Chapter Text
5 Years Old
Daddy walks into the play yard walking to Masha’s teacher, Mr. Liam first. She taps him on the arm and points to him, darting off as soon as she’s allowed to grab his hand with a grin. He turns to the second grade section next and finds Kolya who is talking to his best friend Harper and doesn’t notice his arrival. His teacher Miss Ingrid calls his name. Kolya turns from his conversation and a grin breaks out on his face. He turns back to Harper and hugs her before jogging over to Daddy for a hug. Next, he makes his way back towards the entrance and exit where the kindergarten classes wait.
“Miss Serena!” Sonya taps her teacher’s arm and reclamps it around the handle of her walker. “My dad is here!” she points and Serena looks on and makes eye contact with a wave.
Daddy smiles back and Sonya makes her way, closing the few feet of distance. He takes her backpack and slings it over his shoulder while Masha and Kolya talk about the bridge building project the fourth graders are working on.
“Hi, baby, how was your day?” Daddy asks with a smile, leading the three of them out the exit towards where the car is parked.
She shrugs a little. “Fine,”
He opens the door for Mash to climb across to the other side. Kolya follows taking the middle seat and both of them drop their bags at their feet. Daddy helps Sonya step up into the car and get into her carseat. She buckles herself in and adjusts her blue glasses and he takes the walker and puts it in the trunk walking around the driver’s side.
“What happened, Sonechka?” he slides in and the air comes through the vents.
She shrugs again. “Coach Mike didn’t let me play in gym today,” she frowns, looking out the window.
“What?” he asks with his eyebrows scrunched.
Masha and Kolya are looking over at her now with their own downturned mouths.
It’s been happening since the start of school and she asked him after the first time it happened when she would get to play and he just kept saying they would find a way to include her and then he never did. Today when she asked at the end of gym before they filed out he said ‘It’s just too dangerous for someone like you, Sonya,’.
She isn’t totally sure what he meant by that. She’d played basketball with her dads, she was learning wheelchair tennis, and she had it on good authority that she was an excellent swimmer. Plus she did a million trillion exercises with her physical therapist Lucy and she always tells her how strong she is so it doesn’t really make sense why Coach Mike would say that.
“We were playing basketball and learning how to dribble and shoot and he told me I had to sit out,” she supplies sadly.
Masha looks alarmed and Kolya grabs her hand and Daddy looks mad and she knows if Daddy is mad then Papa is going to go super duper mad.
“Sonya, that’s not okay,” he pulls out of the spot. “Has this happened before?”
His eyes flick to the rearview mirror and she nods solemnly and suddenly she feels like did something wrong for whatever reason. “Since the beginning of the year…I’m sorry I thought…I…,” she looks at her siblings and dad.
“No honey, it’s not your fault…yes I wish you had told us sooner but, this is not your fault,” Daddy insists.
Sonya nods hesitantly.
“There’s a with a prosthetic leg in my class, Xavier,” Kolya adds. “And Coach Mike did the same thing to him and then he ran out and started playing dodge ball with us anyway. I don’t know what happened but he plays with us now,”
Daddy makes a funny noise and has an angry face and shakes his head.
“We will deal with this, honey, I promise,” Daddy says. His voice is hard and serious.
“Okay,” she says softly as the car seems to resettle slightly.
“Daddy, that’s not fair, Sonya should get to play,” Masha says always ready to defend. She turns to Sonya. “I don’t like Coach Mike anyway, he thinks only boys can be good at sports and only teaches them, it’s annoying,”
Daddy’s eye brows go up. “He does? Hm, okay, let’s move on from this topic for now. Papa and I will come up with a plan to fix this situation,” the three grumble ‘okay’s. “Now, Mash, Papa is going to take you to gymnastics, Grandma is going to take Kolya to soccer, and Sonya, I’ll go with you to see Lucy today, okay?” all three nod when Daddy’s eyes go to the mirror.
Wednesday are the busiest days with all three children having activities. “Is Grandpa cooking?”
