~:*:~
These past two week have been long. Longer than usual, I mean. An amalgamation of things have kept things... interesting. But at least I've got some stories to tell. twisted
So this past week was the end of my AP tests. I took five this year, and that on top of all my teachers assigning an end-of-the-year project that they 'couldn't get to' because of swine break (for those who don't know, all Fort Worth public schools closed for a week due to fear of Swine Flu. During AP/TAKS week. Worst possible timing they could have come up with). But, anyway, stories.
First, Monday was the end of Scarborough Faire where I work during the Spring. Not by choice, mind you. I'm forced into it by my father who owns a jewelry booth out there and I'm paid less than minimum wage, working 12-hour days. It's usually just weekends, but the last week of fair is Saturday-Sunday-Monday for Memorial Day. Not my favorite way to spend my last day off of school until the end of the year. Still, money is money I guess, and I'm gonna need it for college in August (as well as miscellaneous little hidden fees my college has planned between now and the start of school).
My Government AP test was last Wedenday, a week ago now. It was tough, and apparently there was a question that pretty much no one answered (I only answered part of it), but I'm still feeling pretty confident about it. It was no big deal. Routine Advanced Placement testing stuff. What was weird was Thursday, and this is where the interesting part starts.
So I had to go to school that morning (most schools don't make you come if you have an AP test in the afternoon, but my school just HAS to have that extra bit of cash they get for students who attend during second period), and I gave a speech on Role-Playing. Specifically my guild, Shattered Memories. [/shameless plug]
Then Calculus in which we did nothing (we'd already taken the AP test, so there was nothing left to do), then P.E. where we also did nothing. I left school at 11:10 and headed to Mama's pizza for lunch so I wouldn't be starving during the test. Crossing the street was hell, though. Why do no cross-walks work EVER? Running past cars while the light's red isn't fun. But I eventually made it to Mama's where I had a nice, if lonely, lunch. Pretty cheap too. I was glad, considering I'm officially unemployed now.
Anyway, I left early, around 12:00 so I would have time to get to the testing center just in case I got waylaid or lost. Wasn't looking forward to crossing the huge intersection again, but I did find out there's a new type of button for cross-walks. It's a big, black box with a huge silver button that, when you put even the slightest bit of pressure on it, buzzes like it's angry at you. Not an 'okay, I'm working' buzz, but a 'why the hell are you pressing me, stop it before I call the police!' buzz. It doesn't work either.
Speaking of police, the intersection was SWARMING with them. Just figures I had to jaywalk to get where I was going. I ended up crossing behind a pizza-delivery man with an unkempt beard who looked like a hippie and smelled strongly of cigarettes. I left him behind as quickly as I could. Then I got to walk next to a train as it bolted past. You never realize how loud those things really are until you're standing right next to them... Thankfully, though, it was a short train (which is uncommon where I live) and I was able to make my way across the tracks to where I was going. I never noticed how huge train tracks were before...
But I did finally make it where I was going, about fifteen minutes early. It was a big, square building, completely devoid of personality. It was obviously meant for offices. The inside was highly aseptic, reminded me a lot of a hospital. It was also completely abandoned. There were no signs to direct anyone to the testing room, either. Confused, but confident I was in the right place, I checked the only billboard in the room. It had a list of events, and the Computer Science test wasn't on it. A little less sure, I wandered down the only hallway. It split off between an upward ramp and another hallway which split off in another two directions. Everywhere was just as empty as the entrance. Unsure where else to go, but remembering the board had mentioned computer labs in the basement, I headed down the hallway. There was a TV at the end with two students on it, and 'Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody' written at the bottom. A radiostation? I was completely confused now, so I wandered back the way I'd come, going outside and looking for any familiar faces. All I saw was a woman entering the building, and so I turned to my phone. Everyone I had numbers for was either in school or had already graduated college. Dismayed, I went back inside. Why wasn't there a help desk or receptionist? There was a glass wall in front of me, and through it I could see the two people from the radiostation TV down the hallway, but how was I supposed to talk to them? There was only one other way, a door that lead to the library, so I tried it. It was locked. Unsure what else to do, I went back down the hallway I had earlier.
