Hohos!!

Star testing was Thursday and Friday. Two days I got to sit in a classroom with people from grades 7-12, which means I sat there with most of my closest friends! There was Derek and Brenten and Trenton and Savannah and Raphael and even my own sister, Lexie. I was kinda annoyed, I'd already taken the High School Exit Exam about a month earlier and as I am unafraid to voice, I hate testing and, therefore, test badly. Anyways the first day I didn't say anything to any of my friends aside from a whispered "Hey!" to Derek as I sat next to him. The second day, though we were less controlled. They allowed us all to take a break since the weather wasn't insane like it had been the day before. We stood in the parking lot and talked for a few minutes until they took us back in. My friend Derek and I got out first. We went out to the curb un the parking lot to wait for our moms. We sat there on the wet curb, eating our lunches and laughing. His mom actually arrived before mine and he convinced her to go back home with him to get something he'd forgotten. We would all be meeting to go to Mendocino with the teen group as soon as they all got out of star testing. My mom was going to take me to get something for Brenten since it was his birthday that weekend. So Derek left with his mom, leaving me to sit on the curb alone. And that was how Brenten found me not too long after with headphones in and head bobbing slightly back and forth, only the sound of his laughing made me turn to see him walking over. "You're FINISHED?! Derek and I just finished eating our lunches! I was starving!" He joined me, we kidded around about people trying to run him over and he showed me the bagful of everything his mom had packed him for lunch, I highly doubted he was going to go hungry! The Ewens actually got back just after my mom arrived. As we drove away I shouted out the window to Brenten "You like My Little Pony, right?!" Well the errands we had to run didn't leave enough time to actually buy him anything, but I fully plan to, although of course I won't post what I have in mind on the off chance he actually reads this post! Anyways we all met up in the parking lot and Brenten, Taylor and Andrew rode with Mrs. Ewen in her car and Derek rode in the car with my mom, sister and I. The trip was long, especially for the others in the car as I was self appointed music handler! Brenten and I swapped CDs we'd each brought between our two cars as the trip progressed and so there was somewhat of a mix. Lily got car sick, but she loved riding with Derek, who she called "Dirk". This was a nickname that caught on fast and we carried it on faithfully. Finally, though, we arrived and began unpacking the cars. We played some airsoft, which was interrupted by Brenna, Katie, Abbie and even Jordan, who walked out onto the deck in attempt to gain cell phone reception without protection of any kind for their eyes. We went in when dinner was ready and afterwards began pulling out games. Several we started, trying to teach each other but ended up quitting, but finally Mr. Fillmore pulled out Five Crowns. In this game Brenten refused to participate but the rest of us did. I sat at one end of the table between Derek, who lay on the ground half asleep, blinking his eyes open every so often to lay down his cards in an unbelievably well laid out winning hand or to chant "Hohos!" and Brenten, who refused to participate but sat with us reading. The beginning of the random shouts of "Hohos!" was when Jordan brought a box of Hohos, and bragging of their stupendous awsomeness he had sucked us all into HAVING to try one. After that we just kept shouting "HOHO!" Five Crowns, as it turns out, is a very very long game, which is why Brenten disliked it so. But finally at some early hour in the morning when we no longer made any sense and just kept laughing at nothing at all we all went to bed. By the time I woke up the next morning everyone else was already up and in the kitchen, I entered, blinking sleep out of my eyes and smiled at the tired-looking group of teens before me, greeting "Good morning!" Derek, Lexie, Katie, Abbie, Brenna and some others sat at the kitchen table playing "Nuts," a card game we are attempting to get everyone addicted to. "Guess what, Halie? I just made MYSELF an Eggo waffle!" Derek announced proudly, laughing. "Don't brag just yet Derek, you've only just stuck it in the toaster! You could still burn it!" one of the moms wanred. I laughed and sat on the couch and helped in the building of several kites with Brenten and Taylor until I got to an interesting kite type toy called an Air-Yo which was hard to build! It took the combined efforts of the three of us to assemble the thing. We then took it to the back porch where Jordan and Lexie joined us as Taylor picked up Lily to keep her safe, Brenten swung the Air-Yo in wild circles trying to get it to work and tangling himself and I commenced reading of the instructions in an exaggerated, computer monitor-y voice. "Hold pole down towards ground like golf club," I continued, rereading and emphasizing parts in the computer voice as he failed at each part I'd already tried to explain. He finally managed to break it, or at least make it fall apart, I fixed it but when he again tried swinging it wildly and it fell apart again I threw my hands up, handing him the instructions to both flying and assembly. "Here," I said, "YOU fix it this time!" I walked inside exaggeratedly, standing inside the sliding glass door for a few minutes to watch their grins and laughs before reopening it and saying, "I'll watch!" We decided to give up on the Air-Yo... As I got myself a couple of Eggo waffles and