Crisis!

#1 Son just called from school. Apparently, the science fair is today. ::insert ominous music here:: How he could not know this (he thought is was "in May sometime") is far far beyond my ability to understand. But that's where we are.

He wanted to participate in the science fair in the first place because his science teacher gives 50 bonus points to anyone who does. That's the equivalent of an entire extra unit in the class and could well bump him up to an A this quarter. He missed the application deadline, then got special dispensation from his science teacher and the head of the science department to participate anyway. Luckily, his teacher has had him for two years now, likes him and knows what he's capable of.

So he came up with the idea of building a mag-lev train. cool project. I worried it might be too advanced a project for him but we found a kit in the Edmund Scientific catalogue. The first night, #1 and his dad got really angry at each other because Dad was helping too much. I convinced Dad to let #1 do it by himself. The kit sat around unfinished for a couple weeks, but #1 eventually put it together with help from some friends.

Then he calls about the science fair today. Could I pick him and his friend up after school so they can come over and put together a poster before 4pm? Sure, I said, feeling this horrible crawling in the pit of my stomach imagining what Dad was going to say about this.

It started, as I imagined, with, "Of all the irresponsible..." which it was. But he could have given up, said, "I'll just take the bad grade and deal with the parents whenever they find out." He's trying to make it right. I'm kind of proud of him for that.