Simoun Kindergarten, Round 17
Over the weekend at Otakon, I finished the rest of the drabbles needed for this round. I've actually started on round 18, with one drabble started in my notebook and another started on my computer. Getting very close to finishing at 100. 7 to go until I have the drabbles done for the summer and 15 until I have 100. So here we go!
Morinas’s Visit to the Principal
Morinas kicked her legs back and forth as she sat in the chair with her chin in her hands. She still didn’t understand why she was sitting here. All she had done was take Floe’s doll apart, but the teacher had made her put it back together. It was as good as new when she’d finished. The teacher had still decided that she needed to go to the principal’s office. She didn’t even have her toolkit. Not only had the teacher taken her screwdriver, but she’d taken all her tools once she’d found the kit in her book bag.
“Let’s see… Morinas is it? Why don’t you and I have a talk?”
Sliding off the chair, Morinas looked up at the young man who she had been told was the principal. She had never really seen him before, but some of her other classmates had talked about going to visit with him. Even Neviril had seen him, and she hardly ever got in trouble. She hadn’t heard anyone say he was mean, but she was still nervous.
She climbed into the chair in front of his desk and sat quietly. He sat down and settled in, looking at her. “I didn’t do anything bad,” she stated.
“Everyone says that, Morinas. However, your teacher tells me you took apart another classmate’s toy without her permission. Is that true?”
“But she wasn’t playing with it!”
“Morinas, you can’t take someone’s toy just because they aren’t playing with it. It’s not okay to do that. What if it had broken? Or what if you couldn’t have put it back together?”
“But I fixed it?”
“What if you couldn’t?” He looked at her a bit strictly, hoping to get his point across. He hadn’t had many students like her before, but it was always his goal to get them to see that there was a time to take things apart, and a time not to.
“I don’t know…”
“If you’d broken her toy, what do you think would have happened?” He smiled gently. “Think about it.”
Morinas scrunched up her face in thought. “Well… I woulda gotten in trouble and lost my toolkit. My mom always takes it from me.”
“What about Floe? How would she have felt?”
“Maybe sad? She would have yelled a lot. She’s really loud.”
“What if it was your toy?”
“My cousin broke my toy once… she broke my Simoun.”
“How did you feel?”
“I cried ‘cause that was my birthday gift. I really liked it.”
Wauf nodded. He had a feeling he would have been able to get through to her. “That’s how Floe would have felt if you’d broken her doll.”
“Ohh…”
“Morinas, I want you to go back and apologize to Floe. However, if you are back in here again for taking someone’s toy apart, we will have to have a very serious talk. I think your teacher will be giving your toolkit to your mother today and speaking to her about the incident.”
Morinas left the principal’s office feeling down. She didn’t mind having visited the principal’s office. She was more upset because she’d lost her toolkit and her mother would find out what had happened. It wouldn’t be a very pleasant evening for her, that much she knew.
- Morinas
Surprise!
Rodoreamon carefully picked out the colors for her drawing, setting them beside her paper. She had chosen to play by herself today, and no one had bothered her when she’d asked politely to be left alone. She had pulled out the crayon bucket and a few pieces of paper. For a time, she had sat staring at her classmates because she didn’t know what to draw. Drawing wasn’t often something she did.
Time ticked by, and she knew that if she didn’t draw something, she’d not finish before the day ended, and she had to. She picked up a dark blue crayon and began drawing. After a few moments, she realized that wasn’t quite what she wanted to draw. It just wasn’t right. She crumpled up the piece into a ball and set it aside. She pulled a new piece from her stack and began thinking again.
This time she picked up a pink crayon and once more set to working on a new picture, different from the one before. However, a few minutes later, she crumpled that piece up as well. It wasn’t right either. She rested her head on one of her hands, frowning. Why was it so hard to draw something good? She needed a good picture before free play ended. She looked to her small pile of crayons. None of them seemed just right. Once more, she observed her classmates. All of them seemed able to draw more easily than her. Her eyes alighted on something and she knew what she wanted to draw. She picked up a brown crayon and pressed it to paper.
