Advanced/Cambridge English 2.0

[Richard Stone]

Richard stood in front of the whiteboard in his classroom with a pen in his hand. This was his only English class where he actually wrote the lesson plan directly on the board so that his students could get straight to work without the normal talk-through first - as he knew that a number of the students in this class weren't the talking type.

Persona

Write three (fictitious) letters on the topic: What I did over the weekend
Letter one is to be written to mom and dad;
Letter two is to be written to your best friend,
Letter three to your ex-best friend.

Capping the pen, he returned to his desk and sat down. He didn't have any handouts for this class, as this was one topic that didn't need any excess papers. He was hoping that once the students had finished writing, that a couple would be open enough to read out their letters. And give their peers a chance to see the difference between the writing styles of who the letter is addressed to.

He looked over as the door opened and the first students crossed the threshold.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara put her satchel over her shoulder and exited the Calculus classroom, allowing herself to get swept into the wave of students moving from one class to the next, but at the same time blocking out the noise that seemed to swarm around her like angry bees.

It was a relief as she moved out of the crush of students and entered the English classroom. She bowed her head toward the teacher who was sitting at his desk, and without a word, she walked over to her table, sat down and methodically prepared it for that day's lesson before she turned her attention to the whiteboard.

Her eyebrows rose as she read through that day's assignment, but then shrugged her shoulders and opened her folder. Picking up the black pen, she dated the top left of the sheet in front of her, wrote her name in the top right corner and replacing the black pen for a blue she wrote Persona One at the top centre of the page. Again picking up the black, on the top line she wrote Letter One, then returned it to the top of the page and with the blue pen she began to write her first letter:

Dear Ma and Father

She blew out a short breath as she had her pen poised above her paper. There was so much she wanted to wrote to her parents about then just about the weekend. She shook her head as she returned her attention back to the task at hand and her pen started flowing across the page.

This past weekend has been as uneventful as every other weekend - if we could ever actually call my life "uneventful". Gymnastics has resumed practise, so that takes up a majority of my weekend and the rest of the day was taken up with exercising my mares. Coach Hoefflin is an amazing Coach, it is easy to see that, before he peaked, he was an amazing gymnast - and I can see that from the way he pushes us to be our best. You can always tell the skill of a coach by how few of his athletes are injured.

It is a little different riding horses, rather than ponies. I still feel a little silly sitting on such large animals, but, as it has been mentioned in the past, this is the only way that I can progress from children's riding classes. Though, if I am asked, I will still happily catch-ride ponies.

Ella is progressing from her fear of arenas. It has taken some time - though we all know that I would never have pushed her faster then she was comfortable with - she is intelligent enough to know that when we go out to the arena, for either a lesson or a work-out, I won't work her to the ground.

My newest friend, Mouse, is a challenge in herself, but I'm sure we will click sooner or later. Her dished face combined with the long moose nose tells me that she has uncommon intelligence and confidence, but then her narrow and inflexible nostrils was a sure sign of a horse who lacks mental development. She is going to be interesting to work with. I have her entered in a jumping competition in only a couple of weeks, I'm just hoping that I am not too full of myself and setting her up to fail.

The mare I am working with for the equine reproduction class, Shiloh, is due to foal any time, so I have requested that I am allowed to stay over-night in the barn. She has had a good pregnancy, and I asked permission to sleep in the barn so that I will be there with her the whole time. At least this way if anything goes wrong, she will know that I haven't deserted her. I have a feeling though, since she's full term, that things are looking up.

I miss you both more than words could ever begin to explain, and I am looking forward to when we will see each other again. Though, be sure that it won't be any time in the near future.

Watashi wa subete no watashi no kokoro o motte anata o aishite
Cara-san

She sat back in her chair as she reread what she had written. She would have said so much more if she was indeed writing this to her parents, but as it was fictitious, she didn't want to get too flowery... or at least she would wait until after she had written the other two letters before she edited the first.

[Peter Holden]

Peter found his way into his advanced english class once again, and found a seat on its own in the middle of the classroom. He didn't really mind his english class, and hopefully today's wouldn't be too tedious. When he read over the instructions on the board, a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. If he could judge how the class would go by the beginning, it would be nice, as his instructions were on the board, and there was no talking thus far. He was perfectly happy to sit and write these letters, and hopefully he'd be able to stay away from reading them aloud. Pulling out his notebook, he turned to the next empty page and titled it Persona as it was on the board, and below it wrote Letter One: in his angular but neat handwriting.

