I think I barely paid attention in the morning at school. I knew the adoption was coming, but I hadn't been told on Sunday when exactly, because they were then waiting on papers, but they got them yesterday, and it was the 2nd year anniversary, so they jumped on the occasion.
We had Mr. Cook, as interesting as ever; biology as boring as it can be; and gym class was equal to itself.
Now, have you ever seen a heist movie? In the heist movie genre, there is a rule. If the character describes in detail how the heist will go, the plan goes wrong. If they don't, the plan goes well. Sometimes, like in the Netflix show Money Heist, they make you think the plan failed, but then it actually succeeded. The professor had anticipated the problem.
That way, in the dance studio, Mrs. Sanchez and I wrote perhaps 95% of the choreography I would be doing at the dance recital.
Could I do it? Not yet. But that's just a matter of practice. Was it final? No, like I said, 95%.
But if I describe it for you now, I would need to repeat the same content when it comes to the dance recital. Because that's coming. And we don't want a repetition. So, I am not describing the routine, meaning it won't fail, right? Right? Sigh...
Still, I got a few compliments, and when the five students who came to practice left, Mrs. Sachez turned to me.
"I hope you will come Saturday to the non-landed club."
"If my parents are going."
"They are. I am making a special event. We'll have a common supper, nude, in the cafeteria of the school. I organized everything."
"Wow, that's amazing."
She leaned toward me. "And I'll have some low-calorie options; don't worry."
I had her again right after practice, so we got dressed over our leotards and went to class.
Mrs. Scanchez noted the new groups and dropped the bombshell.
"Students, you will not be writing essays. Instead, I will give you the list of the 50 most important cities in the USA, and you will need to do research on them. There's a lot in the textbook, but you will need the library or the Internet to figure out some of the data, and you will need to think for many of them. You can come to me with hypotheses, but I will just reply yes or no or clarify that you are on the wrong path."
Ok, so research on the most important cities. Got it.
"What you have to know is the population of those cities in the 2010 census, both the city itself and the metropolitan area around it. The name of their county or counties. Their time zone, the name of the people living there. Like for a person from New York, it's a New Yorker. That's a freebie. You will also need to know the date it was settled. Not founded. Settled. Sometimes, a city was occupied for years before it became a city. Please note your justification. Like, New York was founded as New Amsterdam in X year. Finally, I want to know why that particular place was settled, and this is the most important one. Do your research and come up with an explanation."
I admit, this sounds fun.
"But it's not all. You will need to figure out which are the 10 to 20 weirdest facts you find. Things that make you go "Huh?." Something that you think only your team has found. Because sure, everyone will have the same census number, I suppose. It's all public. But you will realize something that the others didn't. Maybe that one city is 70% of the population of their state. Or that another city has the same population as that of another state. You can go off the assignment, but you need to be in geography. You can't tell me that Seattle was the home of grunge; that's music history. But you can tell me that because of where it is, one type of industry popped up, and it's what made the city."
Ok, so some creativity.
"But then, when this is due, you will have your notes, and you will face off."
Face-off, what does she mean?
"You will all be assigned a team number. Julie's team is 1, Andrea's team is 2, and so on. Each team will ask a question to each other team, and vice versa. It will be out loud. Lyndon might ask Andrea's team something like, Which city in the central time zone, developed in the 1800s, has a larger population than that of Wyoming? I don't know. I am improvising. Andrea's team will get to look at their notes and make a guess. The answer is always a city. If they get it, they get 2 points. If they don't, any other team can try to answer. If they do, they get one point. If they don't, the team provides the answer. Either I agree, or I don't. If I agree, they get two points. Well played. If I don't, if I think that the question was wrong, Andrea's team gets 1 or 2 points. I decide. If a question was already asked, you need to ask a new one. If you don't have a question, your opponent gets an automatic 2 points. You have a maximum of 20 points when asking questions and 20 points when answering your own questions. There will be over 100 questions on which you get to jump in if a question is missed. The team with the most points gets 100 points, and then, depending on how many points you get, you get a score. This is 5% of your year, so it matters, but not that much. But what matters is your ranking...," she says. Laughing. "Will you go home victorious, or will you be last and laughed at by your peers."
Ok, that could be fun.
"I will even have prizes, but I haven't decided them yet," she says while looking at me. It's clear she expects us to do well.
She passes the list of the 50 cities, along with their state.
On the sheet is also the list of facts to find.
We get to move our place to sit next to our team and even to move the desks to make mini work areas.
"So, how do we do this?" Says Olivia.
"Maybe we can use my laptop to get the base facts and then divide the subjective facts between us?"
Lyndon suggested that we divide by time zone, but first, we had to get the time zones.
Olivia would write in a brand-new notebook supplied by Lyndon the 50 cities, one per page, while I searched the census data on my laptop, and he searched the time zone on his cell phone.
My friend didn't have either, and she possessed amazing penmanship, so she was well-suited for that.
We made great progress by the end of the class.
Mrs. Sanchez came once to see us and saw we were doing well, but she reminded us that some of the answers are in the textbook.
After she left, Lyndon took a look and realized that most of that was easy to find, but it wasn't everything.
Like, the population was present only for the top 20 cities, and the metropolitan area was only for the top 10 areas.
But somehow, I think that she planned that. Sometimes it felt like Mrs. Sanchez thought of everything before anyone else could even imagine it.
I did hear team #10 next to me complain that Mrs. Sanchez loves drama, but hey, they were the second worst group. Of course they will think that.
