Preview of the first half of my alphabet fanfic if anyone's interested!
Even at the tender age of seven, Rachel Larson was well aware that she didn’t exactly fit in well with the other kids.
And it wasn’t for her lack of trying. Every morning she would get up and have her mom do her hair in a ponytail like the other girls even though she preferred it braided. She shared her toys with them and she even watched Rainbow Brite even though it came on at the same time as Fraggle Rock. And she liked Fraggle Rock a lot more. But if all the girls were talking about Rainbow Brite, she wanted to be able to participate in the discussion.
And yet, every attempt to fit in just failed miserably. Kids were cruel. Too cruel, sometimes. Because kids, as imaginative as they were, were blissfully unaware of how hurtful words could be unless they were on the receiving end of them. Being told you aren’t invited to Stephanie’s birthday party because you’re annoying and she doesn’t like you can be damaging at such a young age.
Abed Nadir was eight years old, in the second grade, and therefore usually uninterested in the goings on of the first graders. His recesses were usually spent reading his comic books, even if he already read them 27 times before. He always had time to appreciate the storylines and artwork. And it’s not like the other kids were in a hurry to play with him, anyway.
Today’s schedule was thrown off, however, when a blonde first grade girl was found sitting in his usual spot. “Excuse me, but I usually sit here.” He informed her politely.
Rachel managed to tear her gaze away from the group of girls frolicking, each with a Rainbow Brite Doll, to look up at the older child. “Sorry.” She muttered, before kicking her legs up from under the picnic table and spinning around the leave. “You can have it back.” She told him, grabbing her things as she went to find somewhere else suitable for a seven year old to mope.
One of the items she grabbed caught the boy’s attention. “Is that an Inspector Gadget lunchbox?” the girl merely nodded. “Did you see the one last night where they stopped claw from putting the M.A.D. logo on the moon?” He was met with another nod, this one bringing a smile with it. “You can sit here, if you want.” He decided. After all, she liked Inspector Gadget. That earned her a day of sitting with a cool second grader like himself.
Weeks passed. Rachel started wearing her hair in braids once more, less concerned of what the other girls thought. Abed stopped expecting to be left alone at lunch, for every day after the first, he found the girl sitting on the opposite side of the picnic table, waiting for him. He enjoyed having someone to talk to over the half hour break, even if he’d never admit it.
In fact, he had become so settled into talking to Rachel that when she didn’t show up for school one day, he didn’t exactly know what to do for the half hour. Reading his comic books seemed different now that there wasn’t a smaller face peering over his arm, asking him what every fourth word meant.
When she returned the next day, he didn’t say anything. He didn’t ask where she was. She didn’t care. She contently peered over his shoulder and asked why anyone hadn’t noticed how much Clark Kent looks like SuperMan. He smiled. Even though it had only been a day, he missed her.
Gym class was, for most students, the highlight of the week. Rachel never really did understand it. But then again, none of the other kids were picked last. She was always picked last. And as if that didn’t hurt her pride enough, today was dodge ball day. Usually she didn’t mind dodge ball. She got hit and then she sat on the bench for the rest of the class. But today, she tripped. She tripped and fell backwards. Her glasses fell off her face, she skinned her elbows, and the other kids just pointed and laughed.
Come recess the girl was still upset. Abed couldn’t tell. He could tell, however, that she had managed to hurt her elbow somehow, judging by the collage of band aids plastered over it. “I like the one with the dinosaurs.” He told her, nodding towards where she hurt herself.
“Thanks.” She replied, smiling a little. “They’re triceratops. They’re my favorite.”
By the end of recess, the humiliation of the class prior was a distant memory. Instead, the young girl’s mind was now preoccupied with talk of dinosaurs and how cool it would be to bring a plant eating dino into the future.
“What’s it like, being the second grade?” the question comes apropos of nothing. Seconds before Abed had been reading his Ninja Turtle comic book and Rachel had been contently snacking on her Fruit Gushers. But the now Gusher-less girl had her head titled to the side, her curiousness having gotten the better of her.
Abed thought for a moment, how does one explain second grade to a mere first grader? “It’s a lot like first grade,” he started “but there’s a lot more learning. A lot more math, a lot more reading.”
“Wow.” Rachel replied, wonderstruck. “So when I’m in second grade I’ll be able to read more.” She said, more to herself than to her break time companion. “Maybe I should practice reading now….”
Playthings exist for children to use. But children themselves are not play things. They aren’t made with hard to break plastic. They aren’t meant for 10 feet falls out of trees. This is learned all too quickly when in the latest game of pretend at Rachel’s house (they were pirates, this time) ends with the young boy sobbing and tears of fear streaming down the girl’s face as she runs to get her mom.
For the next week, Abed doesn’t come outside for recess. Rachel doesn’t blame him. She was the one who wanted to play pirates, so it’s her fault he’s hurt. Every once in a while she seems him the hallway. She smiles and waves, but he does nothing.
