Up until a couple of hours ago, I expected this to be a very
short update. Tai Chi this morning had
been about the most exciting part of the day until then – including the Fix-it
Uppers ball practice.
That all changed when Tim met up with Michael when he was
done at the Inn; and they both came over to go
for a swim and hang out with Rowen and me.
Before I get to that, Michael came over for Tai Chi, but
then went home right after that. I split
my time this morning between working on the family business in the office with
Mom and Violet; and doing some housework that was mostly running a couple of
loads of laundry and cleaning most of the third floor except Violet’s
room. We had sandwiches and veggies for
lunch, and then Rowen and I had a lazy afternoon that included spending some
time with Ethan and Ehlana; hanging out with Michael during his afternoon
break; and not doing much of anything at all.
Rowen stayed for dinner, and then we had Emma with us at the
park to help us keep Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi entertained while our parents
were playing baseball. I guess that was
a little more exciting than Tai Chi, but the play time fun was offset by the
parts of the practice we watched that didn’t show much improvement in our team
play – or prospects for the last two games of the season.
I do not need to use my Sight to predict that I won’t likely
need to get a cheerleading squad together for the co-ed championship game. The fact that I like to win as much as Aunt
Leanne does has a lot to do with why this season has been harder on me than on
any of the Fix-it Uppers players. I
really need to work on that, but then considering what I do know about my
future; that drive to win may come in very handy.
Getting back to the story, Rowen came home with me after the
practice was over, and Michael and Tim joined us while we were still doing a
bedtime snack with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana.
We fed them too, and after doing a round of goodnight hugs and kisses
with the twins before they went up to bed; we grabbed towels and bottles of
water on our way out to the river for our swim.
Once we were on our own, Tim advised us that he was still in the
doghouse with Nora, and that hanging out with us tonight was going to make that
worse; but he wanted to talk to us too, and needed to vent and blow off a
little steam of his own while we played in the water.
Working off some of that energy was the main reason why we
actually went for a swim downriver to the bridge and back along with playing
with the glow-in-the-dark water games.
Most of the talking came after we got out of the water and sat on the
dock. I don’t know if Tim told Michael
everything either before or after they were with us, but he didn’t tell Rowen
and me the specifics about how his fight with Nora had started. He just told us that he’d experienced yet
another foot-in-mouth moment that Nora was not forgiving him for without terms
of surrender that he wasn’t willing to accept.
In a nutshell, Nora doesn’t want Tim to hang around with
Michael anytime Rowen and I are around.
Since Michael is spending most of his free time with us; that’s a bit of
a problem – not to mention the fact that we really have fun together. Our conversation from that point on was
fairly serious, with a few touches of humor; and more than a little
tweeirdness.
This was also another example where I think that I suck at
being a tween if for no other reason than my apparent inability to keep my
mouth shut. The good news for Tim is
that my blunt truthiness is complimented by Michael’s steadfast friendship and
Rowen’s quiet thoughtfulness and earnest compassion.
There were several levels of tweeird for me, with the first
being because I knew more about what had happened with Tim and Nora than he was
willing to tell us. That made answering
some of his questions a bit awkward; and Tim may have wondered how I reached
some of my assertions. The way that Tim
kept looking at Rowen was tweeird too – especially when they were talking
directly to each other. Finally, Rowen
definitely looked like she was deep in the tweeird zone; and the empathic vibes
swirling around all of us was fairly intense.
Talking about all of that with Tim had been because he
needed us to be there for him, but it’s also made me think more seriously about
my own relationship with my classmates and friends. Setting aside the obvious rivalry reasons for
why I’ve had problems with Lisa and Vanessa; I’d gotten along just fine with
all of the girls in my class until they started crossing over. Finding out about Rowen, and then being able
to sense all of the Magi has made a difference too; so the council is at least
partially right about their concerns though that’s still just one factor.
Changing common interests; financial and social status; and
personal talents and abilities are all more important now too. I tend to think of things like that from the
perspective of how that affects me; and don’t consider how it affects how
Vanessa, Nora, and some of the other girls feel about me. Friends like Sally and Gretchen don’t care
about those differences, and though we don’t really do a lot of things together
if for no other reason than because they live on farms and we don’t see them
much during the summer; we get along just fine, and have fun together when we are
doing things that we all like to do.
That isn’t the case right now with about half of the girls in our
class. I don’t know if that’s temporary,
or whether it will change now that Michael and I are a couple and might
eventually get to join the couples club too; but I do need to think about that
a bit more and try and change that a bit if I can.
Getting back to Tim’s current problems, our collective
comments and advice did not include bashing Nora, stroking Tim’s ego, or
suggestions about whether he should or shouldn’t be dating Nora. We did talk about all of the issues I’ve been
thinking about since then, along with a couple of specific issues that apply to
his relationship – like why he was initially attracted to Nora; and how
important that particular common interest was to their relationship.
That would be where my blunt assessments were most
uncomfortable for Tim – and probably for Michael and Rowen too. I’m sure that Tim and Nora do have some other
interests that they share, but if they were both honest about it; I’m sure
they’d admit that exploring their physical attraction at a mutually acceptable
pace has been the main reason why they’ve been together. Most of the laughs happened during that part
of our chat – especially when Tim countered my comments by asking me how that
was any different for Michael and me – or any of the other tween and teen
couples.
Michael was interested in my answer to that question, though
he knew as well as I did what the differences were for us. I’m not actually sure whether Tim did or not
until then. It’s possible that he hadn’t
thought about a lot of things when it came to Nora. Now that he was basically being asked to make
a fairly significant choice; he really needed to take a close look at what was
most important to him – including how important his friendships with Rowen and
me were to him.
He didn’t have any answers when he went home tonight, and we
didn’t help him to feel better; but Michael’s sure that we did help him; and
that Tim would appreciate the honesty and sincerity without the tween games or
pandering.
When Tim was finally talked out, he and Rowen left together
so that Michael and I could be alone for a few minutes before he went home
too. We didn’t really take that long
saying goodnight to each other, but after spending so much time talking about a
relationship that wasn’t going very well right now; the kisses and heart-felt
‘I love you’ exchange meant a lot to both of us.
Mom and Dad were in the office, and Violet and Dillon were
in the living room when I got inside; so I made two quick stops to say
goodnight to all of them before coming up to my room. Getting wound down enough to sleep has taken
a while, but I’m pretty much ready to call it a night now after playing a
little music and spending the past hour and a half working on my computer. With Riding lessons and baseball practice
tomorrow, I should have climbed into bed with Mandy before now; but I’ll manage
to survive on the four hours or so of sleep that I will get.
Being awake to see the end of July and the start of August
didn’t have anything to do with why I needed the extra wind down time tonight;
but being into August now will probably have a lot of kids and teens thinking
about how close we’re getting to the end of summer and start of another school
year.
Now that’s something I really don’t want to be dreaming
about tonight; so I’m going to put my computer away and think about more
interesting things – like goodnight kisses and everything else I love to do
with Michael.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
