The Arcane Society

Chapter 21

July 14th: 4:31 PM

Summer

I feel like summer is the weirdest thing to deal with. When school gets out, you'd think the freedom would be awesome, and you can go do stuff freely. That sounds great! Until you realize you have no plans after June... It's almost a weird deja vu feeling that I want to go back to school, after just getting out of school. Even though walk-through is in August and I can meet up with all my friends and stuff, I kinda wanna just hurry up through my childhood and grow up already.

I...can't write anything. My mind just went completely blank right about now. Ugh, I hate when I completely blank out. It's like I've lost all creative and witty function.

Oh! Just remember something random (like a boss.) I was watching some comedy skits from Bryan Regan yesterday and I looked up laughter for the heck of it. Turns out you can die of laughter! Yeah, yeah, there is the biological explanation, I understand that. BUT, I was looking at the page in a sick twist of horror and comedy. I can imagine some funeral service.

(Time to bring out X and XX again!)

X: Hey did you head about some guy who died?

XX: Yeah, it was sad.

X: How did he die?

XX: ...Laughter.

Can you imagine how pathetic of a cause of death that would be? I know I'm not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but I can just picture a gravestone.

Here lies some person

May you laugh in peace.

But enough about the dead, my life has been okay, I guess. Tennis and piano lessons help keep me entertained. And when I'm not learning, writing or reading something new, I'm reflecting on the person I am. Besides, everything I do shapes up in some way possible. I just remembered that you guys have barely met Julianna!

4th Grade: Math class

Meeting Julianna

I'm sitting next to Julianna in math and we're working on some worksheet. I think it was long division or something. I was already done so I indulged into my book. People were starting to finish the worksheet when someone tugged at my arm. Julianna had curly blonde hair, blue piercing eyes and a stylish purple outfit on. I remember her slightly from 3rd grade, but I didn't think of it as anything back then.

"Elisabeth, could you help me?" She asked sadly. I realized she looked over at my name tag, placed at the edge of my desk. She looked like she struggled through this sheet for hours, when only 15 minutes passed. I peeked over at her paper. At least she got the first problem done. But, hey, I might learn something myself.

"Sure, it's really simple." So I tried teaching her the classic way, but she struggled with the concept. So I decided to turn the process of division into a rhyme, some of which made her laugh. She was done in the next couple minutes so we had some extra time to talk.

"Thanks! Oh, my name is Julianna." She glanced over at the book I was reading and we decided to talk about our favorite books.

The Present

The sad thing was that our district was separated into three middle schools.

My school, Waldon Middle School: The biggest school and the most successful athletic and Band department. Intense rivalry with Oakview.

Oakview Middle School: School that is right dab smack in a corn field, which also feels like you are heading to the middle of nowhere. (Hence why I called the students "Farmers.") They also have a fantastic choir deparment. This is where, sadly, Julianna and I parted ways. (For now)

Scripps Middle School: The smallest school, next to the high school, is kind of pushed aside half of the time. Nothing really interesting other than the Battle of the Books is held there.

Speaking of school, you guys probably all know cheating is prohibited in school and all the stuff about suspension and what not. Now, don't get the wrong idea, I am a rule abider and I rarely break the rules. But, there are some times where I just have to cheat. There are two types of cheating in my book.

Formal: Basically means it's premeditated cheating. The type where you would have the cheat sheet, writing on your skin, or any other type that is planned. This is my preference of cheating. Now, you guys are going to want my secrets as to how not to get caught, but I don't promote cheating. Like I said, I cheat rarely.

Casual: I call this "freestyle cheating" because you are doing this on the whim, and (personally) you have a higher chance of getting caught. Casual cheating is when you either peek at your neighbor and copy their writing or write a question on a slip of paper, and pass it to your friend, hoping they'll give you the right answer.

This reminds me of the time I cheated, right in front of the teacher.

March 2013: 1st hour math

Cheating on the whim

Now, I had my teacher's photocopied study guide with me, because I have chicken scratch handwriting. I did a brief checkover the guide. This guide had the bases for each formula, but not the answers for the coming test, so I don't know whether or not to classify this as formal cheating or using my resources, but I digress. I slipped the guide under a red decoy folder but it was on top of my main binder. I looked up, and on the whiteboard in red marker it read

Advanced Math: Test today! Show your work!

This guide showed me a step by step process of how to do the formula. I'ma going to ace this!

She handed us the test and I began. Luckily, my handwriting prevented anybody from cheating off of me, so it was a win win. I forgot one of the formulas and looked up to see if the coast was clear, and the teacher is staring at me for a brief moment before looking back at her computer screen. I exhaled a deep breath. So far so good. Just a couple more questions. I leaned back and pulled off the decoy folder. The formula lay below me. I supposed I got the questions right. The next day, I aced the test with a 100% Then, I remembered, I was watching Swoozie on Youtube the day before the test. Thank you, Swoozie!!

The present

I can hear some of you critics out there. "What if the guide has multiple pages?" I thought of that and decided to practice the skillful art of silently flipping pages. You need to be as discreet as possible.

"What if the teacher gets skecptical?" Well, just raise your hand and ask questions in class, even though a multitude of his/her lecture makes absolutely no sense. You wouldn't want these random good grades popping up all suspiciously without participation in class.

I only used the technique for about five tests, I suppose. But, I feel like school just whispers to you, "You can cheat just this once, we won't mind if we don't see you."

Seems life sometimes cheats itself.