RELUCTANT PRESS

THE MISHAP

BY JENNIFER SUE

Miss Werner room 234

Nicholas Sabatini

English Composition grade 12, section c

JOURNAL OF MY SENIOR YEAR

Journal Entry: September 15, 1997

Today Miss Werner assigned us to keep a journal of our experiences and thoughts for the entire year. We all groaned and complained--well almost all of us. Cynthia Mathers giggled with delight. But then, we all expect that kind of reaction from Cynthia, Little Miss Prim and Proper, not to mention she's really into spirituality and that New Age junk like reading auras.

If this journal covered the last two years, I could record some juicy details about Cynthia. After all, she has been my next door neighbor for as long as I can remember. I actually used to play house with her before we started kindergarten!

Of course, that was before I knew that boys didn't play house or play with dolls. But I learned real quick! It took most of kindergarten and a lot of fights to prove that I wasn't a sissy!

Well, back to the assignment. Miss Werner gave us each a blank log book in which to keep our journal. She bought them herself. They're bound in real leather, with a locking zipper to close them, so we know they aren't cheap. She made the log sound like fun. Maybe the older kids were right when they said she's a good teacher... if you listen to

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TWO LITTLE GIRLS

By JENNIFER SUE

her. But they warned us she would be our worst nightmare if we acted up in class or didn't do our assignments. We're supposed to take our journal with us everywhere and write in it whenever we feel the urge, or at least once every day.

She said she'll check our logs every Friday, not for content, but just to see that we are writing an entry for every day. She expects one of us, chosen at random, to do a five minute-reading from our journal every week. Otherwise, what we write is only for us. It sounds kind of neat, and the older kids said she doesn't read what we write. The journal, daily entries and our readings, will count one third of our grade for the whole year!

The rest of my classes and teachers are a drag!

Even P.E. is a hassle. Mr. Wagner is the wrestling coach, and all he does is drive us to join the team. Anyone who doesn't is scum and he makes them run laps.

Higher Algebra? Well, forget geometry! Mr. Jenkins is such a nerd! Math is his ENTIRE life!

Advanced Biology is a drag. Mr. Williams makes us dissect all the time. That formaldehyde really stinks! Then, to make it worse he carries around a syringe filled with it and squirts us if we don't behave like angels!

Economics is a bore; who cares about micro-whatever? Mr. Kline is just a wimpy jerk who sends us to the office if we don't pay attention.

We have to take a foreign language, so naturally I took the easiest. No, NOT Spanish where half the kids are Puerto Rican or Mexican! As for German, forget it! Most of us think Mr. Schwitzer is an ex-Nazi! French class is the easiest of the languages because no one except the dumb French speak it.

Mr. Drew teaches French, he's an all-right guy. He's 28, and all the girls just drool over him. They come to class dressed to impress him, and he flirts with them and teases them. The guys he ignores as long as we're quiet.

One benefit of French is the girls wear short skirts and tight clothes to impress Mr. Drew.

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