Stopping to think for a moment, he considered how he would write his first letter, to his parents. He'd only exchanged emails with his parents since he'd come to Blue Ridge, and wished that the topic were more general, including all family. Kate and him had written each other frequently before Kate had come to Blue Ridge at the beginning of the month. Writing to her had been much easier than writing this letter to his parents would be. His relationship with them was sort of cold, and almost formal, and he was quite sure that his letter would have a different tone from that of his peers. Putting pen to paper, he began,

Dear Mom and Dad,
Blue Ridge is, as usual, wonderful. It's nice to be back after the holidays though I did appreciate being home with you guys. Kate seems to have settled in well, and I see her rather often. This weekend was rather ordinary, with nothing that was particularly special.

I slept in Saturday, which is the one interesting thing. I know it sounds odd, since it's a nightmare to try and wake me up at home, but since I've come to Blue Ridge I've been waking up very early in the morning. Saturday I didn't wake until 10, which was a nice change, and I really did appreciate catching up on sleep. My classes are exhausting, and I've been finding it hard to get as much sleep as I probably need. I spent the rest of the day with Thimble, training with her. I signed up for a show, and so I've been doing a bit more training with her than usual. We are going to be competing in a show jumping class, and hopefully we will do well. That's Thimble's best phase of eventing, so I hope we'll have a chance, though there are a lot of people entered. Frankly, I'm happy Kate hasn't entered, as I've never competed against her before. I think she's doing an equitation class instead, which hopefully she'll do well in. I didn't think it was like her to only enter one class, when she could have done jumping with Cailin too, but I suppose she knows what is best.

Sunday I was a little more social, with humans at least. Kate and I met for breakfast, which has become a habit of ours. We've been doing it every week, and I'm glad for it. I did a bit of homework later, and went for a walk in the reserve. I also saw my friend Avery for a bit, which was also very nice. Overall, the weekend was enjoyable, and I'm certainly looking forward to this upcoming weekend as well. I hope your break from work was just as nice, and that you both are doing well.

Love,
Peter

Finishing off his first letter he sighed, looking down. It was abrupt, and a bit wonky sounding, but that was realistic, and this was really a letter he would have sent to his parents. Just enough details to make them feel clued in, but not so many that they actually knew about anything happening. They would ignore the whole part about Thimble, and think nothing of his meeting Avery. It was a safe letter, and he was sure that they would have replied similarly.

[Becca Walsh]

Becca found a seat in her english class next to Peter, who she knew well enough for it not to be odd. Or, well enough at least to know that he wouldn't bother her during the lesson with silly questions or comments, and would probably only greet her. She was fine with that, and rather appreciated it sometimes. This class was probably her favorite, and she liked it more than her others. This did not, however, mean she particularly enjoyed it, and she would like for it to be over all the same. As long as she was stuck there though, she'd certainly put in her best effort.

Reading the board quickly, she pulled out her notebook and labeled her paper Persona Letters in her slanted, rushed looking script. Her handwriting wasn't really proper script, and she mostly wrote how it was fastest, but it still managed to be readable. Below it, she simply put 1. and began to consider her first letter. After a few moments, she began.

Mom and Daddy-
How are you guys? I am certainly doing fine, though it's been a bit different. The holiday was nice, and I liked being back in Vermont. I miss it there, and I'm sure the snow is crazy there by now. There's a bunch here too, but nothing like Vermont. This weekend good, and I mostly spent it working with Frye, but I did some other stuff too.

Saturday I took Frye out on the cross country courses and trained him over those. He was having a good day, for Frye you know, and I was pretty happy. We are entering a show, and I've registered us in the cross country class. I'm pretty sure we have a good chance if I can keep him under control at least. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. When I was grooming him after we cooled down, he was in the cross ties and he almost took a chunk out of another horse's hindquarters, but we were lucky this time. It;s weird not having Rabbit as my own, but I still get to see him, which is good. It's definitely better for both of us.