She finished her drawing with time to spare. As she set down the pink crayon in her hand, she gazed down at her finished picture. It was colorful, but most of all, the picture itself made her smile. She knew it was perfect, much better than the other attempts. She flipped the paper over and printed her name neatly. Once that was done, she began cleaning up her area. All the crayons were placed back into the crayon bucket. The crayon bucket was then put back on the shelf where it belonged. She took the crumpled balls of paper and placed them into the trashcan.
Once more she picked up her drawing and looked at it. She then looked around the classroom and made her way to the kitchen area. The drawing was tucked behind her back because she didn’t want it to be seen right away.
“What do you want?” asked Mamiina, not looking up from her cooking. She was making a mixture of various plastic foods in a large bowl.
“I have something for you,” called Rodoreamon softly. She held nervously to her picture.
Mamiina turned around. On her shirt was a large teal sticker. She hadn’t been very happy to have to wear it. It made her stand out and everyone had spoken to her. Her name had even been added to the sticker by the secretary. “What?”
“I made you this,” stated Rodoreamon shyly, pulling out her picturing and showing Mamiina. On the paper was a crayon drawing of the two girls side by side, playing with some of Rodoreamon’s plush toys. “I wanted to make your birthday gift. Happy birthday, Mamiina.”
Mamiina took the picture without a word, looking quietly down at the paper. “You made it for me?”
“Yeah. I wanted you to have a birthday gift that was special.”
Smiling, Mamiina hugged her. “Thanks.” She looked down at the picture again. “I like it.”
“Father said I could give you a special birthday dinner too. The cooks will make all your favorites.”
Her eyes lit up. “Can I help?”
Rodoreamon nodded. “Yeah.”
Mamiina looked around the classroom and then at Rodoreamon. “Can you keep a secret?”
“I’m good with secrets.”
“I really like this birthday. But don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Okay!”
- Rodoreamon & Mamiina
Floe’s Visit to the Principal
Floe growled softly as the teacher walked her to the principal’s office. She didn’t want to go to the principal’s office. She’d dried up her tears as soon as the teacher told her she’d go visit him. She didn’t want to go see that man.
“Floe,” began Principal Wauf, “come have a seat. You and I need to talk.”
He did not look too pleased with her and she lowered her head. Maybe if she acted really sad and upset, he wouldn’t be so mad at her. She lowered her head as she climbed up into the chair he pointed to.
“I didn’t mean to,” she stated softly, tears welling up in her eyes as she pinched her fingers together to make herself cry.
“Floe, pulling a fire alarm is a very serious offense. It is something I would need to call the police for if it kept happening. Plus, you pulled all of the other students and teachers out of their classrooms for a fake fire alarm. It wasn’t even a drill.”
“I know…”
“I’m very disappointed that you would pull it like that. What made you want to pull it?” He looked over at her sternly.
“I… I wanted to see what it would do. The teachers said we should only pull it if there was a fire… but I didn’t think that was true.”
“Did you think your teacher was lying to you?”
“No…maybe… it seemed like fun…”
“Floe, your teacher doesn’t lie to you on purpose. She doesn’t even lie to you. She’s trying to keep you safe.”
“But it seemed like she was!” protested Floe.
“Floe!” commanded Wauf. “Your teacher is not going to lie to you.”
“Okay…”
“Now, I do need to call your parents and let them know you’ve done. This is something they have to be made aware of, and no amount of tears is going to change that.”
“But I don’t want them to know…”
“It has to be done, Floe. I hope that next time you’ll listen to your teacher and not think she’s going to lie to you.”
“Are you sure?” asked Floe, pressing her luck. She wasn’t quite sure a teacher wouldn’t lie.
“Yes, Floe, your teacher is not going to lie to you,” replied Wauf, enunciating every word. He looked at the young girl closely across his desk. She looked back at him with those big blue eyes and “innocent” face, and he knew he was going to be seeing more of her. Her attitude and manner said it all.
“Can I go back to class now?” she asked.
“What are you not going to do?”
“Pull the fire alarm again. I don’t want to pull it anymore.”
