Before and After

I go to pick up each girl at their respective schools. Riley's is easy, tiny school, everyone knows you, etc. Outta there in mere minutes. Now Sid's on the other hand. Go to the main office first, told the protocol and sent to the attendance office which is four miles away from the main office. Nothing but attitude from the lovely woman behind the desk who holds the power of the universe in her hands. Told to go and wait at the main office again. Riley and I wait outside and we wait and then we wait some more. The office door slams open, out walks a student. A girl, probably 15 or 16. Screaming and yelling obscenities at the top of her lungs and how she "can't handle the stress, bleep, hate you, bleep, wanna go home, bleep" you get the idea. She sits out front and I notice the school principal and office staff are all standing in the office looking out the window at this girl. She is sitting on a bench yelling at her mom on the phone, still using colorful language. Pretty soon she gives up on begging her mom to come and get her and walks past us and back into school. After the show, Ri and I decide to go look for Sid. She is still sitting in class! She sees us, raises her hand, reminds her teacher that the slip he was handed 15 minutes ago was for her to be excused. He apologizes to her, sees us and apologizes. We finally make it out of the school and on to the appointment. We made it with one minute to spare.
Of course, while we wait, I snap some "before" pictures. Sid is her usual compliant, sunny self... so easy... Now there is Riley. She has been telling me "no pictures" since we got out of the car. I tell her that she wont win this battle so get used to it. I cajole, beg, plead and threaten to get her to smile. You can tell by the pictures that I was successful on a few. Some pics I snapped, she had no idea I was taking and some show her with her hand over her face or a hand mirror over her face. I made the mistake of handing her that mirror. She used it as a shield between my camera and her face and then continued to stare at her mouth every few seconds. I would have stared too. The top of her mouth looks like a form of torture from mid evil times and lots and lots of brackets. They both got Jamba Juice gift cards from the ortho staff which we promptly used and I deposited them back at school.
We had to meet Ri at her school for a parent meeting and that lasted a couple of hours. I am pooped!
Football tomorrow night, Ri is bringing a friend and I may take Sid's friend too. Saturday is about taking it easy and catching up with family.