With the right nail polish color or design, the perfect “fairy-tale” Prom look can be achieved.

Firstly, a girl can never go wrong with a french manicure. They match any color, style or embellishment on a dress. Professional is the way to go when getting a french, because it’s so easy to mess up on your own nails when making those fine, white lines.

If your dress is black, try to match your nails with the color of your shoes or accessories.  In my opinion, gold or red looks great with black.  But if you want to try something more “out there,” try a deep green color on your nails.

With a white dress, it’s easy to make your nails stand out against the dress. However, you don’t want them to stand out too much, as the dress is still the main focus.  Really light or really dark hues work best with a white dress, not neon.

If your dress is multi-colored, try to match your nails to one of the less dominant colors of your dress.  Doing this will make sure that your nails still stand out among the variety of colors on the dress.

However, if your dress is one color, you can either go with that specific color to paint your nails with or pick one of its contrasting colors.

If you’re nails look good, that’s one less thing to worry about leading up to Prom night.

That is exactly what this month’s character breakfast recognized students for doing. The monthly character breakfast was held Thursday, April 12, 2012, up on the Shelf in the Commons.

Every month teachers pick students who they feel go above and beyond at showing the character word of the month. April’s character word is courage.

At the breakfast, students that were chosen sat down with friends and ate donuts while Assistant Principal Mandy Lewis and guest speakers shared stories and encouraging words. They also received a certificate for their accomplishment.

Colleen Fields was April’s guest speaker; she spoke with the chosen students about how proud she was of the effort they put through to be full of courage every day of the week.

As well as sharing encouraging words she told the students about two different fictional characters, Atticus Finch from “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the cowardly lion from “Wizard of Oz.” She described how much courage they put through and the lessons they taught in their stories by showing courage.

However, this character breakfast was a little strange in the way that the attendance was near none. In previous months tables were full of students, but this month only about 10 of the chosen students showed up.

I was one of the students that attended, and it was very strange to see so many open seats. In my opinion, if your teacher went out of the way to nominate you, you might as well show up.

To describe the lack of attendance, Lewis described that since the word was courage the students were picked for very individual reasons and personal stories were probably involved in the picking of students.

Therefore most students were likely embarrassed or afraid to show up.

Even though the reasons for their nomintaion were probably personal, no one else in the room knew why you were there besides Lewis.

In a crowd of people courage can be one of the hardest things to demonstrate, whether it’s not following the norm or doing what you know is right when everyone else believes it is wrong.

Courage takes a person to be brave, and have a mindset of what is right and wrong.

Whether or not the students showed up that were chosen or not, the whole Lafayette staff is very proud and thankful for what they did to show courage.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

That is what true courage is.

This event is a time when seniors get to eat lunch on the shelf (or in the courtyard, in this year’s case) which is brought from a restaurant in the community. It usually costs under $10, so it’s not very expensive. However, in past years the senior class has had more than just one of these opportunities.

The reason for this is, according to Assistant Principal Tim Jones, because there has been a lack of participation.  He said a lot of work goes into planning the event and the parents, along with the restaurants, don’t want to go to the work for just a few students.

I don’t see how they can judge whether there is enough participation just based on one day. Maybe that day just didn’t work out for very many seniors. They should try doing one more Lunch on the Shelf event and then decide whether they should hold more.

I am a junior and I want to have a lot of Lunch on the Shelf events next year when I am a senior, so I hope we get to have more than just one. I hope parents will give our class a chance with participating in this so that we can have as many chances to eat restaurant food at school as possible.

And if you’re like me, you had a hard time closing Mockingjay after reading the last page in the fast-paced, exciting series. I spent a lot of time researching for the next best dystopian young adult novel, and after taking many suggestions into consideration, I believe I have found the next Hunger Games.

Author Veronica Roth released the first novel in her planned trilogy, Divergent, in May 2011. Since its release, its popularity has grown fast. Summit Entertainment even picked up the series and has begun the movie adaption planned to be released in 2015.

The novel surrounds Tris, a sixteen year old girl living in a society in which its citizens are divided into five different factions. Each faction is focused on a different virtue: Candor (honesty), Abnegation (selflessness), Dauntless (bravery), Amity (peacefulness), and Erudite (intelligence). In each faction, upon their sixteenth birthday, initiates must choose to continue to live life in the faction they were born into, or leave their family and transfer factions in order to become who they really are.

Tris chooses to leave Abnegation for Dauntless. She quickly learns that Dauntless life is not easy; she faces a number of physical tasks (combat, roof diving, human target practice and even death), and ultimately faces living life factionless, or homeless, if she fails initiation. During this process, Tris discovers a secret that unless she intervenes with, her family will die.

