Before Classes: Today was the day of the postponed field trip to a ropes course from October. All we had to do was bring our lunch and maybe something to keep us busy (and leave our phones in our lockers), so I just brought my small Minecraft lunch bag to school with me. Most of us were wearing blue (I’m sure at least one of you knows about the “wear blue in November 15th” thing that allegedly started in Connecticut), and my friends were annoyed because I wore navy blue, which wasn’t blue to them. IT’S A SHADE OF BLUE! Isaac was also crazy enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt today and claimed it was warm (it was 49° Fahrenheit). I’ve only seen him wear pants twice in my life…

Pre-Leaving: Before we left, my Advisory (homeroom) and the two we were leaving with hung out in one of the classrooms. We were leaving in a “staggered” way, with bus 1 going first, and then 2 soon after, then 3, and finally, us. Me, Isaac, Laeyth, ZJ, Ms. Clementine, Oliver, and TJ played a game of Uno. (ZJ won.) We boarded the bus, and I sat with Julia. Across from me were Isaac and Ethan.

The Bus Ride: On the bus ride, I either whistled, talked to my friends, or bopped them on the head (just a tap on the head). Towards the end, I spent a little bit of time drawing Constructicons Mixmaster, Long Haul, Hook, and Bonecrusher in my notebook.

The Field: When we arrived, the principal had gathered everyone on the softball field (we were the last to get there) and was laying out the rules for a big Sharks and Minnows-esque tag game, as the staff were still checking the ropes course to make sure everything was safe. On the benches, someone had graffitied that they loved a, er, certain part of woman’s body… and they also wrote “I love bats and balls” and drew something rather inappropriate. Instead of playing tag, me, Henry, Isaac, Ethan, and Julia waited by the entrance in hopes of being first to the course.

The Wait: Unfortunately for us, the staff asked if we could go by bus groups, so my bus went last. We waited for about 45 minutes before we could go through the safety briefing. Me and many others had all of or most of our lunch, sitting on the corner of the street in the parking lot. While sitting on the bus (where it was warm), Tamir also asked Izzy if she could stalk me online and find my address for her own malicious reasons. (It’s a running joke between us, but Izzy’s still gonna look for my address.) ZJ started a game of Never Have I Ever, and one of them was “never have I ever had a crush on a teacher.” We all burst out laughing and started asking him what he was talking about. Eventually, it was time for us to get our harnesses put on and go through the safety briefing.

Safety Briefing: Once everyone had gotten their harnesses put on, one of the staff members gave us what was a refresher for most of us and a lesson for the rest on how to use the safety lock system and go about the courses. Sam was briefly pulled aside because he got in trouble, but I don’t know what he did. We were all restlessly waiting for this guy to finish so we could go on the courses, as everyone else had started, was waiting in line, or was waiting in line for their second go.

The Ropes Course: For the first one, me, Duncan, and Ethan (in the order of Ethan, Duncan, and I) went on a normal difficulty course (there’s easy, normal, hard, and the one extra hard course). I messed up in the beginning because I did the first element while Duncan was still on it, even though there was a rule about one person on them at a time (which I forgot). A few minutes into the course, Kate, Emma, and Giusi joined us on it, and there were a few times where one of us had to wait at the end of the element before getting on the platform, since there was a 3-at-a-time rule. I was nervous about the lock system, but I got the hang of it soon and it was easy to remember. The first zipline was scary when I looked at it, but really fun once I went on it. The same went for the ones that followed, but I was a little less scared each time. Once we finished that course, I went with Gabriel on two more normals, this time with each one having a moving element. I thought we left earlier than we did, and so was nervous when starting the third one because I thought we’d hold everyone up, but I soon realized that we were fine.

Lunch: After finishing our last course, me and Gabriel got our harnesses taken off and had lunch. I finished my turkey sandwich and water and talked to my friends the whole time. One of the memorable parts was when me and Jai talked about how, in the lore of the friend group, Esmé is gay and dating Alex R. She also cheated on Alex with Leela. Strangely enough, Alex once came over to her house to watch Netflix and chill, but the WiFi was out, so they had to do it on her iPad, which meant sitting close together on the couch… hmmm…

The Second Bus Ride: Well, the ride back to school was a bit weird. Wyatt came up with the idea to play a game called “Keep, Kick, Kiss.” Basically, it’s Kiss, Marry, Kill, but swap out marrying for keeping them at school and killing for kicking them out. All answers were purely confidential, and they tried to drag me and Isaac (this time I was sitting alone, but Isaac and Ethan were still across from me; Wyatt was behind me and Asher and Aydan behind the others) into it. I considered whispering my answers to one group into Asher’s ear, but decided against it and continued drawing the Constructicons. (I drew two more frames to the scene of them to show them combining into Devastator.) The players asked TJ and Oliver what they’d say, and then the people behind them, and soon, the game had spread to the back of the bus… where all the girls were (and some boys). Surprisingly, they were playing! (Julia also refused like me and Isaac.) Asher and Aydan stopped playing in case they got in trouble, and once things had died down, they went around (just them and Wyatt) ranking girls on a scale of 1 to 10. Most of them got below a 5.

The Field (Again): While we waited to leave (there was 25 minutes), we got to play on the lower field. Me, Duncan, Kelso, and Ethan chased Isaac, who promised that he’d give Duncan $100 if he caught him. Duncan wound up catching him. Isaac has yet to pay up. Another funny thing that happened was when we were talking about the Dungeon Master (D&D stuff) is the god of D&D, and I said “Pray to the almighty Gage” (Gage is our DM). Jai thought I stopped at the first syllable of his name and said “Pray to the almighty gay.” (As you can see, lots of gay jokes today.)

After School: It was actually a pretty chill bus ride home. Me, Amalia, and Jaeger just talked, and Jaeger also stole me and Amalia’s stuff several times. (It’s an in-joke.)