Well she didn't get THAT from me...

On Thursday when Emily came home from school she said the girl she is assigned to sit next to on the bus was giving her a hard time. I asked her what she said to her and she told Emily that her breath stunk and that she doesn't sing well. I guess she made other comments too. I figured this was an older girl but no, one who is also in 2nd grade but in a different class than Emily. I swallowed my instinct to find the girl and push her over and told Emily that she needed to report it to the bus driver. What the girl is doing is essentially bullying, which the school has a zero-tolerance for. So zero-tolerance in fact that a boy who lives in our complex, who annoyed the kids and parents every day this summer at the pool with his over-the-top behavior, got kicked out of Emily's school for bullying. He had to be transferred. He's in maybe 4th grade.

I wasn't looking for this girl to get kicked out of school. I don't however, think Emily needs to tolerate some kid with a nasty mouth. I mean, this is 2nd grade. 2nd grade! I would have never even thought to talk to someone like that in 2nd grade. I could have understood if it would have came from and older kid. I would have suggested to Emily that she still talk to the bus driver, but I would have not been as surprised if the kid was older. And a girl! Who are her parents??? Wait. I know who they are. They are the adults you see out in the store, in the bar, wherever, that make you say, "Geez. I hope they're not someones PARENTS!"

Anyway, Emily really wasn't that upset about it. I asked her if she said anything back to the girl and she said no. I asked her how she felt about what she said and she said it just made her annoyed, mostly. She said she would say something to the bus driver and we left it at that.

I started to think about how I would have reacted to that situation if I were her age. I probably would have been more than annoyed by it. I would have been hurt and angry. I would have told everyone I knew who had any type of authority to try to get the girl in trouble. That's just how I used to roll. In some ways I'm still like that, to a point. Maybe not so much to get people in trouble, but more to find the drama in situations. I don't like to admit it but I like drama. I do. I really do.

So Friday afternoon when Emily came home from school she nonchalantly said that the bus driver was going to move her to a different seat. Like, that was the end of the conversation. As though I would want no more details about what happened. I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What did u say to the driver and what did she say?"

"I asked her if she could move me and she asked who I sat next to and I told her and she said, 'Oh yes. It will be done by Monday.' and she wrote my name down."

"Did you tell her what had been happening?"

"No."

"Did you talk to the driver when that girl was there on the bus???"

"No. She gets off at a stop before mine and I told her after she got off."

Wow. Was all I could think in my head. She totally didn't dramatize the situation AT ALL. She very simply asked to be moved and got the job done. She didn't rub it in the girl's face or even do it in front of the girl. She waited until the girl got off the bus and then talked to the driver. If she didn't already have my face I would think that my REAL child was switched with some other good moralled child at birth. Good thing Blake likes to tattle. I'd hate to be the only drama queen in a house full of do-gooders.

Dorothy Harris: Are you coming along?
Young Forrest Gump: Mama said not to be takin' rides from strangers
Dorothy Harris: This is the bus to school.
Young Forrest Gump: I'm
Forrest, Forrest Gump.
Dorothy Harris: I'm Dorothy Harris.
Young Forrest
Gump: Well, now we ain't strangers anymore.