Fight! Fight! Fight!

I was absent last week 3 days. We had to go to Houston to the Children's Hospital Monday & Tuesday and to a funeral Thursday. So I was only there Tuesday & Wednesday. I talked to the sub who was in my room Monday and Tuesday and two of my girls got in trouble for talking too much and being mouthy. I hate being out.
Well, to announce the winner of the "who will get to sit in time-out first" (drum roll please)...........STEPHANIE!! She sat back there and cried so pitifully - haven't seen that in a while ( have I ever seen it? Don't think so). Guess that crying bit works at home or has worked on teachers in the past, but I only ignored her. She asked if she could move back into her group at least twenty times, but I made her stay by herself. I can tell now that she cannot get along with anyone. I'm already tired of calling her name. She really had me fooled the first half of the first day, though. She was raising her hand and answering questions correctly. I was impressed. The initial impression can often be very misleading.
Had our first fight yesterday. Between two girls. It was a spectacular performance of slapping at each other. No hair pulling or scratching though. I've seen girls fighting in the past and when they were pulled apart, their hair was sticking up so that they looked like mini versions of carrot top. This one didn't get that far. I sent both of them to the office and they received two days of ISS each and the principal wrote that the next infraction will result in OSS. One of the girls' mothers came to see me and she seemed really shocked that her daughter would fight. I told her that I had given the children 3 opportunities to change groups if there was someone in their group who was bothering them. The whole group these girls were in decided to keep working together all three times, so there didn't seem to be a problem. Of all the children in my class, these are two of the last ones that I would have thought would get into a fight. But, then again, I don't really know the students all that well yet. There may be some sneaky elements that I have yet to see. The weirdest thing is that, while I knew most all of the children's names in my class, these two girls are the two I had not learned yet. I know those names, now, you can bet. It was like the universe saying, let's see what we can do to make you remember these two girls, oh yeah, a fight, that'll do it! So I had to write these two girls' names on write-up slips and all the work I send to the ISS room. And you know what, when they return to class, they will probably be the best of friends again, like nothing ever happened.