I spent some quality time in the tweeird zone tonight, but
had a lot of fun anyway.
Before I get to that part of the day, we started the morning
out with another indoor Tai Chi workout, and followed that up with a fruit and
bagels breakfast before Dad and I needed to get ready for work and school. Our second-to-last exam prep day was mostly
serious, if for no other reason than because most of the high school teens were
serious about getting ready for their finals.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any goofing around – that might be
impossible when you have any group of tween guys in the same room; but even Tim
managed to tone it down a half dozen notches for the occasion.
My entry into the tweeird zone coincided approximately with
getting home from school with everyone in our study group. Ethan and Ehlana helped me out with that by
immediately welcoming Michael with hugs and kisses – even before they did that
with Rowen and me. There is no way that
wasn’t intentional, but while watching that may have annoyed Vanessa; even she
and Nora would have to admit that it was adorable. I wanted to have a quick chat with Mom and
the twins before getting to the studying, so Rowen led everyone else upstairs
to the lounge while I did that. Mom knew
that my ball practice had been cancelled by then, and she suggested a frozen
pizza and wings night for dinner; and offered to feed my study group so we
could stay and work late now that Rowen and I didn’t have baseball.
That invitation was eventually accepted by everyone, but I
was wading deeper into the tweeird zone when I walked into the lounge and found
out that all of my friends were next door in my bedroom.
It’s a good thing I didn’t leave any bras hanging around
anywhere!
Just kidding – I never do that.
Rowen was doing the tour for the benefit of our classmates
who hadn’t seen my rooms before; even if they had all heard about them. It was time for some more of the usual
teasing about being spoiled, and Michael came to my defense by suggesting that
Dad had just spent all of the money in one shot that the rest of their parents
had spent on them from birth until they were nine or ten – and had the bonus of
no diapers, baby barf, and other baby issues with me. While our friends thought that was funny, and
I appreciated the help; Vanessa and Nora were not quite as amused or happy as
the rest of us. I was ready to move into
the lounge and get studying by then, but Denise and Lily wanted to hear me play
something on my keyboard for them first.
The fact that I was learning to play the piano was news to most of my
classmates, since I really didn’t talk about that much at school, but Denise
and Lily were the only two girls showing any real interest.
That changed when Rowen suggested having Michael use my
saxophone and playing a duet with me. She
was completely unapologetic when we had a little talk about that after everyone
else went home tonight; but I really could have lived without the vibes Vanessa
and Nora were sending my way pretty much from that moment on. Having said that, Rowen knows that I love
playing music with Michael; we had fun playing that little demonstration; and
that’s why I can’t really get all that upset about the whole set-up. We also seriously impressed our friends –
including the two who didn’t want to admit that even to themselves.
Fortunately, we moved into the lounge right after that. While everyone else spread out around the
room and got ready to study, Rowen helped me with filling drink orders and
putting out bowls of snacks. Though the
lounge had been the starting point of Rowen’s tour, the novelty of having a
stocked fridge and a bunch of snack options at my disposal earned some more
tweeird zone attention. There were some
fun parts to studying in my lounge too.
Lily and Marc thought that it was cool to sit in the window alcove while
they worked, and the other couples felt the same way about the sectional sofa –
or two out of three of them did. Michael
and Vanessa weren’t having as much fun as Tim and Nora, and Denise and Kris
were. Rowen and I were safely at the
table with Gil and Allen; and in no romantic danger from either boy. The fact that they only noticed us through
the brainiac bookworm hole that Rowen in particular had been pegged into since
Kindergarten bugged her a bit, but I was a happy camper.
I thought that our studying was more fun tonight, and more
relaxed even when drifting in and out of the tweeird zone. Part of that was because most of us were more
comfortable; the pizza and wings dinner break was a blast thanks to Ethan and
Ehlana’s entertainment. The tweeird zone
part of that break in the study action came courtesy of having six tween and
teen boys in the house. Five out of six
of them couldn’t resist having a few contests to show off for the girls, and
though Michael tried to stay out of that goofiness, Ethan was a bit too happy
to play along; so Michael didn’t completely escape. The other boys let Ethan win one of their
contests, but only after Dad pointed out that Ethan did eat eight slices of
pizza; and they hadn’t specified full slices as opposed to the eight
two-toddler-bite slices Mom had custom-sliced for Ethan. I am so glad that he didn’t win the pop
guzzling or burping contests.
The ongoing studying got me out of the post-dinner clean-up,
but Mom had gone with the fine Chinette, cans of pop, and we didn’t need
utensils for pizza and wings; so there wasn’t much work to do anyway. After returning to the lounge, we worked
until a bit after eight when Vanessa and Nora decided that they’d had enough
for the day; and took Tim and Michael with them when they left. Michael did not look particularly
enthusiastic to be going along to Nora’s house for a little wind down time; but
he hadn’t been left with a reasonable way out without getting his best friend
in trouble with Nora.
Everyone else except Rowen started packing up then too,
though it was closer to eight-thirty before we were alone – and could have a
little girl chat time before she went home too at nine o’clock. In addition to having fun teasing me about
setting up that little musical interlude and pointing out that Michael and I
had made beautiful music together; Rowen spent most of that time advising me
that I’d save Michael a lot of grief with Vanessa and Nora if I’d just hurry up;
cross over; and jump into the dating game with him. I had the same answer for that as always, but
Rowen seemed to be more impatient than usual to have me join her on the other
side of that line.
We’re going to continue to agree to disagree on this particular
issue; Rowen will certainly keep working as a matchmaking volunteer for Aunt
Leanne; and I won’t cross over until I’m ready to do that.
Moving along, once my guests had all left, Mom had me help
her with Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime routine; she did a Magi Healing lesson with
me once they were tucked in; and then I got started on my real studies after
getting changed and snuggled in bed with Mandy for the night. It was already after eleven by the time I got
started, but since I don’t expect to get as much work done next week while
dealing with our exams; I decided to spend an hour and a half each on languages
and my archive assignment. After getting
that done, I started in on my nightly computing and email checks, and needed to
deal with a couple of family business issues before getting started on this
journal update.
It’s now a bit closer to three than two; I’m baked; and
don’t have any other news to report, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
