Fairmont High School Issue 18 February 5, 2010
By: AJ Criss
The theme of the 2010 Prom has been selected! A Masquerade Ball has been put in motion to grace this campus of ours. You may have seen one on TV or in a movie, but for those who have not, here is a quick rundown of what you’re in for. A masquerade ball is an event in which guests or participants wear masks to disguise themselves to everyone. Lavish attire and bold masks should fill the prom making it memorable for all in attendance. The cost this year will be $65. All seniors who paid last year will be grandfathered in. Please direct any questions or concerns to Mr. Oxendine (Room D7)
By: Brittany Hunt
The Beta Club, Art Club, AISES, and Student Council are planning a trip to Washington, D.C. from April 15-18. On their first day in Washington, D. C. they’re planning to visit the Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court and shop at the Potomac Mills Factory Outlet Mall.
The following day they will visit the Museum of the American Indian, the Holocaust Museum (Daniel’s Story), the Smithsonian American & Natural History Museum, and tour the Memorials and Monuments. On the third day they will get to see the White House, the Gallery of Art, the U. S. Navy Memorial, Washington Cathedral, and the National Zoo. On the final day before they depart Washington, D. C., they will visit Mt. Vernon and the Air & Space Museum.
Each club is selling Krispy Kreme Doughnuts with many different varieties to choose from. Glazed are $6, a certificate is $6, and the chocolate iced, lemon, raspberry, and cream filled are $7 a dozen. Doughnut money is due Feb. 16 and they will arrive on Feb. 19. The last payment for the trip is due Feb. 19. Please help these students get to D. C. by buying a box of doughnuts.
By Matthew Stephens
Congratulations! You are now reading the very first, never before seen, issue of “Matt’s Feature.” So, this is my feature and my name is…yeah. Now I know everyone is, hopefully, thinking about their future and what they will be doing with their lives. Will you be a millionaire? A husband/wife? The President? As seniors, this will be our last semester at Fairmont High School and in commemoration I will be writing about you. Yes, I said you. I’m going to give you my take on what your future may or may not be like through a series of off-the-wall interweaving stories. So enough with the dilly-dallying and let’s get to the good stuff:
Antony “AJ” Criss strolled into the small office of his close friend, Brittany Hunt, with his caffeine-deprived brain churning up the possible reasons she could have for calling him to the station so early in the morning. A glimmer was in the investigator’s eye as she asked, more like pleaded, for AJ to do her a favor. Without hesitation, AJ agreed, and like any good detective he immediately probed into the heart of the matter. Brittany began, “My old friend Courtney Hunt, you might remember her, well she’s…she’s…she’s swimming with the fishes.” “NO!” AJ gasped, “Yes” Brittany continued, “She’s working at SeaWorld! Courtney left for California about two weeks ago. She was last seen at her apartment the night before the departure.” “You think someone “persuaded” her to skip town?” AJ asked, but he needed no answer. Walking out of the office he was ready to look into Courtney’s disappearance, ready to do what he’s best at; finding the truth.
“C’mon! You stupid, stupid, little…” muttered AJ as he attempted to jimmy the lock to Courtney’s apartment with one of his many gift cards; this one happened to be of the Piggly Wiggly variety. Click! The door opened and AJ crept into the abandoned dwelling. He carefully surveyed the rooms for clues, but found nothing aside from trash, trash, and a collection of Hannah Montana CDs (more trash). Then, out of the corner of his eye, he came upon a series of strange markings that seemed to be imprinted into the wall. After snapping a quick picture of it with his camera phone, AJ left the apartment, hoping to find more information elsewhere.
AJ shuffled into his favorite restaurant, Aunt Jack’s, three hours later in an awful mood. The dirt his informants gave him led to nowhere but dead ends. However, the music and the sound of laughter that the restaurant seemed to constantly emit did bring a smile to his face. The place was owned by AJ’s cousin, Brenton Wallace, who greeted the weary detective as he sat down. “Better bring me some of Aunt Jack’s jumping jambalaya Brent; it’s been a long day.” AJ slouched back into the padded chair, watching Brenton take his order to the kitchen when he noticed a shiny card in his cousin’s coat pocket. “Watchya got there?” AJ asked, always ready to pick at his family. Brenton told him that it was a Colton Barnhill Tee-ball card and how the things are apparently selling like hot cakes. Colton was a professional Tee-ball player, a star, the guy’s more famous than Babe Ruth. “Especially”, AJ thought, “since he died two weeks ago in that freak cliff diving accident”. The body was never found. It took all of two seconds for AJ to imagine the possibility of a connection between the two cases. “It couldn’t be.” he told himself.
Shiny; that was the only word that came to mind as AJ stood in the office of Tyshawn Sinclair, Colton Barnhill’s former manager. Looking at all of the Colton memorabilia that covered Tyshawn’s walls it was hard for AJ not to be impressed. He was waiting for Tyshawn to finish talking with one of his secretaries, sounded like her name was Brenna Jacobs or something. Once the rich guy was done chatting her up, AJ asked, (To be continued in next week’s issue of the Tornado Times!)
