Aaaaand....you're grounded

Sigh.

That child is going to be the death of me. I'm referring to Katie. Sometimes I can't believe that I've actually chosen and prayed to go through the teenage years all over again in about 10 years, or so.

One day last week Katie asked to go to the movies with her girlfriends. She normally is not allowed to go out on a school night, but this was an early movie so we allowed it.

Some background: Katie's boyfriend started driving a few months ago. We have forbidden her to drive with him, just yet, because we believe he needs some experience under his belt before we are going to entrust her very life with him. She has agreed and actually has said, "sometimes I even forget he drives.". Uh-huh.

On the day and time in question, Roni was not home. The plan was that Katie's friend's father was going to pick Katie up and drop the girls off at the movies. Katie says to me, "They can pick me up now or they can come back at 4 o'clock". I told her it was fine for them to pick her up now.

A couple minutes later she calls out to me that they were there and we said good-bye. That's when intuition hit me. I went to the front door to look out and there was a little 2 door beater car parked 3 houses down. My antennae went up. What father of a friend would park 3 houses down? I peeked out the door as Katie jumps in the front seat of the car. The front seat is significant because, logic tells me, her friends should have gotten out of the car to move the seat for Katie to get in the back, no? I peeked closer and I can see the back of the driver's head and his longish, frizzed-out hair. Kennie, Katie's boyfriend, has longish, frizzed-out hair.

Fucking busted.

I texted her and said, "That didn't look like 'so-and-so' and her father picking you up." She actually had the balls to say it was. Sigh. I'm not sure what irritates me most....the sneaking around and disobeying, the flat out lies, or her thinking I'm incredibly stupid.

Roni called a little while later and I told her the news. Some sleuthing then turned up (and I cannot reveal our sources in case this blog is read by the perpetrator) that she has been driving around with Kennie all along...especially on the weekends when she is at her father's house.

I texted her "it wasn't smart to lie". She texts back "what?"...as if she doesn't know she's in the shit. Roni texted her "I hope you're having fun because it's going to be a looong time before you can go out again." She texts back "I'll explain later. Love you". Uh-huh. What does she think she's going to explain? Seriously. There is no explanation for blatantly breaking the rules. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch.

I could barely wait to hear what she comes up with. When she got home (early...the first smart thing she did that day) she started saying that it was the first time....I took pity on her so she didn't bury herself deeper and interrupted her to tell her we have witnesses that that wasn't so. She stopped talking (the second smart thing she did that day).

I have to say that she took her month worth of grounding like a big girl and didn't wail and whine like a fool (which only pisses me off further) so she made 3 smart decisions once she knew she was busted.

Sigh.