spread butter on after helping carry in some wet suits the others began finding wet suits that fit them. One by one I would see people walk through clad in the tight fitting outfits or help each other get them on. Finally I went in and put one on myself, finding booties, a cap and gloves to go with it as well like the others. We piled into the cars, I rode with Jordan and a few others to the beach in the Ewens' car. We unloaded the surf boards and boogie boards and then ran out into the water. Derek, Andrew and I waded out and jumped waves for a while while Brenten surfed and Jordan boogie boarded. Then we swam over to the side and got out on the rocks to look for crabs. Several people found them and picked them up. "Hey Halie!" Brenten said holding one out and plopping it in my palm before I could react, grinning. I held still, but it swiftly crawled off the edge of my hand and fell onto my leg. I tried to grab it but it fell off into the rocks. "Oops..." They playfully competed for finding the "best" object, Derek held up a tiny plastic green cone, "Oh YEAH? Well look what I found!!" He said mockingly. "Oh boy, a green... cone... how will I ever catch up with THAT? I might as well quit now," Brenten replied grinning and rolling his eyes. We walked across the beach to the other side in the rocks and climbed around over there, Brenten, Derek and I. Derek threatened to climb the side of the cliff, but Brenten reminded him he'd probably be climbing right up into someone's back yard! I leaned over to pick up another object, grinnng. "A RED plastic cone! I got you Dirk!" I said, holding up the larger red cone. "Dang!" Derek said, snapping his fingers in fake defeat. We went back to the beach, finding some boogie boards and tried that out for a while. Jake, Jordan and Derek could actually get it, but even with Brenten's help and trying to get it right I only actually caught about two waves! It was so fun though and everyone helped. Jake actually got out a surf board and tried that out, he did pretty well! I kept trying to catch SOMETHING. Once I failed a wave so badly that I fell underneath and spun around in a full circle like a somersault, feeling the pull of the cord around my wrist where the boogie board was attached and trying to fly off. I came up laughing and coughing salt water out of my nose and mouth. I got out when my feet started to hurt from the cold. We got out and played ninja on the beach in our cold wet suits. I paused to try and pull off my cap, tearing and pulling once I began to get it off. "Um want some help with that?" Brenten asked as I tugged harder and harder. "Help her out!" Mrs. Fillmore shouted from higher up the beach. "Hey! Halie! Need some help?!" I kept tugging, it was over both my nose and mouth I suddenly realized, mumbling out "If you're going to help help FAST I can't BREATH!" But it was completely muffled and he thought I was saying "Hmmmm." I got it off with a final jarring, rattling yank. "I feel like Spiderman!" I shouted, rejoining the game. Eventually we went home, wet, numb and sandy. We were each sprayed off with the hose outside and then went in, lining up at the bathrooms to jump in the showers and get the salt off. We played Bang until it was lunch time and then ate pizza. As we began the game of Bang Jordan again threatened to shoot me. The first day we'd gotten there Jordan had been on my right and had announced, "I'm going to shoot you, Halie." right off the bat. "But... you don't know what she is," Brenten pointed. "Yeah... But I'm going to shoot her. She is going to die!" "Why do you HATE ME?!" I asked. "I don't HATE you! ... I dislike you with a passion!" I believe five minutes later, as he said, "Me and Halie are best friends!!" We hung out after lunch, relaxing in the living room, I got on the piano for a little with Lily. The others played a game in the living room. Then we decided to go to town and Glass Beach. I'd never been to Glass Beach before. It was so amazing, and by this time the sun had come out and it was beautiful there! We all sat, digging through the smooth glass washed up on the shore of Glass Beach for a while. Of course we had to also play ninja on Glass Beach, but I was wearing sandals and failed fairly badly! After a while Brenten, Andrew and I went for a walk around on the rocks. We also went to stand on this big boulder where we looked out into the waves and sun, they wer amazing! But we couldn't stay on that rock long as the tide began to come in. We spent quite a bit of time there, the other kids flew kites and finally we left, carrying kites and singing Weird Al all the way back to the cars. We went to a um.. Camo surplus store? And then a dive shop. It was interesting, we all kind of wandered aimlessly around. We went home again and played more games, Catch Phrase and Bang and Nuts (you name it). We even went outside and played Ultimate Frisbee, something I'd never played before. The game quickly became heated and competitive, however, and Taylor was the first to quit. When one team finally managed to score on the other (Lexie, Jordan and Brenten's) everyone became upset and fed up and the game broke up nonverbaly with everyone stomping off. As I watched them all go Andrew and I cleared the chairs and whatever we'd been using. "You know," Mr. Fillmore told me as I started to pass him, leaving the yard, he continued to describe the first and only time he'd gone skydiving. He pointed to the rainbow in the sky, telling me about the amazing 360 degree rainbow that'd been in the sky when he'd done it. His instructor had been yelling excitedly and everything! It had been raining slightly during our game and even then so the rainbow