We rule the school, January 2025

Round 16: January 2025

Principal Nyah Marlowe and teacher Phoebe Lind.

Students: Frieda Robinson, Aaron Hayes and Emily Midlock are 17, Sara Midlock is 16, Riley Cooper is 15, Ross and Madelyn Cooper and Jeremy Hayes are 14, Liam Cooper, Skye Marlowe, Todd Robinson and Iona Fielding are 13 and Jesse Midlock is 12.

Narrated by Nyah Marlowe.

We're finally getting a new high school this year. The construction workers are currently tearing down the old one so we're stuck with this temporary lot with a couple of barracks working as class rooms and other necessary buildings. It's not ideal but it would have been impossible to tear down the old building and get a new one up and running during the summer holiday. At least this way we'll hopefully get to start the autumn semester in a brand new school building.

We only have two class rooms and one of them is a combined library and computer lab so it took a lot of planning to get a working schedule for all lessons. Everything's been running pretty smoothly though and the students and their parents have been very understanding.

The other class room is transferred into an art class or a music room once a week but at other times it's just a regular class room for gradework. Phoebe and I are just glad that the barracks are warm. It would be even more inconvenient to teach here if we were freezing to death at the same time.

The cafeteria is pretty crowded during lunch but there's room for everyone. It may sound strange but I feel like it's harder to supervise the kids now even though the school area is a lot smaller than our regular one. It would be so easy for the kids to hide behind one of the barracks if they wanted to do something they don't want us to see.

This is the second year I have one of my own kids in my school. I think Skye's starting to notice boys. At least she's been spending some time with Todd Robinson. I think the talk about the birds and the bees is approaching very fast. I know Thomas is terrified at the mere thought of Skye dating someone but I just tease him that it's because he knows how horny teenaged boys can be.

Frieda, Aaron and Emily are way too cool to spend time with the younger kids. This is their last year in high school and they're all pretty anxious to go to college already. They've all been accepted already and I think Emily and Aaron are quite close to getting in with half price tuitions. Frieda's score is a bit lower but I have no doubt in my mind that with her determination and spirit she will thrive in college. With everything that has happened during their high school years I feel like I'm even prouder than usual of them doing so well.

Still it wouldn't be high school if there wasn't some drama going on. Ross and Jeremy have always gotten along so well but one day during recess I noticed them arguing. With the way they were raging at each other I was afraid that it would get physical. Luckily they calmed down when I called their names.

The boys tried to explain that they were just horsing around. It's true that there's not much to do during recess but I don't think that's the reason they were arguing.

"It looked like you would go for each other's throats in about 5 seconds. That kind of behaviour is not tolerated on the school property. School is not a place for fighting - and don't even think about taking this as a cue to fight after school" I told them.

I tried to find out what had riled them up so badly but I might as well have asked them what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. They just stared at me and then looked at each other and then back at me without saying a word. I just stared back at them waiting for either of them to crack.

I could hear Ross muttering something to Jeremy from the corner of his mouth.

Jeremy turned to look at Ross and said: "I wasn't flirting with her, she just kissed me out of the blue!"

I had to bite my cheek to keep from smiling when I saw how they both looked shocked like they couldn't believe that Jeremy had said it out loud. I should've known it had something to do with teenage hormones.

"Just try to behave. I don't want to talk to you about this again. Now get out, your next class is about to start" I said and the boys couldn't have gotten out of there faster.

Apparently they have been able to solve whatever the problem was because a few days later I saw them acting like friends again. I still don't know who Jeremy was talking about but I don't really care as long as there's no more fighting.

Phoebe and I have been keeping a close eye on the kids now, hoping to stop more hormone induced drama from happening.

Notes:

• Title reference: We rule the school by Belle & Sebastian
• First of all, may I just say how much I love my new computer?! My game loads quickly and runs really smoothly.
• I lost some of my most recent notes that I had done with FlashNote so I have to roll the ROS again for this round. I'll do that before playing any households and will edit the ROS post when I'm done.
• I didn't want to use the old high school building anymore but I also didn't have any desire to build a new one quickly for this update so I did this instead.
• I think everyone's figured out what's going on with Ross but I'm not going to say it out loud until he does. :)