Sometimes Mother Nature throws a curve that surprises in a
good way. Today it was an
earlier-than-expected end to the rain overnight that meant we ended up getting
a fair bit less rain; and everything dried up early enough so that we were able
to play our baseball game at noon. The
nice weather was good for Allen’s birthday party too, but let’s start at the
beginning.
The grass was still wet, but Tai Chi by the river was an
option; and a great way to start the day.
Rowen stayed indoors with Ethan and Ehlana while Mom, Dad, and I did
that; and then she and I took turns getting ready for the day while Mom and Dad
cooked breakfast. Having the unexpected
early turn-around in the weather also meant a full yard work morning for me, so
after we’d eaten and cleaned up; Rowen left to get to work at the computer
store, and Dad and I got to work in the back yard. I couldn’t cut the grass right away, so I
played in the gardens for the first hour or so before hopping on the lawn mower
and spending the rest of my work time getting that done. I needed to get cleaned up quickly after
that; took a sandwich to go; and hurried over to the park in time for our team
warm-ups.
We were playing Taylor’s
Tigers today, and though our team isn’t up to speed yet after missing two
practices; the Tigers were at least in the same boat. Both teams had a fairly good turnout of fans
to watch the game, but our cheerleading section only included Aunt Leanne and
Ehlana; and Aunt Leanne isn’t exactly feeling much like bouncing and running
around these days. Being about five
months pregnant will have that effect on a girl. They spent most of their time sitting with
Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, Grandma, Grandpa, and Patricia.
The Tigers were up to bat first, but they didn’t exactly get
off to a roaring start. Their second
batter did get on base, but then we turned a double play to put a quick end to
their half of the inning. We were rusty
too, but Coach Sarah has me batting second, and I got a base hit; moved to
second on a sacrifice fly; and then scored our only run of the inning thanks to
Carolyn’s base hit. We didn’t keep that
lead for long, but then we also didn’t end up getting behind either because the
Tigers didn’t manage to score more than one run in any inning.
I like getting to bat second. With girls six and eight inches taller than
me, I’m not the fastest base runner on the team; but I can fairly consistently
get base hits. I had four of them today,
and had Carolyn get two hits that I was able to score on; plus one more off of
a hit from Rebecca when I’d only made it to third by the time she was
batting. Rowen has a similar deal with
Jenny; and scored two more runs on her three hits. We’re not going to earn many RBI’s, but we’re
happy with what we are doing to help the team.
The really good news today is that we won by a score of nine-to-four;
and didn’t need to play the bottom of the sixth to get that win.
Both teams were going to the Emporium for ice cream after
the game, but Rowen and I didn’t stay long because we were meeting our study
group at Tim’s house for a couple of hours before we’d all need to get ready
for Allen’s birthday party. Tim and
Michael had timed that for when Michael was finished helping out at the Inn; and though our game was fairly short; Rowen and I
were still the last to get to Tim’s house.
Allen skipped this session, but none of us had expected him to be
interested in studying on his birthday anyway.
Our first exams on Monday are Math in the morning; and Music
in the afternoon. Today we focused
entirely on Math. The fact that I have a
photographic memory isn’t news to my classmates, even though they don’t know
exactly how extraordinary that little talent of mine really is; and it’s times
like this that I really get to see the love-hate relationship my friends have
with me because of it. They love the
fact that I can help them work out math problems and teach them little tricks
to help them; and they hate the fact that I don’t have to work nearly as hard
as they do to remember all of those formulas and tricks. Even Rowen gives me the look now and then,
and she’s my best friend. She’d also
want me to add that while Tim definitely has the love-hate thing going on;
Michael just finds it amusing.
I should probably keep this moving along, and there really
wasn’t anything exciting to report from our time in full-immersion math. Nora and Vanessa in particular made sure that
we wrapped up our studies in time to get ready for Allen’s party. Rowen and I split up to go home and hit the showers,
but I went over to her house after getting dressed and packing an overnight
bag; and we finished doing our hair and getting ready together before walking
over to Allen’s house.
The dinner part of his party was for family and friends, and
his parents were doing a barbeque in the back yard. We had about an hour for socializing before
dinner, and this is probably a good time to mention that Rowen and I were in
the minority for the girls on our choice of clothing today. While sundresses look a lot nicer than the
shorts and tops we decided to wear, and mostly achieved the desired effect on
the boys; we were dressed to be able to play too. Sally Reynolds was nice enough to keep us
from being the only girls who weren’t in dresses, but then she wanted to be
able to play too.
