Iodopropane, etc.

Now that the scourge of General Studies has been removed from my timetable - almost, as the exam's on Friday - I have lots of extra free time on a Monday. It is not going to waste. I, in a moment of inspiration, decided to go and petition the Lower Fours into giving up their precious History lessons in order to audition yet again. Strangely enough they were all for this idea.

Of course, talking to them was the easy bit. Next to talk to their teacher, who turned out to be Miss Hathaway and so a virtual breeze. She agreed, and so off we went. Firstly, to print off the script, which was a stressful but celebratory exercise, and then to type up the cast list. While I was doing the latter, Becca and Kat went off to the office to arrange for thirty-five duplicates of the script. In the meantime, we'd auditioned the last few of the girls - one was good, one was okay, and one was not good at all - and then we all went down to the classroom together. We are so organised. It's quite bizarre.

Becca was worried about the looks on the formlings' faces when we read out who got what. So many crushed dreams, etc - some of them definitely didn't get the parts they were expecting. Although, in one or two cases, this was a positive thing. There was one girl who I've mentioned who was too shy to audition and kept running out of the room, but she's got a speaking part, and a big one too. Quite apart from the surprise this will give her, she did actually have a very sweet, clear voice, which I was anxious to employ. If only she weren't so shy. Anyway.

After all this excitement, I didn't really want to go to Biology, but Rice-Oxley had provided a game. The DNA Jigsaw (produced by the Carolina Biological Supplies Company, North Carolina!) gave us hours of fun sticking together phosphates and ribose and those all-important bases and just-as-important hydrogen bonds. Ignoring a regrettable incident with the thymine, all went well.

In last break, I went to the library - mainly to contend an accusation lobbed at me from Mrs Barry via Patrick, and no, I am not avoiding the library - but Mrs Barry wasn't in today and I wandered around aimlessly for a bit before bumping into a girl called Eleanor. I know her slightly; she's always in the library and I always wave and say hello to her, but today, she came up to me and said, "You're on the quiz team," and it all became crystal-clear. Here's me griping that I'm the quiz team captain and have yet to be introduced to my team, and it turns out that I've known Eleanor all along. Her mother, Mrs Phillips, has agreed to stop shouting at me so long as I look after Eleanor. Which suits me. And besides, I like the girl, I really do. She sounds intelligent, and Mrs Colvin did recommend her highly. I spoke to her for a while before I had to go off to Chemistry, where they had all decided that today was be-horrible-to-Iona day.

You see, we're still naming organic compounds, and it seems that a haloalkane that has an iodine atom as part of its structural formula earns the prefix "iodo-". This has become their new nickname for me, to go with all the inevitable puns involving ionisation and ions and iotas and Ionic columns. They got some mileage out of this, before the lot of them then discovered the significance of tomorrow. They're all horrible. Pout, sulk, flounce.

In all seriousness, I do love my delightful scientific companions. They will no doubt embarrass me to death at lunch tomorrow, as will my own friends. There are good sides to the whole thing of course - I had a card when I got home, from apestaartje! I love her, but she knew that.

I now need to go and do Biology, but peace and goodwill to all, etc.