For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 27, 2017

Some friendship they made back at camp. Now it’s like they’re strangers again.

There is that damn bald spot. Maybe he was going bald early. My uncle went bald very early and very fast.

Those whacky preteens and their inability to form sentences is so funny!!

Let us count the occurrences of preteen speak for Martha:

Uh – 2, Um – 2, well – 2, you know – 1, sort of – 1.

Let us count the occurrences of preteen speak for Michael:

Uh – 0, Um – 1, well – 1, you know – 2, sort of – 1, like – 3.

They have 8 apiece so we need a tiebreaker. I am going to give it to Michael for his use of the phrase “out of it” which means “not being in a state of one’s normal mind” and not “embarrassed”, which is what he really means here.

How will Martha respond?:

1. Will she knock that smug look off his face?

2. Will she walk away while Mike is in thought balloon land to see if he notices that she left?

3. Will she forgive his arrogant rudeness and call him to ask him over to her house and be friends again?

4. Will she give him the name of a doctor who handles premature baldness in preteens?

Lynn’s Notes:

I wrote a love letter to a boy in grade 8, and later, I saw him showing it to his friends. They were standing by the goalpost on the field laughing. I thought I would die.

teens speak an entire different language than older adults do but Mike appears to be doing a Valley Girl imitation,like, you know

One of my bosses always started an almost every sentence with “You know” to which I would reply “If I knew I wouldn’t be asking!” It took about three years, but I finally broke him of the habit!

Also, what will he do if she says “We weren’t talking about you1” and proves it1 Unlikely, but possible!

Lawrence wouldn’t be the only getting an AIDs test.