Monday, October 13, 2008

Peepers


Twin girl has recently been barraged by requests by the boys in her classroom to become their girlfriend. (It's happening to all of 4th grade girls for some reason.)

At least she is sensible. She tells them matter-of-factly, "I'm not old enough, and I don't want to either." She is kind, though. One particularly disheartened youth sat staring sadly at his table, she recounted, after her refusal. Apparently a terrible rumor had circulated throughout the fourth grade that the reason she had not taken his offer was because she "thought he was disgusting." She promptly remedied this, by telling the poor boy this was most certainly not true, it was just that she was not allowed to and she only liked him as a friend.

Yesterday she told me with a sigh and a flip of her hair that she really believed the entire fourth grade was in love with her. She displayed the contents of her lap, presents from admirers, with a mixture of pride and exhaustion. The attention can be relentless.

Today, however, a shining star has risen to the top. Yesterday, his present was a peeper, a tiny white piece of paper folded into something like a bird mouth that opened and closed. It was lumped with the others. But today he had outdone himself. With a flamboyant arm flourish, she pulled it from behind her back and smiled triumphantly. A gape-mouthed Peeper of the grandest proportions.

Love
Grows

.

3 comments:

Heidi Lee said...

Oh my...love already! So young!

I can see Beth being very kind about it. She is so kind-hearted to begin with, never wants to hurt anyone. Good kid she is!

mrc-w said...

Oooh what a nice peeper! I'd totally "go out" with him, haha, just kidding! It's so funny what little boys think will impress the girls :)

Carin said...

girl, you are on a

ROLL.

love all the posts. especially the post entitled...indeed.

i so love your words.