Oisin15

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Entry 15 -- Snmall Time Big Talk
It took more time to go to school Wednesday morning then usual because Stasch is not all that fast. I made sure he got his bike safely locked up too before making my way to the high school lot and locking up my own. As a result, I had to rush to get to honors English and did not get to see Josh and find out if he got the room from Ms. Garcia so we could practice our French during lunch time.

Instead we had a pop quiz and a lesson on paragraph writing in Honors English. That soaked up time and energy. Then it was off to biology lecture. We were doing macromolecules with long names that are best abbreviated: DNA, RNA (I'm not sure why you need both but they are at different places inside the cell. The places even rhyme which is very weird.), hemoglobin, chlorophyl. Josh said that both hemoglobin and chloroyphyl were prophyrins. I suspect Josh' dad got him some extra reading on the side. That's something my parents would never do. They gave me my own workshop but when it comes to academic books, I'm on my own.

After biology class I snuck down to the stage where Mr. Kieffer, our biology teacher was packing up. "May I have a library pass?" I asked him point blank. Maybe I should have said "please," but I was in a hurry.

"What do you need a library pass for?" asked Mr. Kieffer.

"I want to get a book so I can read it seventh period," this sounded generic and better than the fact that my econ textbook was missing important facts.

"OK," sighed Mr. Kieffer and he signed the pass. Then he asked what kind of book I was looking for. I told him it was an economics book with algebra.

Mr. Kieffer raised his eyebrows. "Well all those lines they teach us about in economics have slopes and that's algebra," I explained.

Mr. Kieffer shook his head. "Actually," he told me. "Those lines are curves and require calculus which I know you haven't had yet, but algebra is better than nothing."

Leave it to a teacher to tell you the truth. Well, I've only had algebra and I'm taking geometry. What am I supposed to do?

Well, I was nearly late to economics and stuck at the table with the football players and Atalaya, the little sharp runt from Honors English. Today we discussed demand. It had a slope in the opposite direction of supply. Basicly if the price went up, demand got smaller.

The teacher explained this. I noticed he watched our table with warey eyes, and nearly flinched when Atalaya's hand shot up. "The curve is not right she began."

The teacher cleared his throat. He tucked his hands behind his back. "And why Ms. Grimsley, is the curve not right."

"It assumes this is the only item you buy and that you buy it in isolation. If I get my allowance, I don't just buy pencils and looseleaf paper. I may buy some jewelry. I may eat out somewhere. I may get a new swaeter or have my hair braided."

"And what does that have to do with this curve," I could see the teacher going red.

"Well if the hair braiding place is offering discounts, I'm going to get my hair done and even if pencils come down in price, I'm not going to buy more pencils. I'd rather use my money to get my hair braided."

"Ahemm.... thankyou Ms. Grimsley," said the economics teacher. "Any more comments."

This time one of the football players spoke. He did not just raise his hand, he stood up and just talked. "Atalaya's right," he said. "It's right here in our textbook. It says that sometimes the demand for one thing effects the demand for other things so two, three, four or five things should have lots of effect."

"Thankyou," snarled the ecoomics teacher. We were on a roll though and I could feel it. I hated for ecomomics class to end today and to head to geometry where one quarter of the class was on a board strike. That meant more ups for us and geometry was fun. It still meant no time to talk until it got to be lunch time.

I was glad we had Ms. Garcia's room as our place to eat. It meant no more having to deal with assholes and shit heads in the cafeteria. We also got to practice our French, but mostly we needed to do a ton of catching up.

I also needed to get to the library but I needed to hear how Josh was coming along with his plans for a French Honor Society or as he called it Legion d'Honeur Francais.  Madame Fletcher, our computer French teacher agreed to sign off as adviser even though she was a computer teacher. We had no French teacher and Ms. Garcia had done enough giving us a room. We just needed the Principal's signature.

"Why don't you get it Oisin?" asked Josh.

"Because I'm fucking busy these days," I answered.

"We're all fucking busy," answered Josh. "Look Oisin, Lenny smells bad. I've asked for too many things. You know what people think of old people. I'm sorry Koli."

"I can take care of it," answered Atalaya. "I know how people feel...but some of their best friends are...or they had better be."

We all laughed a nervous ugly laugh. Atalaya promised to email the Principal with her request. I headed off to the library.

We didn't have the book. The librarian said that economics with algebra was a college subject and we weren't a college library. "Well where can I get an economics book with algebra?" I asked.

"Try the public library," she suggested and showed me how to use their catalog. Sure enough they had several introductory college level economics books. "You'll probably want both macro and micro economics, she told me."

I figured these were flavors like chocolate and vanilla. Well vanilla fudge ice cream wasn't bad not that economics was ice cream. I'd take both but I'd have to figure out a way to get down to the library after school.