Little Miss Different [in editing]

15: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars (Part 1)

Content note: contains depictions of ableism

Aasma has nearly finished their model of the solar system. They dab a dot of glue onto the big dusty brown ball that is meant to be Saturn and carefully wraps the 3D ring around the planet.

It's finished. Aasma steps back from the model slowly, carefully avoiding pots of coloured paint and glue, wood shavings and remnants of plastic bottles. But they aren't careful enough and they trip on a pot of bright icy blue paint. They fall backwards, blue paint splattering all over the back of their jeans, shirt and hijab, staining the multi-coloured array of clothing with blue splats.

Aasma pulls off their glasses and wipes paint off them, sighing. They clean up the blue mess on the floor then change into a long-sleeve jacket to hide the paint stains, change their jeans to some clean ones and switches out their yellow hijab for a pretty pink one.

Ellie bounds into Aasma's bedroom. "Hey sib!" she yells. Because Aasma in non-binary, Ellie calls them 'sib' - short of 'sibling'. "Your model looks so epic!"

"Thank you!" grins Aasma. "It's finally finished."

"That's so brilliant! Is it for the planet competition at school?" asks Ellie.

Aasma nods. "But I'm up against a lot of really good entries. I don't think I'll win."

"Well, you at least deserve second place, purely for effort, then!" says Ellie.

"Thanks, Ells!" replies Aasma. "Can you help me write my speech about gender and the LGBTQIA+ community please?"

"Sure! What have you got so far?"

At the Himuras' house

Katie is going to a school today.

Normally, her private tutor comes round and teaches her and Lucie, but they quit last week and nobody else wanted the job when her mother advertised it as 'TEACHING AND LOOKING AFTER A CHILD WITH AUTISM AND A CHILD WITH DOWN'S SYNDROME', accompanied by a note that Katie was particularly difficult. So today Katie and Lucie are going to school.

Katie is wearing a pink tiara, lacy pink dress and little pink ballet pumps. It's one of her favourite outfits because it's soft and doesn't have itchy seams or tags. Her cousin bought it for her for her tenth birthday from an autism-friendly clothes brand - itchy seam and tag free!

Lucie is wearing a lilac cat top embroidered with the slogan 'Kittie Cutie', a dark purple pair of leggings patterned with yellow dots that make Lucie think of fairy dust and a purpley-blue pair of laceless trainers.

Of course, Mrs. Himura is showing unnecessary and annoying support for Autism Saviour by wearing a light blue top embroidered with 'I Support Autism Saviour - Saving Families From Autism' in copperplate. She shows off her figure by wearing high-waisted denim jeans and high heels, and her bleached-blonde hair is plaited loosely down her back. "Girls, hurry up! You are not making us late for this school visit."

Okay, so maybe Katie's not going to school today. But today she's looking around. Maybe she can make a few new friends ready for her first day!

At the school

The family is greeted by a tall black woman with pretty cornrows, dark red lipstick and dark purple nail polish. "Hello!" she says brightly. "I'm Miss Starling, and I'm the SENCo at this school," she introduces herself to Katie and Lucie.

"What's a SENCo?" types Lucie.

"A SENCo stands for Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator," explains Miss Starling. "Basically, it just means I'm in charge of making sure that people with special needs get any of the help they need." She looks up at Mrs. Himura. "Now, as I understand, these two girls do not have any sort of care plan?"