Spies

The other night, Austen got his first dose of what it's like to have a little sister who now goes to your school. As we are eating dinner together, Peyton says nonchalantly, "Austen, why were you at the nurse today?" Austen, obviously, stunned by Peyton's question, looks rather sheepish and doesn't answer. Tom and I raise our eyebrows curiously. "What? You were at the nurse?" we ask.  He still doesn't say anything but judging by his face he knew this wasn't going to be a good conversation.
Usually, most people might be concerned that their child was at the nurse, but Austen has decided to take a trip to the nurse every so often so he can get out of class.

"Elsie saw you at the nurse this afternoon when she went there," proclaimed Peyton, breaking the silence. Elsie is Peyton's friend and classmate. She has maybe met Austen twice but she knew who he was enough to tell Peyton that she saw him in the nurse's office. Now Austen on the other hand surely didn't recognize Elsie or he may have been more worried that she would tell Peyton that he was at the nurse when he shouldn't have been.

"What happened?" I demanded to know.

"I hurt my ankle," he said. His ankle looked fine to me and he just got done playing 90 minutes of soccer on it. I gave him my best, "you've got to be kidding me" looks.

"Well, I had a stomach ache," he admitted.

"Why did you have a stomachache?" I asked. Usually, when he has a stomachache he has to go to the bathroom.

He says nothing so I follow up with:
"Didn't you go to the bathroom at school?"

"I don't like those bathrooms," he says, "they are so small!"

Small? Really? Dirty maybe but who cares if the bathrooms are small, this isn't your personal restroom! After telling him he better be bleeding or have a broken arm the next time he sees the nurse, he sheepishly nods, okay.

And, Peyton smiles smugly. Although, she better be careful because I bet there will be way more instances of Austen sharing what Peyton shouldn't be doing at school or elsewhere in her future.