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MidReal Story
Windows of Friendship: A High School Odyssey
Scenario:2010: My first day in high-school.. and also the day I get my copy of windows 7 on my toshiba laptop!
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Mr. Johnson
high school teacher and mentor to Emily and Alex, colleagues with other teachers, balding with a kind face, wise and encouraging.
Emily Carter
high school student, friends with Alex and mentored by Mr. Johnson, short with curly brown hair, curious and resilient.
Alex Torres
high school student and Emily's best friend, friends with Emily and mentored by Mr. Johnson, tall with glasses, witty and supportive.
The day I started high school was the day I got Windows 7 on my Toshiba laptop.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
I had been waiting for Windows 7 for what felt like forever, and I was so excited to finally get it.
I couldn’t wait to get home from school and install it on my laptop.
I was so excited that I even woke up early that morning, which was a big deal for me because I’m not a morning person at all.
I remember my mom asking me if I was feeling okay because she couldn’t believe that I was up before my alarm went off.
I just smiled and told her that I was fine, but the truth was that I was just really excited to get Windows 7 on my laptop.
I couldn’t wait to see all of the new features and improvements that it had to offer.
It’s funny how something as simple as a new operating system could make me so happy, but it did.
I couldn’t wait to try it out and see how much better it was than Windows Vista.
I had heard a lot of good things about it, so I was really looking forward to using it for the first time.
As soon as I got home from school, I ran up to my room and started to get everything set up so that I could install Windows 7 on my laptop.
I was so excited that I even set up a countdown on my phone to tell me how long it would be until I could start the installation process.
I remember sitting there on my bed, watching the seconds tick by, and counting down the hours until the installation would be complete.
It was almost like waiting for Christmas morning, but even better because this was something that I had been looking forward to for so long.
And the best part was that my best friend, Alex, was going to be there with me when we started high school together.
He was just as excited about Windows 7 as I was, so he was going to come over to my house later that evening so that we could install it together.
He was just as excited about starting high school as I was, so we were both going to be there to help each other get through it.
After all, who better to go through such a life changing event with than your best friend?
But before I could get started on anything, my mom called me down to the kitchen for breakfast.
I had been so caught up in thinking about all of the things that I would be able to do with Windows 7 that I completely forgot that I needed to eat something before I left for school.
When I got down to the kitchen, I saw that she had made me a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice, just like she always did when we had school in the morning.
She told me to eat quickly because the bus was going to be there soon, and she wanted me to make sure that I had enough time to finish eating before it arrived.
She reminded me that the bus schedule was going to be different today and that the buses were going to be running earlier than usual because they had to pick up all of the new freshman who were starting high school for the first time.
There were so many more students riding the bus this week than there usually were, so they needed to come earlier in order to make sure that everyone got to school on time.
She also reminded me that Alex would be meeting me at our stop this morning so that we could walk in together for our first day of high school.
I finished eating breakfast and went back up to my room to get ready for school.
I couldn’t believe how quickly the time had passed while I was eating breakfast.
It felt like only a few minutes had gone by since my mom called me down to eat, but in reality it had been almost half an hour since she told me that the bus was on its way.
I ran back upstairs and checked my phone, and I was surprised to see that it was already 6:15.
How had time gone by so quickly?
I hadn’t even realized how late it was, and I only had fifteen minutes before I needed to be outside waiting for the bus.
I quickly grabbed my backpack and ran back downstairs, where my mom was finishing up some work in her home office.
She looked up at me when I came in, and she smiled when she saw how excited I was.
“Someone is in a hurry this morning,” she said with a laugh.
I smiled back at her and replied, “I just can’t wait for my first day of high school.
It’s going to be so much fun!”
My mom smiled again, and she stood up from her desk and walked over to me.
She gave me a big hug, which I happily returned, and then she gave me a kiss on the forehead.
“I hope you have a great day, sweetheart,” she said with a smile as she let me go.
“And don’t forget to eat something before you leave.That bowl of cereal isn’t going to be enough to hold you over until lunchtime.”
I rolled my eyes and replied, “Yes, Mom.I know how important it is for me to eat a good breakfast.”
My mom smiled again, and she gave me another hug before sending me on my way.
“I love you,” she said as I headed out the door.
“Love you too!”
I called back over my shoulder as I ran outside.
My mom always made sure that I had something good to eat for breakfast, even if it meant making something special for me in addition to the usual cereal and orange juice.
This morning she had made scrambled eggs with cheese and toast because she knew how much I loved it, and she always went out of her way to make sure that I was well-fed.
I grabbed my backpack from where I had set it down by the front door and waited for my mom to unlock it so that I could leave.
It only took her a few seconds to open it up, and then I was off to start my first day of high school.
As we walked outside, my mom reminded me to be careful and not to miss the bus.
She told me that she would pick me up from school that afternoon because the buses were going to be running late.
I smiled and nodded as she said goodbye before heading back inside to finish some work.
I quickly ran down our driveway and made my way to the bus stop.
I was the first person there this morning, but Alex would be meeting me in a few minutes.
He only lived a few blocks away from me, so he usually arrived right on time whenever he met me at our stop.
At our stop, Alex and I always met at 6:45 because our bus arrived at 6:50.
This would give us enough time to talk before we got on the bus and headed to school.
The bus ride only took twenty minutes or so, but we wanted to take advantage of having some extra time to talk before we arrived at school.
I was always excited to see Alex in the mornings because he felt like my brother in a way.
We had grown up together and had been best friends since sixth grade, which made me feel extremely close to him.
We also had a lot in common and shared many of the same interests, like technology and going to school.
We both loved getting good grades and learning new things, which was why we were so excited for our first day of high school.
