Zits & Standard Time

Kate Bates got 95yo Bessie Bandervilt to church on time, even with the return to Standard Time, and Bessie was surprisingly copacetic about it, since she had an extra hour to read the funnies, but it meant Kate had to hear all about the day’s “Zits” strip, including Bessie making all the faces Jeremy and his friend were making for “Make a face like a parent day,” and insisting Kate take her eyes off the road to look at each face, because Bessie thinks she knows how to deal with teenagers, and so has advice for Jeremy’s parents, which she can’t give to them directly, of course, so which she passes on to anyone who is trapped in a car with her, and of course it is only people like Bessie who think they know how to deal with teens, since she never had any.

Claire Nathan, though, knows a disgruntled teen when she sees one, since she not only had some of her own, but also taught high school, after she had been an undercover cop infiltrating teen gangs, which was pretty much the same thing as teaching high school, so she recognized a familiar look of disgruntledness on the face of Ashleey Reenee Eendsleey at church this morning.

“You didn’t tell Ashleey Reenee about falling back to standard time?” did you, she said to Ashleey Reenee’s mother, Ar.

“No,” said Ar, who has always been disgruntled by the shortness of her name, which explains her daughter’s, sort of. “I figured if we let the kids go to bed before we reset the clocks, Saam and I would have that extra hour for ourselves. Otherwise the kids would stay up an extra hour and we’d never get any time to ourselves forever and ever. Amen. Now, though, she’s so mad, and I’ll never hear the end of how I tricked her. She’ll use it as leverage every time she wants something. She already thinks she knows more about raising teenagers than I’ll ever know.”

Kate Bates was passing by on her way to the cry room and overheard.

“Does Ashleey Reenee have her driver’s license yet?” she asked.

“Oh, yes, that’s another point of contention. She’ll do anything to drive, but…”

“No problem” said Kate. “She can use my car to drive Bessie home after church. They should be good for each other.”