As anyone who has read my recent posts knows, today was my little girls tenth birthday. We started our day with the traditional birthday breakfast our family has done since I was a kid, waffles and ice cream. Of course my little princess picked out chocolate chip waffles and mint chocolate chip ice cream. After that she got to put on one of the new outfits she got at her surprise party seeing as how at her school the students do not have to be in uniform on their birthday. As you can see, our day was off to a great start. Every event that followed just seemed to make it better and better.
We get to the bus stop and Ana is chattering away about how she is so excited to show off her new outfit to all her friends, then the bus arrives. Normally I stay there and wait for her to walk over and on to the bus before walking back home. Well today it appeared as if the driver was trying to get my attention, and once Ana had stepped aboard she came right back off and told me the driver wanted to talk to me. Of course the first thing that crossed my pessimistic mind was “What happened now? What did those little nasty kids tell the driver now?” I went over to speak with the driver as a rising sense of dread filled me. Was she going to tell me Ana was being thrown of the bus? How would I get her to school now? I went to the door and asked the driver what was going on. She proceeded to inform me that although she had moved Ana multiple times the mean girl wanna be’s had continued to mess with my daughter, and that the advice for Ana to just ignore it wasn’t working. She told me she was sick of them harassing my daughter and that she was escalating it to the school principal. After the initial shock wore off and I realized that this driver was on Ana’s side I proceeded to tell her all about the tormenting that had taken place the previous year with her old driver. So not only did the driver take the issue to the principal and make sure it was dealt with, she spoke with her supervisor about the behavior of the driver last year. Rarely do I encounter such good-hearted people, and today of all days made it feel like a double blessing.
After I got home I was so upbeat due to that little random act of kindness, I couldn’t stop smiling. Things just got better from there. Hopped on the net to check my various sites, you know the usual, facebook, wordpress, deviant, twitter, mail, etc… Made a few posts wishing my little one a happy birthday, and some other things. Logged into skype to see if a friend was there, he wasn’t, he was sleeping as usual (damn time difference), left it open, played around a bit. Eventually my friend came online (YAY) and we spent an enjoyable morning doing what we do best, driving each other nuts, lol. However it was different today for some reason. Maybe he sensed the drastic change in my demeanor from my norm, or maybe he was just having an amazing day as well. Either way, whatever it was, it was awesome. I tried to explain it to him and pretty much failed, but I think he still got it. I told him thank you because he had been gentle with me, not that it makes anymore sense as I say it here, but that’s the only way I could think of to describe it. He was gentle with me, which is not something I am used to, and it felt good, it felt sweet, and it was extremely welcome. Like I told him later this afternoon, that combined with other events of the day filled me with such a sense of contentment, something I rarely experience. I didn’t want it to end, but alas I had to pick up the mini monster lol
Left a little later to pick up Ana from the bus stop than usual simply because I was tired of cooling my heels waiting on a street corner for her bus, lol. Anyways, I got there well before she did and occupied myself listening to music. After roughly ten minutes I saw her bus coming up the street and moved to where I usually stand to cross her. As the bus rounded the corner the driver waved and had a huge smile on her face, then one of the mean girls saw me and quickly averted her eyes. I thought to myself “looks like the principal must have laid into her, about damn time”. First person off the bus was a little boy, the mean girls little brother, then the mean girl, then Ana. As Ana got off I saw the mean girl stop, smile, and say something to her. After that Ana came flying towards the corner. After I checked for traffic I had her cross to me. When she had, I asked what had been said and Ana told me that the girl had told her Happy Birthday. To say I was a bit shocked is an understatement, but I refrained from any comment other than, “that was nice of her”. As we started to walk home I asked her how her day went, her exact words were “This was the best birthday EVER!” She went on to tell me all the wonderful things that had happened to her today, and how she was looking forward to the package that UPS was scheduled to deliver today, and the fact that she was going ice skating with her dad tonight. I couldn’t have asked for a better day for her
After we got home of course there was homework so I let Ana finish telling me about her day then got her on task. As the afternoon progressed I got a bit busy making appointments and other mundane tasks, in the midst of the tedium I asked Ana to refill my glass. When she came over to me she was carrying her math book, her finger marking a page. I told her I would hold her place for her and reluctantly she gave the book over. When I attempted to open it to the marked page she all but snatched it from me, opening it to show me she was just looking up a reference at the back of the book to help her with an answer, and she closed the book. When I attempted to open it again she fought me this time which made me realize she was hiding something, so I took the book from her. After a quick scan it was quite clear why she did not want me looking. There were several missing assignments, missing assignments which I was completely unaware due to my lack of diligence. When I started to speak, what am I talking about, when I started to lecture her, she burst into hysterical sobs, That is when I realized this was much deeper than some missing assignments. I calmed her down a bit and told her we would work on then over the next few days in order to catch her up. I sent her to my room, where there are no distractions, to get started. I went to check on her a few minutes later to find tears streaming down her face. This is when I started to worry.
To be continued…..
