About a month ago, Reagan (now 16 and a Junior) came home from school with forms for National Honor Society. More interestingly, he came to ME with them. This was truly bizarre because I, frankly, do not DO forms and applications. Paige does. I basically do nothing with Reagan’s school stuff at all anymore. The startup costs would be way too high, since Paige knows everything about everything. Yes, in general, but even more yes in terms of school junk. So I usually just nod when she says something about his potential schedule or where he needs to be or what he needs to hand in in terms of permission slips or whatever else.
Anyway, when Reagan told me about NHS he said he wanted to keep it a secret ... didn’t wanna tell Mom anything until the very end. I thought this was a pretty good strategy since his high school (the high end of it, anyway) is ridiculously competitive and there definitely was no guarantee that he would make it. Not even remotely. Frankly I didn’t think he WOULD make it, given that we sorta handicapped him by not having him in all Honors and AP classes during his Freshman year. Some? Yes. All? No. And of course now we know that if you DON’T have your child in all Honors / AP classes (where they get a 10-point bonus on everything) from the time of their conception, the math of the Magical Top 10% is very much against them. But, his grades are very good and he’s involved in Orchestra and Theatre and he’s an Eagle Scout and all that, so I figured that might make up for the fact that only 75% (or whatever it is) of his schedule has been filled with Honors / AP courses.
So ... as the deadline was approaching, I asked Reagan if he had written his essays. He said he had, and that he had also coordinated everything for the letter of recommendation from his Scout Troop Leader. I figured that was it. He took everything and handed it in, and then I realized from looking at the NHS website that there actually was a pretty extensive application FORM as well. Never saw that. At all. Asked him about it ... “oh yeah, I filled it out and turned it in”. I figured his chances totally went out the window at that point, because Reagan’s handwriting is worse than our first-grader’s ... literally ... and he’s not exactly Mr. Detail. But lo and behold a week or so later he got the notice that he made it.
Hallelujah.
Now all we have to do is figure out a way to get Paige to the high school and in the right place (the gym, as it turns out) for the induction ceremony without her knowing about it. Would this be hard for most people? Absolutely not. But Paige knows the kids’ grades the second they’re entered on the school websites and she checks the school’s online event calendars for activities on a daily basis (OK, that’s charitable ... on an hourly basis). So I figured there would be no way AT ALL of keeping this from her. Still, we kept our mouths shut and waited for the day.
Which was today.
At about 4:45, when Paige was sitting in the car waiting for Hunter to get out of drum lessons, the text-messaging began. I’ll give the Cliff’s Notes // cleaned up version of this as the correspondence was rather extensive and, at times, impassioned ...
ME: Hey, I just got a text from Reagan that he needs you to be at the high school at 7 tonight for some college meeting thing.
PAIGE: WHAT??? You have GOT to be kidding. I don’t have on makeup. What college meeting?
ME: Dunno ... he just said you need to be there at the gym at 7.
PAIGE: What exactly is it and why have I not heard about it before? Is he going to be there with me?
ME: Yeah, I think so. I don’t think you have to go nuts or anything, though. Just nice pants and a shirt.
PAIGE: Is this a joke or something? Do you realize how little I want to put on nice pants and a shirt? You are a man. You have no idea.
ME: No.
PAIGE: Did we get a postcard announcing this or anything? Maybe from the school today?
ME: No.
PAIGE: Did you get the idea this was a drama or a school-wide thing? I check the events schedule very often and saw nothing.
ME: Might be drama, since he’s at drama now. (Part A is a lie, Part B is true)
PAIGE: OK well that would explain a lot of lack of organization, lack of warning, etc.
At this point I have to start getting dinner ready, but first I go upstairs and unplug the cable modem so that there will be no Internet access when Paige gets home. Sure enough, when the door opens she immediately heads up to her study to check the events calendar.
ME: Oh yeah ... the Internet is out.
PAIGE: WHAT?? Good grief. I need to do some work for Scott, too, and he is leaving town tonight.
ME: Ummmmm ... well, maybe it’ll be back up by the time you get back from Reagan’s thing.
PAIGE: I certainly hope so.
An hour later, I take Hadley to soccer practice. On my way out the door, I put a digital camera in the bottom of Paige’s purse. She then heads off to the high school for the “college meeting” -- still has absolutely no idea what is going on. At 7 p.m. I get this text from her (verbatim):
PAIGE: Reagan is being inducted into NHS. I never even filled out the form. He must have. And I actually have a camera with me!
ME: Funny, that ...
