Hell of a day.

I've figured it out.

The world likes me blogging.

I mean, it must. Because why else would I have a day like today if not to write about it?

When your day starts with one of your kids getting hit by a car and ends with a student peeing on your floor, there's gotta be some sort of higher meaning, right?

I'll begin at the beginning.

Grins came into my room this morning to hang out. He happened to be the only one in there, and we were chatting about this and that as I prepared for the day. Ninjas, his grades, why permanent markers are banned at school....and then he tossed in, "I got hit by a car this morning, Ms. Teachin'."

I looked at him. "What?"

"I got hit by a car."

"Hit. Like, actually hit. Like.....HIT. BY A CAR." He nodded. "Did it STOP????" Shook his head. "Did you report this????" Again, negative. Well, that was just great.

"Honey, I need to have you go to the nurse to get checked out ---"

"What??? No! I'm fine!"

I stopped him. "I hope you're fine, but I need to make sure. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you had internal bleeding and died ---"

"Don't you think I would know if I had internal bleeding? I'm fine!"

"Grins, this is non-negotiable. I HAVE to report this. C'mon." We walked down to the office, he arguing with me the whole way, trying to talk me out of it, telling me that he was going to get in trouble, that his dad would think he was dumb, that he really was fiiiiiiine....

I felt terrible.

And how ridiculous that I feel terrible for reporting that a child got hit by a car that then drove away. But I do, because he was so upset.

So that colored the first hour or so of my day; this was right before first period, and I just felt so terrifically guilty about the whole thing that I was awfully quiet and serious during class (I know, because several kids asked me what was wrong). Eventually, though, I was able to put it out of my mind and refocus on teaching. And the rest of the day passed essentially uneventfully (though the Antagonizer did a surprisingly large amount of work - it was a pleasant change).

Then. After school.

One of my kids, Stephanie Meyer's Biggest Fan, had asked me if she could stay after. She was absent yesterday so I assumed she just wanted some time/space to do her work; we hadn't done anything new, just continued several ongoing projects so it didn't require any guidance and I was working on my own stuff. Another girl was in my room helping me with some clerical work; she likes to be useful and she likes to have personal attention, and so she volunteers with me once a week and we chat and she does this and that.

So all three of us were talking, and somehow Twilight came up (because it always does in conversations with SMBF), and I asked if they'd seen the Twilight/Buffy mashup (which, if you haven't, it's brilliant - go watch it immediately and revel in how much more badass and awesome Buffy is than creepy creepy Edward).

They hadn't, so we watched it, me sitting at my desk and the girls standing to the side. SMBF started moving oddly as she was watching - it kind of looked like the pee dance (you know the one) but I thought, hey, she's in 8th grade, it's after school, if she needs to go, she'll go.

Well, she did.

But not the way I would have hoped.

Suddenly I heard a distinctive splashing noise. I looked over and....yep. Yellow puddle forming. I said, "You can go to the bathroom...." because she was just standing there, peeing.

She said, "I can't."

What that meant, I got nothin' (maybe that she couldn't move right then?), but I was in shock, so I sat there for another 30 seconds or so while the video ended and she continued. Finally it finished and I said, "Why don't you go to the bathroom."

As she started out the door, SMBF stopped and said that her doctor had told her this might happen. And then she went. And I looked at the other student and said that I'd appreciate it if she wouldn't tell anyone, which she immediately agreed to, and then I went to find a custodian, and then to check on SMBF. She refused a pair of school dress-code sweats; she'd been wearing a skirt so she just took off her tights and said she was fine. She said this had started yesterday, and the doctor said to wait and see what happened; I suggested she have her parents call the school so all her teachers know that if she asks to go, she needs to go RIGHT THEN.

After she left, I emailed my AP, the counselor, and the school nurse because this was just so weird; it seems like something must be going on, medically or emotionally, for something like this to happen, and I'm certainly not equipped to deal with the situation. I will say that SMBF seemed remarkable unphased by the whole thing - at her age, I'd've been in tears, and calling my mom to insist on transferring schools immediately. I'll check in with her tomorrow after I get some guidance on what to say.

It was a hell of a day.

(Image credit to jomilo75)