Morning came earlier then it normally did. The sun rose higher in the sky as morning rolled on. I woke up first at five trying to make since of a dream I had that night. No matter how I tried I couldn't get back to sleep this morning. I remember lying in my bed staring at the walls looking at the panic ness of my walls. They were conferring yet disturbing. They were my wall what do you expect? It was Friday November 21, 2002 when it started. To bad it wouldn't end till late February. My group of friends is one of a kind. While I starred off into space my eyes landed on the pictures taped to the dresser next to me. I looked over how innocent we were when those pictures were taken. There was still hope in Rory and Mel's eyes. David didn't still have all that pain. My eyes were bright crystal blue. They were really pretty. I actually liked my eyes then. Soon enough my alarm clock went off at six. I didn't wait around till 6:30 when dad started to move. I got dressed in a pair of baggy pants and a light blue shirt. Morning was always uneventful. Go down stairs, turn TV on to MTV and plug in coffee. I never normally ate breakfast but I did that morning. Pop tarts, the worlds best morning sugar rush. Lucky for me, the sugar wouldn't kick in till after I got to school.
Rory arrived around 6:55 right after our favored Creed song came on. It was their new one called "Don't Stop Dancing" it was a really good song. I had hoped it would be an omen that nothing bad would happen this weekend. How wrong I was. Rory's mom picked me up smiling and Rory was already hyper. She had a full breakfast that morning. Bacon, eggs, hot cakes and Orange Juice, everything needed for a full day of energy. Boy was that a ploy for the American Heart Accusation. Anyway, her smile was so pretty that morning, maybe it had to do with I was still asleep, or maybe because we were still innocent at that point. Rory is one of those hyper girls who gets' hyper on water� maybe that's why we don't give her water? She was so excited about going into Philly for her first JSA convention. JSA is the Jr. States of America, AKA, the debate club. In our school, it's not un-cool to be in the debate club. In fact, we have a reputation at these conventions, were feared. Not because were so good but because were so weird. My friends are who get us known, and my brother has almost gotten us kicked out.
We arrived at school to be greeted by our friend David. Dave and I were planning something to go off while we were there. I think we were going to sell Dan into prostitution again. Maybe something to do with light sabers. I don't remember our plan but we were forbidden to do anything stupid. I walked in carrying my duffle bag and laptop. People were surly looking at me for the laptop. Or maybe because its just me. We walked over to the 'red wall' and just hung out well into first block when our adviser arrived. Being who we were, Rory and I had Creed playing on my laptop while getting weird looks by the JSA officers: Mike, Ed, Kris, Maddie and John. Maddie and Ed are pretty much friends with me. I have Gym with Maddie while Ed and I go back. Mike and I never got along with each other. I think I had an easier time with Raft who hit on me at Spring State. That was fun. Although nothing over dramatic happened there but it was still fun. I still maintain Raft is an asshole but it doesn't matter since he went away to college and is no longer here. Mel arrived late and greeted me with her normal run at me and bounces off bit. Her hair was down and was hanging free. Her glasses were kind of tilted. Mel and Rory were happy to see each other but I could tell something was wrong with Mel, she seemed as if she was running. I didn't know at that time what she was running from but I would find out by tomorrows sunrise. When Ms. Bacon got there we were spread out as if we were having a small party. She smiled at us and laughed. Then gave some speech about how we should be on our best behavior and not do anything stupid. I sat there and listened as half her comments were directed towards my group of friends. Dan Gaylord, AKA Gaylord, stood behind Ms. Bacon and made faces at David, Rory and I. He acted innocent when Ms. Bacon turned around. It was kind of like those old cartoons where some guy would be giving this important speech and there was an ass hole behind them mocking them and making faces. After giving up on Gaylord, Ms. Bacon lead us out to the two yellow limonene, that's right, we went in style to Philly in two big yellow school buses. Nothing like Winter State 2002: a party bus and a white limo. That was fun.
On the bus ride there I sat in the last seat on the two person side alone and pulled out my laptop and a whole bunch of papers with information on Stem Cell research. Not my favorite topic. Working on my speech only lasted a few minuets. Dan and Dave started doing stupid stuff. Making signs saying things like:
If you want a good time call Tammy at (what ever Dan's Cell Phone # is)
Don't you want a big piece of Dan's meat?
JSA isn't just for geeks any more
Fall State or Bust
There were more signs and a few of them had Dan's cell phone number on them. The phone did ring once but it was just someone in the front of the bus asking us how we got the papers up in the window if we didn't have any tape. Chap stick. All I have to say. I took a few pictures on the bus. Dave kept pushing himself in front of the camera. It quickly became a really bad running gage. Come to think of it, that roll of film is still in the bottom of my computer bag. Maybe I should get it developed sooner or later� maybe. Wait, where's my computer bag?
