I know MW08 is only a month (actually less) away, but I honestly don't see the macbooks getting anything. They just recently got Santa Rosa, and any more updates to them would simply cannibalize mbp sales.
All of the rumors have been floating around the new ultra portable, or potential 13" mbp. Let's explore both possibilities, and you'll see why simply buying the macbook now is your best bet.
The first possibility is that the rumored notebook is an ultra portable macbook/pro that has good battery life, weighs 3lbs, has a small (12 or 11") screen, and lacks an optical drive. It will also use the specialized line of Intel processors, not the standard SR chips that are in the current macbook/pro. Chances are, OP, you will not want this product. If this is to be "your" computer, you will need the optical drive, the larger screen when you're at home, etc. The price will also be a restrictive factor for you. If this ultra portable is indeed as good as we all hope it is, you can bet it isn't going to be anywhere in the neighborhood of $1300. I'd bet that it starts at $1800 and is likely to be even higher (maybe the base could be $2000?). This clearly isn't for you, so now let's consider the 13" macbook pro.
Should the 13" macbook pro come out, and this would be the best you could hope for, as you don't like the white plastic of the current macbook, I think you'll find it outside of your price range once again. Like the 12" Powerbook before it, this hypothetical mbp will not attempt to compete in price with a consumer line macbook. Rather, this hypothetical 13" macbook pro will have attributes that are currently absent from the macbooks of today, and there will be a premium for these advantages. I'd wager that if such a notebook is coming, it will have a base price of at least $1700 (again, likely higher). Once again, this is not in your neighborhood. Furthermore, you probably wouldn't benefit from the additional technological advantages afforded by a mbp, as a freshman in high school hardly has any important business to attend to.
Possibility 3: No updates involving a smaller mbp arise, and we are left with the same spread of 13.3, 15.4 and 17 that we have now. I think this is highly likely, and to be sure, it stresses the point: there's no sense in waiting for you. I know that there's the sense of not wanting to be left behind, but the odds are simply stacked against your particular price range. If you were shopping for a macbook pro, I'd have the opposite advice for you, as these are bound to see an update early next year. However, with the macbooks so recently upgraded, I doubt we're going to see a change for at least another 5 months.
PS: Consider yourself one lucky kid to be getting a personal laptop in the 9th grade. What is it with you kids and needing the latest stuff before you even have any real need for it?