showed pretty clearly. I went to stand on the sidewalk next to Kate, who was standing under a rainbow umbrella and we stared up at the rainbow. Brenten showed up from in the house, sitting on the porch frustratedly. And the Andrew came out, standing next to Kate and I. We discussed the flawed game that had ended in overly competitiveness. The four of us ended up just standing there on the sidewalk staring up as the rainbow slowly disappeared. "Skittles!" I said waving my hands int he air and saying it in the whispery voice. "Taste the rainbow," finished Andrew. "Isn't there a leprechaun with a pot of gold at the end of the raindbow?" Kate asked kidding. "Nah," I said. "That always seemed weird to me," Andrew said, "A leprechaun at the end of a raindbow with a pot of gold?" "I'd rather have Skittles..." I agreed, "OOh a SKITTLES leprechaun! A leprechaun with a pot of Skittles! Now THAT would be awesome!" We went in for dinner, but first Brenten and then Andrew disappeared. I looked out the window, wondering it they were in the tree as I suspected. My suspicions were proved true as I saw the white shirted Brenten climb down through the branches of the tree to meet Andrew, who'd finally managed to find him. I turned to look at the two every so often, but I stayed put. Andrew, of all people would be the one who knew how to make him feel better, I knew. The rest of us inside watched the sunset on the water from the window. We watched carefully for a green flash as the sun hit the right part of the water, but only Jake and I caught it. Brenten and Andrew rejoined us after that, each in better spirits. We played more games. Eventually it ended up just Taylor, Andrew, Brenten, Jordan and I in the living room, after I beat Andrew and Brenten at "Settlers of Canaan" with a LOT of help from Mr. Fillmore, as I'd never played before. Then he joined the others in the kitchen playing Hearts. Brenten, Andrew, Taylor, Jordan, Jake and I just sat talking awhile. Until, that is, Jake fell asleep in his chair. This called for some funny pictures. We stuck dolls all over him, the plastic horse we'd named "Hannah" ended up with Dora the Explorer shoes on its ears. That horse and Jordan were inseparable! We had more fun with that thing than I have had in a long time with a children's toy. We stuck a bug seal on Jake wearing a beanie and the began tucking magazines with awkward headlines and pictures under his arms. Jordan snapped pictures on his ever present cell phone. Jordan always had that cell phone, he'd walk around and around the house or jus the room, waving his arm around until he'd get reception upon which he'd yell "I have one bar!! YES!!" I, on the other hand, ditched my phone altogether the whole weekend. I was the owner of a neglected phone. We took a TON of the insane Jake pictures before finally my mom came out of the kitchen, having just finished their game and put everyone to bed. The next day was our last day. We packed up all our things, putting away surf boards and wet suites, dumping out soaked booties and gloves. Derek went off tot he dump with Mrs. Fillmore in the morning and the rest of us, after eating the french toast the moms had made began playing games. Brenten and Taylor took forever to wake up! I walk past their beds snickering as it became lighter and lighter and even all the younger kids got up before them. Finally they slumped into the kitchen looking tired and only half comprehensive. I once again tried failingly to remember the notes to the piano song I've been learning. But then Derek walked in and announced, "Who wants to go to Mendocino to go shopping?" "Why?" Jake asked. "Just to like, walk around and shop." We agreed to go eagerly enough and got into the cars. In town we walked over to a science store first. We explored, checking out a lot of really neat things and I found a book full of spider pictures to frighten my mom with. Then we walked on, we passed some geese that Brenten swore hadn't moved from their spot since he'd last seen them. "They've been waiting for you," I replied laughing. We went to a toy store. It was really huge, it had some neat things. I picked up a puzzle type ball and pressed in a piece thinking that was the function of the puzzle, instead pieces flew all over the floor and I stood in the middle of the isle, shocked and scrambling for pieces, hastily attempting to reassemble the pieces into a ball. we found hats, one of which we all had to try on with a blond wig inside. I read a few supercreepy kids' stories and Brenten found a really weird ostrich puppet which he kept making bite me spastically until I really was creeped out by the little thing. Eventually we ended up in the cars, leaving again after much picking up and packing in. This time I rode in the Ewens' car in the back seat between Andrew and Brenten with Taylor in the front seat with Mrs. Ewen. We got all the way through my birthday playlist CD, the second CD Maddi gave me for my birthday and the second Weird Al CD in my disc set. That last CD was quite a strain on everyone else seeing as Brenten and I knew nearly all the words to the odd and sometimes slightly offending songs on the disc. Then again we had all known nearly all the songs word for word on the other discs. By the time we were two thirds of the way through the Weird Al disc Taylor began asking if we could get Air 1 in. Lucky for us we couldn't so I got my way, and we got to continue listening to Weird Al. It was a long trip, but we had such a great time that it didn't seem very long at all. We stopped at a fast food place on the way home and were exhausted that evening when we arrived home. That had to be one of the BEST TRIPS EVER!!!