The young adult themes seep through the story early on the novel, addressing the issues of basic bullying. However, those storylines flourish into a more mature theme as the novel continues, with much hot and heavier stuff than Twilight.

If you hated the romance aspect of Hunger Games, be warned: Divergent has equally as much, if not more, forbidden romance.

Upon starting the novel, it took about 200 pages for me to buy in. I almost put Divergent down and walked away. But after walking through every book store with signs suggesting Divergent, I sucked it up and read some more.

After reading more, I was hooked once the story started unfolding. It’s almost like the entire Hunger Games series in one book; there is death, a government crisis, and even war. The novel is well developed, especially for being Roth’s first book. It makes me eager for the May 1 release of the sequel, Insurgent.

While Divergent sometimes felt long and dragging, it pays the reader back fully in the end for his or her time invested.

I highly recommend Roth’s trilogy to anyone who loved Hunger Games.

I started reading the first book (with the second one on its way at this moment) just hours before I was going to watch the movie, and I really found it to be very engrossing and compelling, which struck me as odd considering I couldn’t pay attention when reading other material if my life depended on it. I took a fan to go see the movie, and when we walked out, we both had the same two thoughts: that the film was incredible, and true to the source material.

I can say that alongside “The Godfather” (please don’t stop reading quite yet), “The Shawshank Redemption” (seriously, don’t stop), and whatever other novels-to-film I can think of, “The Hunger Games” is one of the most perfect adaptations of a piece of literature that I’ve ever seen. The first-person narration present in Suzanne Collins’ book is captured effortlessly with a wild and frenetic cinematography, and the deep-seated complexities in Katniss Everdeen’s character are portrayed with grace by Jennifer Lawrence, who is an early Oscar contender in my books (no, I’m not kidding). Fans of “The Hunger Games” will not be disappointed in the slightest, and may even hold up a three-central fingered salute for Gary Ross’ wonderful adaptation of a wonderful story.

“The Hunger Games” follows Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence), a 16-year-old resident of District 12, one of the twelve outlying districts of Panem, which is ruled over by the Capitol. Some have described the world that Katniss inhabits as a dystopian future, but considering that dystopian literally breaks down to mean “false utopia,” I contest that descriptor, as I don’t think anyone outside of the Capitol would say that it’s such, but I digress. The book also goes into more detail about how the Reaping works which the movie leaves out, but they don’t add much to the story in the end, so it’s a fair trade.

The love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta that has purportedly been a large part of the books is thankfully underplayed in the film, given the fact that all three characters are never in contact all at once since Gale isn’t present for the actual Games themselves. It’s pretty clear, however, that it will play an important role in the sequel (which this film not so elegantly nods to, but it’s forgivable considering there’s little doubt about its creation).

Before the Games take place, Katniss and Peeta are introduced to Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), who intend to make them presentable enough to gain sponsors before the Games begin. Through this segment, our heroes also meet the host of the Hunger Games, Caesar, played with a remarkable flair by Stanley Tucci, who is easily the most likeable Capitol member of the lot.

Following their training and interviews with Caesar, Katniss and the other tributes are placed in the arena to fight to death, and this is where the film goes from being intriguing to downright awesome. The action takes full advantage of the shaky cam (to some pretty wild degrees, which blurs most, if not all of the extremely violent content and makes for some dizzying sequences), and they pretty perfectly mirror Katniss’ actual perception of the battles that play out around her. We don’t see everything that the people watching from their homes in the Districts or in the Capitol see; everything is presented from the perspective of Katniss, endearing us to her even more when we know she is being hunted but we, like her, can’t tell where from. It’s all very effective at taking the narrated elements from the book and translating them to the big screen where Katniss isn’t narrating her each and every thought to the viewer.

In addressing the hype, I’ll say that I’m glad that fans have latched on to this series nearly to the extent that they have with the dreadful “Twilight” series, but the hype is a little out of control. I’m glad that a genuinely entertaining and thought-provoking story with a captivating, believable and strong central heroine will be refilling the void left by Bella Swan and her equally empty love interests. I’m less okay with the fact that a particularly large portion of the audience is going just because of the “hunks” that are portraying Peeta and Gale, but if it means that “The Hunger Games” gets some attention because of it, then it’s justifiable.

What struck me the most about the film, however, were the performances.  I rightfully expected Stanley Tucci and Woody Harrelson to bring a pitch-perfect charisma to their roles, but even the understated Lenny Kravitz managed to make an impression on me as Katniss’ stylist Cinna. I’ve already stated how great Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence was in the role, but Josh Hutcherson also did a good job of imbuing his character with the right amount of honesty and charm. For all of the buzz surrounding his part in the movie, Liam Hemsworth may have three to four minutes of screen time tops, and even less of that involves any dialogue, but I have a feeling he’ll make for a good Gale in the coming films.

