Play Day is definitely one of the kid and teen favorites of
the school year; and I was fired up right from the moment I woke up this
morning.
Tai Chi by the river, and a pancakes and bacon breakfast got
the day off to a great start, and then I helped Mom with the extra work that
needed to be done to load the van with our food and drink donations, and get
Ethan and Ehlana ready to spend most of the day with Grandma and Grandpa while
Mom was going to be busy helping out at the school.
We had Rowen and Patrick with us when we were ready to go,
and they helped with unloading the van at school after we dropped Ethan and
Ehlana off on our way there. Mom went to
help set up the booth that she was going to be running all morning with Claire,
and in the afternoon with Patricia; and Rowen, Patrick, and I went on to our
home room classes. Rowen and I were soon
in the tweeird zone again; starting with the play day team selections.
Vanessa and Nora were continuing their campaign of exclusion
for Michael; and Tim wasn’t given a choice when they picked Allen to be the
fourth member of their team. The rest of
the couples’ club members teamed up into groups of four, with Lisa added as a
fifth to the team with her best friends; and that left Michael and Gil stuck
with Rowen and me. I’ll guess that
Vanessa and Nora didn’t fully think through that plan; because they were not
very happy to see us in the same group – even if that really should have been a
fairly obvious outcome when you look at the groups of friends in a small
class. Michael and I didn’t have a
problem with being on the same team at all; and Gil was happy to end up on a
team with three of the best athletes in our grade.
I’ll admit that the ongoing tweeirdness motivated me to
compete more seriously today, but then playing the games with Michael and Rowen
helped with that too; and Gil really kicked up his gaming too while trying to
keep up with us. Most importantly, we
had a total blast all day. It’s too bad
that I can’t say the same thing for our arch-rival team for the day. Vanessa and Nora were not happy or impressed
with our success; and they did not look like they were having much fun
either. Tim and Allen tried to have fun,
but doing that instead of seriously trying to win each of the little games
usually just got them into trouble with their teammates. Unfortunately for them, Tim was the only
really talented athlete; and all of the games and races were team events, or
scores were based on team totals.
The combination of having fun together and trying harder
because of the tweeirdness being dumped on us off and on all day resulted in
our team placing first for our Grade Seven class; and third overall for the
school. We also won all but two of the
games for our class too; so I’m sure that you can imagine how well that went
over with Vanessa and Nora, but I couldn’t manage to feel bad about doing that
today. Having excuses to hug Michael
after every win was a nice bonus too!
While I’m thinking about hugs, one thing that was both
tweeird and fun was when I got in trouble for hugging Gil too – from his
girlfriend. Alicia’s in Grade Six, and
her class was competing in a game that was set up next to where we’d been when
she witnessed the victory hug. Having
her come over and confront us about it was the tweeird part; and negotiating
getting her to give Gil the hugs instead for the rest of the day was the bonus
entertainment. It’s too bad other
tweeirdness in my life wasn’t that easy to resolve.
I’ve skipped over a fair bit, so let’s back up and deal with
that before moving on. While Rowen would
have liked to pair me with Michael for every game where that was an option;
most of the time it worked out better with guys and girls pairings. The exceptions to that were for games we couldn’t
resist having boy-girl pairs for – like the three-leg race. Yes, there was really only one reason for
doing that, and it wasn’t a good idea to give Vanessa and Nora even more reason
to be mad at us; but then there was some smack talk directed our way that we
had fun disproving by taking first and second place with our team.
The only events of the day we didn’t try our best at were
the unofficial competitions during our morning, lunch, and afternoon breaks. Working around food so much could have something
to do with why Michael’s never really been into the tween guy eating and
drinking games, and while Gil has been known to play along; he was following
Michael’s lead today. Rowen and I were
particularly grateful that we didn’t have to watch them attempt new records for
eating hotdogs; guzzling drinks; various belching milestones; or fastest
ice-cream induced brain-freeze.
Avoiding those mini-competitions probably helped us this
afternoon too; and could be why our team did so well even when we were up
against the older teens and an ‘overall’ scoring curve that was meant to even
the field for all of the grades. I
really do like to win, but being awarded the little medallions and ribbons at
the end of the afternoon wasn’t as important to me as having a fun day with
Michael and Rowen was. Being able to
hear some rather unpleasant, muttered grumblings about Michael and me while we
were being given our awards took a bit away from the moment too; and a bit more
time in the tweeird zone was all I needed to be ready to go home and work in
the office again to escape from that again for a while.
Most of that last blast of tween dopiness came when Michael,
Rowen, and I were at our lockers getting ready to go home. Tim started out the scene with some good-natured
teasing, but then Vanessa and Nora chimed in with some jibes that weren’t very
nice at all. I’m also beginning to
wonder if they don’t really know Michael as well as they think they do despite
growing up with him. Talking about all
of the fun that Michael was going to miss out on after school and tonight was
completely pointless. Michael, Jake, and
Rebecca are all used to missing out on things that some of their friends get to
do because of work or chores – just like all of the farm kids and other ‘store-owner
parents’ kids are. He feels as much
obligation to help out at the Inn as I feel about helping Mom with our family
business; and all Vanessa and Nora accomplished was to annoy him – not make him
jealous or feel left out.
Michael, Rowen, and I left the school together, and I walked
with them to the computer store and Inn before
continuing on home. There was just a
tiny bit more tweeird zone for Michael and I when we just happened to bump into
Tim, Nora, Vanessa, and the rest of our classmates that were starting their
amazingly fun adventures with Emporium ice cream cones. That wasn’t likely a coincidence at all, but
I’m also pretty sure that Vanessa was expecting Michael to be alone. This is another instance where I’ll just keep
most of the details out of this report, but I will mention that some girls are
watching too many chick flicks and reading too many tween and teen mag
rags. We’re only twelve and thirteen no
matter how hard you try to act older and cooler.