I ran into the same woman I saw walking in earlier. She gave me a feeble, polite smile, and looked away, but I asked her if she knew anything about the test that was supposed to be going on there. She didn't, but agreed to help me out, so I followed her down to the testing room which was completely empty, just like everywhere else. Well, empty except for one woman in the FAR back corner who didn't know anything about any more testing going on in that building. She did, however, direct us to another office that might be able to help me. The woman who had been helping me out offered to walk me there and I thanked her profusely. We went up the elevator and down several more hallways into an office where a group of people were having a meeting. One of the women came out and we talked to her. After explaining what was going on, she made a phone call. The first woman made sure I knew how to get back out and then went about what she needed to do. I thanked her again and waited for the result of the phone call. It was silent for a long time, and eventually... the line disconnected. The woman called again and, after waiting for a while longer, looked up at me and asked 'Do you know where Will Roger's is?'
At this point I wasn't surprised that I'd have to travel across town to get to my test, but I was annoyed anyway. Still, I thanked the woman and made my way back through the empty hallways to outside.
I made a call to my mother. It went to messages. I called my grandparents and it disconnected. I called my grandparents car and it disconnected again. I called all of the numbers two or three times again with the same result and finally I just decided, 'screw it, I've gotta get there somehow else.' So I called my friend, Karin Daath who's home for the summer from college. She VERY kindly agreed to come pick me up and take me over to Will Roger's. She didn't know how to get there, and neither did I, but thankfully her mother did, and Karin came to pick me up in front of my school. It was around 12:30 at that point, the time at which I was supposed to be at the testing site. Of course, they always told us to be there a half-hour early and even then they never got started on time anyway, so I figured I had plenty of time. I thanked Karin a lot for doing me such a huge favor, and apologized too (I'd apparently pulled her away from pizza. >_< She really is a very, very nice person).
But, anyway, she dropped me off outside of the center. There were still people outside, so I thought that maybe no one had even gone inside yet... Until I saw that I didn't recognize anyone out there. Normally this wouldn't have meant anything, but Computer Sceince was a small test, and I knew about 20% of the people taking it, so I knew something was wrong. I rushed inside, and it was just as empty as the building from before. More so, possibly because the place was so huge. There was only the one policeman who sat outside the testing room.I was REALLY thankful when he told me I wasn't too late, so I went in and prepared for things to start getting back to normal. How foolish of me!
The first thing that I noticed was that my name wasn't in alphabetical order. Another friend of mine (Emperor Hikaru on Gaia), waved me over, and I found out that I was sitting next to him near the back of the room. He told me that he had gone to see Mrs. Ozuna, the woman in charge of AP tests at our school, about the Computer Science test the day before and she had told him that the testing site had definitely changed. When Hikaru brought it up with our Computer Science teacher, he was informed 'Oh yeah, we all know that.' Everyone in the class looked at the teacher with a group 'wait, what?' I was at the Government Test that day, so no one had told me.
But things just got better. I was given the testing books for Computer Science 2 and when I talked to the woman in charge of testing she told me that I was given all the information at my school and it was my responsibility to go over it all and make sure it was right. I showed her my card which clearly read Computer Science 1 on it, and she responded with 'Oh... Well, it was copied wrong onto the spreadsheet, then.' Thankfully, however, not everyone showed up for the level 1 test, so I was able to switch out and take the right one. Found out, though, that several people were indeed out of alphabetical order and had to be switched around. Then the woman in charge got on the microphone. Her first words were 'CollegeBoard apologizes.' That couldn't be good. Turns out they hadn't included the appendix which contained all the programs we were being tested over. We were also given the booklets that were supposed to be used three weeks ago, meaning we had to go through special bureaucratic procedures to make sure everything was okay. Then found out that the appendix actually WAS in the testing materials. It was just in the section two part we weren't supposed to open yet. It was hands down the worst organized test of any type I have EVER taken. I think even the proctors were glad to be done with it.
When I called my mother I found out that my grandmother had been waiting for two or three hours outside the building I had originally gone to since I hadn't been able to get a hold of her on the phone. I felt bad about that, but there wasn't anything I could do. All-in-all, it was nice to finally get home.
And that's just a part of all that 's gone on over the past week. And graduation is tomorrow. I guess it's good the end of my senior year has been so interesting, but I'm more than ready to have it over with.
~:*:~
And every night I will be with you
