Second Grade

Second grade was a bad year for me. My teacher was harsh so I panicked whenever she called on me. I didn't have any good friends in my class. I actually don't remember having any friends in that class at all, but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago.

I mostly remember two things about second grade; my crush on Jeffrey MacIntosh and my frenemy Kristen McCormick.

Where I went to second grade. The trees were still standing back then. 

Photo courtesy of Patch.com

Oh, and I loved the movie Grease.

Jeffrey was my first crush and I have no idea why I had a crush on him. It may have been his bright red hair. It may have been that he was only at my school for that one year. It may have been that I watched Grease too many times and decided I needed to have a crush on someone.

What I know, though, is that Kristen started buddying up to him after I admitted my crush. She told me all sorts of things about their "relationship", all of which I believed, none of which were probably true.

At seven, Kristen was already that kind of girl. In my memory. Which may be colored by the mean things that she actually did in later years. She was definitely that clique-y, mean girl that Tina Fey wrote so wonderfully about, though by high school her power had all but disappeared.

I actually can't remember what she looked like in high school, but I can still picture her face telling me about Jeffrey MacIntosh trying to kiss her. Or how she looked when she made fun of people.

Anyway, I'm thinking about her because I think Ironflower has her own Kristen McCormick this year. Well, not exactly. This girl doesn't pick on Ironflower much (yet?), but I sense the malice in her. I've heard the malice in her when she didn't realize an adult was around. Ironflower reports on the malice in her regularly.

But she's not threatening anyone, or destroying their Facebook walls, or even spreading rumors about them. She's just saying mean things and excluding others from her playground games and her birthday party (who invites all but two of the girls in the class to the birthday party? Who?). Unfortunately, there's nothing in the anti-bullying regulations about that.

Ironflower, though, is already smarter than I was at that age. While she has remained friendly with Kristen McCormick 2.0, Ironflower is distancing herself. She's made other friends in their class. She's decided that she doesn't want her to be one of the 5 who gets to come over for her own almost-sleepover party. She's not relying on this girl for friendship, nor is she taking what she says personally. And if she has a crush, she certainly hasn't mentioned it to anybody.

It's probably because I haven't let her watch Grease.