A Yellow

Boy 1: "Why does your shirt say 'pink' when it's gray?"

Boy 2: "I see those shirts all the time, and they're never pink."

The girl, not sure what the big deal was, gave some sort of explanation. I figured I needed to jump in.

Me: "'Pink' is the brand name."

Boy 1: "Well, that's a stupid brand name." He flailed about, trying to come up with a good analogy. "It's like your name being..." He failed to come up with anything that made sense.

Me: "Brand names are brand names. A color is a perfectly valid name for something."

Boy 1: "No. It's like her name being... It's like this," and he indicated his orange, "was called 'a yellow'."

I pointed out that was a terrible analogy as the color was named after the fruit.

Boy 1: "Well, it's still stupid."

I don't disagree. (I have a bad habit of taking the opposite view when someone starts saying something that is not necessarily wrong is wrong. Even when I agree.) For a long time I couldn't figure out the "Pink" shirts. But as the shirts are innocuous, I stopped dedicating much thought to them.

I shrugged and walked away. Later, the boy called me over.

"Can I eat my yellow?" He indicated his orange.

Since eating in class is discouraged, I said no.

The boy continued to refer to his orange as his "yellow". Even the next day.

If that's the hill he wants to die on...