Chapter 8 - The Hang of Things
By the second term, everything had started to feel a little less scary. All my classes were in the same place, my teachers were manageable, I had friends to sit with at lunch, and Mr. Wilson already knew to call on Shawn if the class ever needed a laugh.
My morning routine was basically locked in-Yasmin and I would grab our orange juices from the canteen, meet up with Alfred under the tree, and unpack the drama from the day before like it was some kind of Netflix recap. We were so consistent, the canteen staff got worried if we missed a day.
Life at Aldania was starting to feel... normal. Maybe even a little good. I was slowly starting to get the hang of things.
Much like middle school, high school math had me confused at every assignment. As soon as I grasped a concept, the homework seemed to become completely impossible-like life was just playing in my face.
My math teacher, Mr. Wilaby, was no help either. At some point, I think I was just beyond help-and I'm pretty sure he noticed that.
I gave up on myself the moment math questions started including letters. At some point, X was just going to have to find itself.
For the first time in my life, I stopped making an effort in class. Just math, though. It seemed like I just wasn't going to get it. And honestly? I stopped caring. Because when you've tried and tried and you just don't get it, eventually, you give up.
It got so bad, I started writing "IDK" beside questions I couldn't understand-and I'm pretty sure it drove Mr. Wilaby absolutely crazy. Every time he walked past my desk, I'd feel his eyes on me like I was some kind of puzzle he couldn't quite solve. And honestly? I wasn't doing him any favors. But math and I? Yeah, we were never going to work out. Not in middle school, not in high school, not ever.
Mr. Wilaby, though? He was pretty cool about it. Unlike the other math teachers I'd had, he didn't push me to get it-just got a little disappointed when I didn't try. Unfortunately, that didn't really stop me, though. Math was simply not for me.
Mr. Wilson, in his late 60s, seemed like the older, more experienced version of Mr. Wilaby-who I'm pretty sure was in his early 30s at the time. His retirement was supposed to be this year, but he decided to stick around for the next five years until we left. That man had mastered the art of being unbothered. Both of them did, which made me wonder what kind of life they'd lived to be so... emotionally intelligent. If it meant I could have half their calm, I'd seriously consider walking through a storm.
Wilson's English class was an escape for me-especially since math wasn't going so well. I immersed myself in his assignments, bringing a hundred and ten percent into everything I did-and boy, was I good. I think he took a liking to me because of that, or perhaps it was just because I was the only one taking his class seriously.
At Aldania, it felt like everyone had this quiet hatred for English. Like, everything else was fine, but going to English class felt like a pain, no matter who the teacher was. Honestly, I couldn't blame them-because that's exactly how I felt about math. Like all the energy in my body drained away just thinking about even heading to class.
You'd think English with Mr. Wilson would mean great marks with the amount of effort I put in, but no. On the contrary, the bastard graded me the hardest out of-what I'm quite sure was-the entire year (since he didn't only teach my class). Every assignment barely passed, while students with half-done assignments surpassed my grades by far. I was miserable and absolutely outraged. But hey, this was high school-what can you do?
Despite his sour grading system toward me and my punctuation (which I hoped would turn out to be useful down the road), I didn't hate Mr. Wilson. You just couldn't. Plus, he was the man everyone had to call when they were in a pickle, so it was best not to have any bad blood. And simply put, he was a pretty nice guy all around.
Now, Mrs. Maclearen was my Integrated Science teacher. Not too old, yet not young either-like most of the teachers here. We didn't get many assignments from her, and honestly, we didn't learn much either. But on every assignment she did give, everyone in her class scored 100. And boy, did Yasmin, Alfred, and I love that.
Of course, later in our senior years, this would come back to haunt us. But I wasn't interested in any of the sciences as a final subject choice, so I would be fine. And the others? They managed well too.
Mrs. Maclearen's class was absolutely amazing. Nothing much took place, and no one outright caused any problems-just in case Mrs. Maclearen came to her senses and actually started grading us. There was a rumor going around, being spread by the seniors (of course), that she had mental health issues, but none of us actually believed that. Just that she was probably one of those teachers who only came to work for the paycheck-which was fine by me if it meant I scored 100 on every assignment.
I think maybe I thought of it as my fair share after Mr. Wilson snubbed me, because I didn't add a couple full stops and missed a few commas.
My other class teachers were quite typical. I had Mr. Astine for Spanish-he was a pretty funny guy and loved to make little jokes at us whenever we had an assignment to do. His favorite line was, "Have no fear, the paper is here," if we had a test and someone in the class was missing a test paper. Or sometimes he'd say, "Wait right there, the paper is near."
It's funny now that I think back on it. He really did make class as fun as possible-not just in first year but all throughout high school.
I had thirteen subjects in my junior years until I got to choose my final eight in senior year, so most of my teachers sort of became a blur. But there were moments that really stuck with me-like the ones with Mrs Crig. When we would just goof off if we didn't have class and all the girls would gist her on the latest In school gossip,who was dating who that kind of stuff .The woman was truly loved. and honestly I really respected her.
Because our school was deep in the country and students didn't usually stay after school, every Tuesday for the juniors was considered to be Activities Day-where we got to choose one extracurricular to take part in for the last two hours of school. While the seniors took extra math classes to help prepare for their exams. That was the one time since I started high school I actually pitied them. Our school took a while to get the list to first years so here we were second term.
This was my chance to join the Leo Club. It was this club made for community service and other stuff-it was the in-school version of the Lions Club, which was basically the same thing, just for affluent adults. I heard about it from my stepdad, and at first I was bummed because I was more interested in Drama, but I guessed it would look good on my future college applications in the next five years, so why not?
my time at school was going quite well!
First year had its drama, sure-but none of it touched us. so it was good, just watching from afar.
Outside of school though? Life was shifting.
My mom was now officially divorce from my dad and was getting married.
And honestly... I didn't know how I felt about it just yet.