oh, here we go

Okay, so a couple of weeks ago, there was that Thanksgiving feast thing at the elementary school. I mostly served up stuffing and gravy, but was allowed to go eat with Meego during his feasting time.

Honestly, I may not have even gone if not for the hash slinging duty. I mean, the food's good and all, but bottom line, you're still eating in an elementary school cafeteria. My ears were honestly ringing afterwards, like I'd attended a rock concert. And Meego gets more of a kick out of me pulling lunch lady duty than me actually sitting and eating with him. But sit and eat with him I did.

Now these are 4th graders. Nine or ten years old. A good bulk of the conversation of those whose parents were not in attendance centered around the various "relationships" in this soap opera that is 4th grade.

Who's "dating" who. Who's broken up because of who was "cheating" with whom. Who is broken up over the break up. Etc., etc. All this and the noise level did not make for healthy digestion.

"La la la, one-two-three, la la la...." I offered while plugging my ears with my fingers and looking at the ceiling - wanting to provide a mature example. All to no avail as the drama continued.

This was mostly girl-talk, and the boys who were sitting nearby would involuntarily get roped in. Try as they might to change the subject, those girls were on a roll.

One girl sitting next to me, Lea, pretty much ignored the others. Lea is a neighbor of ours and has been friends with Meego since first grade. She's cute and precocious for her mere 9 years. She and Meego spend a lot of time together at school as they both go to the TAG reading and math teacher in addition to being in the same class.

Lea often walks home with us as she lives right around the corner. I notice that Meego acts a little differently around Lea than he does around his manly guy friends. More "chivalrous" is the best way to describe it.

A few days ago, I overheard Lea tell Meego that a classmate, Olive, liked Meego. Meego said nothing in response and Lea made an additional statement to confirm the first. Then Meego made a comment about Olive that was not what I would call slanderous, but was a round about declaration that he did not have mutual feelings for Olive. (I will note that Olive wore a rockin' Laura Croft costume for the Halloween party!)

Lea dropped the subject of Olive and commenced to inviting Meego to her house to play racecar video games. The two of them continued off into the sunset, seemingly oblivious of me.

"La la la, one-two-three, la la la...."
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