02 - Working On The Project

          Presently, it is the Saturday following when we were assigned the project. I planned on waking up early today to do things like finish my essay, and make it look like it's actually one full page long, not to mention cleaning my room. I actually meant to clean it yesterday night, but for whatever reason, I spent the time on the Internet. It's almost 10:30, and they should come over at 11:15, so I'll spend 5 minutes allotting my time via sticky note:

I have 40 minutes.

Elongate essay  10min.   10Min.

Get dressed       10min.   4Min.

Clean room       20min.   10Min.

Edit essay          15min.   10Min.

Eat breakfast     5min.     3Min.

          Well, the first time I guessed how long said activity would take, and then... made necessary realistic changes. I also included much needed a 3 minute cushion.

          To elongate my essay, I made the left and right side margins larger, switched to a slightly larger font, added a header, highlighted all of the punctuation, and made it a size or two larger, made it in size 13 instead of 12, and made it bold. I finished 2 minutes early. That means I have 32 more minutes. I dubbed that I could get dressed in a hurry later, if need be, so I should eat breakfast now. I ran downstairs and poured some cereal into a bole. Finding there to be no milk, I took it upstairs and ate it while doing a quick revise-editing of my essay. 20 minutes left. I then shoved the rest of my breakfast into my mouth while picking out an outfit for today. Capris with either my “If you were a booger, I'd pick you first” T-shirt, or my diagonally stripped short sleeve thing that Kate (a friend, more of her later) gave me last year. I started cleaning my room, debating which shirt when 11:00 rolled by; 15 more minutes. I ultimately decided on the stripped shirt to avoid K-Catta commentary. 10 more minutes, and all I need to do is put my dirty laundry in the laundry room. Was that a " no...yes it was, a knock on the front door. Oh dear. I through my clothes in the laundry room, and ran downstairs to get the door. It's Edgar. Thank goodness I finished cleaning my room!

          I welcomed him in, and we waved to Mrs. Suje, and as she drove away. I shut the door behind him. He'd been to my house before, but his manners prevented him from... looking comfortable. I told him, like always, that he could take off his shoes, or not... whichever. As he took them off, as he normally did, I called to Courtney to tell her Edgar had arrived. An epiphany told me I'd forgotten to print out my essay, so I told Edgar, we went to my room, where my laptop and essay were, I printed it out, he politely remarked on my elongating the essay, we joked about it a little, and waited for it to print. It did. Thank you, printer.

          I then led Edgar to my room, being (supposedly) the most brother-free room in the house. He asked how I'd been, and I said same as always, and I asked him, and he said the same, but in different words. The silence between us became most decidedly awkward, and just as I was about to open my mouth to say whatever would have come out, the doorbell rang. Courtney got to the door before I could, so she had the pleasure of greeting K-Catta. I ushered her to my room, which I could tell didn't have enough posters on the walls to appeal to K-Catta's acute taste. She volunteered to go first reading us her one page double sided rendition of the tale we had both already been told. Then I went, because Edgar could see I wanted to get it over with, and didn't want to go last, and Edgar could care less about me going before he did. Although grateful for his understanding, I procrastinated going by doing things like asking questions about K-Catta's paper that I could have guessed the answer to, but I'd have to get to reading it sooner or later. Later seemed so much better that sooner, so much better. Edgar gently told me that he would go next if if I'd like him to, but I insisted on going, and K-Catta said if I wanted to go, I'd better go. So, I started. It went a little something like this:

Narrie Nigami

Mrs. Evelyn Tirofog

Lit/LA

(“You know, you don't have to read that part! Just get on with it!” - K-Catta)

     A very life changing thing happened to me when I was six years old. I went to sleep with my favorite bear like I always did (but I don't anymore)

(I looked over my paper to see if they thought it was stupid that I slept with a bear; they could care less)

         but something unusual happened. When I woke up, the bear was not like It was when I went to sleep with it the night before. It had changed, and when it changed, I changed too.

(so far so good, one paragraph down. I took a big breath to continue.)

The change I just spoke of was that my bear had ants all around it. The ants were not just all around it, but they were crawling all over and inside my bear. They were also all over me. I screamed and

(I looked at them to see if they were laughing or something, but they weren't.)

             ran downstairs to tell my mom. She brought my ant infested bear downstairs and the next day, she told me it had gone to a pesticide-making collage to avoid this type of thing from happening again. But I knew better. I knew that bears can not go to collage (especially my bear). I knew (and for the first time saw) that my mother was lying to me. She was lying to me right to my face.