“That’s right. All right. Head back to class. I’ll have the secretary call down to your classroom to let your teacher know that you’ll be coming.”
With a final soft growl, Floe slid off the chair and headed for the door. She didn’t look back at the principal. She didn’t want to speak to him again, especially since he was calling her parents. As she headed down the hallway, she looked toward the fire alarm, which was being reset by some other man she didn’t recognize. She wasn’t going to pull it again. She didn’t want to hear that noise ever again. Still, he was calling her parents and that wouldn’t be good. She didn’t want them to know; she would really be in trouble when they found out.
- Floe
Babies
“Are there any other questions?” the teacher held the storybook in her lap. She had just read “The Farmer in the Dell” to the girls, who had happily participated in the familiar song. She looked around at the hands raised in the air. “Aaeru, what’s your question?”
“Teacher, where do babies come from?” asked Aaeru, wide eyed and innocent. She placed her hand back into her lap and waited patiently.
“Aaeru, that’s not really a question about the story,” replied the teacher, hoping to divert the girl’s attention to other things. “Why don’t you ask another question instead?”
“But I want to know the answer to that question. Where do babies come from?” persisted Aaeru.
“You’re stupid, Aaeru. You don’t ask that!” interrupted Mamiina.
“Why not?” Aaeru frowned at Mamiina.
“Aaeru, it’s just not a question that’s appropriate for school,” replied the teacher. “And Mamiina, that’s not how we treat our friends. Please do not call names.”
“What’s ‘appropriate’?”
The teacher sighed heavily. She should have known that she was going to have to explain the term to the young girl. “Aaeru, appropriate means it’s okay to ask anybody. That’s something you shouldn’t ask in school.”
“I just want to know though. Can’t you tell me?”
“I can!” shouted Floe. “I can tell you, Aaeru!” She squirmed in her seat and turned to face Aaeru, grinning.
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
“Floe, you will not tell Aaeru where babies come from,” interrupted the teacher. She felt as though she was losing the battle for control in the classroom to a pair of five year olds. She continued to try and defuse the situation. If only she could get them to ask about something else, she would be happy.
“See, first your mom and dad do a special dance. They make lots of noise and dance a lot. Then-“
“FLOE!” shouted the teacher, causing all the girls to wince and hold their ears. “I asked you not to do that.
“But she wanted to know!” protested Floe.
“And I asked you not to tell her. Please go sit at your table spot until you and I can have a talk about your actions and listening to what I’ve said.”
Huffing, Floe got up from her seat on the rug and stomped over to her table spot. Before she could sit down, the teacher spoke up. “Floe, please come back and walk correctly to your table. We do not stomp.” Floe turned around and did as asked, exaggerating her steps. However, the teacher decided not to comment and pick her battles wisely. “Now, Aaeru, I’d like you to ask another question. If you can’t think of another question, we will move on to the next activity instead.”
Aaeru crossed her arms and pouted. “No, I don’t have another question. I just wanted to know the answer to that one.” She looked down at the rug.
“All right then. Class, let’s move to our table spots. I’d like you to sit quietly while I pass out your reading workbooks and we’ll work on the pages for today. You are dismissed.”
All the girls did as they were asked. The teacher turned around to put the book back with her stack. She felt a tug on her pants leg and turned to address the student. She noticed it was Aaeru. “Yes, Aaeru?”
“Teacher, can you answer my question later?”
The teacher sighed once more. “No, Aaeru. I cannot answer your question. Please go to your seat.” She watched the girl do as instructed and had a feeling her grandpa would be the next person that she would ask. She wondered if she should warn him. Then again, letting her catch him off guard could be amusing too. She knew how easily Aaeru could do that to a person.
- Aaeru & Floe
Mysterious Desk Drawer
Morinas lay on her stomach in the block center, running cars back and forth across the road rug. She was engrossed in her play and didn’t hear anyone come up behind her.
“Hey Morinas!” called a voice.
Morinas jumped and turned her head. “Dominura!” The older girl had her arms crossed. Morinas wondered if she’d done something to make her mad.
Dominura knelt down by Morinas and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You wanna help me with something? I need you to help me get into something.”
