language arts

Synchronized Swimming: Coach and Swimmer

| isa

keep calm and synchro on
By Isabella
Originally posted 4/28/14

Tracy Neitzel, a synchronized swimming coach for Sculpins Synchro, is a synchro mom for life. Neitzel has been coaching ever since her daughter started synchro, and she enjoys it very much. She coaches 3, sometimes 4 times per week, for the boys and girls on the team.

Neitzel coaches the only two boys on the Sculpins. When asked about differing coaching habits with the boys and girls, Neitzel says she does coach the boys differently than the girls. “Boys learn very differently than girls do and all of the ways that we coach and teach synchro were developed for girls and they don’t work very well for the boys,” says Neitzel.

Neitzel has mixed feelings about men and boys in the sport. She loves to coach boys, but it is sometimes difficult. “The biggest challenge in coaching synchro is that there aren’t many immediate rewards for the swimmers—it takes an incredibly long time and a lot of work to become an elite swimmer. Young swimmers often become frustrated by how long it takes for them to even begin to master a skill and it’s important to make sure that they at least get verbal rewards from their coaches.”

Neitzel says that the biggest difference in coaching style is, “I try to change up things more often for the boys. I find that if I work on anything for more than 10  minutes I lose what little focus and concentration they have.” Neitzel is sad that synchronized swimming is such an orphaned sport. “I often wonder if the sport would gain more universal acceptance if men were a part of it too.” At the same time, Neitzel is glad that it is one of the only sports where men do not overshadow women. Neitzel says that it is annoying that men and boys get more attention for being in this sport than women do.

Eight year old Steven Colandrea is one of the two boys on the Sculpins. He got started in synchro because his sister had been a swimmer for five years previously and he wanted to try it out. Colandrea swims one day per week, and his coach is Tracy Neitzel. The Sculpins are the only team in this area, so Colandrea knew that he would have to swim with them if he wanted to swim at all.

Part of what Colandrea likes about synchronized swimming is being in the water all year long. Colandrea also likes that he and Benjamin Brady are the only two boys on the team. “We get to do different things than the girls.” Says Colandrea, “You have to work hard to stay on top of the water.” The boys do things a little bit different than the girls, to help them figure out what works for them. The boys, and all of the girls on the Sculpins will be attending a big meet, titled Associations. At the meet the boys hope to get awards for “figures,” positions that synchronized swimmers get scores on, and awards for their duet. They are doing a routine to music from the movie, “Kung Fu Panda.”

| isa

She looked in the diamond incrested mirror of jewels. Her soft caramel hair in waves streaming down her cheeks and forehead, her silky eyes filled with love and joy, for she had just won the crown away from her three sisters and one brother. She had everything she wanted and more. Thousands were screaming her name,“Alania! Alania! Alania!”

“Alania!! Wake up, Ally!”

“Huh?” She sat up quick as a bullet to the sound of her oldest sister, Emmeline’s voice,

“Ally, you’re gonna make us late!”

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she woke up. Emma had a blond braid that reached down to her hips. Emma had never known a person who didn’t like her. She was an A+ student, a cheerleader…  She looked at the clock and saw that Emma was right, it was already 7:45, and school started at 8:00! Quickly, she ran down the stairs, narrowly missing Missy, who was lazing about like the puppy always did.

As usual, Ally missed the bus by an hour, and had to be driven to school by her angry sister, the second oldest named Munya. Munya wasn’t very good at understanding.

14

| isa

This is the sequel to 13. Read that first.

Chapter 1

“C’mon Ell! We’re gonna be late!” Perry, my best friend ever said as she shook me awake.

“It’s to early! Let me sleep!” I groaned.

“Ellie, Perry’s right. You should get up soon because you know how coach can be when we’re late,” Lizzie said.

“Fine!” I said as my friends dragged me out of bed. The 5 of us had spent the night like we always do on weekends, because we have to carpool to the club.

“I can’t wait till I have my own license,” said Emmy, when we were finally in the car.

“Then people will have to stay off the roads!” Iz said.

Emmy, who had a window seat, looked out of the window and was obviously hurt by Iz’s remark.

“Hey Em, she didn’t mean it,” I said.

“No, it’s not that. Why aren’t we going to the club?”

“We are!”

“No, look out the window. Does this look at all familiar to you?”

