Cambridge/Advanced English 2.0

[Richard Stone]

Richard Stone 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.

[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.

[Deleted]

Ryan entered the Cambridge English classroom, glancing around to see who was already there. He saw Cara and looked away quickly, feeling awkward as always around the girl. He smiled slightly at the teacher, whom he had talked to about switching into the class, then made his way to a seat in the back of the room, where he dropped his backpack. He read the board, then looked at the other students, noticing that they were already working on the assignment. Shrugging to himself, he pulled out the English notebook he had been using and turned to a blank page.

Picking up his pen, he thought about the three letters, then started writing one to his brother, who was also his best friend, since he hadn't made too many good friends at the academy yet. He had seen that the letter to his parents was listed first, but he couldn't think of anything to tell them, so he hoped it was alright that he started with the second one.

Hey Jack,

Well, I guess this weekend has been interesting. I took Sunny (One of the two horses I was assigned from the academy) out for a ride. She seems to like the snow that we’ve been having, and I don’t blame her. It’s almost made me think of that winter we spent in Germany, remember those mounds of snow? It’s not quite that bad, but the academy has quite a bit of snow currently, which is fun. There’s a show coming up, and I’ve been half-considering joining one of the Pleasure classes, so I was working on the basic skills in the arena a little bit as well, but I’m not sure about if I’m going to do that yet.

Apart from the horses, I haven’t really done anything important. I had a little bit of homework, including a research report, but it’s done now, so that took up some time from my weekend. Fox is still away, so my room has been rather quiet, which is good for studying, but it’s been a bit boring as well.

Well, I guess that my weekend didn't have much to recommend it, it was just two more days that are now passed.

I hope you are well,
Ryan

Leaning back in his chair, Ryan looked up at the teacher again, thinking about the other two letters.

[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.

[Deleted]

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.

[Deleted]

Henri knew she late yet again; or at least late in her terms. She wasn’t used to finding herself one of the last students to appear and as she rounded the corner, she felt as if she was again one the last students to enter the classroom. The hallways were scarily empty anyway and the brunette felt a rush of relief surge through her as she realized the teacher hadn’t really begun any lectures quite yet. Gaze going instinctively to the board, she groaned inwardly. She hated writing letters to her parents, or communicating with them really in general. Still, she supposed she’d do it since it was class and she wasn’t actually going to send there – or was she?

Henri just took a quick seat and pulled out a light blue notebook labeled with the class name on it before grabbing a blue pen. Mr. Charleston had taught his daughter himself everything was to be written in either black or blue – never pencil or other colors. No matter how much she disliked his teachings, she couldn’t help but follow. Quickly, the girl opened up to a crinkly new page and began at the top. She had three letters to write in total and she figured she’d get the hardest one out of the way first.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Charleston,

I am doing fine this week. Hutch has been quite delightful and I had a wonderful lesson with him the other day. We managed about four and some feet, which in my opinion is pretty fantastic. I am keeping my grades up this semester as always, and I hope you enjoy my report card when it comes at the end. I just want to let you know I’ve been working hard to keep it consistent and perfect. I really do hope Clarence can do the same hmm?

Also Mom, if you wanted to know, Brass is doing fine these days and not making a fuss at all as you predicted. He refuses to leave my room however and I’m getting rather worried. Perhaps, if you could be kind enough to send some toys for him, I’d appreciate it a lot. He keeps me company when it gets lonely, though of course, I focus on my studies more than socializing – don’t worry. Please tell Clarence I said hi and offer her good luck with her presentation tomorrow. She seemed rather excited for it earlier.

Henrietta Charleston

Henri scoffed slightly, she always had to be ridiculously formal when speaking to her parents. Of course, when it came to casual things – well as casual as it managed to get; ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ were efficient. In letters it was certainly not. Henri winced slightly at the first paragraph’s last sentence; did it seem too jealous? She didn’t mind, it wasn’t like it was anything really important. The brunette figured she’d finish the next two before revising through this one.

