Chapter Text
It started with a hairstick that fell between the floorboards, where reaching little toes couldn’t grasp. And a seven-year-old girl, only just becoming aware that she’s seen as a disappointment, knowing that the loss of the hairstick will only compound that.
She’s not sure what it was that she did—some frustrated jerk of her head, perhaps—that caused the water, trailing its straw, to bounce out of the cup at her bedside. One way or another, the hairstick was readily retrieved.
At first, they don’t believe her. When she duplicates the feat, it feels like a victory...until their expressions turn to smug concern, their voices to cloying pity.
It’s no use. She wonders if this newly-discovered talent just makes her even more of a disappointment.