Sunday was less eventful, and I mainly spent it making up homework that I procrastinated on, but I also went running. I actually managed to get to sleep early for once, and hopefully it'll pay off this week.

Tons of love,
Becca

Looking up from her paper, Becca bit her lip. It probably wasn't a letter she would have sent to her parents, but it certainly did the job for her class.

[Annabelle Archer]

With her thick blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, Belle walked down the hallway to her next class, Cambridge English. Writing and reading and all that other junk wasn't exactly her specialty. With her book bag hung over her left should the eighteen year old made her way through the door. Cara, Peter, and Becca already sat in the classroom. Taking a seat next to Cara, the girl read to herself what was written up on the board. Not letting it show on her face but she wasn't exactly happy about writing letters, even if it was to her mom and dad, her best friend, and ex best friend. Taking a deep breath Belle pulled out her purple notebook labeled Cambridge English and a pen.

Dear Mom and Dad,

That was where her brain decided to shut off. Laying her pen across the basically empty sheet of paper, she began to massage her temples. It was something she did on a daily basis to help her remember things, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. But thankfully this time it was working, the events replayed in her head, like short films. Picking up her pen once more she began to jot words down in sentence form.

Unfortunately this weekend has been uneventful. As usual I got up pretty early and got to work with the mares. They have come such a long way from when I got them. Miss Seren is still very skittish around other horses especially geldings, which I don't know what that it about. As for getting used to her pasture mate, most of the time, Penny they act as if they know each other forever. I took Penny bareback on the Green Hill Trail, the easiest one, you know how she is with trails. Thankfully she only spooked once, a stupid bird flew out from a bush.

I finally am getting into the Cross Country proportion of Seren's abilities. All I really did was steer her to the obstacle and she knew almost exactly what to do. She is really a beautiful mover. On Sunday it was, as always, my day of rest. I really didn't do anything except groom the horses. Well I hope to see you both soon and tell Jeremy I said hi.

Love,
Belle

Taking a look at what she had wrote, it wasn't long or anything. Mr. Stone didn't give a minimum of words, sentences or anything like that so Belle decided it was fine. Laying her pen down again she girl rested her back against the seat. Chewing on the inside of her cheek she tried to conjure up the next letter to her best friend.

[Sara Jane Lyena]

Sara made her way towards the English wing of the class building, leaving the Calculus classroom after the flow had slowed slightly. She wondered what they would be doing as she walked, knowing that she wouldn't have to wait long to find out. Mr. Stone had taken to writing what they were doing on the board, something that Sara liked, as it cut out the waiting time.

As she entered the English classroom, she glanced around briefly, before she smiled at Mr. Stone and moved to her customary seat at the edge of the classroom. After murmuring to Cinder and dropping the Malamute's lead, she dug through her backpack and pulled out the teal-blue notebook that had 'English' written simply across the front cover. She flipped through the pages of notes and assignments until she reached a blank page. Picking up her pencil and glancing up at the board again to reread the instructions, she tried to decide on what to write. Finally, she shrugged and titled the page 'Letter 1: Parents', then started writing:

Dear Mom and Dad,

This past weekend hasn't been all too exciting. Dan is still MIA, which means that life is still rather boring around here. I did take Balian out for a trail ride, so the weekend wasn't completely wasted, but hey, it wasn't as much fun as it could have been. I've been working with Rolo and the Schimmel quite a bit recently, in their respective disciplines, because we have a show coming up! I swear, I have to bathe Cinder nearly every day of the weekend, just because of all of the dust that accumulates in his coat. I've taken to working in the indoor arena with Rolo, even though we do have an actual reining arena. It's just usually wet, from the snow, and it's too cold to actually work with anything looser than a big jacket.

Apart from my horses, I did spend some time working on a new routine for cheer. We have a few new people, so I can sub out now, but some of them seem all too willing to try and take over, if I give them the chance. I don't really care, though, I don't see it happening. Apart from spending some time in the gym, working on my tumbling, really, the rest of the weekend was boring.

Love,
Sara

She glanced down at her letter, realizing that she had put more general things than just her weekend, and also deciding that she should send her parents a letter again soon, since she hadn't done so in a while. Biting her lip, she wondered who to address her next letter, to her best friend, to.