Sunday, January 23, 2011

6th Grade Memoir: "Became a Cheesy Footwear"

This is a personal narrative I wrote when I was in Boston.
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Became a Cheesy Footwear

"Okay, so who wants to start an "elephant(telephone)"?" Katherine spoke enthusiastically. "Oo, I'll go!" She grabbed me immediately and started yelling in my ears; "PRISCILLA IS A NINCONPOOP! ISABELLE ALWAYS CALLS ME A NINCONPOOP, BUT I'M NOT A NINCONPOOP! REPEAT AFTER ME, KATH IS NOT A NINCONPOOP! KATH IS NOT A NINCONPOOP! WAIT, DON'T LEAVE ME UNI, DON'T LEAVE ME! AHHHHH! Okay, pass it on."
"O THAT’S A KNEESLAPPER!" Carrie shouted. “the shopping cart is ready for pick up in the katty’s weird head! Ha, ha, ha, ha!”
"O wow.. WHO VOTES FOR KATHERINE BEING A NINCONPOOP?" Isabelle screamed.
"Aye!"
"Agreed!"
"Roger that!"
"My hand is sooo up."
Sometimes it occurs to me that “Recess & Lunch” in our typical-everyday-6th-grade-schedule should be renamed to “Chaos & Chatters”. No one in 6th grade enters the cafeteria at 12:05 thinking: let’s eat; yet they enter thinking: let’s talk. Let’s get loud. Let’s get mentally crazy.
Talking is not bad at appropriate times. It is in fact a great way to socialize. Who doesn’t want to have fun? We are still kids― we could get crazy however we want and no one would blame us. Where I usually sit at lunch with my friends; Katherine, Carrie, Priscilla and Isabelle―we are beyond wacky. Our own bizarre, kinetic version of “telephone” (which we renamed to “elephant”) is our favorite lunch game ever. But some people might just get too crazy....

“Like a rock, Ha Ha,”
oh.. not that again…
“you must be hard! Ha Ha!”
ugh.
Like an Oak, you must stand firm!”
will you please be quiet?
“Come quick, like my blade. Think fast, Ha Ha, unafraid.”
WHEN WILL THIS EVER END?


It was Monday after the April vacation; the day you see all of your pals’ tanned faces. At lunch, Watson was singing― no, screaming― Lesson Number One from Mulan 2; which has been stuck in his head for at least two weeks.
Watson (also known as Watty) makes a hilarious classmate. I can best describe him as a humanized Brobdingnagian bubble of ironic qualities. He loves to dance with every parts of his body and swing his enormously long arms, which always end up accidentally whacking someone. Watson also loves to make weird, silly and obnoxious noises such as; ‘shaneha!’, ‘she-neh-neh!’ and ‘kheeeeeeeeeeekkk!’ I know I like to have some fun with him by poking him, giving him friendly slaps, and arguing with him over ridiculous things.
Monday at noon; after I have played a nutty round of the game “Monkey in the Middle” and entered the cafeteria, Kalyani gestured me to sit with her. I sat down at her table, which was located right next to where Jonas, Scout, Jesse B., Watson, and Valeria were sitting. Watson was screaming, as usual. Typically, everyone just make a face when they hear his scream during lunch. We are used to his insanity. He usually calms down once we throw in some laughter.
But not this particular day. No matter how much his lunch buddies laughed for him, Watson could not stop being a maniac. I wish I could recall the exact words he was yelling out; but unfortunately, my hands were over my ears. This is what I roughly remember:

"SO I WAS IN THE CRUISE, AND THESE CREEPY LOOKING LADIES WITH BRAIDED HAIIIR-"
I turned around, "Watty, can you PLEASE be quiet? I can't hear Kalyani!"
"AND THEY WERE LIKE COMING TOWARDS MEEEE-"
"Ugghhhhh please Watson! Shut it!"
"AND THEY WERE LIKE," he chortled. "'CAN I BRAID YOUR HAIIR? YOUR HAIR"S SO LOOOONG'" he chortled even louder. "WHAT THE HEY? NEXT TIME YOU GO TO A PLACE LIKE THAT YOU HAVE TO BRING PEPPERSPRAY..."
Then finally, for the goodness of every god ever worshiped on earth, Watson paused. I sighed and turned to Kalyani, "Okay, the world's in peace again, phew!"

"Like a rock, Ha Ha!"

