Uncle JP, Have You Bought that Shotgun Yet?

So I'm sitting at the volleyball game last night and 3 young men saunter in and sit down near me. They're maybe 12-14 years old. They aren't from The Child's school, just kids hanging around. They begin to talk amongst themselves. I can't really make out what they are saying exactly; the game was going on and they were speaking in fairly quiet tones. But they have clearly arrived at the realization that girls maybe don't completely stink afterall. One kid, who had very long eyelashes, was holding forth about how when he likes a girl she doesn't like him but when he stops liking her and likes someone else then the first girl starts liking him all of a sudden. (I get many snaps for not snorting out loud or in anyway mocking the callowness of youth).

Then the conversation migrates from the general to the specific. Specifically, the girls in front of them. From the snippets picked up and general tone I can tell they are not being disrespectful or mean. They are in appraisal mode. They like what they see. Giggling begins. I decide the fair thing to do is lean over and say, quite gently, "Guys, you might want to be aware that you're sitting with the parents of those young ladies".

The kid nearest me claps his hand over his mouth saying, "My bad". The one in the middle, the one with the long, dreamy eyelashes and the "they like me, then they don't" story, presses his lips together and kind of hunches down in embarrasment. Then "My Bad" says to me, "Is number 3 your daughter?"

I answer in the affirmative.

"Cool," he says.

Appropos of nothing, I'm going to get her longer volleyball shorts. Today.