“Yes! He’s making pasta with broccoli and sausage,” Daddy pulls into the driveway opening the garage. “Mash, Papa will be home soon, he’s on a run with Anya, go get changed for soccer because you’ll leave soon and then you can start your homework before you go, yeah?”
“Mhm,” she answers absently already unbuckled pulling her backpack up. He opens the door for her and Kolya.
“Same for you, Niko! Get dressed, get homework out then I’ll get you all a snack,”
“Okay!” he shouts half way inside already.
He gets Sonya’s walker out of the back and rounds to her side of the car, helping her step down.
Most of the time it didn’t bother her…her disability. Cerebral palsy impacts her life, it’s just the truth, but her dads have always made sure she felt like she could do anything she wanted. She’s learning adaptive sports, they adapt everything to include her, they even moved to a sprawling one story house close to their old home so she wouldn’t have to be on a different floor from everyone.
But today and as she’s gotten older she’s realized how inconvenient it is. Why can her siblings just run in inside and she needs to wait for Daddy or Papa to come help her get out of the car? Why does she have to spend half of her week going to PT when Masha and Kolya go play sports and don’t have to teach their legs to move right? Today she’s facing just how much she’s excluded from.
Daddy doesn’t say anything maybe reading her face. Sometimes he doesn’t get when someone is being silly but he always know what Sonya, Kolya, Masha, or Papa needs and right now he knows she’s not ready to talk about it.
Grandpa is in the kitchen moving things around in the fridge and Grandma is at the table reading with her glasses on and they smile when Sonya walks in and then Papa comes in with an excited Anya a second later and there’s a kiss on her head and she’s joining Grandma at the table and Daddy put a plate of carrots, hummus, apples, and peanut butter in front of her. Her favorite after school snack. Masha and Kolya come out with their homework folders in their clothes and have plates dropped in front of them. Kolya has pretzels, hummus, and cucumbers and Masha has apples, peanut butter, cucumbers, and pretzels. Grandma and Grandpa help them with homework and Papa and Daddy disappear somewhere and when they come back Papa’s face looks tight and then it feels like suddenly it’s time to go.
Everyone disperses with their adults and Anya and Grandpa say goodbye, Anya mostly does by whining as they all walk out the door.
In the car with Daddy they listen to some folk music that Grandma showed Sonya and she stares out the window, knocking her left foot against the seat.
Session with Lucy is good. She helps Sonya stretch which keeps her muscles from contracting and some core strength exercises. She checks Sonya’s braces to make sure they still fit well and aren’t rubbing her skin. She even got to practice on the monkey bars today which she’s been working on for a few weeks.
“How are you liking tennis?” Lucy asks as they are finishing up. Daddy sits away, but watches, smiling with lots of encouragement.
Sonya nods, settling against the walker. “I like it, it’s fun to play sports…I like playing in a group though I think, like when I play games at recess with my friends,” she pushes her glasses up her nose.
Lucy nods in understanding. “Maybe a team sport is more your jam. There’s wheelchair basketball…oh…or sled hockey! I don’t know any leagues for that though, but I’m sure there’s some around,” she smiles. They watched sledge hockey in the Olympics last year and it was super fun rooting for Canada. They ended up beating the US 6-5 in the final game. “Have you tried anything you’re interested in during PE at school?”
Sonya frowns instantly. “Oh…well my PE coach makes me sit out but maybe I’ll talk to Papa and Daddy about sledge hockey…I didn’t know girls played too, we only watched the men's team during the Olympics,”
“Sof, what? Your teacher makes you sit out even though you are allowed to participate?” Sonya blinks and nods. “And yeah it’s really dumb that there’s no Olympic women’s sledge hockey team but there are other professional teams and a Canadian National team,”
With a little smile she looks at Lucy, her bright blonde hair tied back in a tight ponytail and her green eye blinking warmly back at her. “Oh…,”
Lucy grins, her pink cheeks pushing out. “Yeah, girl, you can do whatever you want,” she stands from her stool. “Now…let’s get you out of here and I’m gonna talk to your dad about this coach,” she rolls her eyes and Sonya giggles.
