Manolo the Columnist: Angelfire from Sperry Topsider

Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column for the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,
I’m starting the 9th grade in a couple of weeks and my new school doesn’t allow sandals or open-toed shoes. My mom won’t let me wear heels to school, and all of my tennis shoes and ballet flats are boring. What’s popular right now?
Haley
Manolo says, oh, how the Manolo remembers his own first day at his alma mater, the Our Lady of the Flaming Spleen Country Day School (whose motto remains “The Wrathful Word Turneth Away Evil”).
The day began auspiciously, with the young Manolo strolling onto campus two minutes late, just as Sister Assumpta was chasing the tardy students from the schoolyard into the building, welding her yardstick as if she were Samson slaying the Philistines with the jawbone of the ass.
Ayyy! The Manolo still bears the marks of that first lesson in punctuality!
Of the course, it was not all fun and games at OLFSCDS. Education always took precedence over the various social clubs and sporting teams. Indeed, who could forget the time Eduardo Castro, our greatest competitor, failed the algebra test and was suspended from our rosary team, just as they were about to compete for the regional championships against the cross town rival, Holy Relic?
It was then that the Manolo, who had been “riding the pine” all season, was put into the starting lineup. And, in the moment of supreme triumph, he helped bring home the trophy with his flawless rendition of the most difficult Fatima Decade!
What is in this year? Strangely, it is the Sperry Topsider! Here is the Angelfish in the linen and the oat.