We were the only Grade Seven girls playing Frisbee or any of
the other games that were going on before and after dinner, and we also didn’t
have a problem sitting on the ground during the campfire – but I’m getting
ahead of the story. First up when we got
there was some introductions to visiting members of Allen’s family. His older sisters, Bethany and Taylor, took
care of that while he was hanging out with the guys and their parents were busy
with the work side of the party. Once
that was done, we pretty much joined right in on a game of Frisbee that Michael
and Tim were already playing with some of the other guys and a couple of
Allen’s younger cousins.
You’re probably wondering if that dropped me directly into
the tweeird zone, but that didn’t happen until Nora and Vanessa made their much
more sophisticated, tastefully late entrance.
They were dressed to impress, and while Tim immediately stopped playing
to hang out with Nora; Michael barely even acknowledged Vanessa until she pretty
much made it impossible for him to ignore her.
Rowen really shouldn’t have buzzed them with the Frisbee while throwing
it to me, and I definitely shouldn’t have added the tricks to my catch before
throwing it on again; but we did. It was
his laugh and my answering grin that got me into trouble, but in a feeble
attempt to defend myself, I’d like to suggest that if Michael was not knocked
out by how great Vanessa looked tonight; nothing else she tries will ever work
on him either. She certainly turned the
heads of most of the other guys; though she was probably too busy to notice.
Her insistence on getting Michael’s attention did end his
Frisbee play time for a while; and they joined Tim and Nora while Rowen and I
continued to play. Yes, we continued to
show off a bit too – Rowen was just in that kind of mood; and I was having fun
going along for the ride. Doing that
also had the advantage of saving us from some of the stranger tween action –
particularly with the guys and the couples’ club members. The guys and couples all kept it toned down a
notch or two while there were adults around, but that didn’t completely keep
the guys from trying to show off and have their usual party competitions. The couples mostly saved the making out until
after dark, but the tweeirdness level for hanging out around them was higher
for Rowen and me than it was for our paired up friends and classmates.
When it was time to sit down for dinner, Sally helped Rowen
and me again by inviting us to sit with her.
She was already sitting with her boyfriend, Joshua; her best friend,
Gretchen; and Gretchen’s boyfriend, Elliott.
If I had to rank the Grade Seven couples, I’d put Sally and Joshua at
the top of the list because they’re a really great match, and they’re also the most
mature. I like Gretchen and Elliott, but
I’d have to put them somewhere at the other end of the chart. For lack of a smoother way to put this,
Elliott wants them to be more like Tim and Nora are; but Gretchen isn’t ready
for that – and probably never will be when it comes to making out in
public. She’s more like Sally and Joshua
when it comes to things like that.
Their ongoing issues with that weren’t a problem during
dinner, and we had fun together. None of
us wanted to talk about school or exams, so summer holiday plans for in town
and on the farm, baseball, weddings, and babies chat kept us entertained while
we ate. Elliott wasn’t all that
interested in the last two topics, but we all had at least one family or
friends wedding to go to this summer; and I wasn’t the only kid with a pregnant
aunt or cousin.
When it was time to have Allen open his gifts between dinner
and Olde Bakery birthday cake dessert, Sally, Rowen, and I pitched in to help
with some of the clean-up while the rest of our friends were busy entertaining
everyone with commentary, jokes, and a little birthday roasting for Allen. His sisters in particular were grateful for
that help; partly because it meant that they were eventually able to escape the
tweeird zone earlier than they’d expected.
At the time, I was thinking that it might be nice to escape with them,
but Rowen and I had fun anyway – and that was at least partly because we waded
in and out of the tweeird zone for the rest of the night.
Most of Allen’s family, the younger kids, and the older
teens all left shortly after we collectively demolished two birthday cakes and
a couple of tubs of ice cream. His
parents and two of their friends only ventured into the back yard a few times
after that – once to start the campfire; and a couple of visits that were
likely meant to remind some of us that there was adult supervision as they were
about checking snack and drink stocks.
If you were one of the girls wearing sundresses, going for
walks with other girls and respective boyfriends was as popular as sitting
around tables and talking while the boys really got into their usual group
antics. Rowen, Sally, and I had fun
instead of doing either of those things.
We played some more Frisbee; and added in a little football action that got
all three of us noticed when our team won the ‘game’ that was more like
half-court basketball with a football than an actual football game. The good news, for Rowen, was that our
football playing earned her a whistle and cheer from ‘Tommy’ after she made one
particularly good catch for a ‘touchdown’.
The bad news, for me, was that Vanessa and Nora were not impressed that
Michael and I were matched up while competing against each other.
