Homecoming
Monday off of school! W00t!
Honestly, though, I'm bored out of my skull. Yup.
Homecoming, 2006
School was amazingly laid back the whole week. Kids dressed up for every day and I couldn't find the spirit to join in. The shirts were messed up for several classes, '07 and '09 especially, but only because they are the first batch. Our new principal seems to morph faces every time I look at him. The pep rally was a lot better than I'm used to, even though the younger students acted out towards the end, doing the exact same thing that got REAL rallies cancelled in our school to begin with.
On Friday I actually went out! After a few tries, Tammy and her sister Steph worked up a time to pick me up. We spent the next hour trying to fight our way through traffic to make it to Memorial Stadium (which is now named after something else, but it'll always be Memorial to me) in time for First Quarter. As it was, we made it just in time for half time, or something close to it.
It was our homecoming night and I'd be damned if I didn't make to at least that game. Granted it was around 40 degrees at the time, but I'd been to enough games as a civilian to realize long johns and a sweat shirt under my letter jacket wouldn't go amiss. So, I was comfortable enough to enjoy what little of the game I could see through the rude underclassmen who seemed to go deaf everytime violet_blues and the others asked them to sit down. Or move. Or stop getting in our way, because there was no need for everyone to stand up just because they felt the need to. To avoid that, I took Steph up on her offer whenever she recognized a song the band was playing and she'd grin and go, "Dance with me, Sasha!"
There wasn't that much dancing though, because soon Tammy got hungry and we left to wait in the long line for food. Nick: I don't know what caught my eye (maybe Marilyn) but I recognized something about him. On the way, I met Risha and we squealed loud enough to hear eachother over the din. I haven't seen her since her graduation and she was looking for familiar faces: I told her a few other alumnists were sitting closer to the band (where I wanted to be but didn't feel like moving towards after my other five seat switches) and that I loved her hair. Then, as we were chatting, Tammy gave me a look and I was just aware enough to not scream and stomp on whoever was hugging me from behind. It was a guy, I surmised, and a really tall one at that; I thought: Oh, it must be one of my brothers, B-ball maybe. Risha didn't seem to recognize him though, so that threw my theory out the window.
"Um, hi." I said to the hands at my collar bones. Then, I mouthed "Who is it?" to Risha and anyone else who was looking my way, but she was too busy being proud of me: "Is that your boyfriend?"
Tammy coughed.
By that time, the voice above my crown had responded and I still didn't recognize it, so I looked up into their nostrils. The view didn't help at all.
It was Drew. I blinked, took it in stride and introduced everyone.
When Tammy and I had gotten up to the counter, a fight broke out. I only know this because of the fifty-ish eager kids who glanced just past my shoulder and then ran for it. Not away from it, but straight towards it. I sighed, thinking, as Tammy muttered, more for me. The line was gone.
I glanced several times towards the mob of screaming bubble jackets and skimpy skirts, but I couldn't answer the cashier when they asked who it was. I guessed a girl and a girl, as we all knew better than to rush towards a guy fight. No one gets that hype over them, because they're rarely ever that entertaining.
The stands had emptied a bit by then, and the explanation was: "there was a fight up there. They all left." The rude underclassmen from before had left as well, or sat down. Vi and the crew seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I spent most of the game trying not to look towards the alumni, because that made me want to go hug them, but also because I'd have to answer The Question: "Why aren't you playing, Nony?" So, I caught the eyes I could and hugged the people who got caught in my section of the audience, and Steph kept chuckling because the guy up a few steps from us really was drunk and wanted everyone to know about it. The rest of the time, I was trying to figure out what was going on with the game, but couldn't stick to it, so I listened to the bands.
Redan was, as usual, large and blue, but maybe something really had changed in the last year. Or maybe I have. All the same, I don't remember them, evereverever, being so obnoxiously rude to us (Stephenson) before; it's something I expect from South West or even, I dunno, Columbia, but not them. In my memory bank, they have always been one of the bands I could actually admire, if only for musicality. This time, from across the stadium, they were loud and brassy and off. The whole time, they pulled the I'm-going-to-play-the-loudest-I-can-so-you-can-hear-every-loop-I-throw-in-to-draw-the-song-out-for-as-long-as-possible.
SHS, on the other hand, was a lot bigger than I'd expected. They were, for lack of a better word, quiet. It never hit me before how Render's Quality speech impacted the sound; it used to urk the seniors a few years ago, the whole "it'll carry, it'll stick" theory, and I can see why now. I could barely hear them and I was only right there. The selections weren't what I'd have expected from the band of a few years ago. Maybe that's just because I'm comparing and the revamping is still in effect, but I hope they know what they're doing.
Half time was the Court's time to shine. Every candidate was ushered in a car, dressed in their finest suits, escorted onto the field and announced by Render. No one heard most of what they said, due mainly to the return of Rude Underclassmen.
The king turned out to be Terrance. I'm not sure who the Queen was. I know, bad me. I was rooting for Kelvon and Sedek.
Chance was Mr. Poetry, which seemed fitting. Angel was Miss ROTC, go her! Jackie was Miss Band, Tony Mister. Paul won something, but I couldn't read his banner.
After we won (17/3?), Steph decided it was time to go.
Her car wouldn't start and the police weren't going to help us jump the car. After several ideas were bumped off, it was decided we'd wait for their mom to pick us up and drop me off before they went to Walmart to get a jumper cable. In the meantime, Tammy and I waited in the car while Steph braved the mob to find help; mostly, though, she stood outside talking to her friends on the phone in the hopes that someone would see the hood up and come over. Apparently, something went down and no one took notice of our plight, much too preoccupied with the helicopter circling the parking lot.
It was loud and the spot light hit our spit at least ten times before its search widened and, eventually, left our area of the stadium all together. That, on top of the police, made Steph sure that locking us in her alarmed car was the right thing to do, though she completely ignored my argument about the redundency of her being outside at the same time all the drama was happening. Tan left before any of this happened.
The ride home was fun, as Tammy's family is very animated and warm. They loved mom's cookies. I was dead tired though, and stayed up on the computer until 2 am, because there's a difference between Tired and Sleepy. Actually, though there was nothing to do on the computer, I stayed on because it took forever for it to accomplish anything--something's wrong.
I spent the rest of the morning trying to figure out why TiVo chose this week to develop a selective memory and record things I had already seen while messing with the titles of things just to get my hopes up. I fell asleep on my parent's couch and woke up to my dad asking me where I put the remote.
The night out was exactly what I needed, albeit the reason I'm sick at the moment. Thanks Tammy, Steph; thanks Vi, you saved the week.
Next week: SENIOR Night