They are dead men walking. Summer, at least as area kids know it, is over as area schools reconvene this week.

“It”s their last hurrah before school,” said Marion Wesley as she watched her son, Will, play with some of his friends on Tuesday. Wesley making the circuit of visiting her parents on the coast, her in-laws in Birmingham and her friends in Columbus before heading back to Colorado where she and her husband moved last May.

“And it”s our first hurrah,” Wesley added. The other women agreed and talked about trips to Yellowstone National Park and Orange Beach with family in tow. Over the summer, there have been camps, vacations, visits to grandparents, workshops and movies, and the parents are finally going to get some semblance of a break.

Wesley sat with five other mothers while their children played together at Jumpin” G”s, a jungle gym in Leigh Mall where kids can run, jump and climb on an assortment of slides and obstacle courses. The Wesleys lived in Columbus for six years, and Will had attended Heritage Academy with several of the boys with whom he was spending the afternoon. The kids played “Dead Man in the Middle,” a game where one boy laid motionless in the center of a blow-up boxing ring while the others ran and jumped around him in a circle trying to bounce him and make him come out of character. A balloon hung in a nearby corner with a design that read, “Dear God, thank you for friends.”

“I”ve been my child”s only playmate all summer,” Wesley laughed.

Will starts the third grade at Broadmoore Elementary in Colorado Springs, but he isn”t worried about adjusting.

“It”s all right,” he said. “I know a few people already.”

“But we may just keep him here,” joked Julie Moore, one of the other mothers, as she tousled the boy”s hair.

The Malco Theatre was another popular place for students to dodge the heat in their remaining days of freedom.

“They”ve been saying it”s the last little movie they”re going to catch before school starts,” said Kim Mitchell, who was running the box office on Tuesday. “They”re trying to stay out of this heat.”

Temperatures topped 105 degrees Tuesday afternoon.

Seventh-grader Ann Caroline Harrell went with friends to the 4:10 p.m. showing of “Charlie St. Cloud,” a fantasy-romance film where Zac Efron stars as the titular character and must choose between pursuing the girl he loves or following through on a choice he made to his dead brother.

“I don”t really like (Efron), but I heard it was good,” Harrell said.

Like Will Wesley, Harrell is starting at a new school this year, and she”s trying to make the most of the time she has left by spending it with her friends and family and wrapping up her required reading.

Not all students are dreading the end of summer, however. Tonya Jackson and Antonio Gordon, both employees at Skate Zone, will be seniors at Columbus High School this year, and they were looking forward starting school today.

The two spent most of their free time working at Skate Zone, but they also had a few chances to hang out with friends before classes resumed. Gordon strolled with friends along the River Walk and took pictures; Jackson ate with a group at Harvey”s on Saturday night before going to the carnival by Leigh Mall.

Jackson plans to attend Mississippi State University and major in child psychology. Gordon intends to go to Stillman College and study nursing.

They”re excited about getting back in the classroom because it means they”re almost ready for the next phase of their lives. “It”s going to bring us one step closer to college,” said Jackson, who runs the prize counter at the skating rink.

“And college life is going to be fun,” Gordon said. “There”s more freedom than high school.”

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