The first shall be last

We have been picking up the Hottenson boys after school for several weeks now and they are very accustomed to the routine. So now and then we have to change things up just to keep life interesting. Since the three boys are naturally competitive there is often an unconscious competition at almost every level: who gets out of the building first, who sees Mama Kim first, who sits where in the van, etc, etc, etc.
Sometimes the competitions are promoted and since Chase could not motivate the boys to get their stuff together and get to the car one afternoon, he decided to promote one. And the boys responded to the challenge. They jostled and pushed each other jockeying for position, hurrying to get to the van with their stuff.
Once they were all seated and counting coup, Chase announced that the real winner was the last person in the van, which changed the victor to Tony from Carlos – who bemoaned the loss with the classic, “That’s not fair!” Everyone had a good laugh from it and the afternoon continued with the usual competition on the Wii, which I still have trouble relating too since one person can be deeply offended by the egregious behavior of one virtual character against another when that behavior is the obvious intent of the game in the first place.
Anyway, it seems that the plan may have backfired since the following day each of the boys was deliberately lagging behind in case the same rules applied. Of course, Mama and Chase thought that was more hilarious than the previous day’s outcome.
Andrew, interestingly enough, learned through the experience that if he is in the middle he always comes in second whether it is the first who wins or the last. Which means that though he has not won the competition, he has always beat someone – better to be second than last, especially when you are the youngest.