days. She was sitting on her bed, the sheets tangled and half of them on the floor. Her face was pale and traces of tears were visible from her door. I carried a tray and my brother balanced the food on his arm. We set it down; she looked away, then we slowly left the room. "Why is it so easy for you to forget what happened?" I asked Jacob. He glared at me and through his teeth he said, "I didn't forget. I'm trying to though." he stormed into the kitchen then kicked a chair over. I ran to pick it up, but I was just as bad and threw it back down, I started to get weak then ran to the couch only to curl up and try and forget everything like Jacob... it was harder than it looked. When something you've had your whole life, leaves, you can hardly live without it. Jacob didn't stop. As I curled up, I heard the kitchen cupboards fly open and things pile to the ground. This was what "miserable" must have felt like.... no dictionary term needed.
Happy Friday! It's so exciting to know that school is almost over! I' so excited for this weekend! Toda, after school, my friends and I are going to walk to a really good Yogurt place and get some yogurt. Afterwards, my mom will pick us up and take us over to my house. We will then talk, eat, and swim until it's time for my friends to go. One of my friends is going with me somewhere on Saturday so she will spend the night Friday. On Saturday my family and friend will go to a river with my church to help clean it up. We will drop my friend off on the way home as well. Once we're home we will shower and tidy the house for some friends from Bakersfield and play with them. On Sunday, our usual, church and after, a big family dinner. Then it's back to school on Monday.
I don't have a lot of homework this weekend either, so it looks like I'll be tanning on cloud nine. Over my weekend I would really like to swim-as if I won't already be swimming a lot- make a fun spring treat, clean my bathroom, tidy my closet, and most of all...have fun! I am almost done with school! Almost there! Only 3 more periods and I'll be off to a (almost longer than) 48 hour break from homework, waking up at 6, and the boring bus rides! Yay! I hope everyone has a great weekend to and gets lots of stuff done...ho
I soon woke up in a room. Bright lights shone everywhere, and I immediately closed my eyes because of their brightness. Voices were whispering around me, and I felt a warm hand press against mine. Was I dying? No, death seemed much, more, worse. "Riley?" it was my mom!!! "Are you awake?" I immediately opened my eyes, fighting against the light, only to find my tall, red faced mother who, had streaks of tears marked on her cheeks. "Mom!" I went to sit up, but she pushed me back down pinning me to a white bed. "Don't sit up." she warned me, "Stay down, the doctors are just stitching a few things back up, relax...please." her voice got really hoarse and I started to panic. Shaking I pushed myself onto the bed as I felt reeking pain in my leg. I screamed and grabbed my thigh, but something was in the way...a towel... a blanket, something was keeping me from half of my body. "Riley," my mom pressed her hand against my body as I shook up and down trying to stay calm. A doctor soon came over... and things went black.
"Let's go!" Today was 99 degrees and humid. The population of the Jamie Johnson baseball field...0. At least until we arrived. We unloaded the truck and Jacob set up our lunch. Disty chased me around the park barking and running after rolling baseballs falling out of the truck. We all grabbed our lunches and ate fast, we wanted to fit a good game of baseball into our afternoon schedule. My dad had work and my mom had a meeting so we had only a little bit of time.
"Batter-up!" My dad called from home plate. Jacob slid into 2nd base within seconds. "Could'a had a home run!" my mom shouted from 3rd. The game went by slowly after chasing Disty around after every pitch and bat. Finally, my mom stared at her watch and corralled us over to the truck. I'll meet you guys home at seven, I'll take my Chevy."
"Dad! Slow down!" I bumped around holding Disty in my arms, "Disty going to wet if you don't go lighter on the gas!" My dad swerved around stop signs and grumbled, "I am already 10 minutes late!" Jacob could've cared less with his new smart phone in his hand. "6 minutes from home," he smiled at me, "My GPS navigator says so." I rolled my eyes as my dad grabbed a tie out of his compartment. "DAD!" I screamed, we were in the wrong lane. "Hang on!"
That was all I remember.
The summer had supposedly disappeared to fast. One day I was awake at 7:30 listening to Mrs. Swarnerfield talk about how her dog "Rumple" could sit for 8 straight hours staring at the fan and yet we could sit still or quiet for 10 minutes. Whether or not the fan moved the poor dog, who knows what Mrs. Swarnerfield does to her things. The next day I was sleeping in 'till 2 and eating breakfast in bed with my, at least somewhat normal puppy, Disty. He was the size of New York compared to China... really small but had the bark of a dinosaur. He was a brown lab and my dad loved to take him to the baseball park when he could. Disty liked to track down where my dad had been not by looking for him, but by following the footprints in the baseball diamond. Today was a little different as it started... it really changed my life.
I remember when my dad took me first to the Jamie Johnson baseball field. My older brother Jacob couldn't stop stompin' his feet at home plate. I watched him bow, smile, and wave to his pretend crowd, and laugh when I caught him doing so. "Ri-ley." he whined when he climbed tot he top of the bleachers; only to find me picking at my nails. "Jacob Harvey." for I had just learned how to spell and correctly pronounce our last name, "Can I play, too?" Jacob turned around and stared at the torn down and, empty field. "It's only for boys, and you're a girl. Sorry Riley." He hoped down the bleachers and made his way back onto the field. I wanted to play so badly and not matter how hard I tried to tell myself "no," I had to feel the warm "baseball sand."
My dad started teaching me when I was six. Jacob was nine, and all the boys from Cannon Elementary seemed to run to the field when my dad parked his Chevy. I clung to my dad like a sticker and no matter how many times he'd let ,e dangle so he could bat, I could still smell the "baseball sand."
As soon as I grew, I saved my money. From helping my dad unload his truck to cleaning my room, my jar of pennies and dollars filled. I soon received my first baseball cap, my dad's. Then a bat, then a ball, then a glove. My bedroom walls still stayed pink but my insides stayed as brown as the "baseball sand."
"Kate! Come on!" It was the last day of seventh grade, and the warm California air rushed up my nose. My best friend Kate and I hopped into the trunk of my dad's Chevy. Our backpacks were smashed in the trunks corner, and I slid my glove onto my hand, gleaming. "Can you believe it's June?!" Kate watched me throw my ball into the air and catch it. . I laughed, "No, when are you leaving?" Kate was leaving for her "Dance Camp" ina week, I wondered what I would do without her. "Five days," she sighed, "But then we'll have the rest of the summer to play out on the field!" She caught the ball I was throwing and grinned. The "baseball sand" wouldn't be the same without her. Even if she was gone for just five days.
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