Junior high school was not much different than elementary since it was the same school; just another part of the building. The cafateria was the same and so was the library and office.
They tried to make it different by having more than one class. But most of the teachers we knew from elementary school who had gone up to junior high school now. Our principal also changed since Mr Shirley left. The new principal was Mr. Fordyce. He looked mean, but could be nice sometimes. We had a nice councelor. The nurse was the same one and the aides were also the same ones. The bus drivers and janitors never changed either. We had homemaking with Mrs. Schaffer. English teacher was Mrs. Rossy, Science teacher was Schaffer, Math was Mr. Eastwood, History was Mrs. Helms, and Shop teacher was Mr. Drazel. We also had a music teacher Mrs. Brown but she died early that year of a brain tumer. We also had a typing teacher, Mrs. Jordon.
I had Mrs. Rossy as my 3rd grade teacher also. She was the one who would bother Janie the most about me talking. Sometimes I think the teachers had a bet going to see who could make me talk first.
I hated typing of all the classes we had. I did not want to type. I was too embarassed to do things in front of anyone. I knew I could not really put my fingers on the home keys and keep them there without looking at them. I always felt that if I knew that I could not do something, why try? She kept sending me to the office because I would not participate. What could the principal do but talk to me and send a note home to my parents. What could my parents do but sign it and send it back. I did not get encouraged to try. They just did not have time to talk to us about our grades or about our school work. They looked at our report cards and signed them. I always had A and B's anyway. So what if I did not talk in class or participate in things I knew I was unable to do. I knew everything else. So life went on that way in school.
Mrs. Jordon was replaced by Mrs Malory. Now she was mean. I was afraid of her. Mrs. Jordon went to teaching the special-ed kids. Our English teacher was still Mrs. Rossy all through junior high and through high school. Mr. Eastwood left and was replaced by a new teacher, Mrs. Hunter. She was a nice but could be mean also when she got upset. Mrs. Shaeffer got married and became Mrs. Dial. She took over teaching Science plus she still taught homemaking. Mrs. Helms left and was replaced by a new teacher, Mrs. Churchill. Our councelor was now Mr. Bellos He was a stricted man. Our shop teacher left and we got Mr. Freeze.
Junior high was like elementary in the fact that our school was listed as an elementary school so we still had Santa visit the school and had a party with cookies and punch. Cathy, Janie and I would make fun of ourselves by acting like kids when we were going into the caferteria. I don't know why they just didn't exclude us from this embarassing party each year. Santa's elves were our age and they would look at us with pity. Sometimes Janie, Cathy and I would scare them by acting how they expected us to act. We would bark, meow and say I am going to bite you and then we three would break up laughing. I guess we were being rebellious to the fact that we wanted to be treated as regular teens. We did all we could to stay away from this Santa. But we had to go line up for he would give everyone a gift. I guess laughing through it was our way of knowing that this was silly.
Junior high was hard for me because of the added pressure to talk in class. I also realized that we were going to be combined with the 6th graders and James would be in our class. I still had a huge crush on him. I wanted him to like me, and was afraid that if I did not talk in class that he would think I was odd. I thought if maybe I started talking that he would maybe start liking me. So I got up the courage in 7th grade during History with our new teacher Mrs. Helms to read in class when I was called on. I think it shocked everyone. I felt like I was going to faint, but I finished and put my head down on the table. I did not know if I was relief or embarassed. I think it was all over the school after lunch. Mrs Rossy kept me after class for she wanted to talk to me. She asked me why I had talked to Mrs Helms and not to her. I think she felt bad that she had tried for so long and never could get me to say one word. Mrs. Helms was new and I did not feel pressured. As a matter of fact she told me that she would not ask me to read until I was ready. I did not think it was such a big deal and I still did not talk much. I only read once in awhile and answered questions when I felt like it. The stress of growing up started to affect me but I did not know it then. I was trying too hard to be accepted that I was trying hard to be less shy in school. Things did not get better though and James still did not see me more than just a friend, a classmate. He liked a girl name Linda. I was so upset that he was now going with someone.
During the 8th grade, a new guy came to our school. He rode on the same school bus that I rode in. I thought maybe he would like me, since it seemed to me that everyone had someone who liked them. I don't even know why I wanted so much to be important to someone. I just knew that I felt so unloved at times. He talked to me a few times on the bus although I never said a word to him. He seemed to like me, but I was not too sure if he was just being nice, since he seemed to be nice to everyone. Some called him the last of the boy scouts since he had great manners. He was not like the other guys in our school who did not even know what manners were. But others also liked him including Linda the one who had won James. I felt as though I would be competing again with the same person and with others. What happened that year is still confusing to me. One day he came up to me out of the blues and asked me to go around with him. Yep that was what we called going steady. I shook my head no since I was too shock to respond any other way. I felt so dumb about it afterwards and went into the girls room where I had seen Janie go into minutes earlier. I had to tell her. I needed some advice. She asked me if I liked him that I should have said yes. But I already had said no. So after lunch I decided to follow him to his locker. He wanted to know what I wanted. I felt so stupid that I did not know what to say. He wanted to know if I had changed my mind. I nodded and that was that.
But things did not go to well. There were too many girls after him and flirting with him. Linda and James broke up so now she was flirting with him also. I did not like her at all. She was the one girl that I felt Joe would fall for. I did not like having to hear everyone telling me that he was talking to her. I did not like to see him in the hall with her. I was so jealous of her that it made my life so miserable. Each time I would get upset or hurt because he was talking to someone, I would break up with him. But he always talked me into taking him back or I would feel like if I did not go back to him, I would end up alone.
My life became revolved around him. I became so stressed and I wanted to make sure that he would only love me. I think being young and feeling the way I did made me go into depression and confusion. I did not understand anything about what was happening to me, emotionally or physically.
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