Chapter Text
"I'm sorry but I have to go-"
"No!" a little girl latched herself to her mother refusing to leave her.
"Charlotte, honey, we already talked about this. That's why we brought Cornelius." the woman said putting the stuffed corn into her daughter's hands.
"But I don't want-"
"You can play with that nice little girl over there if you'd like." Charlotte's mother said sitting her on her legs to see the rest of the classroom.
She was pointing to a little girl with glasses that were clearly too big for her head and braids that were already coming off. She was building a tower out of blocks but when they seemed to be too tall for her, she decided to build it up sidewards which gave her tower the appearance of a stop sign. The boy she was with, however, was making a small village with little houses.
"I don't like." Charlotte simply refused.
"Or how about that other girl. She seems nice."
She pointed at the only other little girl in the classroom. She was arm-wrestling a boy. It didn't seem to be fair as they were both using both hands to put each other's down. No one seemed to be winning and both of them were determined to win.
Charlotte shook her head.
"How about that boy? He's just reading." she pointed to a boy in the corner reading a book about dinosaurs. Charlotte nodded her head before coming to a realization.
"But I can't read!"
"How can I forget?" her mother put a hand to her forehead. "You can always just talk to him. Maybe you two can play something together." she said. "Anyways, I have to go now. I can't be late for work."
"Okay." Charlotte said sitting in a chair with her stuffed corn, Cornelius who she hugged tightly as her mother left.
"Hi! What's your name?" a little girl approached her.
"Cornelius." she responded pointing at Cornelius, the stuffed corn.
"No. You."
"Charlotte."
"Hi, Charlotte. I'm Melissa." the girl said proudly introducing herself to a stuffed corn. "Charlotte, you want to play with us? Paul is being no fun." she pointed to a boy playing blocks. One of his houses has collapsed and he seems to be rebuilding it to be more structurally stable.
"Okay." she said joining the two of them.
"What are you doing?" Melissa asked Paul.
"I'm making Hatchetfield." he said showing off his creations. "This is the diner that you broke, this is the gas station, and this is the theater."
"I thought you hated the theater."
"Yeah." he said returning to work at his own miniature Hatchetfield.
"This is what I made." Melissa said pointing to a pile of blocks on the floor.
"What's that?" Charlotte asked.
"I was going to make a tower but it fell and Paul won't help me. Wanna help?"
Charlotte set Cornelius down. "Okay." she said getting some blocks and started building it up.
"You're doing it wrong." Paul said after looking up at their work for a second. "You want the bottom to be fat not the top part."
"Okay." Charlotte said following his advice.
"That's wrong." Melissa answers back. "The bigger the top, the better the tower. Have you ever seen a castle?"
"No."
"Me neither." Melissa said as she continued building up the top of the tower.
The tower ended up looking like an umbrella. Sadly, it was not too structurally stable maybe because the top was very big.
"Bill! Ted says he won!" a little girl said exasperated. "But I know I won!"
"I'm just stronger Emma!" Ted replied smugly.
"I think you should do a rematch." Bill said putting down his book to watch the two of them.
"We will." Emma said moving some hair out of the way.
She and Ted went into a ready position. Bill watched the two of them cautiously. He adjusted his collar and took a breath.
"Three, two, one, go!" he said and the two of them went at it. Emma quickly added a second arm and Ted was fast to follow. Ted started using his body weight to give himself more leverage and Emma tried to counter him by stepping on his foot. He fell to the floor in a dramatic heap. "Emma won." he said.
"No fair! She stepped on my foot."
"You put your whole body. It's supposed to be an arm wrestle!" Emma said trying to justify her actions.
"I guess we just have to do a rematch." Bill muttered quietly.
"I don't want to go again! That would be stupid, Bill!" Ted said shoving Bill onto the floor.
Bill, who was on the floor, was not trying not to cry because he is a big boy and big boys never cry. Emma noticed this and quickly helped him up.
"Why would you do that?! It's not his fault you're weak!"
"I'm not weak!" he quickly responded. "But I'm sorry." he turned to Bill. "I won't do that ever again." he turned back to Emma. "You suck!"
A silence filled the room for the next three seconds before being interrupted by a woman entering the room.
"Hello, guys!" the woman said looking out of breath. "How are you guys doing?"
"Who are you?" Ted asked.
"I'm Carol." she paused. "I'll be your teacher this year."
"What happens next year?" Charlotte asked.
"You'll probably get another teacher." she sat down at a keyboard at the front of the room. "Do you want to sing a song?"
"Yeah!" about half of them said.
Then Carol started playing the cleanup song.
They all sang along complete with some nonsensical choreography. It was clear that everybody was jamming to the cleanup song.
But no one seemed to be cleaning anything up. So Carol paused the song for a second. "Why is nobody cleaning up?"
"I don't know." Paul said.
"Because we're singing!" Emma said.
"Alright." Carol said. "But can you clean up your toys while singing?"
The sound of tiny brains blowing up to some unfathomable knowledge filled the room.
At that, Carol started playing the clean up song again. Paul was first to get up and start putting his little block houses away. The rest were quick to follow suit.