“Like take it apart?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool! What do I have to do?” asked Morinas.
Dominura whispered her plan to Morinas. Morinas’s eyes lit up. To her, it didn’t matter what Dominura wanted to do. All that really mattered was that it involved taking something apart.
The plan was put into action the very next day. The teacher was busy playing in the kitchen with Neviril, Paraietta, Rodoreamon, and Mamiina. She didn’t notice Dominura and Morinas slip behind her desk.
“Okay. You need to break the lock,” whispered Dominura.
“It’ll be easy.” Morinas pulled out her toolkit. She’d had to sneak it to school
While Morinas worked, Dominura kept watch on the classroom. She didn’t want any of the other students to mess up her plan. She wanted to see what was in the drawer. She had seen the teacher place something inside the drawer and lock it yesterday morning. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen it happen. Every week or so, the teacher would put something new in the drawer. She always locked it. Dominura was curious and wanted to find out now. She wanted to find out what the latest item was, ignoring the school rules about not bothering others’ property.
She heard a giggle behind her and turned around. “That was too easy!” cried Morinas.
“Shhh!” hissed Dominura. “You’re gonna get us in trouble.”
Morinas pulled open the drawer. “Let’s see what’s inside!”
On top of the pile was a photograph. Dominura reached inside and picked it up. Her eyes went wide, and she started shaking. She let the picture flutter to the floor. Morinas, who hadn’t seen the picture yet, bent over and picked it up. It had landed with the white side up.
“Hey! You dropped it!” whispered Morinas as she flipped it over in her hands.
Dominura only replied in strange broken sentences. Pic…memories are… orange…”
“What are you saying?” asked Morinas, confused. She looked down at the picture. There was her teacher, dressed in a bikini, standing beside a man wearing a tight speedo. To her, they just looked like funny swimsuits. She didn’t understand what was making Dominura shake so much.
“My mom was watching some TV show…the woman in the bikini…her memories… I saw them…”
“What are you talking about?” asked Morinas.
Dominura, however, would not answer her. She continued to shake. Morinas looked down at the picture, thinking that there might have been something she had missed. It was just a picture to her. Nothing more.
- Dominura & Morinas
Morinas’s Visit to the Principal
Morinas kicked her legs back and forth as she sat in the chair with her chin in her hands. She still didn’t understand why she was sitting here. All she had done was take Floe’s doll apart, but the teacher had made her put it back together. It was as good as new when she’d finished. The teacher had still decided that she needed to go to the principal’s office. She didn’t even have her toolkit. Not only had the teacher taken her screwdriver, but she’d taken all her tools once she’d found the kit in her book bag.
“Let’s see… Morinas is it? Why don’t you and I have a talk?”
Sliding off the chair, Morinas looked up at the young man who she had been told was the principal. She had never really seen him before, but some of her other classmates had talked about going to visit with him. Even Neviril had seen him, and she hardly ever got in trouble. She hadn’t heard anyone say he was mean, but she was still nervous.
She climbed into the chair in front of his desk and sat quietly. He sat down and settled in, looking at her. “I didn’t do anything bad,” she stated.
“Everyone says that, Morinas. However, your teacher tells me you took apart another classmate’s toy without her permission. Is that true?”
“But she wasn’t playing with it!”
“Morinas, you can’t take someone’s toy just because they aren’t playing with it. It’s not okay to do that. What if it had broken? Or what if you couldn’t have put it back together?”
“But I fixed it?”
“What if you couldn’t?” He looked at her a bit strictly, hoping to get his point across. He hadn’t had many students like her before, but it was always his goal to get them to see that there was a time to take things apart, and a time not to.
“I don’t know…”
“If you’d broken her toy, what do you think would have happened?” He smiled gently. “Think about it.”
Morinas scrunched up her face in thought. “Well… I woulda gotten in trouble and lost my toolkit. My mom always takes it from me.”
“What about Floe? How would she have felt?”
“Maybe sad? She would have yelled a lot. She’s really loud.”
“What if it was your toy?”
“My cousin broke my toy once… she broke my Simoun.”
