The Richardsons

Video #18

"What was is like for you to be in a place called High School? Back in my day, I went to middle school, and trust me, those were the weirdest 3 years of my life. Let me know if High School breaks that record, although I am unsure if that will actually happen."

The spark in the topic about Middle School came during my Gifted Children's class.

There are only about 12 of us in that class. It's one of the only classes where the people there are actually nice and treat each other like people instead of turnips.

"Do you remember in middle school that they had no honors classes? They had advanced, but I heard that it was just a rumor and they never used them at all." One girl, named Kim Fukuyama said to the class.

John Dale Middle School was a total chaotic mess.

And even worse if you were a transfer from a private school.

The guidance department refused to do anything about my schedule at first. Nobody told me where to go on my first day. So, I ended up asking the 8th grade student council President, Rafael Rodrigues to help me. At first, he seemed scary since at the time, he was 5'11. However, he was actually nice and related to me, coming from a private school. Instead of being from Massachusetts, he was from New Mexico, that has to hurt. He must have froze the second he moved to Massachusetts.

Rafael is actually in my gym class and he's my fitness buddy. He's the only junior that I'm friends with.

Anywho, there was no separation for classes. No matter if you were a straight A student or failing all of your classes, you would most likely be in the same class as them. Been there, done that.

The 6th graders would always be running into the 7th graders and the 7th graders would be running into the 8th graders.

For some reason, the school was never popular. As in, nobody chose to go. Only about 500-600 people, compared to 2,000 at the high school. It's normally the other way around.

There were no specific halls for a certain subject, which could mean if you were going to your 6th grade history class, you would end up in 7th grade math. Rafael told me on my first day that everybody gets confused about it. He only helped me because I was one of the only nice 6th graders at the time.

Lots of things happened at that school. There was a food fight in 6th grade, a girl got hit by a car in 7th grade and in 8th grade, the auditorium had some technical difficulties and the lights and stage collapsed at the same time.

"Well, John Dale Middle School has bad reviews on Yelp." One guy said.

"Oh no, the google results are worse. 1.9 stars?" A girl said back to him.

Surprising (not).

I don't mean to sound like a brat, but Mom would normally do her research on schools. Maybe she chose that school because it was close to home unlike that private elementary school that I went to. She didn't want to take me on a 50 minute ride to school and back.

Or maybe because I was shy and had a hard time making friends.

Or maybe because I hated my elementary school.

Either way, I'm fine with it.

I stopped daydreaming and found 2 of my classmates holding a loud debate.

"Name one person that actually liked that school."

"The school looked like something an amateur made on roblox."

"What do you know about architectural design?"

"My father is an architect and my mother flips houses. I know anything and everything about houses, Tasha."

"Ok, Bruno. Just keep on flexing your smarts like you always do."

"When was I ever flexing my smarts?"

"Quote on quote 'I know anything and everything about houses'"

"Shut up, that is why nobody will like you. You quote the most useless things."

"Jeez, you're annoying."

"You too."

Tasha Martuno and Bruno Vazquez-Joe. Describing them is like watching two tsunderes fight in an anime. It's obvious that they both like each other, they just pick at each other to see who will burn up in either anger or rage first. Kind of amusing to see from the sidelines.