     There are reasons this was a life changing experience for me. There were two things this experience taught me. The first thing is that if you have candy right before you go to bed, you need to brush your teeth before you go to sleep, or else ants will come and crawl all over you while you are sleeping. That is not an enjoyable experience. The second thing is that people lie. They lie sometimes because they think it is for the better, but they don't really know because they can't ask you if you think so because they are lying. I learned how to tell if people are lying.

          The last part sounded weird, and they might think I'm creepy for saying that I can tell what others are thinking... perhaps it's best kept a secret. Also, I like the conclusion. The last sentence isn't particularly strong, but I find it ridiculously difficult to make something sound like a concluding sentence. I guess it's really hard to explain. So is life...so is writing, I'm not too good at it. Another reason I wanted to go before Edgar is that he's really good at writing, so going after whatever masterpiece he's written would be... something, and it'd probably make my essay seem even worse that it is, which I think I did an okay job this time and I don't think they thought it was horrible. Well, maybe a little bit, but that's okay.

          Then, Edgar took his turn. He writes so fluently, and professionally, and in a certain way that couldn't offend anyone. It was weird hearing him talk to himself for so long because He's normally quiet. His essay was about the time he was minding his own business when a baby bird came out of a tree, and he happened to be right next to that tree, so he caught it. Then he watched some videos to find out how to care for it, then gave it food, and whatever else it needed. Then he went through the process of nursing it back to health. He concluded with how it taught him that every form of life has meaning and purpose.

          Great, now that that's over with, who'll impersonating whom? I asked, “Do you guys have a preference as to... who you want to be, or...?” I wasn't quite sure how to finish my sentence. This was such a strange project, (I don't know why I'm surprised). I'm not sure how to go about it.

          After a brief pause, Edgar said, “Well, whichever is easiest. If your two don't have a preference-” and indeed we did not, “How about...” he thought. “How about...if you don't mind me saying so, K-Catta, you could probably do Narrie easier than you could do me-” he paused to make sure that was okay. “that is to say, I mean, my energy is really different than yours” He hated talking like this, making judgments, even if they were already obvious. “and, Narrie, I think you could do me, and I could do you, K-Catta” he paused to make sure it was okay again, and then said, “Of course, if that's alright.” Whenever he said something doubtfully like, “if that's alright” or “if you don't mind me saying so” his eyebrows pinched together a little bit. It gave the illusion of him being very sincere, or that something else"something concerning"was on his mind.

          K-Catta said, “No, no of course it's fine. This'll be fun! Oh I can't wait!” I zoned out to think of impersonating him. Avoiding over-analyze-ation for the moment, I thought of things I could do to be him: Jeans, a t-shirt? What else? K-Catta said.”Whoa, did we loose you Narrie?” I refocused on her. “Do you think I could borrow any of your clothes?” She asked. I didn't see why not.

          I tilted my head and looked at Edgar and said, “I don't suppose you would trade clothes?” Of the three of us, Edgar is the tallest, and I'm an inch or two shorter that him, and K-Catta's about four inches shorter than I am. Therefore, I don't think"if Edgar'll lend clothes"that he'd fit into K-Catta's. I voiced my opinion, and we all laughed at the good point I'd brought up. Then K-Catta rummaged through my clothes, looking for anything not too small that was her style-ish for Edgar to try on. This was fun. It turned into everyone trying on each other's stuff. I looked pretty ridiculous in K-Catta's green yoga pants, and she couldn't have seemed more awkward than when she tried Edgar's gray hoodie. Edgar was such a good sport as he was subject to K-Catta's four-sizes-too-small-for-him-converse or a girly laced shirt I have promoting assorted origami mushrooms. Then K-Catta saw a scarf, and looked ridiculous in it with some big, reflective sunglasses. And so on, and so forth.

           Sooner or later, I heard something downstairs, and that reminded me to check the time. It was almost 4:30! When did that happen? Courtney is probably starting dinner, and...I don't need Edgar or K-Catta to be subject to her cooking. So, I tried to say something that would prompt someone to check the time, and when they did, I acted alarmed by it, and Edgar called his parents to tell them to pick him up, and K-Catta said she'd stick around until Edgar's folks came, then (living around the corner) she'd bike home. All three of us then came downstairs so I could tell Courtney what the plan is. She gave me a look that said, “Why don't you ask them to stay for dinner?” and I returned it with a look that said, “Please, no” and she didn't quite understand, so she gave me a look that said, “Well, should I ask them if they can stay for dinner?” And I responded with a look that said, as plainly as I could make it, “No, cut it out, please no!” Which made her drop the matter, but left her quite muddled. Then, soon enough, Mr. Suje cam to pick up his son, and K-Catta waived goodbye to Edgar and myself, then biked away.

Author's Note

Comments? Critiques? Suggestions are welcome!