“How did you feel?”
“I cried ‘cause that was my birthday gift. I really liked it.”
Wauf nodded. He had a feeling he would have been able to get through to her. “That’s how Floe would have felt if you’d broken her doll.”
“Ohh…”
“Morinas, I want you to go back and apologize to Floe. However, if you are back in here again for taking someone’s toy apart, we will have to have a very serious talk. I think your teacher will be giving your toolkit to your mother today and speaking to her about the incident.”
Morinas left the principal’s office feeling down. She didn’t mind having visited the principal’s office. She was more upset because she’d lost her toolkit and her mother would find out what had happened. It wouldn’t be a very pleasant evening for her, that much she knew.
- Morinas
Surprise!
Rodoreamon carefully picked out the colors for her drawing, setting them beside her paper. She had chosen to play by herself today, and no one had bothered her when she’d asked politely to be left alone. She had pulled out the crayon bucket and a few pieces of paper. For a time, she had sat staring at her classmates because she didn’t know what to draw. Drawing wasn’t often something she did.
Time ticked by, and she knew that if she didn’t draw something, she’d not finish before the day ended, and she had to. She picked up a dark blue crayon and began drawing. After a few moments, she realized that wasn’t quite what she wanted to draw. It just wasn’t right. She crumpled up the piece into a ball and set it aside. She pulled a new piece from her stack and began thinking again.
This time she picked up a pink crayon and once more set to working on a new picture, different from the one before. However, a few minutes later, she crumpled that piece up as well. It wasn’t right either. She rested her head on one of her hands, frowning. Why was it so hard to draw something good? She needed a good picture before free play ended. She looked to her small pile of crayons. None of them seemed just right. Once more, she observed her classmates. All of them seemed able to draw more easily than her. Her eyes alighted on something and she knew what she wanted to draw. She picked up a brown crayon and pressed it to paper.
She finished her drawing with time to spare. As she set down the pink crayon in her hand, she gazed down at her finished picture. It was colorful, but most of all, the picture itself made her smile. She knew it was perfect, much better than the other attempts. She flipped the paper over and printed her name neatly. Once that was done, she began cleaning up her area. All the crayons were placed back into the crayon bucket. The crayon bucket was then put back on the shelf where it belonged. She took the crumpled balls of paper and placed them into the trashcan.
Once more she picked up her drawing and looked at it. She then looked around the classroom and made her way to the kitchen area. The drawing was tucked behind her back because she didn’t want it to be seen right away.
“What do you want?” asked Mamiina, not looking up from her cooking. She was making a mixture of various plastic foods in a large bowl.
“I have something for you,” called Rodoreamon softly. She held nervously to her picture.
Mamiina turned around. On her shirt was a large teal sticker. She hadn’t been very happy to have to wear it. It made her stand out and everyone had spoken to her. Her name had even been added to the sticker by the secretary. “What?”
“I made you this,” stated Rodoreamon shyly, pulling out her picturing and showing Mamiina. On the paper was a crayon drawing of the two girls side by side, playing with some of Rodoreamon’s plush toys. “I wanted to make your birthday gift. Happy birthday, Mamiina.”
Mamiina took the picture without a word, looking quietly down at the paper. “You made it for me?”
“Yeah. I wanted you to have a birthday gift that was special.”
Smiling, Mamiina hugged her. “Thanks.” She looked down at the picture again. “I like it.”
“Father said I could give you a special birthday dinner too. The cooks will make all your favorites.”
Her eyes lit up. “Can I help?”
Rodoreamon nodded. “Yeah.”
Mamiina looked around the classroom and then at Rodoreamon. “Can you keep a secret?”
“I’m good with secrets.”
“I really like this birthday. But don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Okay!”
- Rodoreamon & Mamiina
Floe’s Visit to the Principal
Floe growled softly as the teacher walked her to the principal’s office. She didn’t want to go to the principal’s office. She’d dried up her tears as soon as the teacher told her she’d go visit him. She didn’t want to go see that man.
“Floe,” began Principal Wauf, “come have a seat. You and I need to talk.”