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

What is UP with him?, I thought furiously. Is he really just completely ignoring every single thing I'm saying? Or is he too busy listening to his own voice? Why can't he comprehend my annoyance? Why, why, why, why, why?
I rolled my eyes. I felt an urge that I needed to do this. I needed to quiet him down; for the love of god, and my suffering eardrum. If Watson can just give me 3 seconds, I would ask him to shush; and maybe, I could finish my nice, conversational lunch with Kalyani. I moved my chair towards Watson and poked him. He stretched his arm in front of my face and yelled out, "O-BLISKE!!!!!"
I let out another sigh. "Watson... English please." Of course, he wouldn't mind my poke at all; I've been poking him for nearly two years! No use whatsoever.
I sat thinking, unconsciously playing with my feet....my feet.... Wait a minute! That's it! I looked down at my purple pair of Nike sneakers with bright green Converse shoelaces.
My right foot jerked my shoe off and hung it on my instep. I will fling this shoe, I thought. I would fling it gently, and make it hit Watson's chair. No, even better; his arms! That would certainly get his attention. I spoke to Kalyani, "Look, ready? Watch."
I was thrilled. I have never flung anything in school except for a pencil. But I was ready to take this risk. After all, it was "Chaos & Chatters" time.
I breathed out my excitement and gave a kick. The shoe flew away from my foot and shot high up in the air! Wait... wait.... HIGH UP IN THE AIR? O, no, no, no, no, no! That wasn't supposed to happen! My shoe was spinning in the air as if it had wings. There was no way I could stop it. I wished I could freeze the time and grab my stupid, stupid shoe back from the cafeteria midair. My purple shoe kept spinning and spinning until it slowly lost its speed. My hands that were covering my ears now covered my eyes. They moved down to my mouth as my putrid shoe landed; thump― right on Jonas Webblers' blue plastic lunch tray.
Everyone except Jonas burst into a boisterous laughter. We also turned pink, but I am pretty sure I was purple. and I am also sure, from the stupefied look on Jonas' face, that he was cursing my ruthlessly skillful shoe that polluted his mac&cheese. In his head, he was probably cussing it, and me, with the every swear word he could ever find in his 12-year-old vocabulary. I yelled out a “sorry” to him, still cracking up like a maniac. Lizzie came up to me from two tables away and coughed out, “That was funny.” I couldn’t agree more. I rambled myself to Jonas’ table and picked up my evil shoe, which now had a cheesy heel. I left the cafeteria frantically as Watson spoke out, “what the shaneha?”

In the afternoon that Monday I could not stop thinking, talking, or laughing about my bizarre shoe incident. My shock was clear in my mind even after 5:29 P.M.; when Jesse B. and I chatted on Gmail:

Jesse: hello
me: hey
Jesse: sup?
me: just finished my math
Jesse: me 2
i still have 2 do ss
me: same
Jesse: yaaaaa
me: i have to write thnk u note
Jesse: yup
me: wahh
wathappened in lunch was funny
Jesse: o ya!!
me: haha ya
Jesse: haha
me: hahah
Jesse: jonas was all lyk r u f*^#$in serious
me: HAHAHAHA
im cracking up
haa
Jesse: goof job
me: y thnk ya
goof job
hahah
Jesse: jonas was the only 1 not laffin
me: ikr!!!
i felt so bad
HAHAH
Jesse: i didnt
me: HAHAH
was he still eating
Jesse: ya
me: hahah
LOL
Jesse: it landed on the last prt of his mac nd chess
cheese
me: HAAAAAAAAAAAaa
omg
haha
Jesse: how do u even do tht??
me: i tried 2 hit watty 2 make him b quiet but i flung it 2 hard
n high
Jesse: y wud u hit watty??
thts evil!

There I startled. I thought of that for few seconds, trying to think of what to say. Why was I trying to hit Watson? Because I wanted him to be quiet? Yes. Then why did I want him to be quiet? Well, because I was annoyed by his screams; sure. But then again, why was I annoyed by Watson at “Chaos & Chatters” time? Everyone else wasn’t. They were enjoying Watson’s lunacy. He was an entertainment for them.
I honestly, positively, didn’t mean to make that outlandish shoe fling and smother the innocent one’s lunch. But it happened, “accidently on purpose.” That phrase always seem to fit me perfectly. Sometimes, my actions lead to outraging accidents. I remember one time last year in 5M, I flung a pencil to Arthur who was feverously annoying me, but instead it flew 18 feet away across the classroom and hit Nathan who was 100% innocent. I also remember last year during lunch, Aleks threw a gross, suffocated cheese stick on my tray, so I threw it back at him with lodes of anger―but disastrously, it hit Ms. D’Amore the school nurse instead. Those are the times my palms sweated the most― rather horrid experiences, but hilarious to remember. And now that I think about it, before all those accidents happened (including my bizarre shoe fling) I was upset. I did what I did because I was irritated. Maybe that is the reason I screw up sometimes. When a person is miffed― they lose patience. Once they have lost their patience, they lose control. And when they have lost their control, they get in trouble. I know how spastic and easily annoyed I am. When I’m annoyed, I do whatever I think is right; but sometimes things go extreme and mistakes happen. Mostly they are laughable― but never for everyone. After all, Jonas was the poor victim of my flying shoe.
What I need to know is how to stay calm and amiable. I need to delay my anger, save up my patience, and not be too peppery or irascible. Watson is my “frienemy” (friend + enemy). Even though we like to annoy each other, I shouldn’t be irritated by his craziness. When Watson goes bonkers―He’s not trying to bother anyone at all. Insanity is what makes him Watty. I guess on that Monday, April 26th, I completely forgot who and what he was. And now that I reminded myself, hopefully I wouldn’t have to wear the smell of cheese ever again.

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