Wise Words for You

Manchester City will start their Premier League title defence at Arsenal. The 2018-19 fixtures, announced on Thursday morning, handed Pep Guardiola’s record-breaking team an Emirates Stadium opener on the weekend of 11-12 August – a fixture that will be Unai Emery’s first competitive match as Arsenal manager. Football transfer rumours: Liverpool in for Lazio's Thomas Strakosha?   Read more City, who amassed 100 points and 106 goals en route to finishing 19 points clear of Manchester United in 2017-18, do not face another top-six side until the trip to Liverpool in October. Games against the newly promoted trio Wolves, Cardiff and Fulham are part of a sequence that also includes Huddersfield, Newcastle and Brighton – the three teams who came up last year. It is a similar story for Manchester United, who begin at home to Leicester. The 2017-18 runners-up have Tottenham at home in their third game, with Brighton, Burnley, Watford, Wolves,...

Lea is a sophomore  in high school and a member of a local theatre group in a nearby city. She likes school, but her passion for singing and acting is huge. Lately there has been talk going around that some members have been exempt from auditions for the last few productions. Leah knew in the “real world” that can happen sometimes. Some productions have such huge numbers of applicants and so little time that the more experienced, well known actors and singers sometimes get bumped up into the cast without having to try out. But, this wasn’t Broadway, this was a local teen theatre group and the whole idea was to give everyone a chance to prove him or herself. She and her friends talked about the rumour and how, if it was true,  how unfair it was.  It’s one thing to know someone probably deserves to be cast in the production, but another to just put that person in without letting others compete for the same role. They felt close enough to their choir director to talk ...

Vivarail has been chosen as preferred bidder to supply a fleet of Class 230 D-Trains to KeolisAmey for the Wales and Borders franchise.  The trains will be the first to come into service as part of the new franchise and will demonstrate KeolisAmey’s commitment to providing new, high quality rolling stock to Welsh passengers. Adrian Shooter, CEO of Vivarail, said “This is a very exciting day for us and we are proud to be supplying the first of the new trains for Wales. “We know that KeolisAmey want to bring the best new trains to their passengers so our interior layout has been designed to do exactly that.  As well as the wide and spacious carriages the trains will have a Universal Access Toilet, WiFi, air conditioning, USB ports and 3-pin sockets.  There will be a range of seating layouts and plenty of space for bikes and luggage.  With KeolisAmey we have been determined to give passengers the very best travelling experience ...

Corey was drunk.  There might be times you can convince yourself that you’re okay — this wasn’t one of those times. He was drunk and he knew he was drunk. But that wasn’t the problem. He had gone to this party with his friends, including a designated driver, but they had already left. He was supposed to go with them, but he was having such a great time he told them he’d find another ride. Now he was stuck.  The only people left who could give him a ride were pretty wasted, themselves. He thought about calling a friend, but it was at least thirty miles to his house and he didn’t want to impose. He couldn’t stay where he was because he didn’t even know the people who threw the party. If he called his parents…. well, he couldn’t even imagine the lecture. He had already been given the “spring term senior year keep your nose to the grindstone” talk a hundred times. A girl he had met that night said her friend was dropping her off and could take him too. Unfortunately, sh...

Julia was in 6th grade  and had been at her school since kindergarten.  Her two best friends were Wendy and Erin. Erin was the most popular girl in the class and all the girls saw her as the leader. One morning Julia arrived at school and Erin was acting weird. When Julia said hi to her, she didn’t respond. She just looked away and smiled at a group of girls in the corner of the classroom. It didn’t take long for Julia to figure out that  Erin had turned most of the girls against her.  But, she didn’t know why! She went to Wendy and asked her why Erin was mad at her. Wendy acted nervous and said that all she knew was that Erin told her that if she hung out with Julia, none of the rest of the girls would talk to her anymore. The rest of that day lasted forever.  Whenever the teacher was looking everyone was nice to Julia. But, when her back was to the class, Erin or another girl would throw pieces of paper toward Julia or whisper to each other and look...

Brendan was in third grade when he was caught cheating on his maths  quiz.  He had been doing poorly in maths and his parents had threatened that if he didn’t raise his grades they wouldn’t let him play on the baseball team. So he cheated. When the teacher asked him about it, he denied it at first, but finally admitted to writing down the answers ahead of time. A parent conference was called and Brendan had to sit with his parents, the teacher, and the principal to discuss the school policy on cheating and lying. On the way home, his father told Brendan he was deeply disappointed in him and expected more from him in the future. That night, Brendan felt like the whole world was against him, but he also felt guilty for letting his parents down. That weekend, Brendan and his family went to a movie. When they got to the ticket window Brendan’s dad asked for children’s tickets for both Brendan and his 16 year old brother. Brendan looked over at his brother, who stare...

Jennifer is a transfer student  in her sophomore year in high school. By November, she had made some good friends through her soccer team and her classes, but still felt on the outside of the more popular students. She has a great relationship with her parents, and trusts their advice to just give it time. The first weekend of Thanksgiving break, rumors started that a blow out party was happening at a sophomore girl’s house while the parents were out of town. Jennifer didn’t know the girl well but she was one of the most popular girls in the class and most of the upperclassmen were planning on attending, as well. One of the hottest junior guys had already asked her if she would be there. Everyone was saying this was going to be the best party of the year. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to break out of her small clique and hang out with the students everyone always talked about. Her dilemma was that there was no way her parents would let her go to this party if ...