UIL. Didn't win anything. Fun, nonetheless, like a school trip, but eating into my weekend. Still, it all took place when I normally would have been asleep.

It was still dark when I was waiting for the bus. I watched the sky grow light while listening to Aqualung, which is always nice. Gladdy had all of Richard III to read. Zaib had only read 50 out of 400 odd pages of Devil in the White City. Turned out the essay was on the book, not the actual Gilded Age. One of the teachers made cupcakes for everyone, which was great except for the fact that I dropped mine, and got icing in my hair.

SB got bored of pretending to work and whined about being hungry so we gave in and went to Jack in the Box for breakfast an hour before the science test (I was standing in for a friend). Fucking risked my life four times crossing roads. The boys nonchalantly walked among the cars while my new friend, Rachel and I screamed and ran like malcos after waiting for ten minutes for the pedestrian lights to not change. Apparently it was the most humiliating thing I've ever done. At least I'm alive! Got a kid's meal with a lip thing that you blow. Not sure what its point is, but amusing nonetheless. There was a blue Golf practically waiting for me in the school car park � I took it as a lucky omen. The chips were already soggy and crap from the little traffic adventure. I gave most it to Stephanie and spilt Sprite over myself.

The science test was a joke; I didn't know any biology and chemistry (skipped a third of the questions). Everyone left after an hour and I stayed for nearly one more � leaving second last. When I got out, people were already heading for maths � The Reason for My Being There. So I went back to wait outside where I just got out from, got bored and ran away to the toilet. It was palatial compared to the low-doored disaster in my school. All in pink and smelled of vanilla! The coup de grace was the primary school hand-washing thing that looks a bit like a semi-circular fountain: impractical but pretty.

The people we sat next to in Maths were old pros. We panicked over their overheard conversation. In hindsight, they probably did this to intimidate novices like us:

"Last year in the UIL regionals, no one got less than twenty� oh yeah, I didn't know the atomic radius, so I worked it out from the atomic density of copper!"

"Me too! High five!"

Boffins. They got to the end and had time to check answers. I did about 15 out of 60! Fortunately, it was marked +6 for correct answers and only �2 for incorrect ones, no penalty for skipped questions, so I skipped them as though my life depended on it. Very clever, except I should have done the last page first as it was full of stuff we've been learning in Pre-Cal.

I didn't even get to exit dramatically because I was too busy doing the test, so as you can imagine, a lot of rage was bottled up. I was about to drag SB off to MacDonald's when our history teacher said that it's not allowed anymore because too many children get run over. "Oh no, of course we didn't go to Jack in the Box and buy food at nine thirty, braving the rage of motorists with fast, big trucks�"

So we swapped music players; I got the short end of the deal, evidently: iPod v. sensitive discman with the new Blink 182 album, acclaimed as it is� *rolls eyes* The one with the high voice, I can't take his singing seriously. The other one with the low voice is quite funny as well. I keep laughing at "I miss you, miss you." They're being strangely serious in that single. Where's the immaturity and bestiality?

After hours of trying to avoid disappointment by ignoring award ceremonies, we got back on the bus. Zaib was upset so SB nagged me to do the "touchy-feely girl thing". I'm an insensitive bitch and find these things Difficult to the Extreme. However, I tried my best after being beaten* in arm wrestling. I wanted it to be sincere and heartfelt, nothing like "are you ok? (Please get better because you're no fun like this)"

iPod is giving and giving. Perhaps My Baby is immune to Dirty Secrets? Perhaps it's because the clicker was turned off (which makes navigating in the dark impossible)?

Convinced a girl that SB and I were twins, albeit for a split second, stupid deaf boy.

*By "beaten", I mean: "having shoulder dislocated".

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th since 5th october 2001