Recess

All last year I would ask Josh what he did at school.  He would always respond with "we had recess." So I'd ask him what he did at recess and he would tell me that he played by himself.  He usually played 'Bakugan' but would sometimes play on the playground equipment.  I tried to figure out why he played by himself when he is such an outgoing, socially needy kid, but he would only ever say 2 things.  First, he liked to play by himself.  Second, that the other kids never waited for him.  I asked him if he's ever asked them if he could play with them and he said no, that they always just ran past him. I finally gave up on trying to get him to play with friends during recess and he seemed fine with it.  Well, this year I was hoping it would be different.  But everyday after school I ask him about recess and he says the same thing, "I just played by myself."  Ughh.  I felt bad for him, so after the first 2 weeks, I stopped asking.  Yesterday he brought up recess and said "Guess what I did at recess?" I said something about playing on the swirling chairs or something and he was like "no!" like that was the dumbest idea in the world.  Thanks.  He said "I played dragons with my friends." I didn't have to ask many questions because he just started talking non stop.
"I played with Fisher and Chelsea and another kid whose name I don't know and we even got to play with the star student, T.J. And we played dragons but we didn't fly like real dragons!"  At this point he busts up laughing like the thought of it was hilarious. "But I do want to figure out how to do it. I'll have to experiment.  No , that won't work.  No.  No not that either."  I assume he's thinking up ideas in his head and then just vocally dismissing them, although he never tells me what the ideas are. He then goes on to explain how the dragon game works. "We chase Chelsea, because boys chase girls. When 2 of us get her then one grabs one arm and the other boy grabs the other arm and we take her and lock her up.  Then after she's locked up for a little bit then they get married."
"Who get's married?" I asked.
"The leader and Chelsea."
"Who's the leader?"
"T.J."
It was hard not to bust out laughing but he was so excited about it that I didn't dare hurt his feelings. "I can't wait for it to be morning!" he shouts.
"Why?" I asked.
"So I can go to school and we can play dragons again.  I'm just so excited!"
Well, when he woke up this morning, the first thing he said was "I'm so excited for school!!" When I asked him why he said "because I get to play with my friends.  I just can't wait for recess."   I'm so glad he found some friends but I'm even happier that he is not the leader and will therefore not be getting  married while in 2nd grade.