When we finally entered Philly we circled around the city for a while. There were some low dark fluffy clouds in the sky. Some of the skyscrapers looked as if they went into the heavens. I think I have a picture of that somewhere. We passed this Anti War Protest. Maddie would have gone and joined up if she could. They were protesting the whole Middle East (soon to be full out) War. I most likely would have gone with Maddie, come to think of it. We got to the hotel around 1:30. Not bad, considering we left at 10 and it takes like an hour and a half to get to Philly normally. By now you can tell that I'm a very sarcastic person. Even if I don't say everything aloud, the sarcasm is there. Anyway back to the Fall State saga. When we pulled up to the hotel Ms. Bacon started talking again. She went on and on and on about something. I made some snide comments to Mel, David, Dan or Rory about what Ms. Bacon just said. No big deal. When we stepped off the bus Dave started hacking. We asked him what was wrong he just looked at us and said in a serious and 'sick' voice. "Fresh air." We smiled as we went and grabbed our bags. I had my green duffle bag. I hate to say it but that duffle bag has gone through hell with me. I abuse it so much. It had seems are being held together by good old duct tape. What would I do with out it? I would probably use the blue one.
Most of us had duffle bags, but a few of us over packed and had suitcases. I don't know what they would have in theses bags, in my duffle bag I have a 3 pairs of pants, a skirt, some shirts and a few other things needed for a trip of course I had a few other things but come on, who doesn't have that stuff. Nothing big. I don't pack as if I'm going to go die that weekend� ok that was a bit extreme but you get the picture� I hope.
After we dropped off our bags to the room where we were dropping off stuff we went off to lunch. The only thing we were told was to stay on the main street that we were on where their were five Burger King type joints. I turned to Dave and asked where the best deli was around here.
"Its off in the crack district you up for going out there?" he asked back to my question. I smiled and nodded. You have to remember that we were just told not to go off into the crack district or anything like that. Lunch was lunch nothing big. I'm not going to go into detail about it because I don't remember where we went after that. Sure we stopped by Tower Records and some where else. But I don't really remember where we went.
After we checked in with Ms. Bacon we were aloud to go out again just as long as we were back by dinner time so we could check in once again. I asked one of my friends, Janna, if she wanted to go out and find an all hours coffee place. Because we had this habit of being up at five AM and ready to go out and do something. No to mention we needed to find a coffee place so when we went city hopping we could stop by and get a good cup of Joe.
Think of it this way. We are two teenage girls in Philly for a weekend, were going to need some coffee. Not to mention that were told we had to be in by dark so we could go out to dinner as a group we didn't make dinner. Come on think about it, would you let your two High School Students who are friends with a bunch of kids who are kind of crazy go out and do stuff? Nope. Anyway, we found this nice little caf?bout three blocks away from where we were staying. We found this great little all hours diner. That had the good old music and everything was right about it. I think it was called the Mid Town Diner. It wasn't hard to find a coffee place in our area of town it was just finding a good one where the people where nice. And it was just a good place to hang out at five AM. It wasn't that we were up to no good its just we were up to know good. Aren't we good little hellions?
Ms. Bacon loved it when we didn't show up for dinner. But we did call and said to her were going to be late were at the far end of Main street. Which was a lie. She told us to hurry back quickly. She wanted us back in a half hour. We lucked out, the next subway ran right to the hotel and the next train was in five minuets.
Once we got back Ms. Bacon said we were early. If we were three minuets later Ms. Bacon was going to start the timer. For how many hours of community serious we were going to have to do. It wasn't uncommon for Ms. Bacon to give us Community Serious for screwing up. Don't we have the best adviser? She's so fair. She keeps us under lock and key at some of these conventions. She gives us more jail yard time at Fall and Spring State then she does at Winter State. That might have something to do with my brother.
Anyway at JSA chapter dinner we were told a bunch more rules and regulations that were going to be put into effect. No one was listening. No one ever listens to the rules. Its just the same old song and dance with this group, Dan, Dave, Rory, Mel and I were making snide comments to each other about random things. Dan and Mel made perverted ones about Rory and Dave since the two of them were going out at the time. And I was just there listening to everything they were saying. I made response comments just to set things straight in the normal tone. This was dinner, we had fun, of course we did shoot our straw wrappers at each other just because we were friends. It was the best of times. It was the weirdest of times. Everything that Ms. Bacon told us had something coming from one of the kids around me. Things were funny when Mike started talking to us.
"Okay guys, I know were all here to have fun and debate, but I would like to stress that you don't need to hook up with anyone out side this chapter. There are plenty of good guys or girls you can go hook up with." I raised my hand at this point. "Yes what's your question." He said annoyed.
"Where? You said there were good guys in this chapter, all the good ones left last year and left these children in their places." I just casually stated.
"Good riddance to those seniors." Then he continued softly with his sermon. No one listened to him. The seniors last year were awesome, they always got into trouble and made the best comments during the Debates. Everyone knew those idiots were smart but no one will see how smart they are until the day when Najam is President and my brother is his vice. Now that I think of it, I think that was the first time I ever listened to him. After we got back to the hotel, we were told we had to stay in our rooms until morning. My room sat up and watched Disney shows. It was funny. A bunch of High School Students sat there and watched Disney shows. It was great. Well nothing else happened that weekend. Therefore, I will not bore you with the details of debates and the drama that I should remember. However, for now I bid you good night and sleep tight. And you should wait till my next diary entry to find out what happened on the second and third days of Fall State 2002. But some of us forget that we all see things differently, I'm not sure if the people who lived this with me will remember it like I do.
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