(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

It's a bright, summer day at Milliways, and there is a little girl, about ten years old, sitting out on the wide stretch of grass leading down towards the lake. She has something small held in her hands, and seems to be concentrating very hard as she periodically opens and closes her hands around it.

Comments

[street_sparrow]

"Hey, Rae", Gavroche says with a broad smile, approaching clearly in her eyeline and crouching down. "What you got there?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae straightens somewhat, letting her closed hands rest on her crossed ankles as she offers Gavroche a slight, hesitant smile.

"Right now, a flower," she shows him the sunny dandelion that was once a lake pebble.

[street_sparrow]

"Nice flower." He tilts his head. "But isn't it the wrong time of year for dandelions?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Then what flower is it the time of year for?" she asks, closing her hands around the dandelion with a grin.

[street_sparrow]

"Let's see, it's just turned September... Marguerites grow now."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I don't know what those look like," the little girl says, hesitating, not having heard of that type of flower.

"D'you know asters? They bloom late September."

[street_sparrow]

"Asters... I think they might be like marguerites. Can you show me?"

It's a guess, but a shrewd one.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Lots of them grow in the park along General Aster's Way in Old Town," the girl says, closing her hands again. "They always make the beginning of Fall pretty."

When her hands open a moment later, a delicate purple daisy is nestled between them.

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche grins, delighted.

"That's the one - or close, marguerites aren't usually purple. Same family, anyway. How do you do that?"

[cook_the_rude]

"You are back already, and it is not even the autumnal equinox yet," says the man from the ice rink party whom Rae met by the lake the last time she was here.

[sunbaked_baker]

It's reflexive, letting her hands cover the small item in an idle way that may suggest there's nothing being hidden there. It's something she's had to do before.

"It's not even the spring equinox back home, either," she replies, smiling up at him. "Milliways showed up instead of my social studies classroom, today."

[cook_the_rude]

"What a relief that must be!" he smiles.

[sunbaked_baker]

"It would've been better if it had waited until math class to show up," she says with a grin. "Social Studies is more interesting."

[cook_the_rude]

"You probably get back there when you leave," the man says, with a little smile. "What do you like about social studies?"

[sunbaked_baker]

She thinks, for a moment, fiddling with the laces (green) on her shoes (sky blue). "I like that it's straight-forward and useable. It's like, here's Independencia, here's how our country and society works, and here's how we got here and who helped make it possible and important things that happened along the way."

It's context in an ongoing story.

"Math's a lot harder."

[cook_the_rude]

"I think the useful parts come much later," the man says. "When you get to do percentages and statistics and likelihoods."

[sunbaked_baker]

"I gotta get past fractions and decimals first, huh?" the girl makes a face.

Fractions and decimals shouldn't be so difficult to multiply and divide!

[herr_bookman]

And crouched down near her--but not too close--is a boy about her age plucking up grass by the handful. He raises his findings to his nose, makes a note in a journal, and that's when he spots the girl.

"What," he calls, though even that is quiet, "are you doing?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine drops the item to disappear beneath her crossed ankles, and puts her hands together as though they had always been empty.

"Nothin'," the girl answers, straightening not at all defensively. "What're you doing?"

[herr_bookman]

Autor tilts his head. "Nothing," he says. "Watching you."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Nuh-uh, you're playing with the grass," she points out.

[herr_bookman]

"Well, yes, I was--obviously--but when you asked, I was watching you, and so the grass had nothing to do with your question at the time of your asking it," the kid huffs, adjusting his glasses. "What were you playing with?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"I wasn't playing with anything," she replies, firmly.

She was practicing.

"What were you doing with the grass?"

[herr_bookman]

Autor tilts his chin and sniffs. "I asked first."

[sunbaked_baker]

"And while I've answered, you've not yet," she point out. "It's your turn."