We did have the population of 50 states, so we noted that in the notebook. Well, Olivia did.
It would be a lot of work, so Lyndon actually invited us to his home to do more research.
That surprised me. Was he trying to get closer to me, or is it me still thinking that perhaps there is a future for us?
I added his cell phone number into mine, and he put mine into his, and Olivia and he traded numbers.
We were now connected! Why didn't we earlier? Because we had no idea whether he would pull his weight or not.
We made plans for the next day, but the one after was my sister's adoption, so I would miss some school.
Both said that they would help me by taking notes.
Still, after school, I had other plans. I knew that Edith would be home with Charlie, so it was time to pay Marge more attention.
We were reconnecting, so after school, I found her, and she was excited that I would ride her bus to her home.
I did text my parents. Adding a cell phone in my hands made coordination so much easier. You have no idea.
At first, it was just Marge and me, nude, at her kitchen table.
Nothing changed; Marge doesn't want to talk much before homework is behind us, and I respected that. Fully.
I finished before she did, so I used my laptop to find more data about the cities. I began forming a few questions.
I would pick a city and try to find a geographic question related to it.
I was proud to write, "Which of the 50 cities sits at the highest elevation?" It wasn't in the textbook, but when I googled the nickname of the city, "the mile-high city," I discovered that little fact.
When researching the time zones, Lyndon found that Arizona was the only one not observing daylight saving time. I wasn't 100% sure, but I put it in since it was his idea.
I looked at the map of the cities and added which of the cities is the closest to the middle of the contiguous USA. I thought it was a great question because we only got a list of the cities, not a map. If you didn't check the map, you wouldn't figure it out. It's Wichita, Kansas, by the way.
I put a few alternate ones, like which city is south of Portland but north of a Canadian city, which I know is Detroit. My dad often jokes that in Don't Stop Believing by Journey, South Detroit is actually in Canada!
I tried to check which one has a port more inland or something like that, but it became tricky due to the Great Lake. If no one got it, Mrs. Sanchez might deny us the points. I might be one of her favorite students; she wouldn't show that much favoritism. She is a good teacher who likes me but is not a corrupt one.
I decided to list the states and realized that many states are not in the list. This makes sense, as California has 8 of the 50 cities, Texas has 7, Florida has 3, and since Washington, DC, is also on the list, it leaves 31 spots for 47 states.
I don't know what the others will ask, so I make a list:
Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, both Dakotas, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, West Virginia, Delaware, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina are not in the list. In addition to Alaska and Hawaii, but that's not a surprise.
Marge is done just as I finish this, so I don't have my conclusion that this is all useless info yet, but I will get there.
"I am happy you are adopting Edith," Marge told me.
"I am so happy too. And I have an answer for Mr. Cook."
"There was a question?" Says Marge.
"Yeah. Did he cheat on his wife with your mom."
"Oh, right. That question."
"So, he dated his wife for 7 years, including getting engaged. She moved to the West Coast for a job; he couldn't. They broke up. He dated your mom, and later, she came back, and they got married."
"My mom still cheated on my dad."
"Well, yeah."
"His wife is hot?"
"She is? Hotter than your mom?"
"Is my mom even hot? I mean, she's my mom. I don't have an opinion," says Marge
"I guess she is. In her way," I say. I am not lying. Ellie is fit; she doesn't have much fat, and her breasts are nice. Can I say if she is really hot or just conventionally attractive? Well, Olivia might be able to, but I can't.
Now, Marge and I had a long conversation after that. It was good, but you won't hear it.
I decided when I began writing my memoirs. See, at this point in the story, Marge is sexually active. Mindy probably is, but I am not in contact with her. Edith isn't only because neither Charlie nor she is ready. As far as I know. Olivia is sexually active, even if single right now, as far as I know. Lucy is sexually active, but we don't talk about that.
The problem is that none of these people, including me, are 18 yet, and I feel like sharing Marge's sexual experiences with others is wrong. Not just because it's private, but also because both she and her partners were minors.
All I will tell you is that what she told me... sounded fun. There. I think it's a sign I am opening up. Now, sex no longer just feels gross and hickey. Now, I was looking forward to it.
But don't think that when I do become sexually active, you will get details even when I turn 18. I am not the kind of girl who kisses and describes in detail.
After my small supper, which I ate at my house, I called Olivia to prepare questions, and to my surprise, I called Lyndon in a 3-way call.
Well, I suspect I know why. Marge told me a little about her experience, and right now, the person I anticipated being attracted to was Lyndon.
He is well built, but not like a bodybuilder. Just in shape. He has a nice face, a cute smile, and a pleasant voice. He respects me, does the work despite an initial reluctance that I could attribute to shyness, and, well, he is a little funny.
I did call Olivia first, as she is my friend. She might have had personal stuff to talk about, but no, she was all business. I respect that. Her home is sometimes chaotic, and she hides from the pain caused by her parents in her work.
At the end of the calls, Lyndon reiterated that we were welcome at his place tomorrow.
I checked with my parents and Edith after the call and texted him that I could be there. I had to call Olivia, who just made sure that my parents could give her a lift back to her place after the study session. I have asked Edith if it was okay that I have a group project after school. She replied quickly that it's after the adoption that she wants to celebrate, not before.
And like that, I had a date with possibly my future guy. Fine, a study date, but seeing how my desire is still not booted up, I have to take what I can.
On the plus side, that evening, I weighed myself. 112 pounds! I can't believe how well my current regimen is working. Just a few more, and I will be ready for the recital, now just over the horizon.