Annie wins!!

So I don't feel like writing today.

I could care less if you know what my fifth grade year was like.

I mean, it was fifth grade, another year at school.

Hmm... seems like I'm channeling my feelings from my fifth grade year into this little blog here.

You see, fifth grade was the year I got tired of school. It wasn't a challenge, it wasn't fun, it was just school. Friendships were getting trickier, cliques were forming, and I usually felt like I was on the outside looking in.

 I feel like I just didn't (don't) see things the way other people do and I don't always care about the things my peers did. MTV was not my thing (actually, mom said we couldn't watch it and of the rules I might have broken, I never watched) so I wasn't sucked into pop culture. I didn't have to wear Guess jeans. I didn't want to be popular. I did want to be on the safety patrol though, but I just wasn't safety patrol material. (I'm guessing they sensed my inner rebel and knew that I'd create chaos at any given chance. Or maybe my grades weren't good enough....)

But more than that, my attitude changed. I started not doing my homework-and this was a major problem because my teacher went to church with us. Sunday mornings-- "Hi Annie! Have you got your fill-in-the-blank project done yet?" Me-- "mumble, mumble, mumble." Mom (tightly gripping my shoulder)-- "No, not done yet, but it will be." Or something very similar.

And have I mentioned before that I was (am) a talker? Well this held true for the fifth grade.

Got my first detention. For talking.

But here's the fun part.

Detention was served after school. Mom was in college and would be in class when detention was over. She asked the nice principal lady if she intended to bring me home afterward. Principal lady answered with a non-surprising no. So mom told them that they needed to figure something else out then. The agreed upon punishment was for me to serve detention during lunch. So I walked to the office during lunch, some other kid had to bring me my lunch (yeah, I was that important, in my head), and then I got to eat another crappy school lunch in complete peace, all alone in the cool, quiet conference room.

Another thing about me is that I'm a smiler.

I generally smile all the time, no matter what the situation. You know it's going to be ugly if I stop smiling. It's just who I am. So there I am, sitting all alone in this conference room enjoying my lunch when the principal lady walks by. I turn and smile at her. And this is my favorite part--- Stern face, frowning in my general direction: "I wouldn't be smiling if I were you young lady. You're in detention."

I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. I try to look like I'm upset that I'm in detention. I did a good enough job I reckon because she firmly and authoritatively walked away.

And I felt like (knew) I had won.