In the (Drama) Zone

Every home with a teenager is one. Homes with more than one teenager are usually called war zones.

Anyway... when I posted on Monday night, Monster was still out celebrating her latest squeeze's birthday. They turned up shortly afterwards, as the plan was that Squeeze would bunk out with us overnight, so that the next morning they could both be driven over to get Monster's GCSE results.

Grumpy has declared elsewhere that he was Not Impressed by Squeeze's maturity levels, as he apparently had needed several reminders to buckle his seatbelt already! My impression was not much better. The birthday he had just celebrated was the 20th, but he had the social aptitude of a 15-year-old, at least with grown-ups. I'm not sure what horror/satire/black comedy stories about Grumpy and me he's heard, but we're hardly intimidating by default. He seemed to get along well enough with Spawn, in the morning, though, and Spawn's intuition is solid. It's just... heck, I don't remember 20-year-olds being that dorky in my time.

I was careful to be noncommittal towards Monster. Observations that she's not a paragon of maturity herself and like attracts like (she's been involved with - and dumped by - three dolts over the last two years) would have been entirely counterproductive, even in keeping up with my moniker.

Off they went to see the results... and they were not as expected. Nothing abysmal, I take it (I'm still not entirely familiar with the grading system here), but enough for her to have to change some of her plans for her A-levels. I had other work while she had another long talk with her father, and just as well. I have little patience for either her cavalier attitude towards study or her tendency to give up at the first difficulty. When the going gets tough, Monster strops away - tears optional, but recommended - saying she doesn't care. There's only so much silent eyerolling I can do.

You're probably thinking, 'What is this, middle school?' I'm thinking, 'She's a teenager, and there's no known cure.' Just as well that she'll be way past the phase when Spawn hits it.