We’ll probably have a lot of classes together then.
I was new at the beginning of the school year.
That’d be nice. I need someone to help me catch up anyway. I was supposed to be here at the beginning of the year but mother was a little wary about sending me.
I have a lot notes if you wanna get a head start… So was mine. My dad had to convince her to let me come here. If it weren’t for him, I’d be back home in an all girls school.
Really? That’d be really nice of you. Thanks.
That’s what I thought I was going to! An all-girl school. I never thought my mom would let me go to a co-ed school.
No problem. I figured I might as well share the wealth.
Your mom must be as strict as my mom. She already thinks that I don’t act enough like a girl. She’d probably have an aneurism if she found out three of my best friends were guys.
That’s very generous of you.
Yeah my mom’s strict, but it’s more with not letting me out the house as much. And she doesn’t want me near boys at all, so she’d probably have one too. But I’d hope not. I’d feel really bad.
I guess my mom’s strict in the traditional sense. She’s sort of like those moms that you see in shows from the 50s and stuff.
Like I Love Lucy?
Well, sort of. But not as funny. Or loud. Or Lucy like at all…
So like the fifties, just not like Lucy fifties?
I guess so. My dad does have an accent though! Like Ricky’s, but not.
So your parents are basically Lucy and Ricky but not.
Yeah. That was probably a really bad example, but it was all I could think of that didn’t sound mean.
I think I got it. Your mom wants you to fly off into a sunset with a prince?
Like that?
Yes. Except her idea of a prince is wearing Polo sweaters and slacks instead of tights and a crown.
That doesn’t sound very exciting.
Trust me, it’s not.
She likes to set me up on dates with her friend’s sons but they never work because the guys are really boring. But I’ve gotten to see a lot of movies because of it.
You’ve gone on dates? I’m not allowed until I’m forty. What’s it like?
You like movies? I’ve seen the same movies over and over again because mother won’t buy me any recent ones.
Yeah, I’ve been going on them since I was thirteen, so almost four years. They’re kind of boring. But that’s probably because we were only ever allowed to go to movies or dinner because that was what my mom approved of. And most of them couldn’t drive so our parents had to drive us.
I love movies! I prefer them over TV, except for this one show about Amish people. How come she won’t buy you new ones?
I’m glad I’m not missing anything on the dating front. I’ve never really been interested in boys.
What are Amish people? Is that like a country? Amia? Aminopia? She says movies today are too violent and sex driven.
Yeah, me neither.
They’re sorta like pilgrims. Or at least they dress like them. And they’re really religious. I think most of them live in Pennsylvania and Ohio and they speak Dutch. That’s kind of true. My mom used to take movies and edit them for me so that I could watch them without the stuff she thought was inappropriate.
My friend Mona is really into boys.
That sounds so cool. I want to be Amish! I want to learn Dutch and dress like a pilgrim. You can do that? I wonder if my mom if did that for my movies.
I usually tend to be friends with more guys than girls, probably because me and my sister don’t really get along but me and my brothers do.
I always wanted to try it for a week or something just to see how it was but then one time the power went off at my house for two days and we almost starved because we didn’t have any way to cook food. My mom figured out a way. She also ripped out pages of books she didn’t think were okay for me to read.
You have more than one sibling? That must be great.
They live without power too? That must be so cool. We don’t use a lot of power at my house actually come to think of it. During the day the lights are off and at night I usually have to be asleep in my room. So I just use a flashlight. And I’m not allowed to watch a lot of television. And I don’t own a computer. I guess we just use power in the kitchen. She ripped pages out of books?! That’s horrible!
It’s great sometimes. Elena’s my sister and she goes to college here too, but yeah, we butt heads a lot. And Luke, Max, and Sam are triplets and they’re fourteen, but they’re a lot of fun to hang around.
Yupp. Can you imagine? They’re allowed to use hand operated generators though because it doesn’t involve any electricity so they can do their wash and stuff. They don’t even have power in the kitchen. Cooking must take forever. She thought that some of the descriptions were too much for me to handle.
That sounds really nice. I’m an only child. I’ve always wanted siblings to butt heads with or have fun with. Either or. I wasn’t picky.
That sounds like so much hard work. And they choose to live that way? I don’t think I could do all that. But how would she know if you never ever tried?
Sometimes I wish I was an only child, but then my parents would have more time to spend focusing on me and I’m trying to grow as an independent person.
I think it’s like a tradition. The Amish kids don’t want to leave because they’ll get shunned by their families and be out on their own for real with no help at all. She says she knows what’s best for me.
Your mother probably would have censored more of your childhood.
That’s so horrible. They’d be all alone in the world. My mom says that a lot too. Mother Knows Best.
I would’ve been like Bubble Boy.
I think they seek out other kids that left the Amish and they make their own little family. Our moms must share a handbook. I’m super tired so I think I’m gonna go to sleep. It was nice meeting you! I’ll look for you in classes tomorrow. G’night, Rosalie!
There’s a boy made of bubbles?
But then it’s like Amish 2.0 isn’t it? I should find and destroy that book. Good night Meredith! It was nice meeting you too.
