Summer School

Yesterday Blondechick15 and Bantam17 started summer school at the public high school they'll be entering in the fall. B17, who will be a junior, is taking Health, and BC15, a sophomore, is taking PE.

The night before summer school:

BC15 is more nervous than I've seen her since her first audition for a musical, 3.5 years ago! She doesn't know what to wear, she's afraid the class will be too hard, she's afraid no one will talk to her. I hold her for a long time and pray aloud for her.

B17 stoically goes to bed.

The morning of:

I drive them both. They have to be there at 7:30 in the morning, so they'll be riding their bikes after this (a 15+ minute ride). They're very quiet.

Afterward:

I pick them up. BC says it was fun! She made a friend to hang around with. Everything was easy. They played softball. She needs a one-piece swimming suit by tomorrow.

B17 says he didn't get his homework done in class. No, he didn't talk to anyone, except one boy asked him for a piece of paper. He wants to go to the library. (I drive by the library so he can ride his bike there tomorrow after class.)

That afternoon:

BC and I go shopping for a one-piece. This has has been an area of contention in the past, ever since we gave in at one point and let her get a relatively modest bikini when she was literally the last teenage girl we knew who had a one-piece--and when it became nearly impossible to locate a one-piece. We've since backpedaled and only let her wear a tankini top with knit shorts over the bottoms, which she complains mightily about, but until she's willing to pick out a modest tankini, that's her option.

So it's somehow ironic that we're out trying to find her a one-piece, and there's nothing in the first six stores except the old-lady suits in the XL sizes that start at $83. When we finally do locate a suit in her size, she's appalled that there's no padding where it's needed when one is shivering! How modest is that? she points out. She wishes they make the old-lady suits in her size. At least they're two-tone; this one is solid black. "Butt ugly," she describes it on the phone to a friend. "What's wrong with America?"

It reminds me of the one I wore from about 3rd to 5th grade. At least it was only $25.

B17 finishes his homework.

Today:

They rode their bikes to class and got there in plenty of time.

BC15 says they were in the pool for about two minutes; all they had to do was swim across the deep end and back, the short way across. She hopes next time it will be longer. They played softball again. They started basketball skills. She rode an exercise bike for three miles because that's what her friend likes to do, but that made her total mileage for the day about nine miles. She thinks she'll try the elliptical motion machine tomorrow.

B17 arrives home about an hour later, frustrated because he couldn't find the library. He asked three people to point him the right way, but either they gave him bad information or he was unable to understand their directions. I feel bad for him. I tell him I'll drive him over the route again this afternoon.

I forgot to ask him if he got his homework done. I'm just glad he found his way home!

And glad that summer school is going all right.

Tonight I'm making them go to a Bible study with teens from another church's youth group, many of whom will be at the same public high school with our kids in the fall.

"You need Christian friends!" I tell them. They know, but it's another new situation....

Please, Lord, go before them.