The next morning I was actually on time to school. I had been late to school a lot. I walked into my homeroom class and sat down into my seat. My friend Andrew was sitting in front of me. As I sat down, he said, “Hey, look who’s actually on time today!” I replied, “Haha, very funny, Andrew.” We were close enough to be mean to each other sometimes. “Did you get your math homework done?” Andrew asked. “Shit….” was my reply after I realized I hadn’t done it. I knew I couldn’t do it in time, so I turned to plan B. I turned to Charlee and said, “Charlee…. Can I please, please, please see your math homework?” She took it out of her binder and handed it to me. “Thank you, Charlee,” I said in as nice of a voice as possible. I quickly copied it down, even though it was just easy stuff that I knew how to do. I then asked Andrew, “Do you watch Survivor?” He replied, “No, but I know what it is.” In a whisper, I said, “Well, they opened registration to only ages 13-16! I think my parents are gonna let me try to get on it!” Andrew looked at me like I was crazy. “You would actually do that?!?” I explained, “Yeah! I love Survivor! It’s my dream to be on it!” “Okay, I guess. Good luck with that.” After a long day of school, I got in my mom’s car, and was greeted by my mom and baby sister. My mom said, “Hi Jacob! How was your day?” I replied, “Tiring...” She laughed and said, “Well I don’t think you’ll be so tired after this.” I said, “After what?” She replied, “Jacob, you father and I have been talking, and we’ve decided…. To let you try out for Survivor.”
When I got home that day, I immediately ran to my computer and found the registration form online. It had some pretty standard stuff on there: Name, address, email, phone number, date of birth, gender, height, weight. But there was some other stuff: Hair color/style, ethnicity, name of last school attended, and even relationship status. Then I filled out the “self biography” portion, answered, “How much Survivor have you seen?”, uploaded a picture, and then I thought I was done. I then saw the “Upload Video” button. I thought to myself, “Shit, I forgot about the video.” Part of the registration is making and uploading a video of yourself explaining why you should be on Survivor. The video can be of whatever you want, as long as it’s on topic and under 3 minutes. It could be funny, random, or just straight up serious. I decided to just film myself doing stuff. First, I filmed myself playing the drums for the intro. During this I yelled, “Why I, Jacob Bell, should be on Survivor!” Then I filmed myself doing other normal stuff, like brushing my teeth, watching tv, even one of me pretending to be asleep. Stuff that would make a really boring video. Then, using video editing, I put it together and added some effects to add a little bit of humor in it. It was really better than it sounds. Once I was done, I added it to my application. Then, when I was finally done, I closed my eyes and hit “submit”.
The next day, I sat through more science notes and boring-yet-extremely-hard math. In flex, we didn’t do anything as always, since me and one of my best friends, Carver, were done with our project. When I say we didn’t do anything, I mean we didn’t do anything productive. We did shit, like listen to music or throwing around Mrs. Hungerford’s erasers, or chasing people with an atlatl (a weapon from the Paleo-Indian times, kind of like a spear). We were smart and mostly good children, so we could get away with it. Next was Social Studies, one of my favorite classes. I had Mrs. Hungerford for that, too. I sat in the back with Carver, and we could do our work when we had to, but other than that, it was just a fun class. So was my next class, Language Arts. We could ask Mr. Reddish a question, and he would go into a class-long discussion about something. Or we could just do whatever. After a boring PE class, I had finally made it to my favorite class of the day, band. I walked right into the extra room outside of the band room, where the percussion director, Mr. Robichaux was already set up and ready to go with everyone else. So what I was late? I could get set up quickly and I was the only one who had to walk all the way from PE. I got out my folder and drumsticks quickly and was ready to start. I liked band. Everyone said I was really good. I was even voted Most Outstanding Band Member. But I only came in every day and tried to get better. Lately we had been preparing for high school drumline tryouts. It wasn’t like sports tryouts, where you either made the team or got cut. You just tried out for what instrument you wanted and your chances of getting it were based on how you did at tryouts. I wanted snare, and everyone said I would get it, but I wouldn’t have been mad if it turned out differently. Suddenly, I thought of Survivor and how there was a chance that I could be on it. I didn’t think of it “suddenly”, though. To be honest, it had never left my mind the whole day. Mr. Robichaux’s tap-off got my attention and I tried to start on time, but I was too distracted still. “You okay there, Jacob?” Mr. Robichaux asked me with a confused face. “Yeah, sorry,” I replied, “Just a long day.” I took a deep breath, cleared my head and just focused on band for the rest of the class.
