Thursday, April 2, 2009

Boys Will Be Boys in the Very Best Sense of the Word


by
Patti Dickinson

Funny story.  Andrew is a high school senior.  Managed the whole college application process seamlessly on his own. Reasonable number of speeding tickets (he comes from a maternal lead-foot so I share some of the blame.  I said some.) Gets himself up and out every morning. Cell phone alarm makes that happen. Does his homework.  Mows the yard with only a little coercion. So he's ready to be "launched".  The maturity is there. But wait.....a cops and robbers re-make?

The high school seniors play a game every spring.  It's called "Assassin" (I wish they hadn't called it that, because it sounds so uncivilized and bloody).  The game goes like this.  Whoever wants to play kicks in $5.  Each kid draws a name.  That is the kid they have to "get" with a water gun.  There are a bunch of rules.  You can't "get" someone in their house.  You can't "get" someone on school property. And no "gets" between midnight Friday and 6 pm on Sunday. If the police are called (because there are kids running around the neighborhood ambushing each other) then the kid whose house it is is out. Everything else is fair game.  The first night Andrew slept in the garage. Mattress, sleeping bag, something for breakfast.  He brought his toothbrush to school with him. Went right from sleeping bag into his car, so no one could get him.  Everytime he returns to the house, he calls from the garage and has whoever's home "check" the surrounding area, and then he comes toward the house like a rocket.  So far, so good.  He plots and plans his every move, based on how vulnerable he will be.  He thinks that Taco Bell and a tennis tournament go hand-in-hand.  He hasn't had a taco in a week because there is no drive-through. 

I have enjoyed every single minute of this.  There are still good kids out there. This is good clean fun.  It brings kids together.  The morning chatter at the lockers is all about who got who and under what circumstances. Kids are just looking for ways to be good. Believe it.