Awkward and a little sad

The boy child has a friend at school. Let's call him Zach, which is not his real name. They were in the same class in third grade, but are in different classes in fourth grade. However, they see each other in the hallway before school every day. The classroom the boy child was in last year (and this year, for that matter) was an inclusion classroom, and while I don't know for sure and never asked, I suspect Zach has a few special needs. He is a very sweet boy and he and the boy child got along like gangbusters last year.

Okay, so ever since school started this year, Zach has been approaching the boy child in the hallway before school and inviting him to a birthday party. Zach has been saying the party will be September 1st, after school, at a laser tag place. The boy child related this to me with great excitement, because he doesn't get invited to very many birthday parties. Like, any, pretty much. However, I have no idea where "the laser tag place" is and "after school" is a little vague for me, so I told the boy child we would need a written invitation if he was going to go. Because it seemed kind of weird that he didn't get one, if he was indeed invited to this party. In truth, I suspected that perhaps there wasn't going to be an actual party, or that it was just for family or something, and that Zach's mom had no idea he was inviting the boy child. But the boy child was very excited, and Zach was very adamant, and it quickly became obvious I would not be able to just blow this off.

Argh. What to do, what to do? I have never met nor spoken with Zach's parents. I have a bit of a phobia about calling people on the phone when I don't know them very well anyway, and the thought of calling people I didn't know and asking whether my kid was, in fact, invited to a party they may or may not be hosting filled me with a cold dread.

Luckily, I married a wonderful man who understands or at least seems willing to cope with my neuroses. So we looked up Zach's phone number in last year's school directory and DH made the call and guess what? There is no party. Zach's family is taking him out to dinner for his birthday. It's a family thing. No mention of laser tag was made, and Zach's mom had no idea he had invited the boy child to anything. Whoopsie!

And so, I told the boy child this afternoon. He seemed only mildly disappointed, but with him it's hard to tell. I desperately hope he gets invited to a real birthday party sometime this year. I literally cannot remember the last one he attended, and the girl child seems to go to two or three per month. At this rate, I'll have to buy the boy a pony or something to compensate.

Sigh.