Marathon Day 3 for the RaTsers of the Caribbean
Title: There’s Something You Can Do With Your Embroidery!
Prompt: Rocky Road 12: Classroom/Dojo; Strawberry 25: Thread
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,071
Story: ROTOS
Summary: Syeira skips recess to do some sewing.
For some reason, she’d always found it kind of calming. Poking the slender needle through the cloth, watching the thread come together in a cross stitch, trying to follow the pattern that the kit prescribed. Some people found it to be too tedious, too difficult, too much work. But Mama Shvanova had taught her so much when she was younger, how to thread the needle and create hundreds and hundreds of different patterns without pricking the tips of her delicate fingers.
So while everyone else was having a good time in the cafeteria and the schoolyard, here she was, in her science classroom (which also happened to double as her social studies class, because her teacher was just that smart). Here she was with the pattern on her desk and the white cloth in her lap, pinching the needle between her thumb and her index finger. She was so close to finishing the pattern, so close. The majority of a monarch butterfly was staring up at her, firmly stitched into the cloth. All she had to do was finish filling in the butterfly’s right wing, and she would be all finished.
“Hey, what are you doing in here? Aren’t you going to go and play outside? We only get so much time for lunch and recess.”
She looked up from her lap and over toward the door, the needle falling from her fingers. Junsu was standing there, leaning against the doorway with his arms folded over his chest and his backpack hanging from one of his shoulders. “Break is kind of boring for me if you’re not there to talk to, you know,” he continued as he stepped into the classroom, walking over to the desk in front of hers and dropping his bag on the floor. “So whatcha got there?” He was straddling the chair now, resting his elbows on her desk and leaning forward. “A magazine or something And what’s this?” he added, pointing to the folded sheet of paper on her desk.
“Nah, I don’t read magazines. But you can have a look at what I’m doing if you want,” she replied, setting her work on the desk for him to see. “I’ve been working on it for a few weeks now… do you like it?”
He raised his eyebrows at the embroidery and took it into his hands. “You do this stuff? I had no idea…” He seemed to be studying the stitchery very carefully-his eyes were narrowed, and he was holding the embroidery rather close to his face. “’S really nice, Syeira. I bet it’ll look really great when you finish it,” he told her with a smile as he set it back down on the desk. “What are you going to do with it?”
That was the thing. She didn’t even know. She never knew what she was going to do with her finished works, except for the one time that she stitched a little brown rabbit for Tobias. But she’d known about that from the start. She’d promised him that she would stitch a rabbit for him once she was able to buy a new sewing kit for herself. And that was all done and over with. But what was she going to do with this one?
They were just a way for her to relax, the patterns. A way for her to run away from the pressures of school and dancing and just be with herself. People passed her by, but she worked until the very end. Some of them were hung up on her wall, but others were tucked away in her little drawer, waiting to be taken out and shown off to so many other people. But it always ended up in the exact same way:
“You can have it when it’s done if you want,” she murmured, taking a little plastic bag out of her backpack and dropping the cloth, the needle, and the strands of thread into it. “I mean, it won’t be done for a while, but you look like you like it a lot. You don’t even have to buy it off of me. You can just have it.” She looked up at him, setting her hands on her desk and crossing her legs at the ankles. “It can just be a gift from one friend to another… So, what do you say? Should I bring it in after it’s all done?”
Junsu only grinned at her, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them. “That sounds cool. I bet my sister would love it. My mom, too. She might even ask you to make one for her. My mom, I mean. I can give Yeheun the butterfly. She’ll like it a lot.” He sighed. “I guess I’m just not a butterfly guy, though.”
Silence.
“So, you have ballet practice today?” Junsu’s teeth were gleaming as he smiled at her. “Because I don’t have anything to do after school. You want to go to Faneuil Hall or something?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t have other stuff to do,” she said, bending over and pulling her science textbook out from underneath her chair. “You could always do your homework or something. It wouldn’t kill you to at least get some of it done, would it?”
He gave her a stone stare. “Syeira. It’s Friday. No one ever does homework on a Friday. It’s like, a middle school rule that you do not do your homework until Sunday night”
“Well, sorry if I’m the exception!”
“Well, it’s okay for you to break the rule! You have a bazillion other things that you have to do anyway! So you might as well get the boring stuff out of the way, right?”
The bell rang before Syeira could reply with a proper comeback, and their classmates piled into the classroom, one by one. All she did was hiss, “Faneuil Hall, after school. Meet me at my locker.” She’d think of a better argument-and finish up her butterfly-later. Much later.
He patted her on the head, and before he stood up to sit in his chair in a way that wouldn’t make Mr. Stauffer yell at him, he said, “Welcome to the world of the procrastinators, Syeira. I’m glad you’ve finally seen the light.”
