The kids and I were eating lunch at Moe’s on Monday, because kids eats free on Mondays at our Moe’s. That seems like a terrible sentence, but I kind of like it. Anyway, we were at our booth, when a woman and two young boys came over to our table.
“Excuse me, hi,” the woman said. “My son recognized your daughter from school and he wanted to come over and say hello.” Her five year old son smiled and waved shyly at Ruby, as Ruby focused all of her attention onto her quesadilla.
“Ruby, aren’t you going to say hi?” I asked, trying to nudge her in the proper social direction. Ruby glanced up briefly, mumbled something that might have been a greeting, and went back to eating. “Well, it was nice to see you!” I called out heartily, trying to cover up for the fact that my daughter did not seem interested in speaking to this woman’s son. The boy gave another half-hearted wave and then was herded away by his mother and brother, out the door and presumably to their car.
“Ruby, do you know that boy?” I asked pleasantly, trying to get to the bottom of this behavior.
“Well, I might have played with him a couple of times, but only on the playground,” she said.
“What’s his name?” I pressed?
“I don’t know.”
“Well, do you like him? Did you have fun playing with him?”
“I guess so.”
“Then how come you didn’t want to say hi to him today?”
Ruby looked up and said very firmly, “He’s not my friend.” Then, slowly leaning over the table, as if this explained everything, she whispered to me, “He’s in a different class.”