NewSchoolYear

Opal hasn't been enjoying school lately, and greeted the new school year with no enthusiasm. Yes, she was changing rooms, but this merely added the terror of the unknown to the misery of the disliked. She felt about it as you might feel about having your root canal from a new and different dentist. It might be better, but could it possibly be better enough? And what if it was worse?

In the event, the day seems to have gone well enough; she appeared happy when I showed up, and one of her new teachers said that he had been happy to see her name on his list because she's a cool kid. She is a cool kid, but she's not every teacher's cup of tea; sure, she's bright and verbal, but that enables her to be more than usually challenging, and even when she's not trying to drive you mad, she's still not good at sitting still and being quiet. But he knows her, at least from the playground, and I'm pretty convinced they really do get along together.

Neither her worst fears nor her fondest hopes for which kids would be in her class were realized; she has friends in class, but not her best friends, and she has rivals, but not her least-favorite classmate. All in all, the odds look good for at least a week of honeymoon. And spirit day is over, so she can feel free to wear purple. She did not want to wear school colors, because they are not among her favorites, but she also did not want to not wear school colors because it was what she was supposed to do for spirit day. The stalemate was broken when I volunteered to wear her school colors as well, mostly because I had two available clean t-shirts in the right colors.