Well, she hadn’t “seen the light” just yet. And she wasn’t really sure that she wanted to. But it was definitely a start.
Prompt: Rocky Road 12: Classroom/Dojo; Strawberry 25: Thread
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,071
Story: ROTOS
Summary: Syeira skips recess to do some sewing.
For some reason, she’d always found it kind of calming. Poking the slender needle through the cloth, watching the thread come together in a cross stitch, trying to follow the pattern that the kit prescribed. Some people found it to be too tedious, too difficult, too much work. But Mama Shvanova had taught her so much when she was younger, how to thread the needle and create hundreds and hundreds of different patterns without pricking the tips of her delicate fingers.
So while everyone else was having a good time in the cafeteria and the schoolyard, here she was, in her science classroom (which also happened to double as her social studies class, because her teacher was just that smart). Here she was with the pattern on her desk and the white cloth in her lap, pinching the needle between her thumb and her index finger. She was so close to finishing the pattern, so close. The majority of a monarch butterfly was staring up at her, firmly stitched into the cloth. All she had to do was finish filling in the butterfly’s right wing, and she would be all finished.
“Hey, what are you doing in here? Aren’t you going to go and play outside? We only get so much time for lunch and recess.”
She looked up from her lap and over toward the door, the needle falling from her fingers. Junsu was standing there, leaning against the doorway with his arms folded over his chest and his backpack hanging from one of his shoulders. “Break is kind of boring for me if you’re not there to talk to, you know,” he continued as he stepped into the classroom, walking over to the desk in front of hers and dropping his bag on the floor. “So whatcha got there?” He was straddling the chair now, resting his elbows on her desk and leaning forward. “A magazine or something And what’s this?” he added, pointing to the folded sheet of paper on her desk.
“Nah, I don’t read magazines. But you can have a look at what I’m doing if you want,” she replied, setting her work on the desk for him to see. “I’ve been working on it for a few weeks now… do you like it?”
He raised his eyebrows at the embroidery and took it into his hands. “You do this stuff? I had no idea…” He seemed to be studying the stitchery very carefully-his eyes were narrowed, and he was holding the embroidery rather close to his face. “’S really nice, Syeira. I bet it’ll look really great when you finish it,” he told her with a smile as he set it back down on the desk. “What are you going to do with it?”
That was the thing. She didn’t even know. She never knew what she was going to do with her finished works, except for the one time that she stitched a little brown rabbit for Tobias. But she’d known about that from the start. She’d promised him that she would stitch a rabbit for him once she was able to buy a new sewing kit for herself. And that was all done and over with. But what was she going to do with this one?
They were just a way for her to relax, the patterns. A way for her to run away from the pressures of school and dancing and just be with herself. People passed her by, but she worked until the very end. Some of them were hung up on her wall, but others were tucked away in her little drawer, waiting to be taken out and shown off to so many other people. But it always ended up in the exact same way:
“You can have it when it’s done if you want,” she murmured, taking a little plastic bag out of her backpack and dropping the cloth, the needle, and the strands of thread into it. “I mean, it won’t be done for a while, but you look like you like it a lot. You don’t even have to buy it off of me. You can just have it.” She looked up at him, setting her hands on her desk and crossing her legs at the ankles. “It can just be a gift from one friend to another… So, what do you say? Should I bring it in after it’s all done?”
Junsu only grinned at her, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them. “That sounds cool. I bet my sister would love it. My mom, too. She might even ask you to make one for her. My mom, I mean. I can give Yeheun the butterfly. She’ll like it a lot.” He sighed. “I guess I’m just not a butterfly guy, though.”
Silence.
“So, you have ballet practice today?” Junsu’s teeth were gleaming as he smiled at her. “Because I don’t have anything to do after school. You want to go to Faneuil Hall or something?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t have other stuff to do,” she said, bending over and pulling her science textbook out from underneath her chair. “You could always do your homework or something. It wouldn’t kill you to at least get some of it done, would it?”
He gave her a stone stare. “Syeira. It’s Friday. No one ever does homework on a Friday. It’s like, a middle school rule that you do not do your homework until Sunday night”
“Well, sorry if I’m the exception!”
“Well, it’s okay for you to break the rule! You have a bazillion other things that you have to do anyway! So you might as well get the boring stuff out of the way, right?”
The bell rang before Syeira could reply with a proper comeback, and their classmates piled into the classroom, one by one. All she did was hiss, “Faneuil Hall, after school. Meet me at my locker.” She’d think of a better argument-and finish up her butterfly-later. Much later.
He patted her on the head, and before he stood up to sit in his chair in a way that wouldn’t make Mr. Stauffer yell at him, he said, “Welcome to the world of the procrastinators, Syeira. I’m glad you’ve finally seen the light.”
Well, she hadn’t “seen the light” just yet. And she wasn’t really sure that she wanted to. But it was definitely a start.