Happy 12th Birthday, Lisa!
I hope she’s had a good day, but it was occasionally a bit
weird for me.
This was probably the most awkward time I’ve had so far with
giving someone a gift, and the only thing that made it even a little easier was
that it was a joint gift from Rowen and me; and Rowen gave it to Lisa before
first class this morning. I’m sure that
Lisa liked what we gave her, but wasn’t any more comfortable about it than I
was.
Giving Lisa her gift early was Rowen’s suggestion, and that
was as much for my benefit as it was to avoid any potential bonus awkwardness
that might have come if we’d done it later – closer to when Lisa, and most of
our classmates, would be going to her birthday party after school. If I’d had a little luck, giving Lisa a
birthday present would have been the only weird moment of the day; but luck
wasn’t with me today.
Instead of being able to stay out of Lisa’s way, as I
wanted, there was a series of moments that annoyed her; and led to more than a
few dark looks directed my way. While it
wasn’t actually unusual, having not one, but two test results returned to us
with the opening line – “Congratulations to Cassie, Michael, and Rowen for perfect
scores plus bonus points.” I’m fairly
sure that our teachers are not in on Aunt Leanne’s matchmaking conspiracy, but
I’d really appreciate it a lot if they’d think outside of alphabetical order
once in a while. Michael didn’t try to
do something dumb like join us for music practice at lunchtime on his girlfriend’s
birthday, but Rowen and I heard later that there were some jokes directed his
way about that; and Lisa was not amused.
Add in an art class supply share, and Michael rolling his chair over
next to Rowen and me to work out a problem with our assignment in computer
class; and by the time we were set free for the day; Lisa was definitely ready
to not see me around for a while.
By the time I got home, I was ready for a few hours of
full-immersion family business work; and even left my homework for later so I
didn’t have to think about anything school-related. I even stayed away from working on anything
that even remotely involved tweens or teens; going over financial reports and
new project proposals. I managed to get
all the way from the end of the school day through until we went to the Inn for
game night without any more weird, and though I thought that I’d be safe there
with all of my classmates that would usually be at the Inn too away at Lisa’s
party; I was wrong, and wish I’d just stayed at home.
To be fair, nothing that happened, and none of the comments
or jokes, was meant to be anything more than good-natured fun; but sometimes
those little moments add up to make things very weird and uncomfortable. Explaining why we weren’t at our classmate’s
birthday party – a handful of times – was a pain for both Rowen and me; and
being Magi of the Light does not mean that we don’t still need to deal with the
little social lies that keep the real world spinning. No, we weren’t the only two kids not going to
Lisa’s party, but we were in a very small minority. Some jokes and one-liners from Aunt Leanne
and Miranda added to my growing frustration, and if that wasn’t enough; there
was some Michael and Lisa gossip making the rounds with the junior championship
competitors that I didn’t want or need to hear.
Eventually escaping all of that didn’t end the weird for me
tonight – there was more of it waiting for me when I got around to my nightly
computing after Ethan and Ehlana were tucked into bed. Usually, I’m happy to keep up with my
‘friends and classmates’ email and chats, but the party recaps that even
included some pictures and videos had a fair bit of weird to go along with the
entertainment. A chat with Rowen assured
me that I wasn’t the only one glad that we’d missed the party – while also
wishing we hadn’t been sent the pictures, links, and videos. There were quite a few things that we each
wish we were still blissfully unaware of, including anything to do with ‘Tommy’
and his girlfriend for her, and some scenes with Michael and Lisa for me.
No, you shouldn’t infer that I’m crossing over – I’m not.
My discomfort was from the visuals, and accompanying
comments about Michael’s reluctance every time the group prodded him and Lisa
together for birthday kisses – which they apparently did as if they were at a
wedding reception instead of a birthday party.
If that’s going to be a regular part of future boy-girl parties; I’m
going to be sick for every one of them that I get invited to from now until that
little trend passes. Michael apparently
did well-enough to earn bonus points in the girlfriend birthday gift category,
but lost one or two when he couldn’t be talked into playing guitar and singing
a birthday love song for Lisa – despite the fact that he might never live
something like that down with the guys if he had done it.
Not being there didn’t save me from getting into trouble
anyway – at least with Lisa. I managed
to do that a few times, starting with a joke about Michael playing love songs
with me during our lunchtime practices when they were trying to get him to play
and sing for Lisa. There were other
comments or jokes, but the last straw, so to speak, was probably the
conversation about when the next classmate birthday was. The fact that Michael came up with that
answer first, and he knew the date, didn’t go over well with Lisa; and neither
did the follow-up comments about my birthday being on the same night as the
school Valentine’s dance – or the jokes about how I might get a Valentine for
my birthday.
I am so glad that I don’t plan on going to the dance or have
a ‘friends’ birthday party!
All of this has managed to throw me off tonight, and it’s
taken me longer to get less done than I wanted to do tonight. I finished my homework, but only managed to
read one foreign language book; and barely covered a thousand pages in the
archives. It’s after two, and I’m going
to finish this up now despite the urge to write an expose on the benefits of a
time phase for all tweens that would jump us through these awkward years. Even if it was possible for me to do that
with all of my classmates, I’m sure that suddenly having a Grade Seven class
full of fourteen or fifteen-year old teens would be noticed; and Mom – and the
Magi council – would have a problem with it too.
Instead of doing that, I’m going to once again try not to
think of soft, cuddly bunnies; and get some sleep.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
