I love the weekends as much as any kid or teen, but this was
also one of those ‘thank God it’s Friday’ weeks too; and I was so ready to have
a couple of days off when we were set free from last class today.
While Lisa didn’t have anything at all to say to me today,
there was still ice in the air that put a chill on an otherwise nice Spring day
– at least for me. When you’re a member
of a small, small-town class, I’m finding out that it can really make the tween
drama tough to deal with – especially when three or four out of eleven girls
feel the need to pick sides. Rowen
didn’t choose to pick a side, but apparently being best friends with me was
enough to have her allegiance declared for her.
More than half the guys either tried to stay out of it completely or
stood with their girlfriends and kept their mouths shut. That made for an occasionally tweeird day at
school, though I mostly tried to just focus on my work and keep a low profile.
After school, Rowen and I had our snack with Mom, Ethan, and
Ehlana; got our homework out of the way; and then grabbed our new bikes with
plans to enjoy the warm weather with a nice long ride. When we got to the park, we stopped to join
the group of kids, tweens, and teens that were gathered around Tim and admiring
the new mountain bike that his Mom had apparently picked up for him earlier
this week while doing a rush parts run in Crystal Springs. Rowen and I had gone through that to a lesser
extent after getting our bikes, but Tim’s new toy was three or four steps up on
the cool scale from ours; and it really is an awesome bike.
Nora was hanging out with Tim and Michael; and I was mildly
back into the tweeird zone when Michael invited Rowen and I to go riding with
them. That didn’t have anything to do
with Lisa this time – it was because Rowen and I both like trail riding, even
if it gets a bit messy on the dirt trails that nearly every guy in town has
helped to make in the woods at the park over the years; and Nora did not want
to do that at all. Rowen and I were able
to impress Michael, Tim, and some of the other guys who were out riding the
trails too by keeping up with them, and doing all of the little jumps too
instead of using the ride-arounds that were there for the younger kids. Tim did eventually catch on that Nora wasn’t
having fun playing in the woods; and we took our ride out on the road. We checked out the construction site for the
lab and rode a mile or so out River Road; then came back into town and did a
loop of the new section of town before Rowen and I decided to move on and spend
a little time with Ethan and Ehlana before dinner.
We dropped our bikes off at home; picked them up; and went
to the park playground until we needed to be home again in time for a late
dinner that Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne, and Uncle Nick and
Aunt Deborah all joined us for. Sitting
down to eat had needed to wait until after Hannah and Nathan were settled in at
home with Hailey, and though Mom and baby were doing fine; they’d both needed a
little extra attention and recovery time today after a long, tough labor
yesterday. Half of our dinner guests
were exhausted by then, and the movie part of our Friday night dinner and a
movie was cancelled. While the aunts and
uncles were sent home, Rowen and I helped Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa with
the kitchen clean-up; and then we all took Ethan and Ehlana out for a
walk. We stopped at Rowen’s house so she
could grab a few things for our sleepover; followed that up with some play time
at the school playground; walked Grandma and Grandpa home after that; and
collected Rowen’s parents and brother from the computer store on our way home
so they could join us for a little after-work bedtime snack visit.
We had fun doing that, but it wasn’t long before Rowen’s
parents wanted to head home and get some sleep – they’re always really busy
during tax deadline time; and Tax Day is only a bit more than a week away now. Rowen and I helped get Ethan and Ehlana to
bed after her parents and brother left, and then we came up to the lounge to
end our night with a little girl chat and movie time with Mandy.
Rowen didn’t tease me about Michael at all tonight – or at
least she didn’t in a matchmaking sort of way, but we did talk about him and
Lisa; tween boys and girls in general; and a bit about ‘Tommy’ and his
girlfriend too. Even though I’m still
running into too much tween drama for my liking, there was no chance that Rowen
could convince me I’d have been better off crossing over to her side of the
line. She still thinks I should join her
and make the big jump to that next level, but conceded that I’d been given lots
of good examples this week for why I shouldn’t want to have anything to do with
the whole tween dating scene.
We talked about how I should deal with the whole mess with
Lisa, since it really isn’t fun having about a third of our classmates either
mad at me or at least ignoring me to keep the peace with their girlfriends or
closest buddies. Mom probably won’t home
school me for the rest of the school year while the whole thing blows over, and
while a week or two of daily Olde Bakery treats bribery for all of our
classmates likely would work; it just doesn’t seem right to do that. I am sure that I won’t be going back to
handling the tween drama like I was before – there is way too much fun to look
forward to this Spring and Summer to be trying to bottle up my normal, fired-up
self. Since that fun will likely include
some time hanging out with Michael and Tim – especially since we all really love
bike riding, and three out of four of us like our lunchtime music practices, I
hope Lisa will get over being mad sooner rather than later; but I’m not holding
my breath on that happening.
Rowen needed to do a little venting about ‘Tommy’ too. She was particularly annoyed this afternoon
when the guys were all impressed with our trail riding. Yes, as I mentioned earlier, she loved the
attention, but isn’t happy that the guys still barely notice that she is, in
fact, a girl; and she’s beginning to wonder if she’ll ever be able to shake her
brainiac bookworm image with ‘Tommy’ or any other guy at school. I didn’t have any more answers for her about
that than I have for my own tween problems, but if nothing changes between now
and summertime; I am sure that all of the guys around our age will definitely
notice that she’s a girl when we start wearing swimsuits, tees and shorts, and
sundresses this year.
Our movie is nearly over now, and Rowen and I are both ready
to get some sleep, so I’m going to wrap this up; watch the rest of the show;
and then call it a night.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
