So, not last Friday but the one before, I ended up in the hospital. (I know, fun times, right?) I had a pretty high fever and was vomiting, and so when we got to the ER, they admitted us. Which sucked, but whatever. My mom and I thought it was a stomach bug, but they had us stay for a few days just in case it was a line infection or something awesome like that. They let us go home yesterday - and I would've been back to school, but I didn't have a nurse, so there's that. Hopefully I'll be back soon! I'm missing my friends and classes.
   The little kids (K, J, and F) were so excited when we got back home! It was kind of cool to have a welcoming committee of screaming children. And they were so super cute, acting all clingy with my mom. I'll admit, the peace and quiet at the hospital was a little nice, but I missed my family a lot.
   Our new cat, Luna (have I told you guys about her yet?) is settling in pretty well, I think. She doesn't get along with the dogs 100% of the time - I think she's scared of them - but she absolutely worships Abi. And Luna is so cuddly. She'll literally just lay there and let you pet her for hours, and she purrs the entire time. Her fur is almost entirely black, with just one or two tiny white spots on her stomach, and her eyes are sort of yellowish-green. She's great!
   The art club's Memory Project is going really well! Everyone's pictures are looking fantastic. A lot of the other members are using paints and things, but I decided to stick with what I know best: colored pencils. Luckily, my parents got me a ton of awesome colored pencils in various colors - even an entire pack in just flesh tones! I think my drawing is looking pretty good, and it's nearly done; I'll see if I can upload a picture of the finished product!
   This past Saturday, I went on my first college tour! My mom and I visited GGC, and while I wasn't completely sold, some parts of it were really cool. Their honors program looks fantastic - they put on Shakespeare plays and do some cool journalism things. The dorms are also pretty cool; they're all suite-style and you get your own room, and share a kitchen area and bathroom(s) with your suitemates. I'm planning on registering for a tour at KSU soon, and maybe UGA as well.
   Today, I took the multiple-choice section of my mock AP Lang exam... it was surprisingly easier than I expected it would be. My teacher scanned in my Scantron answer sheet, and I got 48/55 right! Which, according to our conversion chart, equals a 103... and I haven't even taken the free-response section yet! I'm just hoping I'll do this well on the actual exam. I'd love to make a 5 on the test!
   The schedules at school are weird this week. All of the sophomores are taking the Gateway tests (remember me freaking out about those essays last year?) and so they've rearranged the schedules for our classes. It also doesn't help that we have Friday off, since spring break is starting. But speaking of spring break - we're talking about actually doing something this year! Usually we just stay at home and hang out, but we've been talking about maybe going to the aquarium or some museums. I think it'll be lots of fun, and the kids are gonna love it too!
   Okay, so there's this Disney movie named Trolls... it has some great music, right? But lately I haven't been able to get the song "True Colors" out of my head. It's an awesome song, and I love it - but it's starting to get a little annoying! I've tried everything to fix it... I've even sung "The Song That Never Ends" to myself. It didn't work. I fear that I will live out the rest of my life singing the harmonies to this song, originally performed by a chorus of tiny, colorful, dancing trolls.

I hope you're all doing well! Have a great day!

   I've decided that I am going to start writing again! Writing a book, I mean. It's going to be a realistic fiction novel - and it'll be kind of like my life. Not exactly, but similar. I'm trying to come up with a name for my main character; I want her name to mean "strong" or "fighter" or "courage", something like that. Any ideas? I'm getting tired of baby name sites, haha.

   Speaking of books - I finished reading like, four of them this weekend! Admittedly I did have a long weekend, having had Friday off of school, but still. BOOKS! I read this one called "A List of Cages" which was so good but sooo sad, and two of the "Song of the Lioness" books called "Alanna: The First Adventure" and "In the Hands of the Goddess". The latter two were written by Tamora Pierce, who is one of my all-time favorite fantasy/adventure authors.

