The first day of school is such a magical time. The fall morning air. The crisp new clothes. The excitement of seeing old friends and making new ones. Too bad our first day of school wasn’t quite like this.
Z and I do not agree on anything so far. And he seems to be winning all of the disagreements.
Scene I
K thinks it’s a great idea for Z to put paper in his binders and organize them by subjects. Z doesn’t, but does it anyway, albeit half-heartedly. When K sees that the job isn’t going as neatly (or as fun) as she’d hoped, she tells Z to just wait until he gets more clarification about what each teacher requires.
Scene II
Z and K are driving home from Z’s friend’s house in Virginia Beach on Labor Day. It is 7:00pm. The drive is long and Z wants to fall asleep.
K: Z, did you play basketball?
Z: Yes.
K: What did Ike (pseudonym) say about the new girl?
Z: She’s pretty. Mom, I’m too tired to talk.
K: No, you must stay up. If you go to bed now, it will ruin your rest. You will go to school tired.
They arrive home. Z showers and goes to bed. K doesn’t hear from him again until his alarm rings on the first day of school.
Scene III
The first day of school has ended. K and Z are in her office.
She has class in ten minutes, but decides to go pull some last minute things together.
Z stops her because he says he has something important to say.
Z: Mom, we’re not supposed to put notebook paper in our binders at all. Teacher says we’re to bring all 350 sheets to class, so we have it.
K: I thought you said you had something important to say. That was not life or death.
Z: (Smiling) It was important.
What he doesn’t say is “I told you so. I told you that I shouldn’t have tried to organize my binders yesterday. Mom, you are so clueless.”
Z 3; K zip.
I hope your first day was magical. What’s your first day of school story?