As an attempt to adapt the original source material to film, Gary Ross’ “The Hunger Games” is phenomenal. It recaptures the essence of the book through impressive cinematography and an excellent lead performance by Jennifer Lawrence.

Let’s Face It has its goals set on creating a smoke-free environment for all St. Louis area residents. While I admire the effort of keeping harmful drugs out of Rockwood Schools, I have a problem with the PSAs plastered around the school.

These posters are easily identifiable. They are hung up in high areas to prevent as much visual obstruction as possible, usually depicting lit cigarettes and clouds of smoke juxtaposed with images of death and violence, such as skulls and guns.

The first PSA I remember seeing depicted a lit cigarette and a smoking gun with the message “They’re both the same.”

The PSA told me that shooting myself is exactly the same as smoking. If I were to follow this string of logic, I could go to my local convenience store and buy a 20-pack of revolvers for $7. The content of this ad is wholly manipulative and misleading among the others scattered around the school. This is, by definition, propaganda.

This is my problem with scare campaigns such as the one I previously mentioned. They focus more time on telling kids that they’re going to die than actually reaching out and helping those who need help. There are possibly dozens of other ways to carry out this campaign, packaging it with a different message.

There is an English seatbelt ad from 2010. It shows a father sitting in a chair with his wife and daughter to his right. The happy father assumes a motion for driving, gripping his hands around an imaginary steering wheel while pressing down on an acceleration pedal.

His disposition fades as his expression implies an inevitable crash. The mother and daughter spring into action hugging him around his waist and chest, forming a seatbelt as the father acts out the impact, thrusting forward but not moving. This is implying that his life was saved by the seatbelt. This PSA example of how taking a different approach can make an effective impression.

I like this advertisement so much because it doesn’t threaten you with your own mortality; it focuses more on the people you would leave behind in the event of your untimely death.

It’s quite ingenious, really. There is probably someone in your life that you wouldn’t you want to leave behind if you died. These people can be your significant other, a sibling, your parents, anyone.

If I never wore a seatbelt and saw this PSA, you bet that I would be wearing one every time I stepped into my car. A campaign like this is immensely more effective than any scare campaign I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t try to manipulate or misinform you, but it makes an actual case to persuade the viewer to start wearing seatbelts.

Another notable issue with the smoking campaign is the lack of effort in encouraging students, who are already smoking, to quit. Very few of these posters have a number you could call or a website you could visit if you needed help quitting smoking (1-800-QUIT-NOW and smokefree.gov, just in case). If this campaign is dedicated to creating a smoke-free learning environment, they aren’t doing a very good job.

Then again, I may be missing the point entirely. There is a possibility that these posters are directed at students who are thinking about using drugs, persuading them to not even try it.

It makes sense, keeping drugs out of school by persuading students thinking about using drugs to not try them at all.

If this point were true, the campaign would imply that this school is not willing to help the students that need it by not making a helpful source available. Instead of trying to scare students into being drug-free, Let’s Face It and Rockwood should rethink how they make their PSAs.

Drug use is a problem in every school district, and it’s up to the district to take necessary measures to reduce the impact of drugs in its schools.

If you ask me to sign something that says the district should take more measures in reducing harmful drugs in schools, I’ll sign it. Put it to a vote, I’ll vote for it, but what I won’t do is accept what these PSAs are saying.

This is the quote that heads the official Invisible Children website.

On Monday March 5, 2012, the nonprofit organization released a 27 minute film highlighting a man by the name of Joseph Kony. The message of the video was to make Kony “famous,” and famous he is.

In a matter of days the video reached over 50 million views due to Facebook posts and world-wide trending topics on Twitter, among other social networking sites.

When I first heard of Invisible Children, I was 14. I saw the group’s first film that introduced the stories of thousands of young children who were being targeted as future soldiers for the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA was and is notoriously known for the kidnapping of children and murder of thousands of people across Uganda and surrounding countries.

As a kid, that kind of thing just doesn’t seem real. Here I was sitting at my computer, watching in terror as these children sobbed over their siblings who had their throats slit right in front of them.  Imagining someone thrusting a gun in my hands and telling me to kill seemed impossible and unreal.

But here I was, watching it unfold before my eyes.

Then on March 5 I revisited all those memories.

The backlash that has begun to surface around the video mostly focuses on the funding of the project and the “band-wagon-ing” that people seem to have a problem with. Others have an issue with Invisible Children’s support of military action and subtle ”neo-colonialism” activism.

Yes, it’s been discovered that only about 32 percent of the money that Invisible Children receives directly goes to the Ugandan efforts. But also keep in mind that these people’s mission isn’t to steal and spend your money.

