The time has come! The dreaded or celebrated (feelings are still to be decided) day arrived. Pre-school was now a distant memory, the first day of the next 7 years was finally here!
Like most parents (dad's - don't try acting all macho, I'm sure there were tears from you too) the journey has been emotional! Tears of joy; tears of sadness. Tears of god damn confusion!
That bloody "Dear Teacher" poem flying around Facebook, yes I was one of those who posted/shared it! I couldn't even get pass the first paragraph without my face resembling Niagara Falls. Truth is, as much as they're little sods that drive you mad, you miss the noise and chaos when they're not there for long periods of time. God help me when it's university time (if he chooses to go)
During the days leading up to school starting, "School" was a taboo subject in our house. I kept having mini hormonal break downs. Ironing the uniform, re-ironing in those pigging name labels. But regardless of how I/We were feeling, it was happening.
Now, Olly's teacher is called Mrs McLean. I however some how read it as McClean. So I had been embedding in Olly how to pronounce her name. Olly still struggles with a few letters, L's being one of them, C is another (his cruel cousins often try to get him to say Hello Kitty. His C's are pronounced as T's... Hello Titty. My poor boy) This in mind and due to my misreading, Olly had began referring to his soon to be teacher as Mrs McQueen which rapidly changed to Lightening McQueen. Imagine my horror, not even started school yet and already prime contender for the cheekiest child... I remember having a Geography teacher at secondary school who was god awful; Miss Meredith. Affectionately referred to as Miss Mega Death by students of all ages. I remember once answering the register as "Yes Miss Mega Death" purely by accident and spent the majority of the lesson stood outside. Was history about to repeat itself?!
The day arrived and the hubs managed to start training late so he could come and drop Olly off. My little bear, all grown up. He looked bloody scrummy! I knew only too well that when I'd collect him at 12pm that this image would be a distant memory, even in such a short time. My child is a muck magnet.
After months of debating and struggling we had managed to get Olly in to a gorgeous village school which is 15-20 minutes drive from our house. We began our journey. We went in 2 cars as Steve had to leave straight for work just after 9am and I was going to stay for the very cute and very thoughtful "Tea and Tissues" event that the school host in the school hall. It's a chance for all the hormonal parents to congregate and share, well, tears over a cup of tea.
We parked our cars at the local village hall and made our way to school. I had a lump in my throat the whole walk. As every parent must ask themselves, where had the past 4 years gone? How did he get so old? How did I get so old? Fighting back the tears we walked along as a family of 4.
As we joined the other parents and new students in the class, we followed instructions, PE kit on coat peg followed by coat, water bottles in tray, wellies in the welly box then self registration. All seemed to be going ok. There were tears from some of the other kiddies but the bear seemed to be taking everything in his stride which made me even more emotional. He didn't need OR want me! And then I saw her...
As in the title of my blog, you couldn't write it. The long lost friend. Who lived in another county. Why was she here? My first thought was, she must be here with friends or family as they lived locally... No. Wait. Light bulb moment. Her little boy is 2 weeks younger than Olly; the same school year. They can't be in the same school. I look across the room at the hubs who flashes me a knowing smirk. Any tears that were welling are gone and I am in shock. An utter state of shock. I see her husband there too. Then her little boy. I'll be god damned. I didn't see them at the induction day. I turn my head back to scan the self registration board and low and behold his name is there.
Let me back track... 2012 saw me lose 2 very close friends... Not death, just from my life. One just estranged herself and I never knew why despite trying to find out. I just had to roll with the punches and follow the saying, if you love them let them go, if they love you they'll find a way back... That one never did.
The other friend is mentioned above. We fell out over business. She was one of my best friends, we had our babies 2 weeks apart and did everything together. Said business folded not long after it started, which is sad to think we lost a fantastic friendship for nothing. We weren't in business together, just a massive conflict of interest. Don't mix friends and business...
After almost 3 years of not seeing each other or speaking, here we were, with our boys, at school, in the same school... TOGETHER!!!
I obviously professed I wouldn't go to the "tea and tissues" morning now, the hubs gave me an imaginary bitch slap and told me to pull myself together. As we left the class room he gave me a prep talk... how had I become the child?! I had only 30 minutes earlier been giving Olly a prep talk in the car! He reminded me that we had chosen a small village school with 16 children in the class. There was every chance the boys were going to be friends, if not directly, there would be birthday parties and events that they would need to be at together. He basically told me to grow up.
So following his words I plodded off to the hall. After small talk with other parents I was finally on my own, feeling anxious. A different anxious to what I expected to feel.
She then came over to speak to me. A whirlwind of surreal-ness. We talked, we laughed, we reminisced. It was good to speak, I gained an ally, someone else who was guaranteed to be late at some point! Her little boy wasn't there at the induction as they were celebrating their wedding overseas. She did know Olly was going to be there though as she'd heard it through a third party (careful who can see your facebook posts, some people who have nothing better to do, spend all day snooping so they can fill their boredom by talking about your business) She said she was going to send a pre-warning text but I'm glad she didn't! Like any scorn person I think I'd have gone with my guard up if I'd have know and we probably wouldn't have had the conversation that we did.
Our friendship has a lot of collateral damage that needs repairing but as someone very close said to me; As a firm believer in fate, there was a reason the boys ended up at school together. Life is too short to hold a grudge...
As Olly embarks on his new adventure and journey, so do I. In more ways than one...
At 12pm I went to collect my boy. True to form he looked like he'd been wrestling with alligators in a pond filled with paint. In only 3 hours he had managed to dirty every piece of clothing possible and scuff his brand new shoes!
He was doing one more half day then all day there after. He loved school and everything about it! And surprise surprise he met a friend. The friend he played with and spent all his time with as a baby, unknown to him.
It's funny how things turn out...
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