She sits on an exercise ball while she waits. Daddy types things in his phone and she hears Lucy say she will email him something and they hug and say goodbye and he drives them home with a promise that she can have a popsicle after dinner.
Papa is back with Masha when they return, on the couch with Mash’s head in his lap and her legs stretched out while Anya lays against her. Daddy and Papa have a conversation with no words like they sometimes do and then Sonya is ushered off to go play in her room until it’s time for dinner.
She pulls out her train tracks to keep working on a big one she started over the weekend. She doesn’t now how much time passes, but Masha comes in, her eyes looking red and sad, and just sits with Sonya watching her build. She does this sometimes when she isn’t feeling good and Sonya likes the company even if they don’t talk. Eventually she helps make the loop larger using a curved piece to expand a section outward. They set up the little trees and train station and people and connect all of the trains Sonya has together and just as they’re about to test it—
“Dinner, malyshka and kotik,” Papa pokes his curly head in gently taking in the scene on the floor. “Wow, little conductors, very cool!”
Masha smiles a little reaches out a hand to Sonya and helps her up, pulling her walker close, shifting the track slightly so she can get by. “Thanks, Papa,” Sonya grins, brushing by him.
They eat and talk about soccer and PT and Masha does not talk about gymnastics but she tells everyone more about her bridge project and Daddy talks about one of his silly rookies doing not the right things on the ice. He’s coaching just a little for the Centaurs with Uncle Brandon because he asked him and Papa says that Daddy really misses playing but is so glad he gets to spend more time with his family. Papa talks about being approached by some adaptive sports people to start working on funds to help people pay for adaptive equipment.
“I want to try sledge hockey!” Sonya bursts the second Papa is finished with his last word.
Grins grow on all the grown up’s faces. “Yeah?” Daddy asks.
Sonya nods and stabs a pasta. “Yeah Lucy said there are girl teams and that even though it’s not in the Olympics there are still…um…real teams,” she can’t remember the word she said.
“Yes, there are college and professional teams, Sonechka, we would love to find you a team to join. You did not say anything when we watched the Olympics last year,” Papa says questioningly, tilting his head.
“I didn’t know girls play,” Sonya answers.
Papa and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa look between each other. “I’m sorry we didn’t let you know that, Sonya, we should have…the women’s league isn’t as big,” the grown ups share a look. “But there are absolutely teams. We will find you one, okay baby? And maybe we can see the national team play! All of us!”
Masha and Kolya smile and nod too around bites of food.
“Okay, Daddy!” Sonya squeals excited for the first time all afternoon.
-
“So you’re going to walk in with us?” Masha asks as they unload from the car.
Papa shakes his head. “No, malyshka, you will do normal arrival and we are going to the front office because we have a meeting,”
She asks in a stage whisper all of them can hear “Is this about Coach Mike?”
Papa smiles a little and then puts his mouth flat again. “Da, Masha, do not talk about this with your classmates, okay?” He looks at all of them, helping Sonya down. “All of you,”
“Yes, Papa,” they chorus, pulling on backpacks and walking towards the main entrance.
Children are filing in. Papa and Daddy give them all hugs and kisses before they let all the kids walk a little ahead. They are dressed nicely, Daddy in his light blue button down with the sleeves rolled up and black pants and Papa in a soft black long sleeve with a leather jacket and dark rolled up blue jeans.
None of the kids hear about what happens with Coach Mike.
All Sonya knows is that he has a huge packet of information printed out clutched in his hands as he apologizes to her and tells her she can participate and they will make accommodations and find ways for her to join in. They are still working on basketball and she’s one of two people in her group who actually sink it.
Three weeks later they hire another coach…Coach Wendy and she is the best most fun coach ever and she treats the boys and girls the same and she always makes sure to ask Sonya if she needs something adapted and has tools ready if needed.
She also knows that it’s through Coach Wendy that she finds her first kids sledge hockey team and falls in love for the first time in her little life.