two dolla

The Kid loves him some books. I kinda love that about him. He’ll read the same book over and over if he doesn’t have anything new and he really knows the kinds of books he likes. At 12 years old, I can really appreciate that! I was reading true crime books that my grandma had loaned me. I read Ann Rule Presents: The Stranger Beside Me – The Ted Bundy Story when I was his age. I read it before bed… until I got to the whole raping and murdering part, and then I stopped reading it by dinner time. So, the fact that The Kid enjoys reading vampire-type books is pretty much okay with me.

He and I were talking one day a couple weeks ago while I was at my computer. It always surprises him when I listen to what he’s telling me and I’m not sure why, because I know his parents listen to him, too. In any case, he was babbling about a book that was coming out on February 9th and it was part of a series he’s been reading and he really can’t wait to read it and he wants a hoodie that has the series’ theme image on the front of it and, yeah. It went on and on. And on. But when a kid’s excited about something like that, you just let him talk, right?

While he was talking, I pulled up the book he was talking about on Amazon (Eleventh Grade Burns (Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)) and noticed that it was on sale for probably cheaper than we were going to be able to buy it locally. We talked about it and I told him if he was (in short) a good kid, I’d pre-order for him and he could have it in hardback really close to the release date. I think he might have peed his pants. We had some shit go down at our house shortly after that (which included temporary taking on two house guests that needed out of their current situation — there’s a lot of drama behind this, trust me), but The Kid really stepped it up and acted as responsible and mature as I ever could have imagined him acting during that time. I let him know we’d pre-order the book stat. And I did.

It came last week, but The Kid was having some issues following the rules in our house, which include really hard things like be respectful, don’t backtalk, don’t be a dick, keep your shoes tied. We’re tough, right? In the meantime, the book had been sitting in the box from Amazon.com in the living room, in complete view of The Kid every single time he walked through the room. Cruel and unusual punishment? Oh, probably so. Go ahead and turn me into child protective services. 

Last night, he finally earned the book. We took him with us to bowling (more of our cruel and unusual punishment, because he’s not allowed to talk to anyone unless spoken to or sit with us down where all the action is) and gave him the book when we got there. He tore into the box and read through several chapters right there in the bowling alley. There were 25 lanes of bowling happening around him and he was so happy to be reading that book. The Kid thanked me at least three times for the book and if I had to guess, I’d say he’s probably reading through it like a fiend right now. 

Most of the time, this kid is a-okay, ya know?

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