Past Performance Not Indicative of Future Results

The Boy's school grades say nothing about his intelligence. In our secret project, he's doing so much better than me. Every week, he's singled out and people say, He's so smart. We've had a few quizzes. He's scored better than me in every one. Today's was the worst. On the way home, he said to me,

"Hey mom, I have a serious question to ask you."
"What?"
"What does it feel like to get 76 on a quiz? I wouldn't know. I've only ever gotten 90's."

Maybe a knock on his ear would empty some of his sauciness.

Last month, we did manage to get The Boy a new suit. I'm almost sure this new suit is machine washable. That's to let you know how "reasonably priced" the suit was. He's now got one and a half black suits, the half suit being the jacket from the old suit, of which he lost the pants to last year on the subway. He likes this half suit jacket, which he now calls his blazer.

Tonight, he wore his black blazer over his black Led Zeppelin T-shirt and jeans to go to a birthday party.

"Whoa, what's this?" I said.
"Mom, I look good like this," he said.

Indeed, he did. When did he start to dress for a party? When did he start liking black? This is the same guy who wouldn't go clothes shopping with me. Who tells me to get whatever as long as it's red.

Who's at the party tonight? The usual gang. That is, the six to eight of them who socialize at school. Birthday Girl's father is making hamburgers and they are watching movies. When I drove him to her house, he said,

"Where can I get some flowers?"
"Flowers?"
"I don't have a present for her so I thought I'd get her some flowers."

Down from her house was a place that sold flowers. I dropped him off at the corner. He went to get the flowers and to make his own way to her house from there. This is the guy who said of the flowers The Man sent me, "Yeah, I guess flowers are okay. But they die, and then what?"

Am I reading too much into all this? His leave-taking tonight played out casually, naturally, innocently. No weirdness whatsoever. I thought nothing of it at the time. It's only now that I am home alone and I catch the thoughts that drift across that I suddenly ask, is there a transformation taking place before my eyes?