[Richard Stone]

Richard was impressed with the way his advanced students walked in and got straight to work.

The tardi bell sounded and the teacher still remained behind his desk as he watched the students as they wrote. When it looked as though they had finished their first letter, he finally rose to his feet and walked to the front of the room. He knew he could have spoked from his desk, but he felt that it was more polite to stand front centre to speak.

"Welcome to Advanced English. As you would have read on the board, we're looking at personas, well the different personas that come across in writing anyway, otherwise this would be a psychology class. You should have all written the letter to your parents by now?" He arched his eyebrows as he looked around the room, waiting for the affirmative. "Good. The next letter you need to write, it on the same topic, but this time as though you are writing it to your best friend that you haven't seen in a while. After that, write a letter to someone who used to by your best friend. Maybe someone you are no longer on talking terms with, or that you are barely civil with, but so talk to." He would leave the suggestion of people reading at least one of their letters out loud until later in the lesson as he didn't want to have them use that to adapt their writing. Right now, he just wanted them to write as though they didn't have a care in the world.

He walked back to his table and sat down.

OOC: Just write one letter (best friend) in your next post, and then we'll do another cycle and you can write the third, as it'll lengthen the thread out a bit more.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara read and reread what she had written, correcting her work a few times before she finally put her pen down. She would need to rewrite it before she handed her work in at the end of class, as it had so many line and marks through it that she would be embarrassed to hand it in to any teacher let alone Mr Stone.

She raised her eyes as the man walked to the front of the room and greeted them. She always thought that it was interesting that the man waited until the class was almost half over before he did his greeting - if he had already written the work on the board - but it was just they way he worked in this class. She nodded her head in answer to having written the letter, even though she wasn't sure if it was a lie or not since she had to write out the final, perfect, copy.

When the man returned to his desk, she picked up her blue pen once more and began thinking about who she was going to address this letter to. Who would she class as her best friend, especially when she had never really done the friend thing in the past.

Taping the pen on fresh sheet of paper a few times, she began to write:

Dear Indi

It has been a while since we have spoken, but I guess living half a world apart would so that. How are things at St Mary's? How are the ponies behaving? I miss you all so much.

Being in a co-ed school is really interesting, I know I say this every time we write. Sorry, I digress.

This past weekend has been possibly more full on than most; gymnastics is full on as we have just started up again after winter break and Coach Hoefflin has us working harder than ever to get ready for the next meet. Last year he had us compete at a couple of meets to turn us into an elite training centre (yes, even though we're an academy), however, he isn't very forthcoming with the results of his plans. I'm worried for the other gymnasts, as I think he only did it because of me, and I think in his opinion he can't point me toward the Olympic Games if I don't keep training at an elite level. I don't want to do the Olympics (not that I have slowed my training at all).

I'm working Ella through her arena issues, and she is finally clicking to the fact that me wanting to use the arena doesn't mean she is going to be worked into the ground. I am actually having a lot of fun working with Ella and she shows so much promise in both jumping and dressage. In all honesty, I am wondering if she would be better as an eventing horse. I need to have a word with our cross country teacher and see what she thinks. I believe that Ella could go far with the right rider and be an excellent all-rounder.

On the topic of my horses, I recently purchased a grey Holstiener mare who has some issues. Her name is Mouse, and that's the one creature she's afraid of. I have entered her in a show and I hope that she doesn't spook out. If she's not calm enough when we arrive, I'll scratch her, as I'm not going to blow her confidence on a couple of ribbons.

Classes are busy, both academic and equestrian, but that's to be expected. The mare I'm working with in repro is due to foal any day now, which is awesome as her last two pregnancies didn't go to term, so here's hoping. I have a feeling that if she doesn't have a live birth, then it'll be the end for Shiloh as they won't keep her here as a broodmare and I can't use her for riding so I will be saying good bye to her.

