Tick.

(That's one of the nicknames I have for Tess.)

Tess is in a class where most of her classmates are the oldest in their families. Tess is the youngest. I am surprised at what a difference this makes...

Tess is the most cynical and sarcastic kid there, I think. I mean, she's really a good and nice kid, but she can be really pretty cynical at times. She has a t shirt that has two guys on the front -- one guy says "movie quote" and the other guy says "ha ha. another movie quote." We all find this quite humorous. (Tess picked this shirt out herself.)

The kids in her class don't get it. Tess was slightly bemused by this. She also comes home and is incredulous that the kids in her class have never heard of some of the bands she listens to most (which in fairness to her classmates, are far from top 40 types. They tend to be slightly obscure bands Zach finds.)

Much of it, I am sure, is because she has brothers who are 4 and 6 years older than her. Some of it, though, must stem from her personality and world view, which tends, I think like mine, to the skeptical and insatiably curious. So she is always looking for the fake and the angle, and looking to avoid being made the fool (she hates that, just like I do), and always trying to figure out how they do that. And she's smart, and quick to understand things.

Now she is motivated to learn things that the other kids don't know, like "vini vidi vici," which apparently no one else in the class has ever heard. This morning she asked Mom how to say something in Norwegian, I think with the view to stump her friends at school again...