They want justice.

And donations make their efforts easier. By this funding, the group was able to film, travel and report Monday’s video and spread the word. The power of the Internet is absolutely astounding, in that an unheard of group by many can disseminate a message across the globe and even gain the support of the United States government.

I will fully support and donate to a group who is able to relay such unbelievable messages to the world. Raising global awareness is something that must be done before any change can be made.

In 2010, President Barack Obama appr0ved a motion that enlisted American advisers to travel to Uganda to track Joseph Kony and his army, in hopes of capturing or killing him.

This was the green light for Invisible Children to finally head out and seek national public support.

Personally, I greatly approve this movement. Kony should be stopped. He is labeled as public enemy number one by the International Criminal Court. He was indicted by the ICC and is being charged with crimes against humanity among several other atrocities. Justice must be met.

Many also aren’t satisfied with the new found publicity. Yes, this has been an existing problem within African countries. But its prevalence in the international spotlight has been overlooked. The majority of people before March 5 had no idea who Invisible Children was or their mission. But it doesn’t bother me that this uproar over such an issue has become famous in a matter of hours.

All in all, I’ll stand up for what I believe. I’ll fully support something or someone who fights for what they believe. And personally I think Kony 2012 is a phenomenon that must be met with the appropriate response and not judged superficially.

During New York Fashion Week 2012, colors dominated the runways.  I think we need to take some tips from these debuting lines and start spicing up our wardrobes with bolder patters and brighter hues.

As you begin to start spring shopping, try to pull yourself away from the endless racks of plain, dull shirts and average-looking jean shorts.

Go for shirts with patterns you haven’t seen before, and colors you’ve always wanted to experiment with.  Chances are, you’ll get more compliments on your bright, different clothes than you would have for a plain grey shirt that everyone else has. 

Shorts shouldn’t be forgotten when spring shopping.  A great pair of colored shorts looks a lot better than jean shorts that are worn 4 times a week, if not more.  Some of the most preferred colors of spring are teal blue, hot pink and coral.

With all the colorful shirt and shorts combinations, jewelry can’t be forgotten.  Since the outfit itself is so bright, I’ve found the best type of jewelry to wear with these outfits is anything gold.  Even if it’s not the fanciest jewelry out there, it’ll still add something to your outfit.  But don’t just add whatever you have in your closet; make sure it actually matches your outfit and you’re not just throwing something together last-minute. 

What’s wrong with a little color?  Even though it’s still technically winter, surely we can start to wear our more colorful pants and tops to school.

Sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) started Feb. 9 and ended Feb. 16.  Every day fashion shows were in full swing at all hours with some starting as early as 9 a.m. and ending as late as 9 p.m.

The best way to keep up with the chaotic events of NYFW is to visit fashion bloggers websites or read their tweets.  By reading Bryan Yembao’s tweets and reading his fashion blog (bryanboy.com), I felt like I was part of the glamour and fun that was going on in New York City.

He constantly updated pictures via Twitter and posted videos of the fashion shows on his blog.  This was convenient for me, because it made it easier to sort through the mass of fashion shows and trends to find my favorite ones.

Like every other year, Betsey Johnson didn’t fail to impress me.  The Fall 2012 line that was showcased featured lots of metallic colors and bright fuchsia pinks.  And as always, the models looks like they were having fun throughout the entire show.

Also as expected, Anna Sui delivered well. The line featured bright colors and bold patterns contributing to an all-around exciting show.  Furs, bold blues and reds and winter hats combined to showcase a line of interesting clothes.

Nanette Lepore was my favorite show due to the bright colors and artsy patterns on the dresses.  The line also featured metallic skirts and shoes paired with dark tights to pull the looks together.

To take a look at more of the designer collections from NYFW, visit http://www.mbfashionweek.com/.

It seems like that snow day will never come. Staff and students have been waiting relentlessly for just one snow day this year.

Teachers have been going through the halls cheering students up telling them we will have a snow day, but when today came no snow day came as well.

Although Principal John Shaughnessy said, “From the educational prespective it has kept us in a smooth operating mood here, not as much rescheduling, from the leadership perspective of a school, it’s been nice”.

Students are furious; Twitter is filling up with people expressing their outrage.

Katie McTearnen, twitter name @KtMickeyT, tweeted, “We have so many snow days just sitting there doing nothing…I’m pretty sure they’re getting bored by not being used by now!”

Many students are tired of being tricked by the Richwoods School District because they always get called off no matter what the weather and Rockwood students see the name and jump.

Many students and staff are hoping for just one snow day this year.

The winter season is almost over but possibly there is one more storm waiting to call school off.