this is not gonna be too long. we've got one more day before the very last batch of "scholars" are done, meaning that we've got one more day until we're all free from this place...at least for another year.
to start off, we had the team rally earlier this afternoon. team rally used to be a time where each leadership group (that's a fancy name for class) shows off a cheer that they've made up to represent themselves. that's how it was last year. each group would get up, shout their leadership number, do a cheesy rhyming chant, and that would be it. i can't really pinpoint it, but if i could, i would point the finger at huey...
last year he was an FA (faculty advisor...basically teacher) and his group got up and did their cheer. there really aren't too many words that can describe it besides...well...awful. let's be honest; better sh*t came out of his arse than what he put up on that stage. that was, i believe, week one of last year's track. those poor kids were subjected to going up, shouting whatever they felt like, and going back to their seats. in all, i think that group's team cheer lasted for about four seconds, give or take a few nanoseconds. huey must really have done something to anger god because his cheer was like a form of vengeance.
anyway, i think that was the wake up call that slapped the rest of us across the face like a frenchman initiating a duel. somewhere along the way, the team cheer evolved drastically and dramatically from a few seconds of chanting to minutes long productions with music, choreography, props, themes, cues, smoke, skits, intros, shout outs, disses, and maybe...just maybe...an actual cheer related to the group's leadership strand (the four different theme lessons that we teach). i bring all that up to lead to my group's cheer. it was (for lack of a better word) epic. we f*ckin' killed it today. i just wish someone had a video of it. basically...i had this idea for a team cheer for last week's group, but it didn't work out because that batch of bitches kept trippin', and so i allowed them to make the whole thing up and put it on, without any assistance from me. they crashed, then burned. i told this week's group about that; they listened to me without any problems.
of course this wasn't the exact skit, but it was the inspiration for what we did. since i teach creative construction, we had hammers and saws and screwdrivers coming out of the blocks. of course there was a mushroom and fire flower, as well as coins. no star, though; we didn't have too much time to practice. we basically threw it together in about two hours. we even had the pause. if anyone has the video of it, please please please let me know.
that's what team cheer has come to be over the past year. we've turned it into an unofficial competition with each other to see who can be the most creative. of course everyone's a winner...but between you and me, i won...hard.
speaking of huey...i've gotten to know him a little more since we've been roommates. he's really an old soul. and i'm talking about REALLY an old soul. he's got this way of talking that makes him sound much older than he actually is. he says things like "frigedaire" instead of "refrigerator" (i do it as well...but i really am old). he adds those miscellaneous mysterious syllables to words, knowing good and well that they don't belong there. it's hilarious to me.
apparently we favor each other about the face. lots of "scholars" come to us and call us each other's name. i've been called huey and huey's been called wesley many many times since we've started this NYSP thing. so i started asking these kids some questions, and received some very interesting answers. as it is perceived by every single child here, huey and i favor each other about the face, and i look like a younger version of him. i find this extremely interesting, as well as entertaining...
me: how old do you think mr. huey is?
child: i don't know...old.
me: how old?
child: in his forties.
they were doing double takes left and right when i told them that i was actually much older than huey. huey is twenty-four, while i am thirty-three. they couldn't believe it. they still can't. but it's true.
i digress. the main point is that after dinner, we had recreation time. i was supposed to be doing basketball with kel (which upset my stomach a little bit), but things ended up changing. we ended up doing a kickball game with kids and grown folks. the way it was, kenan and i were on one team, and the other team had kel, barney, and stallone. kenan is quite the competitive person. i admit, i didn't know that about him until today.
the game was tied at one point, and he said we were losing. i told him it was tied, and he said if we weren't winning, we were losing. well, we ended up winning the game. kel tried to show off his "spectacular" kicking skills by kicking the ball damn near over the fence. kenan did him one better and tried to peg kel as he was running home. he blindly threw the ball in that direction, which just happened to be the direction of the very busy connecticut avenue. the ball went into the street, and all you could hear was the screech of a tire, followed by a rather loud bump sound. the ball suddenly was going in the opposite direction. kenan was able to get it; the cars slowed down for him. he managed to one-up himself later on by trying to be a superstar. a kid was running home and he tried to peg them from afar again. when you're shiftless like kenan, you don't really learn from mistakes the first time. it takes time after time after time.
he threw the ball and this time it went right into the group of kids waiting at home plate. it was like a cartoon moment when something really awful happens and the characters all turn around because they don't want to see it. i was not like those cartoon characters. i saw the whole thing myself. that ball hit this poor girl in his stomach. there were three kids directly in front of her, and they jumped out of the way at the last possible minute. it was the funniest thing i had ever seen. she went down and came back up like one of those training dummies. she said she was alright, so all was well.
and so went the game. kenan and kel spent the entire time trying to outdo each other. it's great to see two...guys...engaged in friendly competition. at one point, and he probably didn't even realize it, i snuck in move #62 on kel as he ran past me to second base. it was a quick maneuver. i caught him with an elevated spinning scissor kick that sent his entire body spinning around in place. he spun a good ten times before he continued to run. it happened so quickly that very few people saw it.
the game eventually ended up drifting into nothing, as kenan, kel, jerome, barney, and stallone went to play football. football, by the way, is not my game. i'm sticking with volleyball. jerome threw a ball to me earlier and i missed it...horribly. i can usually catch things, but throwing is a whole different story. for some reason, i just can't throw a football if my life depended on it. can't explain why. maybe i should learn.
someone teach me how to throw a damn football before i turn thirty-five,
-w
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