Technically, I should be happy. Today is basically the last day of school. All we need to do is come in for the finals, which isn't so bad. Rather anticlimactic, if you ask me. Isn't the end of the school year supposed to a big celebration? I guess not. Though, I have been invited to several parties so at least I'll be occupied.

Last week, I took six (SIX!!!) tests and quizzes... I guess students aren’t the only ones procrastinating! I mean, we kept working on biology up until yesterday. I also turned in my English essay and got 100% on it! It's been a pretty good time for me but after going to a graduation party, running errands, and fundraising (incredible fun, "you want some cheesecake? It's made locally!"), I didn't have much time for my biology extra credit, so I did it last night. It cost me sleep but at least I'm EXEMPT from the bio final!!! That's right, in your face!

At our school, if you get straight A's all four marking periods and an A or a B on the midterm, you are exempt from the final for that subject. As a result, I only have to take two finals for my academic classes (it was just ONE B! Give me a break!) and honestly, if I had to take the Honors Biology final, I would have cried. Then I'd murder someone. Thank goodness for extra credit and lenient teachers... who make us do chores. Yes, that's right, chores. She made all of the exempt students clean out beakers and glassware while the rest of the bio class "studied." Notice the quotes... they weren't doing much of anything but at least we had fun flinging soap suds at each other. My shirt got all wet from the spray.

Over the weekend, I fundraised my a** off for cheerleading. This crap is EXPENSIVE. When you add it all together, cheerleading is $320 for camp, over $100 for clothing & shoes, and $20 each season for the athletic fee. That's not including the other miscellaneous items like warm-up suits, body liners & Under Armour (for cold weather), pon-poms, and bags (for the new people). We're looking at over $500 here (almost $600) if you're just starting out. Unfortunately for the returning girls, it's even more if you add on the cost of last year's stuff. That's why we need fundraising. Despite our school district's "wealthy" reputation (as compared to our oh-so-poor rival school district... really, who comes up with these things?), we're quite needy.

Fundraising is sort of an exercise in humiliation. No matter what you say, you're still asking (begging) people for money. Our fundraiser sells baked goods, but the promotion guy that came to talk to us said "remember, you're not SELLING anything; you're fundraising." Well, even when I gave my whole "hi, I made the squad... blah blah blah ...want to help me?" speech, the customers still asked "what are you selling?" I guess I'm lucky that people really like cookie dough, cheesecakes, and pretzels! With the money I raised, I can pay off about half of my camp fee but that still leaves the $300 worth of other things that I need. Ah, well. Time to beg for money from my parents... who are already fed up with me.

Fundraising brings me to cheerleading. Cheerleading brings me to homicide. Homicide brings me to... death? Sure, whatever. Practice was yesterday and today, and even though we taught them new stuff, we've got a long way to go... like running a marathon but longer. Send me a miracle, please. The squad needs it. We still haven't done any stunting and no one pays attention (could their attention span be any less?). And of course, we all suck... once again, I must say, cheering is not yelling and people should be cut. I'm being negative. Sue me.

So it's the end of the year. Strangely, I'm not really looking forward to summer. It's kind of overwhelming me now. We got our yearbooks (which cost $80 if you reserved one and $92 if you got it last minute. People have resorted to stealing yearbooks. Wealthy school district full of kleptos?) so now I'm collecting signatures. Some of my friends write very interesting notes. "Don't take any more risqué pictures" ...is that something you normally write in a yearbook? It was funny though.  Note to self: never agree to be in pictures at a Halloween party. Just because I was wearing wings does NOT make me a tramp!  I will be done with my finals on Monday and then, on to my busy, busy summer. *sigh* It never ends, does it? Unless you die.