“Come to think of it no. Mom, where are we? Mom?” I started to panic. “Mom stop the car.”

“I hate to break it to you, but I am not your mother.” said the stranger. That voice seemed oddly familliar.

“Who are you?” I asked, now shaking with fear.

“Your worst nightmare!” the stranger said as she stopped my mom’s car in a parking lot next to a gloomy looking factory.

“We’re here children! So get out!” the stranger said the first sentence in a sing song voice, but the second in a harsh gravelly tone. Then she handcuffed us to the telephone poll and went inside the building.

“Where are we?”

“What is going to happen?”

“I am scared!”

“Does anyone have a cell phone?” I asked, and as usual I was not heard over the others frightened chatter.

“Does anyone have a cell phone?” I asked again, this time louder. The others must have thought I was the woman that captured us talking and coming out of the factory because they talked even louder.

“DOES ANYONE HAVE A CELL PHONE?” I yelled. I had had it with their ridiculous chatter.

“Yes, I would like to collect all of your electronic devices. Give them here!” said the strange woman.

“Before we do, I would like to ask you one simple question,” I said in my plan-hatching voice.

“And what would that be sweetie?”

“What is your name?”

“I am afraid I cannot disclose that kind of information hon. But would anyone like a cookie?”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“No thank you. I just ate,” I said as I tried to think of a way to get us out of this mess.

Chapter 2

We had spent the night locked up. Emmy and Lizzie had intertwined themselves in their sleep and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I found that Perry had managed to get herself on top of me.

“Argh!” I said as I tried to get up.

“Huh?” asked Perry, groggily. “Where am I? Ellie is that you? I can’t see anything. I’m so tired.”

“No Perry! Don’t go back to sleep!” I shook her limp body.

It was no use. She could not be woken. Just then I noticed that no one had their phones any more. Of course! The cookies had sleeping meds in them, so the bad people could get the phones off without any struggle! And I didn’t eat them, so that’s why I was awake then. What was I supposed to do? A year ago, I was in this situation too. Where I didn’t know what to do. but this time I was stronger. I had my friends who were closer to me then sisters behind me (or on top of me). ‘Wait a sec,’ I thought ‘thats why the voice seemed so familliar! But why would my sister do this? She was always kind and gentle to me. Why would she turn on her own family?’ I itched to say this to Perry, but she was obviously not going to listen. I still had to try.

“Perry! WAKE UP!”

“What?”

“Get UP!”

“Okay! What for?”

“I need you to just listen to me. Don’t say anything. Just listen.”

“Fine. Talk to me.”

“I know what the bad persons name is. In fact, I am related to her. She is my sister.”

“Shut up!” Perry exclaimed. She wasn’t accustomed to people telling secrets to her. She wasn’t the gossip type.

“Sh! And I knew my sister well, so I can guess what she will ask us to do next. I think she will ask us to show off our talents. Do what she says Perry, or else you will be in trouble. Got it?”

“Yes, Sensei! I give you my word!” Perry said

“All right, now go back to sleep, and forget what I told you.”

But Perry was already snoring like in elephant, probably dreaming about what I had told her.

Chapter 3

“Rise and shine sunshines! You have a big day ahead of you!” my sister said sing-songish

“It’s to early!” I yelled. I wasn’t a morning person.

“Get up!” my sister yelled in the same gravelly voice that she used to tell us to ‘get out’ of the car the previous day.

“Okay! I’m up!” I said. I didn’t want to anger my sister, because god only knew what horrible things she had planned for those who disobeyed her.

“Get ready.”

“Getting ready.” I muttered under my breath.

“All righty then. Let’s head to the pool!” Perry and I exchanged nervous glances. I had been right about her making us show off our talents.

When we got to the pool, my sister told us to change in less than a minute, or she was coming in. She gave us a small closet to change in. It was dark and since there was no light, it was scary.

“Ellie, why are we doing this?” Iz asked, in her usual stern voice, but even in the dark, everyone could hear the frightened part in her voice.

“Because this woman can be dangerous,” I said as I pulled the strap on my bathing suit to make sure it wasn’t twisted.

When we were all done changing, I went to open the door. When I tried to turn it, it wouldn’t turn.

“Um… does anyone have a bobby pin? She locked us in.”