When he sits down at their usual spot on Monday, Rachel isn’t sure if she should smile or cry. Instead, she just whispers “I’m sorry.”
Abed looks at her, then down to his cast. He bites his lip. In all honesty, he had been mad at her. But it wasn’t like she pushed him out of the tree. She didn’t want this to happen to him. And she said she was sorry. So instead of answering, he pulls out a sharpie with his good hand and offers to let her sign the cast. He doesn’t even say anything about how her large script took up most of the room.
It took Abed’s parents a long time to let him go over to Rachel’s again. They didn’t want another accident under the not so watchful eye of the Larson family. But after two months of asking and several phone calls, he was allowed to go back over.
Deciding that called for a celebration, Rachel readied the juice boxes for Abed’s visit. Or at least that was the plan, before she accidently stained her brand new white sundress. Rachel’s mother went into a tizzy, saying that the Nadir’s were already judging them and this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Rachel just thought it made her dress smell good.
It was the last full day of school when a thought dawned on Abed. Nearly every day for a whole school year he had been content to sit and talk or read to Rachel without once asking her if that’s what she wanted to do. At first it was a sense of pride. He was the second grader, so naturally he chose what they did. But they weren’t like that anymore. Whenever they went over to each other’s houses they took turns deciding what they’d do.
So that’s how he ended up playing hopscotch on his last full day of second grade. He had been familiar with the game, but Rachel was authoritatively reminding him of the rules any chance she got, anyway. To his surprise, one he got into the rhythm of things, he found himself enjoying it. And neither of them noticed the group of ponytail wearing first graders who decided to copy them just a few feet down the asphalt.
“Rachel.” he told her on the last day of school. “I’m going into grade three.”
“And I’m going into second grade!” she replied gleefully, oblivious to what he was getting at.
Shaking his head, Abed tried again. “When you’re in grade three you stay longer, so your lunch is later.”
“We don’t have recess together anymore.” He finished, nodding sadly. Sure, they played together outside of school now, but recess was their thing. Images of Rachel sitting alone at the picnic table next year came to mind, making him feel sadder than any child should on the last day of school. If only Rachel were a year older. Then they’d never have to alone at recess.
Once summer break rolled around, a new kid moved onto Abed’s street. His name was Troy, he was seven like Rachel was, and he loved SpiderMan. Rachel knew all this because whenever Abed came over he always talked about Troy. This made Rachel kind of mad, although she didn’t know why.
One day Abed invited them both over. It’s not that Rachel didn’t like Troy. He was fun and funny and he got burp the alphabet which was something the blonde found highly impressive. But the boys would get so caught up in their little adventures that they wouldn’t even notice the girl getting left behind. Pouting, Rachel sat on the edge of the sandbox, waiting for the boys to finish whatever it was they were doing. Troy wasn’t all that fun when he was stealing Abed, she decided.
After what felt like hours to the young blonde, but what was actually about three and a half minutes, she felt a tap on her shoulder “Come on!” Troy cried, “We can’t play Rescue the Princess if the princess is sitting in the sandbox! Go somewhere we can rescue you from!”
Rachel looked up at the boy, confused at first, but then just absolutely elated to have been included. Smiling she played along, kneeling down on the top of the slide, awaiting her rescue. She decided she liked Troy a lot better when he was sharing Abed. In fact, she liked Troy a whole lot. Especially when he decided to let the dragon be free in the wild instead of killing it. That was nice of him.
Sometimes Rachel’s parents made her go to fancy dinners. She had to wear itchy tights with uncomfortable shoes in a big poufy dress and they would sit her down and curl her hair. She felt ridiculous. And eating chicken nuggets in one of those outfits was particularly painful because if you spill ketchup on it, it’s a big deal.
She’s coming home from one of these dinners, her parents needed to do a quick run in at the grocery store first, when Troy sees her. Unfortunately, he catches her at just the wrong moment because those tights were really itchy, and she lifted up her skirt in order to better scratch her bum.
When she heard the giggles she turned around, absolutely mortified to see her friend here. She ran to hide behind her mother’s leg. She knew he was going to tell Abed about it, too. She was never going to live this one down.
After being the incredibly cute ring bearer in his cousin’s wedding, Troy is 110% sure that he’s an expert on weddings. So of course, the best way to prove this is by wedding his two best friends. Rachel and Abed agree to the marriage, under the circumstance that Troy promises it’s only for pretend.
Unbeknownst to the other two, Troy underwent a lot of preparation for their pretend wedding. He decided that SpiderMan could be the best man since Troy was busy being the priest, and that Chewbacca made the best choice for the flower wookie (because Chewbacca isn’t a girl, but he can still do the flower girl’s job. He made that very clear.)
All of his action figures and teddy bears were there to bear witness. It would’ve gone over perfectly, if Abed and Rachel would’ve stopped giggling at his priest voice.
