Title:
Hiding
Author: arimi
Category: AU/CC
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I want them to be mine, but they are not.
Series: Playground
Summery: Kids can be so mean
Author’s Note: Never meant for
Attacked to have a sequel, but it seems that every
time I talk to Didi, I come up with ideas.
His footsteps echoed as he walked the empty halls. For seven years old, Michael
Guerin had particularly large feet; something his mom said was a good thing.
Michael hid against the wall when he heard footsteps down the hallway. He
finally peeked from behind the column when the footsteps faded away. He wasn’t
supposed to be in the hallway without permission, but he followed her in. It was
recess, so all the second graders were outside playing in the playground, but he
was on a mission.
*
“Hi Max.” Liz gave the brown haired boy a shy smile.
Max stopped what he was doing and looked at the doe-eyed Liz. He stood there
staring at her as his heart raced. Max tried to talk, but his throat went dry. “Oooouuuchhhhhhhh-”
yelled Max when Isabel struck him in the stomach. He stumbled a few feet back
and fell to the ground.
“Oh My Goodness! Max! Are you ok?” Isabel jumped off the swings and ran to her
brother. Kneeling down, she joined Liz in helping Max up. “What happened?”
Holding the spot where Isabel hit him, Max tried to speak between grunts of
pain, “I wasn’t paying attention. Forgot about you and the swing.” Iz gave Max a
weird look, how did he forget that he was pushing her? Isabel looked over to Liz
and shrugged her shoulders.
“Hey Liz! Where is Maria?”
“I dunno. I was going to ask Max if he knew were Michael was.” She looked over
to Max and gave him a shy smile and quickly looked down.
Max was having a hard time breathing. “No, I haven’t seen him.” He wished he
could say more, but he always seemed to have a difficult time talking when Liz
was around.
“Oh…”
Isabel rolled her eyes as she looked at the two in front of her. It was just so
obvious what was going on with the both of them. So something had to be done.
“What’s wrong?” Isabel finally asked.
Liz looked behind Isabel uncomfortably at a group of girls standing next to the
slides. “Well- Maria was crying and she ran off somewhere. I was hoping that
Michael knew where she went.”
“Michael wouldn’t know-” Max said as he shook his head.
“How do you know?” Isabel questioned Max.
“Because Michael doesn’t like girls,” Max stated. He continued when both girls
gave him a weird look, “he told me the other day, the doesn’t like girls.”
“So you are saying that Michael is gay?” Isabel questioned her brother. She
rolled her eyes when her brother just shrugged his shoulders. “You don’t even
know what gay means.”
In truth Max didn’t know what gay meant. He had heard adults use it, but never
understood why, but he wasn’t going to let his sister make him look bad in front
of Liz. He was about to have a stand off with his twin sister when Liz broke in.
“Well- aaamm I guess I’ll go look for Maria then.” Liz gave Max a gentle smile
and turned around and started to walk away.
“Wait Liz-” Isabel called after her friend. “Did you ask Kyle? Kyle might know.”
“No, he’s playing dodge ball with Alex.”
Turning to her brother, Isabel nudged her head towards Liz and whispered through
her teeth, “go with Liz, Max.”
“What if I don’t want to?” Max said in a low whisper as he looked at Liz from
the corners of his eyes.
“Max - just go-” Isabel pushed her brother towards Liz. Max hesitated for a bit,
than slowly walked towards Liz. Isabel grinned as she watched the pair went off
looking for their friends.
*
Peeking his head into the classroom, Michael looked around to see if anybody was
in there. All the chairs were empty and so was her desk. Michael tippy toed in
the room, cringing when his steps made too much noise. How was he going to grow
up and be Spiderman if he was this loud? He walked toward the reading area,
where Miss Le had all the colorful beanbags. Maybe she was sitting on one of
them. It was the sniffing noise that drew his attention to the blackboards.
The blackboard slid open when Michael pushed it. She was sitting there on the
floor in the dark, hugging her legs. He couldn’t see her face since she was
hiding behind her blond hair. But he knew she was crying because she was
sniffing.
“What’s wrong Maria? Why are you hiding in there?” Michael asked as he scratched
his eyebrow. She didn’t answer him; Maria only shook her head and wouldn’t look
up. “C’mon Maria, it pretty outside. Why are you crying?” Girls were weird! They
cried for the weirdest reasons, like getting their shoes dirty. They should be
outside playing on the monkey bars or the swings, but Maria was crying and he
didn’t like it when she cried. It made him feel sad when he saw Maria crying.
His tummy felt all funny, like when he ate too much and had a tummy ache. So
Maria crying made his tummy ache.
“I’m not crying!” Maria said through her sniffles. “Leave me alone-”
“Nope- Not until you tell me what is wrong. C’mon Maria. You can hit me if it
makes you feel better.” Michael offered, but Maria wouldn’t budge. It must have
been something really bad if hitting him didn’t make her feel better. Turning
around to look at the empty classroom, Michael spotted what he needed. He
kneeled down and nudged her arm with the box of tissues. Maria took the box
without looking up at him. He quietly waited until Maria finished blowing her
nose and wiping her eyes. He didn’t know what to do. He wanted her to feel
better, but he never understood girls, Max was a lot better at this. Michael
finally figured it out and put his hand on her shoulder, patting her on the
back. It always made him feel better when his dad put his arms around him; it
made everything bad be great again. He knew it was working because Maria finally
looked up at him.
