In which my son gets a phone call

A few weeks ago, the phone rang.

Private name, Private number.

We've got a friend who's unlisted, I thought it might be them so I answered.

Hi, is R. there?

Who's calling? I asked.

Kaitlyn.

Seeing the goof ball grin that my son got when I handed him the phone would've been infinitely more priceless if he was, say, 13 years old instead of 10.

Keeping my fingers crossed that she was just calling for spelling words or a home work assignment, I totally eavesdropped from outside his door. A lot of monosyllable replies on his end, but he had that same goof ball grin on the entire time.

After about two minutes he gets off the phone.

She had to go, but she's calling back, he told me.

Is she in your class? Was this about homework? (Insert silent prayer here)

Nope, I just know her - she's just calling to talk.

Again, the phone rings - this time he answers. The conversation centers around dogs and after four minutes (yes, I did TOO time it) I do the old 'drag a finger across the throat' motion so that he'll cut it short.

I've got to go and clean my room, he tells her (ahahahahahaha, as if) and says goodbye.

I ask him if he likes her, he says he does - that she's nice and she likes him.

I ask a few more questions and he answers me: she got our phone number from my nephew (which annoys me and will have to be dealt with), she's from another town, she's a good student - he thinks and her parents know that she called - he thinks.*

So, with little tiny birds singing cuckoo as they circle my head I lay some very general ground rules about the phone. I figure if the calling becomes an issue then I'll deal with it, if not - better to have not made a huge issue out of the whole thing.

She called one other time and left a message with her phone number. I told my son she called and that he should apologize for not being able to return her call until he gets into the eighth grade. He laughed and I have no idea what he ended up telling her.

There's a luau coming up at school. Last year the fifth graders had 'dates' to this thing. Ugh. Not happening. He can pretend, in his own mind, that he's got a date but there will be no shared rides, no corsages or little trinkety gifts (and yes, some parents let their children go down that road last year - in 4th grade). My husband will probably be chaperoning (they play a giant dodge ball game in the gym), which is great because he's a dad and it's good for him to see the boy in action at school. On the other hand, I'm pretty curious about this girl and want to go catch a glimpse of her. What to do, what to do.




*Red Flag: I can't decide what alarms me more...that her parents would allow her to call or that, if she's lying and her parents didn't know...well, then, the fact that she's LYING.

I guess then, on the alarm scale I'm going with lying.