“I have some in my bag!” Lizzie said. “Never leave home without them. I have to keep my hair up always because it gets in my way when I swim”

It was a couple minutes to find Lizzie’s bag and the bobby pins in it, but when we did, and we had unlocked the door, my sister was waiting right outside.

“I thought you said you’d come in!” I yelled at her.

“I had to test your intelligence. And don’t talk to me like that. I’m giving you a once in a life time chance to be one of the greats! To be extraordinary! To be seen on television! To be gossiped about!”

“We have all that we want and need! What if we don’t want to do things extraordinary outside of the club? What if we don’t want to do extraordinary things for you? What if we don’t want to be your slaves? To do things just so you and your partners get the profit? Just let us go!” I yelled in her face.

All of the anger I had built on the police putting my sister in jail was now reversed on letting her go. Why had they let such a horrible person go? I had to blink back tears of happiness and sadness. She had murdered before, and I’m sure she would do it again if she wanted to. I had thought she would have changed, and in a way she did, but it was a step in the wrong direction.

“I thought you would have changed with all that time in prison. I guess I was wrong.” I said.

I ran to the door to the pool and opened it. I climbed down the latter and started warm up. Like all other race swimmers, you can’t just start to race and beat everyone you go up against. You have to work up to it.

My sister came in after me and said: “Um… what are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m swimming. Oh, am I doing that wrong too? How do you want me to do it, oh great one?”

“Don’t sass me young lady. I will break your limbs one by one. Hearing you cry out in pain will calm my nerves. Now, who wants to go first?”

“First to do what?” asked Emmy, shyly.

“First to show off the talent that you have, darling. Would you go first for me dear? You will be rewarded.”

“Yay!” said Emmy. Being the youngest, she was the one most likely to fall under my sister’s spell.

Chapter 4

“Ready honey?” my sister said.

“Yup!” said Emmy as she walked on to the diving board.

For those of you who have not read 13, Emmy is a skilled springboard diver. She can do a triple flip double twisted dive flawlessly. She is a damn good springboard diver.

“3, 2, 1, go!” My sister screamed. Emmy did her specialty. My sister was cheering so loud that we had to cover our ears.

“Bravo! Bravo! Sweetie, you are amazing! Wow!” My sister was so good at possessing people like she was doing to Emmy.

“Thank you! But, I’m not that good. I just practice. A lot. 12 hours a day on weekends. Well, I guess I am that good. But still, thank you.”

“You’re welcome hon. Now, who wants to go next?” After all the praise that Emmy had gotten, my friends all wanted to top her performance.

“Me!” Iz said.

“Me!” Perry said.

“Me!” Lizzie said.

“Now what I really want to see is some old fashioned race swimming. Is that someone here’s specialty?” she asked boldly but with a hint of knowingness.

“Yeah!” said Emmy, “Ellie’s!”

“Ooh! May I just say that I am a big fan of the Olympic race swimmer Missy Franklin. She is such a good swimmer. But back to you. Can I just see one swim?”

“Of course you can,” said Emmy looking at me with a stern look.

“Of course I can,” I repeated through gritted teeth.  I couldn’t believe it! My own friend was turned against me by my own sister!

“Okay. Well first we should let you warm up a little more. Keep the blood moving so that on the career changing swim of you’re life you don’t fall asleep under water.”

But by the time she finished that statement, I was already down the pool, back, and getting out.

“Why are you getting out, whats-her-face?” My sister said, as she had closed her eyes when speaking and thought that I was just standing in the shallow end where I had been before she started talking, waiting for her to finish her not so helpful comment.

“I showed you my talent. Now let’s get this over with so we can go to our rooms. I mean cells.”

“What do you mean you already done? I have witnesses!”

“Actually,” said Lizzie, “she did already swim. You were just to stupid to watch.”

“Excuse me?” my sister said, taken aback. “What did you just say to me?”

“Yeah that’s right. I called you stupid.  Whatcha gonna do about it?” Lizzie said.

I knew that Lizzie was trying to protect me, but she had pushed my sister way, way, way to far.

“I’M GONNA MAKE YOU WISH YOU WERE MUTE, LITTLE ONE!” Said my sis in her gravel voice.

As she said that she took poor Lizzie by the arm, threw her over her head, smashed her to the ground then body slammed her so hard that there was an imprint in the pool deck.