There will be a short meeting February 8th at 3:15 in Coach Baker’s room for Girls’ Soccer. See Mr. DeSmedt in D-4 if you have any questions. GET YOUR PHYSICAL!
By Jasmine Richardson
On Thursday January 28, Team A finished 2nd place in the Conference and qualifies for the State Playoffs in Raleigh. Single’s qualifications for girls was yesterday and the boy’s is next week.
By Ashley Scott
The girls lost an away game on January 22 at East Columbus 47-74. They had a home game on January 26 against St. Paul’s with a score of 32- 42. The girls team held off a hard-charging West Columbus team Tuesday to pick up their second conference win, 35-34.
After trailing by eight at the half, an Audrey Tyler free throw cut the Golden Tornado lead to two with under two minutes to play in the game, until Shakera Faison stepped to the line and hit two big free throws to send it back to a two-possession lead for Fairmont.
The Vikings came back with a free throw and a put-back to make the deficit one. After made free throws by both teams, the Vikings (1-13, 0-6) had chances in the waning moments to take the lead, but we forced multiple turnovers in the final 10 seconds to prevent West Columbus from getting a shot off.
Coach Marilyn Bracey felt her team used their defense and free-throw shooting to get the win.
“We just told our girls to protect the ball,” Bracey said. “When they got to the line they actually made good.”
By: Samariel Arnette
Our JV Basketball team defeated the East Columbus Gators on the 22nd. The score was 53-42. Charlton Townsend was the leading scorer with 19 points. On the following Tuesday we defeated the St.Pauls Bulldogs 48-40. The leading scorer was, again, Charlton Townsend with 21 points. On Tuesday the 2nd we crushed the West Columbus Vikings 60-23. Leading scorer was Keon Anthony with 16 points. Our Overall record is 6-1 and in the Conference 4-1.
By Desmond Parker
Our Varsity Boy’s Basketball team played a great game Tuesday against St. Pauls. The score was 80-32, which Fairmont won. Coach Richard Mitchell said “they finally came together to play basketball. Leading scorers were Juwan Addison, Desmond Parker, and Brandon McDonald.
The boys also had a game last Friday against East Columbus which Fairmont won 54-51. The Leading scorers were Brandon McDonald, Donte Smith, and Doug Blue. Coach Mitch said “we need to learn how to box out more”. “Lots of teams hang around because we give them second chance shots”.
Coach Mitch felt his team came out flat without their leading scorer on the floor Tuesday against West Columbus, losing 70-54. Juwan Addison had injured himself in Weight Training and had seven stitches in his hand and did not start the game.
“When he came out there the team just picked itself up,” Mitchell said. “Defensive-wise he made everything a lot quicker, but as a team we were flat.”
Juwan finished with eight points but could not provide enough spark off the bench for a team already down by double digits in the second quarter.
Coach Mitch initially did not want to play Juwan at all, but decided to test him out in the second quarter to see how effective he could be the rest of the week. “Juwan’s a ballplayer and he’ll go slow tomorrow in practice. He’ll start Thursday with the back-to-back games, and both are important to us.”
By. Brenna Jacobs and Laura Jones
Baseball tryouts will begin on February 15th for all JV and Varsity boys. You must bring gloves, cleats, and baseball pants or warm up’s- NO JEANS. Tryouts will start after school at 3:30 and end at 5:30.
Softball tryouts will begin on Monday, February 15t and run through Wednesday the 17th for all females that are not participating in winter sports. You must have gloves, cleats, and anything to keep warm. Tryouts will begin after school at 3:30 and end at 5:30. The first scrimmage game will be February 26th at Purnell Swett. “Looking forward to having a lot of freshman to tryout,” said Coach McGirt.
Yearbooks are now $55.00. Please order as soon as possible. People complained about the high cost last year, so I got worked a deal with Jostens, but the lower price ran out Jan. 1.
By: AJ Criss
Congrats to Team FFA for their high placement in the Truck and Tractor driving contests. The team has been superior in many competitions such as these, as well as tool recognition. As a reminder, FFA meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. All members should attempt to be present.
Today- Basketball at Red Springs
Feb. 9 Fuel 7:40am; Art Club 3:15pm; FFA Meeting 3:15pm FFA Alumni Meeting 7:00pm; Basketball vs East Columbus at home @ 4:30 Senior Night before the Varsity Boy’s game
Feb. 11 Fuel 7:40am; Art Club 3:15pm
Feb. 12 Basketball @ St. Pauls@4:30pm
By Tyshaun Sinclair
This year’s EOC scores have increased from 59% to 69%. Though the scores are not that high, hopefully they will increase even more this semester. We can achieve higher scores by having good attendance and working hard in class. There’s even mandatory tutoring 3rd period on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s. Mandatory tutoring runs from 1:00 p.m.-1:25 p.m.
By Austin Hunt
This week’s Word of the Week was tolerance, which is defined as an allowable endurance from one’s own beliefs. The term originated somewhere from the years 1375 to 1425. Its Latin form is tolerantia. Some synonyms are: open-mindedness, patience, and liberality
By- Candace Locklear
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird
That cannot fly. -Langston Hughes