While I was seriously tempted to give Michael a goodbye hug
and kiss; I resisted the urge; and avoided getting us into even deeper
tweeirdness before he went into the Inn and I went home and got to work too. Mom was still out doing some running around
with Ethan and Ehlana after picking them up from Grandma and Grandpa’s house,
so I grabbed a drink and worked in the office until dinner was ready except for
a short break to help with unloading the van when they got home. It was an early, easy-dinner night because of
my baseball practice; and Rowen picked me up along the way to the park.
We’re playing Palmer’s Panthers on Saturday, and Carolyn was
particularly fired up and wanting everyone to work hard to get ready to play
against the team that will likely be our toughest competition this season. Tim and Michael weren’t the only players
getting personal fans coming to watch their games and practices, but I doubt
that Vanessa and Nora would think that having Ethan and Ehlana stopping by to
watch us play was on the same level as their efforts with the boys. I loved getting a pair of hugs and kisses
from them – even if that did get me in trouble with Coach Sarah again. It’s funny that she only seemed to notice and
yell at me when I was hugging and kissing Ethan; though being teased about kissing
boys instead of playing baseball felt different this time – especially since I
couldn’t stop thinking about the kisses with Michael after that.
The hugs, kisses, teasing, and those thoughts about Michael
did help to fire me up; and I had a really good practice tonight. Those three factors all played a part in my game-playing
at the Inn tonight too. The teasing for that started almost
immediately after my usual game night partner decided that I needed to team up
with Michael for our last game night until September; and Rebecca was a willing
accomplice. Rowen might have decided to
do that after seeing Nora continuing the tweeird games with Michael and doing
her best to keep him on the outside of their couples club group; and that was
definitely motivating me again tonight too.
Jake and Stephanie, and the other two ‘graduating’ couples that were
trying to win the last junior championship they’d be eligible for were
disappointed tonight, and so was Miranda when she didn’t get to have the senior
championship crown despite talking Dad into switching partners for the night;
but the Stone family did still get to have one-half of the junior championship.
I know what you’re thinking, and Michael and I did have a
good night; but this isn’t the movies – Rowen and Rebecca won the bragging
rights for the summer. Michael and I
came in tied for second; and we were just a couple of points ahead of Jake and
Stephanie. That earned us some more
teasing, and we had as much fun with that as we did with nearly everything else
that had been thrown at us tonight.
Nora invited Tim and some of the other members of the
couples club back to her house immediately after the games were over, though
she wasn’t happy when excluding Michael didn’t have the effect on him that she’d
hoped for. Even though that didn’t work
as planned, it was the main reason why I stayed to help with the clean-up even
though Mom and Dad took Ethan and Ehlana home early so they could leave with
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne. Michael got
a bonus hug too when I did the goodnight hugs with his parents, brother,
sister, and Stephanie; but I’m not quite ready for sharing ‘real’ kisses with
him when there’s an audience standing around next to us; so we both had to
settle for the hugs.
Dad was already working in the office by the time I got
home, and I joined in to help Mom with the bedtime baths she was nearly ready
to do with the twins. By the time Ethan
and Ehlana were tucked in for the night, and Mom had done a short Magi lesson
with me, it was after eleven; and my next stop was some quality time with my
Jacuzzi. I should have done some
multi-tasking then, but didn’t; and just let my mind drift along while soaking
out the dirt and sweat from our play day and a dusty baseball practice.
Those thoughts included some musing about some differences
between Rowen and me, and Vanessa and Nora in particular. For instance, Nora looked great tonight at
the Inn while Rowen and I looked like we’d
just finished a day of games and baseball.
Nora’s opinion of that difference between us was fairly obvious to all
three of us, but what has me smiling tonight is the fact that Michael thinks
that I’m amazing regardless of whether I’m dressed up in my Sunday best or look
like I did tonight. That’s not actually
a new revelation for me, since I have known how he’s felt about me for quite a
while now; but my perspective on that has changed quite a bit since Monday.
While I’m thinking about that, Michael thinks you’re amazing
too, Rowen, so even if ‘Tommy’ is still deaf, dumb, and blind; you do have one
guy who sees how really incredible you are.
By the time you get to read this; I’m sure you’ll find that comment very
entertaining.
I’ve also continued to think a lot about what I am ready for
with Michael. Aunt Leanne would likely
be very amused by that process – especially since I sort of think of my
reactions this week in terms of my ‘Aunt Leanne’ fired-up and go-for-it side
and my ‘Mom and Dad’ responsible and careful side.
Don’t worry, Mom, you won’t need to plan another wedding for
later this year. ;^)
That does give me an idea, but I’ll sleep on it and see if I
still think it’s a good idea in the morning.
Getting back to the daily report, I’ve put in two hours of
studying after climbing into bed with Mandy; and that was mostly on languages
because I’ll be taking the summer off from that work except for maybe a chat
here and there with some internet buddies I’ve been practicing with; or if any
interesting books come out that aren’t available in English too. (I know that’s
shocking to most people in the English speaking countries; but it does happen
all the time!)
It’s now past two-thirty, and though we’ll just be having a
last-day-of-school party, I also have dinner and a baseball game, and Rowen and
I will be doing our first camping adventure of the summer too; so I should
really wrap this up and get some sleep.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
