A Day's Language

A normal school day, I never thought I would have so many ways of communicating! From morning till dawn, the many different people I speak with give me a diverse use of languages and their different levels of speech. A day from last week was no different.

A loud noise woke me from my slumber, it was my alarm clock, turning my head right I see it's red flashing letters portraying three digits, 7:30. I swore under my breath, as I know I did not get any sleep last night; staying up till three in the morning was never a good idea. I slammed my hand against the clock, the beeping stopped, giving the feeling of temporary relief and satisfaction. Dozing off again, it felt like a second before my alarm rang again. This time I stood up, walked out of my room and into the washroom.

Showering was always fun, usually I even break into song, and this time was no different... "...There's nothing to fear! And I know, that my hea-" I sang loudly, not knowing that half my finally was sleeping, resulting in a bombardment of complaints in Cantonese from my parents. I spoke Cantonese with everyone in my family except my brother and my father; those two always spoke English to me. After the only 20 minutes of the day I enjoy was over, I walked out of the washroom and got dressed. Only after drinking my morning coffee did I notice that I was already late for class, the consequences of sleeping late.

Knowing my math teacher had already begun class, I prowled into the classroom and onto my chair as quietly as I could, though he noticed me and asked me in front of my schoolmates why I was late. Apologizing with the most formal of English, I chose my words carefully, as I did not want to spark anything else in my already cranky math teacher. Sitting through the class was boring, math lingo was used in every sentence, the lack of sleep was getting to me all the while. The ringing of the class bell was like a sound from heaven as I packed my books and pencils into my bag. My friend walked up to me and asked, "What do you have next?"

Normally people would have replied, "Have what next?" but I knew that she was asking about my next class. I told her that I had biology with Mr. Alexander, she smiled and said that she had him too in a different block. She was very pretty, I tend to get distracted when I talk to her, but when she asked if I had studied for the quiz, a feeling of ice being pored down my intestines was felt through the very words she uttered. I answered wit ha false "Yeah" and said I'd see her later. The moment I stepped out into the hallway and out of ear reach of her I swore loudly, not in English though, just in case. I had to face the inevitable, but I will not put up a fight! I ran towards my biology classroom, I sat down, grabbed my notes from last day and began to cram all the information into my head. The sight of Mr. Alexander was like a visit from Satan himself, I quickly re-read my notes and stuffed it inside my bag as he handed out the quiz.

I walked out of the classroom with