matilda oneshots i had to get out of my head

day 4: christmas crafts

hello everyone!! welcome to the fourth day!! we're a third of the way through :( but hey day four woo :)))

ironically after yesterday i'm very sick today so pls excuse the late upload!! and please enjoy :)

—————

"Mummy?" Matilda asks one crisp morning.

"Yes?" Miss Honey replies.

"I'm bored," Matilda says. Miss Honey looks at her almost in shock. This is a first.

"Bored? You don't want to read or anything?"

"I do," Matilda responds. Of course she does. She always wants to read. "But I just finished my book, and I need some time to process the ending."

"Ah," Miss Honey hums knowingly. That's one of the best things about living with Miss Honey. She understands all the complicated feelings about books. "I'll think of something for you to do while we eat."

Matilda nods and tucks into her lunch. Miss Honey is still recovering from her illness, so it's a simple turkey sandwich and some carrots today. Luckily, one of Matilda's favorites, and she wolfs it down in ten minutes flat. She does the dishes so Miss Honey can sit and rest. She's doing much better, but the doctor did say she needs to take it easy for at least a week.

"Have you done any art besides your drawings?" Miss Honey asks as Matilda leaves the last dish in the drying rack. Matilda shakes her head. "No crafts?"

"No," Matilda responds. "Except in your class."

"Well, we'll have to remedy that. We need some more decorations anyway," Miss Honey says. "Would you go get your art kit, please?"

Matilda nods and runs up to her bedroom. She roots around under her bed until she feels her hand touch the cold metal of the briefcase her art kit is stored in. She grabs it and drags it out and carries it carefully back down to the kitchen.

Miss Honey smiles as she rests it gently on the table and clicks it open. She reaches into it and pulls out the colored paper. "Okay if we use this?"

Matilda nods. She uses it to draw on occasionally, but most of the time she just uses plain white paper.

"Let's start with a paper chain. I used to make these every year in school when I was a little girl," Miss Honey says. She starts cutting one of the red sheets into long strips about an inch thick. Matilda watches for a while before she hesitantly reaches for a green sheet and some scissors to do the same.

Once they have about three sheets of paper cut all up into strips, Miss Honey shows Matilda how to make the chain. "Start with a loop like this." She folds one of the strips into a ring. She undoes it once she shows her and lets Matilda glue the real thing together. "Now take another strip and put it through, then turn that into a loop too."

Matilda grabs a strip in a different color and feeds it through the loop, then glues the ends together to make another link.

"Good! And that's it, just keep adding strips and making more links," Miss Honey says. Matilda does, going in a pattern until she runs out of paper. Red, green, yellow, red, green, yellow.

"It's quite satisfying," Matilda says.

"It is. It's easy to do while you chat to people or watch something, that kind of thing," Miss Honey says. Matilda nods.

"Can I hang it up?" she asks.

"Of course! Let me go find a tack, you go figure out where you want it," Miss Honey says. Matilda meanders around the house looking for the perfect spot, and eventually decides on hanging it to frame the window in the front door. Miss Honey puts the thumbtack back where she found it and helps her tape it into place instead. "Lovely!"

Matilda smiles at it. She wonders how long you could make one with enough paper. "I'm still bored."

"I was afraid of that," Miss Honey replies with a sigh. She thinks again. "Have you ever made paper stars?"

Matilda shakes her head, so Miss Honey leads her back to the kitchen and back to the paper. This time, though, she uses some of the fancy-patterned scrapbook paper she's been using to make Christmas cards with. She uses a ruler to draw evenly-spaced lines on the back and cuts them apart so, yet again, they're left with thin strips.

"This is what all the girls in my grade did when we didn't want to pay attention to our teachers," Miss Honey says. "So I'd better not hear anything about you doing this in class."

Matilda giggles. She has to actively try not to pay attention in class, unless they're studying something she already knows. This might come in handy those times. Miss Honey knows this just as well as she does, being much the same way. Matilda has a hard time imagining she ever didn't want to pay attention in class.

Miss Honey shows her the proper way to fold and pinch the paper strips so they end up forming a perfect little star. Matilda gets sent to the living room with all the leftover paper and a huge old jam jar to put all her stars in while Miss Honey tidies up after their other crafts and their lunch.

Matilda isn't sure how long she spends making the stars. The method is quite methodical, and the repetitive motions are incredibly relaxing. She entertains herself in her head, inventing new stories and watching them play out over and over before switching to another.

Eventually, she hears the floorboards creak as Miss Honey comes to join her in the living room. She also hears a, "Good heavens, Matilda!" and jumps nearly a full foot.

"What?" she asks.

"How many have you made?!" Miss Honey asks with an incredulous laugh. "I wasn't away that long!"

Matilda looks down and sees herself absolutely surrounded by paper stars. No less than a thousand, and likely many more. "Oh."

"Goodness gracious," Miss Honey chuckles. "Let me get a container for those, hold on."

Miss Honey returns with a nice glass vase. Matilda stocks it with stars, and it makes hardly a dent in the pile around her. Miss Honey frowns and returns with another. Matilda fills it too. Still, a concerningly large pile of stars remains. Miss Honey comes back with a couple more empty jam jars. Matilda fills them so much the lids barely close, but she manages to stuff the last star in the last jar and slam the lid shut.

Matilda puts one of the jars in her bedroom as a decoration, while Miss Honey adds some artificial flowers to both vases. One of the other jars gets labeled 'magic stars' and Miss Honey explains she'll take it to school and use it for something with the younger students. The last jar gets labeled the same and tucked on a shelf in the kitchen in case they need a little magic themselves.

"They do look nice in the vases," Miss Honey says as she puts one as the centerpiece on the kitchen table. "And this'll last 'til you're about eighty."

Matilda giggles. "Sorry I got carried away."

"It's alright, love. I did have a feeling that might happen," Miss Honey chuckles. "Let's just hold off on adding to our collection for a few years and find something else for you to do, hm?"

Matilda nods. "I got one too many paper cuts, I think."

Miss Honey tuts over her hands and bandages a few of the smarting little wounds. Matilda wiggles her fingers once they're decked with Hello Kitty bandaids. Miss Honey hands her her coat and the extra vase of stars and fake flowers. "Why don't you go take this to Mrs. Phelps? Fresh air will do you good and she might have a less dangerous activity for you to do."

Matilda happily takes the glass vase and goes running out of the house.

How nice to share the shine of a star with a loved one.

Even if it is just paper.

————-

thanks for reading!! see you tomorrow!!