“Lizzie! LIZZIE!!!!!” I screamed in her ear. It was so hard for me to sit down and think about what I needed to do because in situations like these I often get sidetracked. Luckily, this time I didn’t have to think. I knew and took and was constantly practicing Kung Fu (for those who read 13 are probably thinking ‘why didn’t you mention Kung Fu in 13? That is because Ellie started Kung Fu just after she created the club). I did a back fist into her stomach and while she was down on the ground, I did a flip into a vertical front kick where she wouldn’t want to be kicked.

“Why would you ever want to hurt someone? Because it makes you happy? Because you have to? Because you were treated like shit in jail? If it was the last one, then you are still going to hurt people, because we won’t treat you any higher here than in jail.” I said to her groaning face. By that time I had already thought of an escape plan, complete with 15 back ups. I guess my brain was as fast as my body. I picked up Lizzie with the help of Iz and Perry and we started are escape. It didn’t take long before we hit a dead end in the maze of halls and rooms that make up this building. But I knew my sister to well. It just looked like a brick wall, but there was one brick that would give. We had to find it and fast.

“Nope.”

“Nada.”

“Zip.”

“Zero.”

“Zilch.”

“Nothing.”

“Keep searching!”

13

| isa

Intro

Ellie, at the age of 3, could swim race and beat every opponent she had. Perry could swim the length of a pool and come back with out coming up for air. Iz could platform dive. Emmy specialized at spring board diving. Lizzie did synchronized swimming. What would happen when they met?

Chapter 1

I had just moved to upstate NY from California. I was in St. Michael’s School bathroom feeling the urge to puke. I had never moved before and since we moved across the country, I didn’t know anyone. This was really big for me. I finally  got up and walked into homeroom. Everyone became very quiet. I walked to the teachers desk and said I was the new student they were expecting. The teacher looked at some papers and then told me to take a seat. And then a couple minutes later she called me to the front of the room and said:

“Everyone, please welcome miss Eleanor Wilson from California!” I cringed. I hated it when people said my full name.

“Eleanor, please tell us something about yourself. Like a little fun fact.” With everyone starring at me I felt pressured.

“Um… I um… I like to um… Swim?”
“Anything else you want to share?”
“Nope.”

“All right then. You may take a seat.” I went and sat next to a girl who looked about my age and opened my textbook. After a few minutes of the lesson, the girl looked at me and said:

“I’m Perry. I hate it when people say my full name too.”

“You saw me cringe?”
“Yeah. But I’m pretty sure I was the only one.”
“What’s your full name?”
“Perfect.”
“What is?”
“It’s my name. Perfect.”
“Wow! That’s so cool!”
“What do you like to be called?”
“Ellie.”
“Let’s walk to your house after school, ‘kay?”
“Great!”

When that class was done, and all of my fellow 8th graders were moving from classes I called my parents on my cell phone.

“Hey it’s me. I’m calling to tell you that we are going to have company so be on your best behavior. GTG. Bye!” As I slid my phone closed, I looked up to find Perry standing next to me. She was looking at my phone.

“Nice phone. Ready for History?”
“Yep. Thanks for waiting for me.”

“No prob. Hey, why don’t you tell me something about yourself. And be more specific than ‘I like to swim.'”

“I am really really fast in the water.”
“I hear that a lot from prissy cheerleaders.”

“No, I mean I’m really really fast. As in I have never lost a race since I was 3 years old fast. That includes when I swam along side a motor boat and I was at least 76 miles ahead of it. I swam the entire length of the pool in 2.7 seconds.”

“Where did you get a motor boat?”
“A distant friend.”
“Where did you get over 76 miles of water?”
“Her lake.”
“Your friend must be rich!”

“Not really. She had to move as well to upstate NY because of financial problems. I wonder if she goes to this school.”

“What’s her name? I know everyone that goes here.”
“Isabella Spark.”
“Yeah, I know her. She is the class president. The big boss. The tribe leader. The big daddy. The—”
“I get it!”
“Sorry! I just love saying things like that about people I don’t like.”
“Why don’t you like her? What has Iz done to you?”

“She didn’t do anything to me specifically, but she made decisions some students did not approve of. One of those students is me.”

“Like what?”

“Like putting a platform diving board in the pool for swim club of which I am a member and cut back our hours of swim practice so that she could start a platform diving club.”

“Iz always was kind of pushy. But I never thought of her as mean. I mean, she could be manipulative and deceiving, but not exactly mean.”

