Atomic recess

Parents' night

Parents night

"Parents night, the one night of the year when all parents, be they mothers, be they fathers, be they whatever, come together and share in our positive learning environment. So make sure you give your parental figures these recyclable handouts." Miss Grotke said as she walked the classroom passing the notice to every kid. "Or they might miss our classroom festivities. And we wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?"

"Yeah, that'd be a real tragedy." Spinelli scoffed as she crumpled up the handout.

"Come on, Spinelli, I know your parents can be...a bit overbearing, but they should still know about this." Dede whispered as she put her notice in her bag.

"Yeah, not a chance, I can't deal with that level of embarrassment." Not long after everyone got the handout the bell for recess rang out, allowing all the kids to leave to do what they wanted, the group of seven were out by the jungle gym.

"Oh, boy, parents night." Said Gus as he was hanging from the rings. "I can't wait to show my dad how I organise my desk. All the pencils on one side and all the papers on the other. He'll be so proud."

"I'm gonna show my parents the class telescope." Gretchen said, sitting on the swing. "And the celestial object I discovered and named for them. Comet Doris-Phil."

"I'm gonna show my folks the dead pig in Mr Germaine's science lab." TJ said when he got to the bottom of the slide. "Man that thing can really float."

"I can't wait to show my parents the portrait I made of them in art class."  Dede said as she sat up on the bar above Gus' head. "While making sure that the Ashley's don't see my mum."

"Right! I forgot your mums a fashion designer, the one the Ashley's have said multiple times, that she's their favourite." Gretchen states as her swinging comes to a slow stop.

"Yeah, I don't want to have to deal with that."

"What about you Spinelli? what are you gonna show your mum and dad?" Mikey Asked from atop the cheese box.

"Me? Oh, my folks aren't coming." Spinelli was lying on top of the tube.

"But, Spinelli, it's parents night." Gretchen tried to reason. "They've got to come."

"Well, they can't, okay? They're busy Thursday night."

"Busy, on parents' night?" Asked Vince.

"Yeah, they're uh... having dinner at the White House."

"The White House? You mean where the president lives?" Asked Gus while he dropped down from the bars as Dede was busy introducing her palm to her face.

"That's the one!"

"But isn't the president in the Middle East this week?" Asked Gretchen.

"Uh, yeah, that's right. And that's why they're going...to keep an eye on things, you know hold down the fort."

"What about the secret service?" Questions TJ.

"The secret service? They're, uh, uh....they're bowling, it's their bowling night." Spinelli made up and before anyone could question her further the bell rang. "Oops, there's the bell, got to go." Spinelli made a mad dash outta there.

"Dee-" TJ said looking up at Dede as she jumped down from the bar.

"Well, Spinelli's right, we best go, cya." Dede ran after Spinelli before they could stop her.

The next time the kids could continue to talk about stuff was lunch, the whole gang was the except for Spinelli and Dede. "Wow, Spinelli's parents at the White House. That's amazing." Gus was still surprised about what Spinelli had said during morning recess.