He did not look too pleased with her and she lowered her head. Maybe if she acted really sad and upset, he wouldn’t be so mad at her. She lowered her head as she climbed up into the chair he pointed to.
“I didn’t mean to,” she stated softly, tears welling up in her eyes as she pinched her fingers together to make herself cry.
“Floe, pulling a fire alarm is a very serious offense. It is something I would need to call the police for if it kept happening. Plus, you pulled all of the other students and teachers out of their classrooms for a fake fire alarm. It wasn’t even a drill.”
“I know…”
“I’m very disappointed that you would pull it like that. What made you want to pull it?” He looked over at her sternly.
“I… I wanted to see what it would do. The teachers said we should only pull it if there was a fire… but I didn’t think that was true.”
“Did you think your teacher was lying to you?”
“No…maybe… it seemed like fun…”
“Floe, your teacher doesn’t lie to you on purpose. She doesn’t even lie to you. She’s trying to keep you safe.”
“But it seemed like she was!” protested Floe.
“Floe!” commanded Wauf. “Your teacher is not going to lie to you.”
“Okay…”
“Now, I do need to call your parents and let them know you’ve done. This is something they have to be made aware of, and no amount of tears is going to change that.”
“But I don’t want them to know…”
“It has to be done, Floe. I hope that next time you’ll listen to your teacher and not think she’s going to lie to you.”
“Are you sure?” asked Floe, pressing her luck. She wasn’t quite sure a teacher wouldn’t lie.
“Yes, Floe, your teacher is not going to lie to you,” replied Wauf, enunciating every word. He looked at the young girl closely across his desk. She looked back at him with those big blue eyes and “innocent” face, and he knew he was going to be seeing more of her. Her attitude and manner said it all.
“Can I go back to class now?” she asked.
“What are you not going to do?”
“Pull the fire alarm again. I don’t want to pull it anymore.”
“That’s right. All right. Head back to class. I’ll have the secretary call down to your classroom to let your teacher know that you’ll be coming.”
With a final soft growl, Floe slid off the chair and headed for the door. She didn’t look back at the principal. She didn’t want to speak to him again, especially since he was calling her parents. As she headed down the hallway, she looked toward the fire alarm, which was being reset by some other man she didn’t recognize. She wasn’t going to pull it again. She didn’t want to hear that noise ever again. Still, he was calling her parents and that wouldn’t be good. She didn’t want them to know; she would really be in trouble when they found out.
- Floe
Babies
“Are there any other questions?” the teacher held the storybook in her lap. She had just read “The Farmer in the Dell” to the girls, who had happily participated in the familiar song. She looked around at the hands raised in the air. “Aaeru, what’s your question?”
“Teacher, where do babies come from?” asked Aaeru, wide eyed and innocent. She placed her hand back into her lap and waited patiently.
“Aaeru, that’s not really a question about the story,” replied the teacher, hoping to divert the girl’s attention to other things. “Why don’t you ask another question instead?”
“But I want to know the answer to that question. Where do babies come from?” persisted Aaeru.
“You’re stupid, Aaeru. You don’t ask that!” interrupted Mamiina.
“Why not?” Aaeru frowned at Mamiina.
“Aaeru, it’s just not a question that’s appropriate for school,” replied the teacher. “And Mamiina, that’s not how we treat our friends. Please do not call names.”
“What’s ‘appropriate’?”
The teacher sighed heavily. She should have known that she was going to have to explain the term to the young girl. “Aaeru, appropriate means it’s okay to ask anybody. That’s something you shouldn’t ask in school.”
“I just want to know though. Can’t you tell me?”
“I can!” shouted Floe. “I can tell you, Aaeru!” She squirmed in her seat and turned to face Aaeru, grinning.
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
“Floe, you will not tell Aaeru where babies come from,” interrupted the teacher. She felt as though she was losing the battle for control in the classroom to a pair of five year olds. She continued to try and defuse the situation. If only she could get them to ask about something else, she would be happy.
“See, first your mom and dad do a special dance. They make lots of noise and dance a lot. Then-“
“FLOE!” shouted the teacher, causing all the girls to wince and hold their ears. “I asked you not to do that.