Until we write again
Cara

The small student sat back and read through what she had written, her eyebrows almost reaching her hairline. She had written a lot more than she had intended to and had so much more in this letter than what she had written to her parents. She capped the pen and placed it back at the top of her desk, picking up the red one now so that she could go through the letter and make any corrections that needed to be made.

[Sara Jane Lyena]

Sara nodded just slightly as Mr. Stone asked if they had finished their first letter, the one to her parents. She looked over it again as the teacher started speaking, still listening to his words, without looking up at him. As he told them to start writing the second one, to their best friend, Sara grinned, knowing to whom she would be writing. The last one, though, she wasn't quite sure about yet.

Dearest Dan,

Well, while you're out working with the horses, I'm stuck here in English class, writing you a letter about what I did over the weekend. Well, first of all, I've been getting Balian and Rolo ready for the next show. I'm hoping we'll do good, of course, and I think we're at the top of our form this far! I really am upset that we don't have a reining teacher at the moment, because I really think I would benefit from that, but hey, at least we have a barrel racing teacher now, right? He's been helping Balian and myself, at least, and I've figured out that Rolo, while he loves reining more than anything, is quite decent with the barrels as well.

Cheer is still as fun as always, I've been working on a new routine for the team to work on for a change of pace. One of the newer girls, Samie, seems to be itching to take over, but to be honest, I'm not sweating it. Andie's back as our coach, and I'm sure that she'll be backing me up if there's any need of it.

As always, lots of love,
Sara

After finishing the second letter, Sara tapped the pads of her fingers on the desk, quietly, thinking about to whom she could send the last letter. It would be, no doubt, the hardest to write, because she hated talking to her ex-friends, for the most part.

[Deleted]

Sam walked towards her English class with her tail tucked between her legs. Though she had a pass from the nurses office she still felt bad about being late. She had a rather painful migraine that morning and had run out of her stash of ibuprofen. The hammering pain and colorful shapes had faded so she went to stick it out for the rest of her classes. As she reached the door she took another glance at her pass then walked in silently, dropping the pass on Mr. Stone's desk and took a seat next to Henri.

She pinched her lips together as she immediately pulled out her notebook label Cambridge English. After the teacher finished talking she pulled out her pencil and began writing the first letter to her parents. It was rather bland, lacking a bit of personality (which she was saving for the next letter) but she made it nice at least before she moved onto the letter to Nicole who she was dearly missing.

Dear Nicole,

I know we haven't spoken in a while, you know, since maybe break, but I miss you up in Indiana.
 
Things are starting to get back into gear in Blue Ridge with our upcoming show and the classes starting back up. I'm sure back home are probably the same way, well for the exception of horse shows, but you know what I mean. Speaking of horses shows, over the weekend I signed Popeye up for Cross Country and Des up for Show Jumping. I probably should have switched them around, but at one point or another Pop's is going to have to get over water.

Anyway, gymnastics practice has picked up again, which I am all for since I had stayed away from it over break. Mrs. Sinsabaugh is nothing compared to Coach Hoefflin. Don't get me wrong they are both awesome coaches, but you wouldn't believe how good I've gotten over my time here. Still as graceful on the uneven bars as ever, which I am thinking about asking Hoefflin if he can privately coach me on them.

So Saturday I spent most of my time in the gymnastics studio or with the horses, particularly Des. He is just the sweetest horse I've ever met. He sends his regards, though you two have yet to meet. Sunday was different since I spent the morning in bed then hit the pool, saving my homework for last as usual.

I can't wait to see you again!

Love,
Sammy

Sam scoffed as she looked at the letter she wrote to her friend. She had written it as if she was actually talking to Nicole face to face. Her humor would be recognized by the other girl, though some editing would be needed before she handed it in to Mr. Stone. The brunette sighed softly with a small grin on her face, knowing she would really have added more jokes and teased if she was to actually send it.