Bubblegum Pink 10, Cotton Candy 12: Hopscotch

[bookblather]

Author: Kat
Title: Hopscotch
Story: In the Heart
Colors: Bubblegum pink 10 (Time Out), cotton candy 12 (Hopscotch) with blossom's paint-by-numbers (Summer has trouble playing in school).
Supplies and Materials: Miniature collection, canvas (Summer is maybe eight), glitter (vulnerable), novelty beads (Classmate).
Word Count: 397
Rating: PG
Summary: Summer just wanted to play.
Warnings: kids being cruel
Notes: This is just after Summer is integrated into mainstream education.


Summer didn't understand hopscotch.

She didn't think the other girls did either, of course, but that was all right for them. They could do things without understanding them—they just knew, somehow, what was supposed to happen. It was something she envied about other girls, that they knew how to talk and jump and smile at each other.

They looked like they were having so much fun. She propped her chin on her hands and watched them laughing.

--

She'd done her research. She got a book about hopscotch out of the library, actually more than one but there was only the one that was just about hopscotch, and read about it when she was done with her homework that night.

There were so many different kinds! From Russia and Nigeria and El Salvador, and Aruba and China and Czechoslovakia. Summer was quite proud that she knew how to say Czechoslovakia, and now she knew how to play their hopscotch too.

They called it Kritz. She liked that.

--

She approached them next recess, shyly, as they were drawing the hopscotch grid. "Are you playing potsy?"

The biggest girl, named Lisa, gave her a look she couldn't interpret. "No, it's hopscotch. What's potsy?"

Summer brightened. She knew this. "That's what hopscotch is called, properly. In the United States anyway. In Russia it's called Klasski, and in Trinidad it's Jumby, and Paradies Hüpfen in..."

"You're weird," Lisa said, and the girls walked off to draw their hopscotch grid somewhere else.

Summer's stomach hurt.

--

"That was rude," Lars said, when she told him about it after school. "And you were telling them such lovely things too."

"I only wanted to play with them," she said, small and aching.

Lars sighed, leaned over and ruffled her hair, his way of hugging her when she didn't want to be touched. She knew that, 'cause he'd told her. "I'm sorry, Summerchild. I wish I could make it better."

She shrugged, but it made her feel a tiny bit better.

--

When she got home, she drew the grid for Campana—that was hopscotch in Italy, and it was her favorite, with its cross-shape and simple patterns. She played it until she was good at it, until she could throw the puck into the right box every time, and hop smoothly from one to fourteen and back.

Hopscotch you could play by yourself. She'd learned that.

Comments

Feedback

[ysabetwordsmith]

Brilliantly rendered experience of any smart kid on a playground.

Re: Feedback

[bookblather]

Thank you, very much.

[isana]

Aw, poor Summer. She really does want to reach out, but somehow she can't connect with the other girls.

Either way, if I was her age, she could tell me all the ways to play hopscotch, and I would totally let her play with me. <3

[bookblather]

Summer would love to play with you. It's why she interacts best with adults, I think-- they can see what she's trying to do, and they won't be total dicks about anyone different like most kids will.

Thank you!

[auguris]

This is, in spirit, exactly like much of my elementary-school recesses. Which is my way of saying this is qutie realistic and well done.

[bookblather]

Thank you. And I'm sorry you had to go through that too. My playground experiences were about the same, until I got into GT and suddenly was playing with kids on my own intellectual level. Makes a big difference.

Anyway. Thank you.

[finch]

Her earnestness is painfully familiar. Well done.

[bookblather]

Thank you. I'm a bit surprised (and sorry) that this story strikes chords with so many people, but then, maybe I shouldn't be.

[kay_brooke]

Aw, her researching all the different kinds of hopscotch is a little heartbreaking, mostly because it seems like the exact kind of thing I did when I was in elementary school, and the other kids just don't understand.

[bookblather]

Yeah, and they don't get that she just wants to play, they think she's being stuck up or something, when all she wants to do is be friendly. Fundamental miscommunication and pretty much worst for Summer because no one's willing to even try and listen.

Thank you.

[blossomdreams]

Aww Summer :(

This reminded me a lot of when I used to look up things and many people in my class looked at me like 0_0 because of it.

I felt for Summer and hope school goes a bit better for her.

[bookblather]

It does? A little bit. She quits trying to fit in after a while, because she has an adult circle of friends (her sister's friends, mostly) who are both much more on her intellectual level and much kinder to her. And of course once she gets to college all these things are moot.

Thank you!

[shipwreck_light]

This reads like a game of hopscotch. It goes from one spot to another and then there's that one little square of sadness Summer won't quite stand on. She has the rest and she goes on and life isn't perfect, but it is good.

(Also d'aww, Lars forevers.)

[bookblather]

Lars loves his ickle babyest sister. His not-so-ickle baby sister is kind of a jerk and a troll, but he loves her too.

ANYWAY. Thank you! I'm going to pretend I was all metaphorical and smart and intended it to be like that.