Young Girls on the Loose at the Movies

What do you do on a cloudy day in a beach town?

You go to the movies.

Or, you send your unaccompanied pre-teen children to the movies.

We arrived for the early evening show to a hubbub. Eventually, we discovered that most of the children, if not all, had been watching the Chronicles of Narnia. As I learned, from one young girl in the bathroom, the movie had stopped at a crucial moment near the end of the story. Everyone was disappointed, even peeved. No sun, and now this. A small group of marauding boys, after trying to dismantle the display posters, hatched a plan to demand their money back.

My sister and I waited patiently, sort of, for the previous showing of our selection, In her Shoes, to finish so that we could swoop in and get good seats. We were both hoping that the gaggle of loud girls congregating with us would change their minds and go somewhere else. Soon enough, the movie theater people had decided to replay the Chronicles of Narnia in another theater and many appeased children wandered off in that direction. Our theater was vacated and we happily made our way in, finding good seats.

The gaggle returned... and decided to stay in our theater, at least for a moment. A woman, with her not-teenage daughters, who had been watching the movie before us decided to engage the gaggle in conversation. In this way, we found out that they were all about to enter the seventh grade (at the end of their summer in March) except one, who is a year younger. The girls wanted to know if this movie would make them cry. Eventually, the mother was ushered off by her own daughters who were, no doubt, thankful to be leaving the gaggle behind.

My sister said something in English that the girls apparently overheard; this launched the gaggle into a loud repertoire of all the words they knew in English. A long discussion about whether or not to see this movie or go to the other theater ensued. Keep in mind, these girls don't seem to be in the know about the "inside voice." One girl, in particular, has a deep, loud voice. She is advocating for the other theaters; my sister and I are voting with her. The entire gaggle moves loudly out of the theater and all of us waiting for our movie emit an audible phew.

The peace and quiet lasts for only a few minutes... they all come back ... and settle back into their seats. Then, to their horror, they discover that the one soda they bought, I don't know, thirty minutes ago, is almost gone. The loud one and a sidekick exit the theater to go buy another just as the movie is beginning. No previews, just right to the movie... the loud girl and friend return, yelling, Did the movie start? Did it start? Oh my, it started!!

I reassured my sister that they would have to settle down as the movie was in English with subtitles, and reading the subtitles would keep them pretty busy. Sure enough, they settled right down, and, except for a few outbursts of embarrassed laughter whenever there was anything close to a sex scene, they were well behaved.