Rowen’s mood tonight must have been infectious, because I
was enjoying myself way more than I should have been. There wasn’t any tackling involved in our
game, but when you’re a tween, even tagging the ball carrier can get tweeird in
mixed company – especially when you’re the one tagging or being tagged by a guy
that one of your classmates has been trying her very best to catch. Rowen has spent some quality time since we
got back to her house entertaining herself by pointing out to me that I had a
lot more ‘hands on’ time with Michael than Vanessa did tonight.
This would be a good time to remind Rowen that Michael
blushed nearly as red as her hair the time he tagged me on the butt; so I’m
sure that it wasn’t intentional. There
also wasn’t a handprint left behind on my shorts no matter how many times you
insist that you can still see one. She
is right about the fact that Vanessa was not amused by any of our after-dinner
play time, and it was a good thing that the fire was warm; because there was
definitely an icy draft directed my way pretty much during the entire campfire.
I did not intentionally or otherwise try to monopolize
Michael’s time, but he did hang out with us more than he did with Tim, Nora,
and Vanessa tonight. When we gathered
around the fire once it was too dark out to play games anymore; he chose to sit
with Rowen and me instead of with the usual group that he and Tim normally hung
out with at school. He was also first up
to play guitar, and I think he liked the fact that I was still in that same
weird mood, because we had fun singing songs together; and we really sounded
great together when I threw in some harmonies to go with the melodies he was
singing.
Vanessa didn’t give up easily, and she invited Michael to
dance with her twice after his first guitar set, and once after the
second. He even sat with her, Tim, and
Nora between that first and second dance; but then returned to sit with Rowen
and me again when he was handed the guitar again; and didn’t stay with Vanessa
after their third dance. Sitting close
enough to him to get a lot of empathic feedback allowed me to know just how he
was feeling, and that was a weird for me as Vanessa’s ongoing efforts were for
him.
Their last dance together, and the growing level of
tweeirdness around the fire and elsewhere in the back yard from the couples who
were all taking advantage of the cooling temperature to get more cuddly and
intimate were probably the top two contributing factors for why Michael decided
to walk home with us when Rowen and I were ready to go entirely because of that
second reason. The party curfew was
twelve-thirty, but Rowen and I were past the point of being uncomfortable by
eleven-thirty; and our attempt at a quiet departure was working just fine until
Michael decided to leave then too.
Vanessa tried to get him to stay, and then Nora had Tim try too; and
none of them were happy when Michael wouldn’t do that. Even worse, he managed to dodge Vanessa’s
attempt to give him a goodnight hug and kiss so he could catch up with us after
Rowen and I had left them to work that out for themselves. We were half-way to the sidewalk by the time
he caught up with us; and looked happy, relieved, and annoyed as he fell into
step next to me.
We talked about the party while walking home, though we
didn’t mention Vanessa at all, and stayed away from most of the tweeird moments
too. I know exactly when Michael started
holding my hand, but didn’t think about it at all until Rowen was nice enough
to bring the fact to our attention when we reached her house and it was time to
say goodnight to Michael.
I can also assure you that having her tease us about that,
and having her give me one of those looks is exactly why I shared both a hug
and kiss goodnight with Michael; though after everything I’d felt him dealing
with tonight, I probably would have hugged and kissed him anyway.
That gave Rowen even more to tease me about once we were
alone, but she didn’t get around to doing that right away because we had a
little visit with her parents, and then we had to deal with Patrick and Scott;
and they were in fine form tonight. The
only thing that helped us was time – it was late; and we all have church in the
morning. Rowen’s Dad put a stop to their
gags and pranks at one o’clock; and Rowen and I have been able to have our girl
chat in peace since then while I’ve also been doing my usual bedtime computing.
We really need to get some sleep too, so I should probably
wrap this up; and Rowen will have to save up any jokes or commentary that she
hasn’t already used on me until the next time she feels the need to tease me
about Michael.
She thinks that’ll be tomorrow, depending on how our
afternoon study session at my house goes.
I’d have suggested we do that at her house, but for some reason, Rowen’s
parents don’t think that it’s a good idea to have a dozen unsupervised tweens
in their house. When you throw Patrick
and Scott into that equation; I can’t blame them for thinking that way!
Okay, I guess that’s it.
We’ve ended up having a really great day with our first baseball win,
and a tweeirdly fun birthday party.
Cut that out, Rowen.
I am not forgetting the hand-holding walk home with Michael; and that
kiss was just another peck – not the lip-lock you’re trying to imply that it
was. No, I don’t need your help with
this – feel free to write your own journal if you want to record that fantasy
version of events. I’ll just stick with
reporting reality.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