“You just  categorized her as ‘the face of mean’.”

“I guess I did. Well, we really should get to History. I want to meet the teacher.”

“Yeah. I think you’ll like Mr. Schmidt. He’s into swimming too.”

Chapter 2

“And tell me something besides you like to swim,” said  Mr. Schmidt, a kind old man who had a curly gray beard and soft blue eyes hidden behind huge glasses that magnified his eyes by 10!

When he was about 21 he was in the Olympics for swimming but no one remembers him because he didn’t get a medal. Mr.Schmidt was now 79 years of age and had actually experienced a lot of historic events in person. That was why he was such a great history teacher.

“I like pie,”I said.

“Interesting. Well, I’d better get on with class then,” and he continued with the lesson.

Me and Perry were walking to math. “You were right Perry. I do like Mr. Schmidt a lot. He seemed so happy when I came in and said I liked to swim. I wonder if he is lonely.”

“He is. His wife died a long time ago. How did you know?”

“My grandfather is exactly like him because my grandma died. So happy to see someone who understands what it’s like to lose someone who you love,” I said.

“Who have you lost?”

“My older sister.”

“How?”

“I haven’t exactly  lost her, like she hasn’t passed away or anything like that. But I have not seen her in 10 years because she is in jail for murdering someone when she was drunk and driving. Even if she is a killer, which she isn’t, I still love her, and want to see her because I haven’t seen her since I was 3.”

“That’s terrible! How much older is she than you?”
“13 years.”
“Well, do you want to know what I’d tell the cops? I’d say go to hell!”
“Perry!”
“What? It’s what I would have done!” Perry said.
“You should not go around swearing like that about the police.”
“Why not? Its true!”

“I don’t mind my sister being in jail, Perry! And you shouldn’t either! Now let’s go to math and learn some stuff so we can be smarter, kay?”

“Fine. But we will continue this conversation at your house.”

“I am fine with that. Now come on! We’re going to be late!”

Ms. Night was not the friendliest person I had met. She looked about 24 and had a pointy nose and jet black hair that curled around in ringlets. She yelled at people who talked and said we were just a bunch of stupid water buffaloes.

“I would rather be teaching how to potty train your puppy than teach you babies. You! Go to the principal’s office!”

“Why Ms. Night?”

“Because you talked during class!”

“No I did not.”

“You just did! Now don’t argue with me or I will put you in detention!”

The girl got up and walked out the door, and as she did I saw her look helplessly at me. Or was it Perry? Anyway, she looked in our direction and then just as she was about to walk out the door, she stuck her tongue out at Ms. Night.

After math class was over and we were dismissed and going to lunch, I asked Perry who the girl was.

“She is in my swim club. Her name is Emmy. I don’t know her that well, but she seems pretty nice.”

“I want to talk to her and Iz at lunch. Do you want me to tell them to sit with us or will you?”

“I’ll do it, since I know them better.”

“All right. Go find them and tell them to come and sit at the very back on the left.”

“Got it.” And as Perry walked away, I felt sure that I had just made 3 new friends.

Chapter 3

“Do you know why me and Perry have gathered you two here? No, you do not, so I will tell you. You are here because I would like to meet you. I already know your names, but remind me of what they are please?”

“My name is Emmy.”
“And something about yourself is?” I asked.
“I love to dive off spring boards.”
“Perfect. Now what is your name?”

“I’ll have you know that I am the class president and I will tell a teacher to put you in detention if I do not find out what the meaning of this is this instant!”

“That is a very long name. May I call you Isabella Spark?”
“How do you know my name?”
“I have my ways and means. Now tell me something about yourself.”
“Never!”

“All right. I will tell something I know about you. You love to platform dive. The higher the better, am I correct? You love it so much, that you will sacrifice others’ time in the pool so you can have it with others who love platform diving.”

“You are most certainly not correct. I don’t sacrifice anyone else’s time in the water!”

“You wanna bet sister?” said Perry standing up from her seat. “You wanna bet how much you have taken away from the swim club? Well? Do you?”

“Perfect Perry. Stop or I will tell the principal to call your parents and tell them you started a fight,” Iz said.

“I’m warning you!” Perry said, grinding her teeth.

“Perry she isn’t worth it.” I said starting to worry. What if they did start a fight? I needed everyone to work with each other to make this work!