We couldn’t wait to see what new adventures awaited us this year or what interesting things we’d learn next.
This year Alex and I would also have Mr.
Johnson for homeroom and first period math class again.
I was looking forward to having him as my teacher again because he was fun and made learning easy and enjoyable.
He was also the one who had told us about Windows 7 and why it would be important for us to install it on our laptops as soon as possible.
I wished that I could have installed it already, but my mom wouldn’t let me mess with my computer on my own.
She told me that I needed her “expert” guidance to make sure that I didn’t break anything.
So I was going to have to wait until she came home to download and install it on my computer today.
My mom said that she would be home early this evening and that we could have dinner together to celebrate my first day of high school once I had everything set up.
She would also take me to Best Buy to get the latest version of Fallout 3 that had just been released last week as part of my reward for being such a good student last year.
“Alex, over here!”
I screamed when I saw him walking toward the bus stop this morning.
He looked just as excited as I felt as he waved back at me and ran to my side.
It only took him a few seconds to reach me, and then we were both standing there waiting for the bus to arrive.
“Are you excited?”
Alex asked me with his usual smile.
“I can’t wait,” I replied as I gave him a big hug.
I knew that he was feeling the same way as me based on his huge grin and the way he couldn’t stop bouncing around even though he tried to hide it behind his backpack.
It was always fun going to school with Alex because he made everything better and more enjoyable than it ever would have been on my own.
"So.. are we gonna watch the California Sharks battle against the Washington Wildfrogs this night? Its gonna be a amazing rugby game!"
Alex smiled at me as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave me another tight squeeze.
We were always making bets about what we were going to do that day or what we were going to learn in school.
It was one of the things that had first brought us together as friends and something that we had been doing every since.
Neither of us wanted to give it up now because it was too much fun to do.
“Why are you asking me that?”
I said as I pushed him away.
“Do you think I don’t know what’s going on?”
“Of course not,” Alex replied as he gave me another smile.
“But you know that I have to keep you on your toes.”
“Oh really,” I said sarcastically.
“You think that you can do that?”
“Absolutely,” Alex answered without any hesitation.
“And you know that I’m right.”
“Whatever,” I said as I rolled my eyes.
“You’re just lucky that I love you so much.”
“Yeah, I know,” Alex replied as he gave me another hug.
We had been doing this for so long that it was now second nature to us.
It was something that had brought us even closer together and made people think that we were actually brother and sister because of the way we acted around each other.
But we didn’t really care because we knew that it was all in good fun and that we would never do anything to hurt each other or ruin what we had together.
Even if we did it at the expense of some others who didn’t understand us, like most of the teachers at our school who thought that we were crazy for being friends with each other.
Just like most of them thought that we were crazy for wanting to come to school early or for sitting together on the bus or for being the only two students in Mr.
Johnson’s class who wanted to learn and get good grades.
But we didn’t care because we had each other and knew that nothing would ever change that.
“Man, am I glad that we got up early this morning,” Alex said as he looked at the time on his cell phone.
“Why’s that?”
I replied as I looked at my watch.
“It’s only a few minutes before the bus gets here, so we wouldn’t have had to wait for long.”
“Yeah, but we got to spend more time together before we got on it,” Alex said as he gave me another hug.
“Oh brother,” I said as I pushed him away again.
“How did I ever get so lucky?”
“I have no idea,” Alex replied as he laughed at me.
“But you are, so don’t ever forget it.”
We were laughing and joking around with each other when we saw the bus pull around the corner and come to a stop in front of us.
It was time for us to go to school, but we weren’t ready to stop having fun yet because we still had a few more minutes before we had to be there.
So we decided to keep making fun of each other and see who could come up with the best joke before we got there.
That was why we barely made it to math class on time, even though we thought that we had.
The second that Alex and I walked into Mr.
Johnson’s class, we both felt a chill run down our spines because we knew that it was going to be a long year for us there.
It was always like that on the first day of school because we never knew what he would have for us or how long it would take for him to explain it to us or if it would even make any sense when he did it, but we were always so excited that it never really mattered because we knew that everything would work out in the end anyway, thanks mostly in part to him.
“Good morning, future leaders of America!”
Mr.Johnson said as soon as Alex and I walked into his room.
“Good morning, Mr.Johnson!”
Everyone else in the room replied as well as they all got up from their desks to greet their teacher.
Then they all sat down again a few seconds later when he started walking towards the front of the room to begin his first lesson of the year.
I had to admit that it was actually nice to be back in his class because we had always learned something new from him every day.
Even when we thought that it was going to be impossible for him to teach us anything at all because of the way that he was acting or because of the way that we were acting.
He always found a way to make it work out somehow, even when we didn’t know how he would.
That was why Alex and I were able to do so much in middle school even though most of the other students in our grade were not able to do as much as we could.
Mr.Johnson was a great teacher who knew how to make math seem easy even when it was actually hard.
We were really lucky to have him as our mentor, especially since he had been willing to help us out of some pretty bad situations in the past.
That was also why he had become more like a father figure to us than anything else because he knew how to take care of us and make sure that we got everything that we needed, even when we didn’t know that we needed it.
He was the one who had given me the idea of switching over from a Toshiba computer to a MacBook Pro, and then had helped me set it up and learn how to use it, even though he had never owned one before or used one before himself.
But he had still known enough about them to tell me that they were better than most of the other computers that were on the market and that I would be better off with one instead of something else, even if it meant that I would have to learn how to do something new in order for me to be able to get it.
“Good morning, class,” Mr.
Johnson said again as he turned around and faced everyone.
“My name is Mr.
Johnson and this is my math class.
