Safecracking

This morning I showed up bright and early at the high school, as soon as they opened the building. Oldest son was unable to open his locker after the freshman orientation session on Wednesday morning, after trying in vain for half an hour. Son #3, who normally must be pried from his pillow at 7AM on a school day, wanted to join us, so he popped out of bed at 6:45 to scarf down three waffles...and was therefore along for the ride.

The principal's assistant, bless her heart, took us under her wing as soon as we arrived in the main office. She personally escorted us to the locker and tried the combination. Presto...it opened right away. Seeing the dejected look on my son's face, she explained that there's a trick to it...grabbing the left side of the locker and pushing on it while you pull the door out with your right hand. He tried it a few more times and didn't get it open, so our guardian angel promised to have a custodian loosen the cylinder. Just to be helpful, before we finished with the locker, Son #3 memorized the combination. Ya never know.

We walked the halls in sync with my son's schedule to get him more used to the surroundings. The map looks like a hand (the palm is the central commons area where the library, main office, lecture hall, and auditorium are). But there are some connecting hallways too, like the webbing on a duck's foot. We ran into a friend of ours who teaches earth science there. She gave us some good tips about navigating the corridors, and showed us the magic location of the building's elevator. She also gave us some insider info on some of the teachers...apparently the first period teacher is "tough as nails and doesn't take any %$#@." Some of my best teachers fell into that category!

Wonderful ending to this story...after walking the schedule we went back to the locker and tried it again. This time it opened without a problem. Big relief to cross one item off the "first day worry" list. Whew!