Tales from the School Bus

Since EN has been on his extended vacation (which makes my sabbatical time look like nothing!) the girls have had the opportunity to spend more time together since they come home on the bus rather than going to after school care. Both buses they have ridden have assigned seating, so they are unable to sit together. The little kids (Spice) sit in the front, and the big kids (Sugar) sit towards the back. I think they do this because there is such an age range, they don’t want to mix the innocent kindergarteners with the mean middle schoolers.

As they sit so far apart, I was pretty sure there wasn’t a whole lot of interaction between the two of them. I know Spice and her friends all bow to the Sugar Goddess when she gets on. They scream her name and make a big deal over her. They grab her and hug her and won’t let her past them to sit down. These shenanigans take so much time that the bus driver actually has to tell them to leave Sugar alone. OF COURSE Sugar claims to HATE this, “They are all so loud and embarrassing! No one can even get on the bus because they crowd around me.” We all know she secretly loves the attention.

I have this vision in my head of how the bus rides go: Spice sits with her little friends in the front and is well behaved. Sugar is closer to the back with her slightly bigger friends. Buses are big and I felt certain there wasn’t much interaction. In fact, I’ve even asked Spice for the scoop on Curtis and she seems to have no idea who he is or what goes on in the back of the bus.

I thought that Spice spoke only to her friends and no one else. She’s mouthy at home but seems to be quiet elsewhere. While we were eating dinner yesterday, Sugar told us that Spice had told everyone on the bus how Sugar pronounced her name as a baby, so they all started calling her that. I don’t know why, but I found this to be fucking hilarious. Every time I picture Spice announcing that to the world, I just crack up. I also wonder what ever possessed her to divulge that bit of information. It’s not particularly embarrassing, or something we even talk about a lot. Are younger siblings born with the innate knowledge of how to annoy their older siblings as easily as one flicks a switch? I’m secretly impressed by how well she can do this. Fret not, I’m not playing favorites, Sugar is quite adept at annoying her sister, she just never seems to think of embarrassing her sister around others.

Yesterday Sugar had school, but Spice did not. Sugar’s school lost power during the Halloween snow storm, so they have extra days to make up. This means that Sugar was the only one that got off the bus at her stop yesterday. I thought EN would have gone to pick her up, but he did not. Instead he watched for her out the window. It’s probably a good thing that he didn’t go get her because someone else was waiting for her when the bus arrived…

Picture this: the school bus pulls up to the corner, and Sugar exits. There stands Griffin, the fourth grader, with his scooter. Not only was he waiting for her, but he walked her home. EN says he watched them come down the road, Sugar walking, Griffin scootering slowly alongside her. When they arrived at our house, Sugar came in to see if she could play outside but EN made her do her homework. She went outside to let Griffin know and he went back to the bus stop and waited for her to meet him when she was done.

I asked EN if he had gotten a load of this Griffin kid and what he thought. Apparently, Griffin does not even come to our door. He waits for Sugar at the mailbox. Sugar didn’t seem to know why he was waiting for her. She says he has lots of brothers and a sister, so it seems he should have plenty of company. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get the image of the little kid waiting for the bus out of my head. Stinkin’ cute.

In other news, Sugar asked me for a bra last night. I told her that she absolutely doesn’t need one yet. She said that Madison wears a puffy one that makes her boobs look big. She wants one too. I told her there’s no need for fake big boobs in 5^th grade. That’s what college is for.

xoxo

Ice Princess