Most of today was pretty much a repeat of
yesterday, except we got more rain more often; the exams of the day were music
and science; and the study subjects for the exams tomorrow were Spanish and
History. There was no band practice
because of exams; so the only change for Michael and me was that we had our
first teen praise team practice at the church after dinner.
We found out when we got there that exams
got in the way of that too, so Stacey only had six teens to work with – Michael
and me; Anna-Marie Palmer and Cal Jennings; and Shane Wildes and Tegan
Wilson. Everyone else was busy studying
– or at least had orders to study; but we will still have time to get ready for
the parade and holiday weekend service – and only Michael and I are learning
all of the songs. Yes, we know a lot of
them from singing them at church; but we still need to learn the harmonies and
the guitar and keyboard arrangements. Michael
had brought his guitar, and Stacey had us play for some of the songs to see how
we’d do; but Anna-Marie played the keyboard for most of our practice and we
went without a guitar for the songs Michael didn’t play too.
That was a really special hour or so of
musical play time; though I wouldn’t say that we sounded great. We didn’t have any basses in our little
group; Anna-Marie and I are sopranos, so Tegan was on her own for the alto
part; and Michael was the only tenor with perfect pitch and the range to hit
all of the notes. Stacey wants Michael
and I to take some solos and duets already, but I hope she takes that slowly so
that we don’t upset any of the other teens – especially anyone who has been
waiting for seniors to graduate to get their chance to shine for this coming
year.
As I’m sitting here now and thinking about
spending that time with the older teens; it occurred to me that I haven’t
mentioned Tegan’s name in my journal in years.
Even in a small town, friendships ebb and flow; and this is really the
first time I’ve really been around Tegan in quite a while. That’s a lot different than my first year
here when we played baseball together and she came to my tenth birthday
party. Sure, there was the whole
crossing over thing that had the same effect on her as it did on the rest of
our year-older friends; but then we also haven’t been on the same baseball
teams in years either; and ran in different circles of friends.
Tegan and Shane are a couple now; and seem
to be very happy. They both joined the
praise team last September; but they’ve mostly stayed in the background behind
their more extroverted friends.
Anna-Marie and Cal are two of those more outgoing teens; so they led the
practice tonight. Cal also warned
Michael that the guys on the football team would seriously razz him if he ‘sang
in the church choir’ and tried to play football too’ but then he seemed to be
surviving doing both just fine so Michael isn’t all that worried about that.
Moving along, while that practice was one
of the best parts of the day, I skipped over having dinner at Michael’s house;
and should never do that! Even easy-meal
nights there are really awesome; and so was getting to spend another hour or so
with Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca. The
only thing missing now is an eighth member for the group. This wasn’t a good week to suggest that, but
maybe Rebecca could invite Lucas to one of the dinners next week or the week
after.
I went home with Michael from the church
and we studied for another hour.
Rebecca, Jenny, and a couple of the girls in their class were studying
in the dining room, so we joined them there – though Jenny teased us about
having more fun if we’d go and study in Michael’s room instead. That would have been true, but not with a
bunch of other teens in the house with us.
When the clock struck nine-thirty, I went
home so that I could be there in time to do the bedtime story and snack with
Ethan and Ehlana. They’re actually
busier than I am right now between spending time at the lab with Mom; KidZone
visits; and wrapping up their freshman year at college with their final exams. My Grade Eight exams are simple by
comparison, but helping my friends out and keeping busy all day is still
tiring; so skipping Magi lessons and my ‘real’ language studies this week is
making it easier to stay fully-charged and enthusiastic.
That’s why I’m in bed already; and should
be sleeping before eleven o’clock for the first time in what seems like
forever. We still have three days of
exams to go, but then the school year will be all over except for the wind down
play time and parties. I’ll wrap this up
on that happy note; so, until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
