freezing and delinquency

I'm psyching myself to go in to work in a little while. My laptop says it's -10F outside right now. But clear. I'll latch onto "clear". Today's high is expected to be 3. Three whole degrees.

Forecast is for us being in the deep freeze for the next few days. I'm looking forward to Wednesday. It's just as well I'm scheduled to work this Saturday, because the weather outside is frightful. 

Earlier this week, a guy came in from Wyoming with a couple of teenage boys. He's been in before with one of the kids who is working toward his GED. I had assumed they were father and son. So, this week they were back along with another teen, and I thought maybe the guys are friends and arranged to take their tests on the same day so as to carpool.

Turns out that's sort of the case.

So we got them going on their tests, they were sitting a couple of seats apart while doing different GED modules. A little while later, a woman who was in the room taking another exam came out for a bathroom break and told us the two young guys were whispering and giggling.

"I've been a school teacher before, and I'm over it", her words.

Party Girl went in and gave the GED boys the what for, saying if they continued, we'd have to cancel their tests. In the meantime, Boss went out to the waiting area to let "Dad" know they'd been warned once, and if there's a next time, they're outta there.

So Dad says, "Tell 'em they get a RED DAY for today" and, "If they get kicked out, they'll have to discuss that with their probation officer".

Ooh, I finally put 2 and 2 together. We occasionally get these kids from a juvenile center in Wyoming to take their GEDs. They always come in with a nice adult person - some sort of escort/guardian. The kids are typically very polite - "please, thank you, yes ma'am/sir..."

They don't normally come in more than one at a time. Maybe they were going for efficiency this time.

It was then that I realized the boys were dressed the same: matching khakis, matching grey pullovers, even their black under armour shoes matched. 

Yeah, so up until that point, I guess my Situational Awareness was not quite up to speed.

Anyway, they completed their tests without further incident. Afterward, I was cleaning up their scratch paper and such. One kid had completed the math module, and his scratchwork showed much adeptness. Being a math nerd myself, I'd say his scratchwork indicated that he rather enjoyed himself. 

The next Elon Musk?