   In the next couple of weeks, I'm going on my first college tour! It's not to my top-choice college; we're visiting Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC). I've heard good things about them, and the dorms are supposed to be awesome, and the have all the classes and degrees that I want. Still, I'm looking at Kennesaw (KSU)! I can't wait for the tour; it's going to be cool looking around and seeing what everything's like. I'm a little nervous thinking about going away to college (my mom is freaking out, I think), but I'm really eager to go out and see the world and be independent. I think it'll be pretty great.

   I've started drawing some more, too! My friend and I are planning this manga; we're going to try and create it ourselves. He and I are coming up with the story together, and I'm going to try and illustrate it all. It's either going to be incredible and the best thing anyone's ever seen/read, or it's going to look terrible; I'm hoping for the former. But I've been working on my concept art for the characters and whatever, so maybe we'll be okay!

   It's kind of weird now that Readers Rally is over... I have more time to do things I really want to do. Of course I enjoyed reading the books for RR, but at the same time it was a little bothersome that I couldn't choose which books I was reading. Now, since the competition's finished, I can read whatever I want; and instead of creating questions for my team to review, I can draw; and instead of practicing on Quizlet all the time, I can practice my keyboard. Don't get me wrong - I definitely had fun with RR and can't wait to lead the team next year! But this down time is pretty great too.

A poem for you! (I don't even remember when I wrote this... oh well. Enjoy!)

Where am I?

I do not know this place, this world, this universe;

Cannot recognize the faces of those around me.

Have we met? I cannot think,

Do not recall;

I am sorry.

Who am I?

I do not know myself, this body, this mind;

Cannot recognize these emotions and thoughts flowing

From the tips of my fingers down to my toes.

I don’t know myself;

Do not understand who I am,

Why I am here;

What is my purpose?

Even now, I can feel these thoughts

Slipping away,

A gradual fade.

Back into nothingness.

Hey everyone!

I don't know about you, but I've had a pretty crazy weekend! Fun, but crazy.

On Friday, my sister came home from college; since it's her spring break, she'll be visiting for a week or so. It's cool having her here (especially since she sometimes buys me ice cream). It's funny, though, seeing how much she's changed since she first started college - from the time she goes to bed, to the time she wakes up, to the things she says and does. And her hair is still bright pink all over, but she's thinking of adding some purple too.

Saturday was my Readers Rally competition; it took place at Berkmar High School. My friends/teammates and I carpooled together - we drove two cars for the seven of us. We reviewed our books and questions the entire way there. Once we got there, we checked in and then went and walked around the book fair, which was pretty cool! I bought the book "I Am Princess X", which was ironically one of the Readers Rally books.
When it was time for the actual competition to start, we were all pretty nervous; this was the first time that any of us had competed. The first round was a bit of a fail for us; we only had 30 points compared to the other team's 110. But the next few rounds were actually really good, with us getting 100-110 points! We had a couple more rounds in which we earned 30-40 points - I think we were starting to psych ourselves out again. But in the last round, we earned 140 versus their 10! That one was EPIC. I still can't believe we managed that!
I answered the most questions out of anyone on my team, which was kinda cool.

And yesterday, we had my grandmother (Mommom), my grandfather (Papa James), my aunt (Aunt Leslie), and my cousin (Debra) over! It was pretty fun. We dyed Debra's hair black (it had been dark brown with blonde in it). She looked really good, I think, though my mom joked that she looked kind of emo/goth, since her skin is pretty pale. Then we played foosball, which was great - I beat Debra, and James then proceeded to destroy me. She and I teamed up against my brother, and though he did beat us again that time, it was a pretty close game.

I'm still a bit tired from the excitement of this weekend, but it was totally worth it!

AND I wrote a poem. Ta-da!

Ink drips -- drops --
Down to the paper.
Splash, stain, smear.
Spoiled.
The paper will never be the same again.
You cannot retract the act,
Cannot undo what is now done,
Cannot fix what has been broken.
A permanent flaw, a fault;
A blot, a splotch;
Unable to be erased, effaced;
That one drop of ink sinks down
Into the paper.