“Courtney said I have fish lips,” Maria said forlornly as she looked at him with
dark emerald teary eyes.
“Oh- is that it. I thought it was something important.” Michael sat down next to
her, missing the angry look she gave him. He looked at her again, when Maria
started to hiccup. “That’s nothing Maria. Everybody calls Max ‘Dumbo’ because of
his ears. And I think they call me ‘porcupine head’ because of my hair. And
other mean things, but you don’t see us crying.”
“You wouldn’t understand. You are not a girl. Plus they started to make fishy
faces at me.” Maria stopped crying for a bit and showed him what she meant. She
began to pout again when Michael started to giggle at the faces she was making.
She started to pick at her red tennis shoes, wishing Michael would disappear.
“Yeah, that's funny,” Michael, gasped in-between fits of laughter. He stopped
laughing when Maria started to cry again. “No… No… I didn’t mean it like that!
Please stop crying-” Michael looked at her pleadingly as he scratched the back
of his head. “What I meant was you make the coolest faces. No one can do the
faces you can because they don’t have your lips. I think Courtney is just en-
en-”
“Envious?”
“Yeah that’s the word. I heard my mom use it the other day.”
“Yeah, my Mommy told me that girls would be too. But it doesn’t mean it doesn’t
hurt.” A single tear escaped from her eyes. She quickly wiped it away with the
palms of her hands before Michael could see.
“It’s ok Maria. I like your lips. I think they are great!”
“Really? You’re just saying that because you made me cry again.” Maria dried her
face with the tissue she had used earlier.
“No really,” Michael said sincerely. “And don’t worry, I’ll protect you. I’m in
training to be Spiderman you know.” Michael started to flex his wrist,
practicing shooting the invisible web against the wall.
“Some Spiderman- I heard you come in. Hey, does that make me Mary Jane?” Maria
had a huge smile at the prospect of being Mary Jane.
“Why would it make you Mary Jane? You don’t have red hair.” Maria just rolled
her eyes. Boys could be so dense sometimes. But at least Michael would always be
there to protect her.
“Remember that time when Billy pulled my pig tails and you gave him that black
eye?” She took her right fist and hit her left palm and smiled in gratitude.
“And I got grounded for a week.” Michael started to fidget; the floor wasn’t
very comfortable. “Maybe-”
“Yeah, that sucked. And the time Kyle made me spill punch on my new dress and
you made him say sorry to me. Like that? You’re going to protect me like that?”
“Well I don’t hit girls, so I’m not going to hit Courtney. But yeah, something
like that. Ahmm- outside is nice-”
“Oh ok-” Maria looked down at her hands that was playing with the tissues,
thinking. “I don’t want to go outside yet. But you can go if you like. I’m sure
Max and Isabel are looking for you.”
Michael thought about it for a moment before he answered, “nah- that’s ok. I’ll
stay here with you.”
Maria took a hard look at him; Michael was looking at the evil villains that
lived in the dark corner. Maria never understood why Michael was always nice to
her, although she was so mean to him. She did it because it was the only way to
get his attention. Michael seemed distracted as he looked ahead of him into
space and Maria took the opportunity and kissed him on the cheek and hugged him
hard. She settled down and leaned on him. Michael couldn’t breath and his face
was burning. She was always doing this to him, girly stuff that he never
understood.
Michael’s bottom was getting numb; they had been sitting there in silence for
while and he was getting bored. He finally spoke when he couldn’t take it
anymore, “Maria- Maria?” He looked down to see Maria had fallen asleep on his
shoulder. He was about to ask her if she wanted to move to the beanbags so they
could get off the hard floor or maybe go outside now, but it was too late. As
long as he had known Maria, which had been all his life, she would fall asleep
after a good cry, girls. Michael couldn’t help but roll his eyes,
he should have known better.
Usually he didn’t play with girls, but Maria wasn’t just any girl. Yeah, she
liked to wear dresses and bows but what girl would climb trees and play solders
with him? Of course after that he had to play tea party with her and her stuff
animals, but it was worth it. He finally settled down and let out a yawn, as his
eyelids got heavier.
*
“Liz- we aren’t not supposed to be in here. If Miss Le finds out, we are going
to get in trouble.”
“C’mon Max- I just want to see if Maria is here or not. We'll leave as soon as I
see.” Liz led the way into their classroom. She stopped abruptly, causing Max to
bump her from behind. Max was about to say something when he noticed Liz had
placed her pointing finger over her lips, indicating to say quiet. Max looked to
where Liz was pointing to see his best friend and Maria sitting still in on the
floor.
“What do you think they are doing?” Max whispered.
“I think they are sleeping.”
“Well, lets wake them up.”
“No- just leave them like that.”
“Why? I don’t think Michael wants to be in there. It’s a pretty day outside. I
know he wants to be outside,” Max stated. He had been Michael’s best friend
since forever and he knew Michael like the back of his hand.
“No, I think he is happy where he is at.”The End
Attacked | Hiding |
Super Heroes |
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