“Oh yes she is!” Perry lunged at Iz and started punching and kicking
“Help! Help me! Someone get her away from me!” Iz scream horrified.
“Perfect! Get off of her right now!” said Mr. Schmidt, but Perry didn’t stop. She kept hurting Iz.
“Help! Ah!”

“PERRY!!!! STOP!!!!!!” I yelled as loud as I could. She seemed to have finally snapped out of it. Iz was bruised and bleeding and crying.

“Perfect, go to Ms. Night,” said Mr. Schmidt. When Perry didn’t move, he yelled at her.

“NOW!” Perry got up and ran. Mr. Schmidt, with the help of another teacher carried Iz to the nurses office.

“Are you okay Isabella? Isabella?” Mr. Schmidt said. Iz had passed out with all the pain and yelling. Her parents got there as soon as they could. The nurse was on vacation, but she had trained her daughter for this exact reason.

“Iz, how many fingers?” She held up 2.
“Two?” Iz said, not completely trusting her eyes.
“Yes. What does this noise sound like?” she mooed like a cow.
“A cow.”
“Yes. What is 50 divided by 2?”
“25.”

“Good,” she turned away from Iz to talk to her parents, “she seems pretty good. Her eyes, ears and brain are still working well, so now I think she just needs some time to recover.”

“Thank you.” said Iz’s mom.

“Yes,” said Iz’s dad, “we got here as soon as we could to our little baby’s side. You could have saved her life!”

“All that is wrong with her is that she has cuts and bruises. Even if I wasn’t here, she wouldn’t have died.” the girl said.
“How can we repay you?” asked the mom.
“Yes, how?” asked the dad.

“I’m the nurses daughter. I don’t need to be re-payed. It is my job to be helpful.” she noticed me looking in the window, and asked if I was a friend of Iz’s that she knew from school.

“No, I don’t believe Iz knows that girl. But why else would she be looking to see if she is okay?” asked Iz’s mom. The girl came out and asked me what I was doing.

“Is she okay?” I asked ignoring her question. I looked at Iz and prayed that Perry didn’t do permanent damage.

“She’s fine. But what are you doing here? Her parents said they don’t know you.”

“I knew her a long time ago, but we weren’t really friends, so that explains why the parents don’t know me. But what I am doing here is a different story. See, the girl who attacked her is my best friend, and we were going to start a club that has to do with a pool, like diving, swimming, stuff like that. But apparently Iz has made decisions that Perry does not a prove of and that make her mad, so when I sat them down to talk about the club, Iz pushed Perry too far, so she started the fight.” I spoke very fast so when I ended, The daughter looked confused. “In other words, I need Iz to feel better fast, or the club won’t work.”

“Can I be in the club?” the daughter asked softly.
“What?”
“Can I swim with you and your friends in the club?”
“Sure! What is your name?”
“Lizzie.”
“That is a beautiful name.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you know how soon Iz will be fixed?”
“About a week.”
“Perfect!”
“What is?”

“Nothing, I just am happy that she isn’t permanently damaged. She seemed pretty hurt in the lunch room. And she is the one who is going to make this happen! A long with Mr. Schmidt.”

“What does Mr. Schmidt have to do with anything?” asked Lizzie.

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Chapter 4

8 days later Iz was feeling much better and she was back in school. Perry had apologized to Iz and said she didn’t know what came over her. That day was the day that we were going to tell Mr. Schmidt our idea. If he said no, then our whole plan would collapse. If he said yes, then he would be our coach and he would talk to the principal.

As we walked as a group (me, Perry, Iz, Emmy, and Lizzie) to history we were all very nervous. What if he did say no? Even if he said yes, would the principal give us the money to start the club? What if everything went fine, but no one came for the club? All these questions buzzed in each of our heads like a pesky fly. We finally got to the history classroom. We opened the door. All of us went up to his desk and we asked in unison: “Will you be our coach?”

“Excuse me?” he asked, flustered.
“We all want you to be our aquatics coach. We want to start a club. We know you have Olympic experience that no other person here does. Please?” I said.

“I don’t know what to say. Yes of course I’ll be your aquatics coach! It will be an honor! But we don’t have the authority to start a club on our own. We would need the principals approval and…” he looked up at up at us and said, “but of course you probably figured that out by now, so why don’t we go to the principals office and ask her?”

Chapter 5

“An aquatics club, eh? And Schmidt would coach? I love it. But you have to organize the entire thing.”

