Freakin' Out

I'm here to say that there is nothing better than freaking a kid out. Here's how I did it today.

Last night (after an incredibly long day) we made the decision to eat dinner at Panda Express. Don't judge. It was either that or cold cereal. And cold cereal doesn't cut it for my hubby.

So we're sitting there enjoying (and I use that term very loosely) our firecracker waterbuffalo or whatever the Panda people are pushing this week and one of my students walks in. She is alone. She heads straight for the bathroom. I whip my head around to look for her family, but the only thing I see is her mom in their car, starting to pull through the drive-through. A few minutes later the girl exits the restroom and walks back through the restaurant, she looks neither left nor right, and I decided that it was wise not to shout at her across a restaurant. People tend to freak out when you do that to a kid that isn't your own. So, she leaves the restaurant. And my gears immediately begin turning. I am so going to freak this kid out tomorrow.

Cut to this morning. The girl and her group come into my classroom and sit down. As I do every morning, I greet them and say how nice it is to see them. And it is true I like this little group of kids, they may be my favorites. So, they sit down and I say, "Hey, Andrea, how was the Chinese food last night?" She stops cold. And looks at me like I've caught her doing something wrong. Her mouth opens then closes, then opens again. She gets this really confused look on her face and then says, "How did you know I had Chinese food for dinner." I reply, "Oh, I'm magic, I know everything." Which was a mistake because then the other kids ask me if I know what they had for dinner. Which I can't do. One boy said, "You'll never guess what I had for dinner, tongue, it was good, it tastes just like meat!" So eventually I 'fess up and admit that I saw her walk through the restaurant.

The kicker is that her little sister is in one of my afternoon groups, and I said, "Hey Ginny, how'd you enjoy the Chinese food last night?" She looks at me and says, "I didn't have Chinese food last night, I had McDonald's." So of course I have to kick it up a notch and so I say, "Wow, how nice of your mom to drive through Panda Express and then go to McDonald's!"

It's quite lovely to freak a kid out now and then.