⇾ 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄 | 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐈

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1949

Alexandria told her mother she didn't want her to leave her behind. She told her she didn't want to go to school. She held her small and ginger stuffed cat in her small hands, hoping desperately that it would keep her from crying in front of all the children around her. She didn't want to look like a crybaby in front of her new classmates! But, she also didn't want to be alone!

Everyone was running around the ginormous field. There was a playground on the left side and an open field on the right side. She was standing right in the middle of the two, mulch under one of her sandal-covered feet and grass under the other.

There were more kids than she could count in her head using the limited amount of numbers she already knew. Some were running around screaming, some looked just as terrified as Alexandria, some were sitting in circles playing games with their friends, and some were even crying, but she didn't feel like she fit in with any of them. She was a lot taller than them, her hair was long and acted as a billowing curtain around her slender face, her nose was pretty small, and sometimes she felt like her eyes were too close together. She wore a pair of plastic-rimmed glasses over her beautiful green eyes because her eyesight was practically nothing without them. Her father always said that she looked just like his mother when she was a little girl.

She was wearing a baby blue dress that fell just below her knees and a pair of Mary Jane shoes over her white, frilly socks. She pulled her stuffed cat closer to her chest and then felt a hand on her back. She turned to see a lady standing behind her.

The lady's hair was tied up in a pair of braids and she was wearing a black, formal-looking dress. There was a smile on her lips, lips that were a dark shade of red. Alexandria could see her mother's car leaving the parking lot from behind the lady and she felt a sense of dread fall over herself. What was she going to do now that she was all alone?

"I-I want M-Mummy," Alexandria told the lady sincerely, and she really hoped she believed her.

"How about you go to the playground?" the lady asked sweetly, giving the little girl an encouraging smile. "Maybe you'll find yourself a friend!"

She gave Alexandria a pat on the back and she turned around. The playground did look pretty fun, she supposed. She took a deep breath and stepped fully onto the mulched side of the fenced-in area. She put one foot in front of the other, keeping her eyes on her feet even though she knew that that was a terrible idea.

Suddenly, Alexandria felt someone nudge her in the shoulder and she looked up in confusion. There was a boy standing in front of her, two others standing diagonal from him in each direction. The one in the front—clearly the leader of whatever sort of group this was—had his arms crossed across his chest and his head cocked to the side. It was clear that all three of them were older than Alexandria and that made her feel scared. She gulped and tightened her grip on her stuffed cat, waiting for the boys to speak up.

"What's your name?" one of the boys asked.

"I-I am A-Alex," Alexandria stuttered nervously. It was clear these boys did not want to be her friend. This wasn't shaping up to be the first day of school she had ever hoped for.

"Alex?" he asked. Then, he laughed. "Isn't that a boy's name? What is it, really?"

She didn't want to tell him her full name. Even though she could barely say it without stuttering, she still hated it. Maybe it was simply because it was so long and hard for her to say or maybe it was because it was just too fancy-sounding, but for whatever reason, she'd just never liked it.

"It's A-Alex," she repeated, putting on her best scowl even though her stuttering made her sound a lot less tough than she hoped she was.

"You like to st-st-stutter?" the older boy in the back asked her and she shook her head sheepishly. She didn't like to stutter. She'd always had a hard time with speech, no matter how hard she tried to focus, her words would always get jumbled together and she could barely piece together a thought without having to stop and think about it.

"N-no, I don't," she responded. The boys began to laugh as Alexandria's cheeks turned bright red in embarrassment. She felt tears build up in her eyes involuntarily and finally tried to walk away from them, but they moved in front of her again.

"What's wrong, A-A-Alex?" the boy asked.

"Hey, leave her alone!" an unfamiliar voice sounded. It was heavily accented and she looked up just as a tear fell down her cheek. A skinny boy who was just taller than her was coming towards them now. He was taller than Alexandria and all three of the boys. As soon as the three boys' attention was on the tall boy approaching, Alexandria turned and made a dash for the metal slide on the playground.

She crawled under it and pulled her knees to her chest. She could practically hear her mother scolding her for sitting like this in a dress, but she was hidden so she didn't care. She buried her head in her knees and cried. She cried and cried until someone joined her underneath the slide.

"Are you okay?" It was the voice from earlier. The one who was defending her. She looked up to see him sitting on his knees, his eyes clouded in concern. His hair was styled up, but it still looked quite messy.

"Y-y-yes," Alexandria responded, quickly readjusting herself so that her legs weren't raised up.

"I remember my first day," the boy said quietly. "I know how you feel. I'm sorry about those boys. They did that to me too."

She wiped her eyes. "Th-they did?" she asked.

He nodded. "They're mean." He scooted closer to Alexandria. "What's your name?" he asked. "You seem nice."

"Alex," she replied with a deep breath.

"Cool," he said. "I'm George."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.