“Of course, of course.” said Mr. Schmidt.

“All right. Now, I’ll give you a start. A bit of money to get started. But you have to do the rest. Got it? Good. Now get out of here. I have important principal things to attend to.”

We beat a hasty retreat from the principals lair, and then started to celebrate. The 5 of us. As 13 year olds.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED “13” AND LOOK FORWARD TO THE SEQUEL 
“14”!

By: Isabella Brisa Arrow Phillis Carmencita Toll Hill (aka Blueberry Hill)

5th Grade Reflections!

| isa

By: Isabella Brisa Arrow Phillis Carmencita Toll Hill

What I learned last year

Last year was a very fun time for me because I had Rose as my teacher. Rose was a great teacher because she would always make sure everyone understood the things that were talked about, like if someone didn’t understand how to make the Mayan calendar, she would ask, ‘what don’t you understand?’

Last year we also studied animation, which was the most fun out of everything that we did last year. I learned how difficult it was to make a flipbook, each page just moving slightly! I did my animation on 3 main parts in my life: How I could swim at 7 months old, when I learned to walk, and moving from an apartment to the house I live in today. I think I could have done better on my animation project by going into more detail on ‘when I learned to walk’.

The next topic is something I feel slightly uncomfortable talking about:

What happened on graduation night

I would like to thank the 8th graders for such a lovely speech from all of them but I am concerned about remembering what happened right after the speeches. One minute I was fine and then the next I was screaming for help. I hate to name names, but I was screaming at Megan Cosgrove, but she did not notice that I needed help so it was Jackson Eddy who told Natalie Winnie. With the help of Arlo Marynczak, Natalie carried me to the nurse’s office and laid me down on the cushion. I almost passed out but I didn’t. Veda Sripada’s mother, Padma, was luckily a doctor on the scene and she tried twice to pull it out, and couldn’t so they called an ambulance and I went away in it. I waited for a long time at Albany Medical Center and then they took me in a weird room for an X-ray and luckily I did not fracture anything so I just waited for a long time in a hospital room watching Disney channel until one of the main doctors came in and looked at it and then he went out and came back in again with a needle for anesthetic. Most people probably don’t know, but I have had some bad experiences with needles and those experiences make me deathly afraid of them so you can imagine what it felt like when I saw it. After my foot went numb, I closed my eyes and he pulled it out. Then I asked ‘is it over?’ and everyone said yes at the same time. After that I went home and slept until 10:00 in the morning. That day I found out who had dropped it in the grass from Megan Cosgrove over the phone. I am sorry to say that the person who dropped it was Sophie Pratt. She is not to blame for this unfortunate incident. I am for being stupid and taking my shoes off. Sophie is very sorry. Some people must have thought that it was metal, (I don’t know how that rumor was started) but it was in fact a wooden chicken skewer that was stuck in my foot, and it was in fact very sharp. I still have the skewer to this day.

Meeting the Beach Boys

No one who is reading this probably knows who the Beach Boys are, but to my father they are very, very important. I felt happy, excited, a little disappointed because we didn’t get to actually meet them, we just said hi to them but they were great. We were in the 3rd row and they were close enough that they could have touched me. One of the singers actually pointed to me! One of my favorite Beach Boys songs is called Fun, Fun, Fun. Also one of the percussionists my parents went to collage with, Nelson Bragg.

Finding Love 

Naturally, people would think I fell in love by the title, but they would be wrong. Love is actually my parakeet who we found by the tennis courts that my dad and me go to (Scotia Glenville middle school courts) up the road from our house. What happened exactly you may ask? Well:

So first we rode our bikes up to the courts and played back and forth tennis, and then we saw a robin and a… green bird? So we stopped to look at the green bird who was on the edge of the fence surrounding the courts and by that time the tennis ball had stopped and the bird flew down to it. We think she/he thought it was she/he’s mate, because she/he curled up to it and rolled on her/his side next to it. Then she/he flew into a tree and would not come down so my dad and me played more tennis until my mom came to pick us up. She wasn’t expecting to get out of the car so it distressed her when we told her she had to get out of the car to look at a bird. We bounced the ball to try and get her/him down and it worked! My mom caught her/him and put her/him in my sun hat and then we rushed to Walmart to buy a cage and birdseed, and we still have her/him today.