Title: Karakura Kindergarten
Author: Raptorix
Rating: G
Pairings: None, really
Disclaimer: Kubo Tite is the proud owner of all these characters, I'm just messing around with them in my own little stories.
Drabble I wrote for Kia for her birthday! Ended up longer than I originally intended too... X3
* ~ ~ ~ *
The daily routine at Karakura Kindergarten was pretty straight forward, and rarely ever changed. The morning would start with a bit of free playtime, while everyone would arrive. The children would be allowed to play with whatever they wanted for the first half an hour of class.
Uryuu would play with the sewing set every morning. Orihime's favorite place to play was the toy kitchen. Tatsuki would often get reprimanded for trying to play with the balls indoors before recess. Ichigo and Chad would often stick together, playing with a different toy set every day, or joining one of the other children in their games.
After the morning playtime, everyone would participate in the day's lesson-math, spelling, telling time, learning about money, or crafts based on a holiday. Craft days were always Uryuu's favorite. Orihime usually shared Uryuu's enthusiasm for gluing colorful construction paper together, or arranging dried peas, beans, and pasta to decorate pictures.
After the day's lesson, the children were allowed some more free playtime inside. Once, Ichigo and Chad decided to start their second free playtime by finger painting. Tatsuki decided she would finger paint too, but on Ichigo's easel. The orange-haired boy was taken aback, and protested.
Tatsuki responded by shoving Ichigo away, her paint-covered hands staining his shirt, getting all over his arms, some even managed to get onto his chin.
Ichigo stood back, and burst into tears. Not many things could stop Ichigo's crying once he got going. His mother could always stop his tears, but he wouldn't see her again until after school. Otherwise, one would have to stop his crying with something really funny, otherwise he'd just continue crying until he eventually stopped.
Chad managed to stop Ichigo's waterworks quickly this time by smattering some of his finger-paints all over his shirt and face. Ichigo's wails turned to laughter, and the boys went to join Orihime to play house with her over in the toy kitchen.
Another incident happened one day while Chad was home sick. Ichigo felt very displaced, and was trying to find someone to play with all day. He had just recovered from a bawling session from losing a tug-of-war with Tatsuki over a cardboard block Ichigo moped over to the toy kitchen where Orihime and Uryuu were playing house with the dollies Uryuu had made that morning from some craft felt.
"Can I play with you guys?" Ichigo sniffed the last of his tears away.
"Here, you can be Mr. Asparagus." Orihime handed a purple felt doll that definitely did not resemble an asparagus in any way to Ichigo. "He's been sad today because his friend got lost."
"But his new friends are going on an epic quest with him to find Mr. Asparagus' friend." Uryuu explained, bouncing his blue felt doll on the toy kitchen counter.
"Okay." Ichigo smiled through the residue of tears, and dried the last of them with his sleeve. "What's an 'epic quest', anyway?"
After the second playtime, it was naptime. The children would normally sleep on canvas-covered foam pads on the floor. One particularly cold day, the heater broke. The children kept their winter coats on, and the sensei gave them all the winter and summer blankets to stay warm.
Ichigo was feeling rather cold, and cuddled up with Chad to get warmer. Orihime, shivering still under her winter coat and two blankets, joined Ichigo and Chad in their warm cuddle. Uryuu began to feel left out, and joined the group snuggle shortly after Orihime. Tatsuki joined last when she was sure the rest had all nodded off.
After naptime, was snack time. Usually consisting of crackers, vegetables, or fruit. Orihime would almost always complain, and ask for bean paste to put on her carrot sticks, or ketchup and wasabi on her seaweed cakes. Her tastes always baffled her sensei.
After snack time was recess, which was the time to burn off all that excess energy that would accumulate after the combination of a nap and a snack. Of course, some of the children always seemed to get more energetic after recess, like Ichigo for instance.
When recess was over, the last activity for the day was story time. Every day, the sensei could never read entirely through without an objection or question. Often, Uryuu and Ichigo would debate over the story, but were easily quieted with the threat of standing in the corner until school was over. On rare occasions, Chad would make an interjection-a lengthy one in a mixture of Japanese and Spanish. No one could ever understand Chad when he spoke, and eventually he gave up talking almost entirely. It took him a few years more to separate his Japanese vocabulary from his Spanish vocabulary.
When the school day was over, all the parents would trickle in one at a time to come pick up their children. Tatsuki never failed to bring home at least one red disobedience card. Souken would usually come to pick up Uryuu, and have to help him carry all the dolls and crafts he had made that day, as his backpack couldn't hold all of them. The sensei had exhausted three years worth of craft supplies on that kid to keep him happy, as he often would do nothing else. Whatever lingering tears Ichigo had that day would always be dispelled by his mother. On days that he had karate practice, Masaki would take Tatsuki along with her and Ichigo, saving Tatsuki's parents the trip. Chad's Mexican mother would always come to pick him up, holding a long conversation with him in Spanish about what he had done in school that day. Sora was usually the last one to arrive, having to work right up until Orihime got out of school, and having to ride the train across town. She would wait expectantly, but keep herself preoccupied playing in that little toy kitchen, making bizarre recipes with the plastic food.
Days at Karakura Kindergarten were always routine, but never predictable.