“But she wanted to know!” protested Floe.
“And I asked you not to tell her. Please go sit at your table spot until you and I can have a talk about your actions and listening to what I’ve said.”
Huffing, Floe got up from her seat on the rug and stomped over to her table spot. Before she could sit down, the teacher spoke up. “Floe, please come back and walk correctly to your table. We do not stomp.” Floe turned around and did as asked, exaggerating her steps. However, the teacher decided not to comment and pick her battles wisely. “Now, Aaeru, I’d like you to ask another question. If you can’t think of another question, we will move on to the next activity instead.”
Aaeru crossed her arms and pouted. “No, I don’t have another question. I just wanted to know the answer to that one.” She looked down at the rug.
“All right then. Class, let’s move to our table spots. I’d like you to sit quietly while I pass out your reading workbooks and we’ll work on the pages for today. You are dismissed.”
All the girls did as they were asked. The teacher turned around to put the book back with her stack. She felt a tug on her pants leg and turned to address the student. She noticed it was Aaeru. “Yes, Aaeru?”
“Teacher, can you answer my question later?”
The teacher sighed once more. “No, Aaeru. I cannot answer your question. Please go to your seat.” She watched the girl do as instructed and had a feeling her grandpa would be the next person that she would ask. She wondered if she should warn him. Then again, letting her catch him off guard could be amusing too. She knew how easily Aaeru could do that to a person.
- Aaeru & Floe
Mysterious Desk Drawer
Morinas lay on her stomach in the block center, running cars back and forth across the road rug. She was engrossed in her play and didn’t hear anyone come up behind her.
“Hey Morinas!” called a voice.
Morinas jumped and turned her head. “Dominura!” The older girl had her arms crossed. Morinas wondered if she’d done something to make her mad.
Dominura knelt down by Morinas and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You wanna help me with something? I need you to help me get into something.”
“Like take it apart?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool! What do I have to do?” asked Morinas.
Dominura whispered her plan to Morinas. Morinas’s eyes lit up. To her, it didn’t matter what Dominura wanted to do. All that really mattered was that it involved taking something apart.
The plan was put into action the very next day. The teacher was busy playing in the kitchen with Neviril, Paraietta, Rodoreamon, and Mamiina. She didn’t notice Dominura and Morinas slip behind her desk.
“Okay. You need to break the lock,” whispered Dominura.
“It’ll be easy.” Morinas pulled out her toolkit. She’d had to sneak it to school
While Morinas worked, Dominura kept watch on the classroom. She didn’t want any of the other students to mess up her plan. She wanted to see what was in the drawer. She had seen the teacher place something inside the drawer and lock it yesterday morning. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen it happen. Every week or so, the teacher would put something new in the drawer. She always locked it. Dominura was curious and wanted to find out now. She wanted to find out what the latest item was, ignoring the school rules about not bothering others’ property.
She heard a giggle behind her and turned around. “That was too easy!” cried Morinas.
“Shhh!” hissed Dominura. “You’re gonna get us in trouble.”
Morinas pulled open the drawer. “Let’s see what’s inside!”
On top of the pile was a photograph. Dominura reached inside and picked it up. Her eyes went wide, and she started shaking. She let the picture flutter to the floor. Morinas, who hadn’t seen the picture yet, bent over and picked it up. It had landed with the white side up.
“Hey! You dropped it!” whispered Morinas as she flipped it over in her hands.
Dominura only replied in strange broken sentences. Pic…memories are… orange…”
“What are you saying?” asked Morinas, confused. She looked down at the picture. There was her teacher, dressed in a bikini, standing beside a man wearing a tight speedo. To her, they just looked like funny swimsuits. She didn’t understand what was making Dominura shake so much.
“My mom was watching some TV show…the woman in the bikini…her memories… I saw them…”
“What are you talking about?” asked Morinas.
Dominura, however, would not answer her. She continued to shake. Morinas looked down at the picture, thinking that there might have been something she had missed. It was just a picture to her. Nothing more.
- Dominura & Morinas