There Wasn't...Was There?

I had mixed feelings when I heard about The Rapture bearing down upon us.  On one hand, I hated the idea of losing half my weekend, not to mention the angst a person goes through wondering if she made the final cut.  On the other hand, it might be a nice way to get out of the five million plans I've made for the month of May.  I couldn't help but feel that I was overbooked and the end of days might make for a handy excuse...

It didn't come to pass, though, and that pretty much solved the whole dilemma for me.  I resigned myself to having plans on Saturday even though I wasn't completely thrilled about going out again.

Monday morning rolled around soon enough and, with no Rapture to close school, I had to head in to teach the children.  I blearily made my way into the classroom and prepared myself for another day just like all the pre-Rapture ones.

The kids filed in, most looking as unenthused as I.  There was one exception, though.  (the boy who is) Dark & Disturbed seemed unusually perky for a Monday morning. Or any morning, for that matter.  I'd figured he'd be all bummed out about the total lack of apocalypse this weekend.  This was weird...maybe I was misinterpreting things.

Nope.  The lad looked me right in the eye and said, "Hey, Ms. Sheep!  You know what happened to me this weekend?  It was really wild!  I was...wait for it....HAPPY!  I thought it was a stroke or something but then I remembered 'happy' from that time when I was three and got an ice cream cone."

It seemed that D&D went to visit a friend and ended up meeting some "cool new people."  This led to the aforementioned happiness.  I congratulated him upon this new state, weird as it was.  In fact, I saw this as an opportunity to share my own experience.  This could only add to his happiness, after all.

"Yes, my lad!  It is so easy to sit around in our own comfort zones and miss out on happiness.  I, too, almost passed up a chance for fun this weekend because I didn't want to venture out amongst the humans.  When The World's Greatest Stylist And Life Coach asked me to spend a day with her, I cursed the day I ever knit her a scarf and crossed that delicate line between professional and personal relationships.  In the end, though, I sucked it up and got to go out for Thai food. I had the best time ever! Isn't that nice?"

He looked confused regarding the speed with which this conversation turned to Ms. Sheep's life, but it didn't diminish his happiness.  In fact, the joy fairly bubbled out of him all day long.  It was almost 1:00 in the afternoon before he was able to tell us the whole truth.  He didn't just meet "some cool new people."  He met one cool person.  One cool person who happened to also be a very cute female with an appreciation for Dark, Disturbed Types.

Yes, the boy was smitten and there was no dealing with him.  Instead of drawing flaming skulls on the board, he sketched out happy faces.  He did his math without once calling upon the dark forces to take this burden from him.  I swear to you, I even heard him humming at one point and not his usual rage-against-the-machine type tunes either.  Truth be told, it was a little bit creepy.  I mean...he's Dark & Disturbed!  He wears all black!  The only reason he wasn't sporting his usual black sweatshirt with the skeleton on it was because his new paramour was in possession of it.  He was a whole different person that the one who left us on Friday for his weekend of brooding.

So maybe there wasn't a real Rapture, but I think it is safe to say that something happened to disturb the force.  Don't try to tell me there wasn't.  It's the power of Middle School Love, people.  Dark & Disturbed is now Bright 'n Chipper.

That is bigger than any Rapture...

SA