over the years (rini) | ✓

one || kindergarten

On this bright and shining morning in Salt Lake City, Utah, one would find a peppy five year old girl skipping up the steps to her new elementary school. Her long brown hair was pulled into two high ponytails and they both flew behind her and she sped up to the stairs leading to the entrance doors. Her moms trailed behind her, both tired, but just as excited as the girl.

Nina Salazar-Roberts was always known as a happy child, but today was a special day that made her ten times more bubbly than usual. It was the first day of kindergarten and she could not be more excited! She couldn't wait to meet new people. Before this, she didn't have many friends. The only interactions she had were with her moms and random kids she met on the playground because she didn't have any siblings to play with.

She managed to pull open the heavy metal doors just as her moms caught up to her. They all entered the school with giant smiles on their faces. Nina was in awe of how vast the building was. She had never seen anything like it before! She bolted off to her classroom that she was already familiar with because of "meet the teacher day" a few weeks ago.

"Nina, slow down!" one of her moms called. She heard the slapping of feet against the floor behind her, but that didn't slow her down. She was too ecstatic! She could see the entire classroom because the door was propped wide open. She zoomed into the room, barely out of breath and still full of energy. Her parents caught up shortly after.

Nina scanned the room, growing more excited at every passing second. She saw five tables, most of which were already taken up by kids. She noticed shelves full of toys spanning from wooden building blocks to dolls she saw on the shelves at Target.

Her teacher, Miss Lee, saw her and soon approached her with a grin. Her black hair fell in front of her eyes as she bent down to meet Nina's eyes before saying warmly, "Hello, you must be Nina! How are you today?"

"I am good!" Nina exclaimed giving her the usual automatic answer to that question, but she truly meant it this time. She clutched onto her pink backpack straps. She felt like she was bouncing off the walls from excitement.

"That's great!" Miss Lee responded, showing her pearly white teeth. She looked down at the clipboard she was holding and scanned it for a second before saying, "Ah, yes! Nina, I have you seated right next to Richard. He's the one in the grey shirt. Richard, can you wave?"

Across the room, a boy lifted his arm high and waved his hand. His brown hair was wildly curly and bounced all over the place when he moved. Nina had never seen a boy with that many curls.

"What do you say, Nina?" one of her moms asked.

"Thank you Miss Lee!" Nina responded, but by that time, they had already lost her because now she was in her own little world. She gave her parents a quick hug and yelled goodbye before sprinting off to the blue seat next to Richard. She plopped her bright pink backpack on the floor next to her and sat down in the tiny navy blue chair.

Being the friendly kid she was, Nina didn't waste a second before turning to the boy and introducing herself. "Hi! My name is Nina."

The boy grinned. "Hi. My name is Richard!"

"It's nice to meet you!" Nina said with a smile. She opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted by Miss Lee before she could say a word.

"Okay class! Settle down! We're going to start the day now!"

»»»

During their one hour of free time, Nina decided to retreat to the coloring table where only one other classmate was. She didn't feel like using the building blocks, reading, or playing with play-doh. She preferred to color the pictures Miss Lee printed out. She sat down in the seat on the opposite side of table of the other kid.

"Hello, my name is Nina," she said to him after she sat down. "What are you coloring?"

"I'm Liam. I'm coloring a monkey," the boy answered quietly. He lifted up his paper to show her. His blonde hair was on the longer side and it practically covered his brown eyes.

"Cool!" Nina said. She grabbed the closest picture which happened to be a penguin. One of her favorite animals! She started to take out a black and orange crayon from the Crayola box when she noticed Richard sitting down in the chair across from her.

"Hi Nini," he said, practically shouting. He was a loud kid. "Can I color with you?"

"Sure! But my name is Nina, not Nini," she responded, absent-minded. She returned to her drawing, not thinking much more of it. Richard, on the other hand, started fidgeting in his seat while playing with a blue crayon in his hand.

"Oh, okay..." he proceeded to struggle to pronounce her name, stammering every second. He kept on tripping over his vowels and sputtering only to end with, "Nini?"

Nina sighed. She didn't really care. It didn't matter if he called her Nina or not. Besides, who even knew if he would remember her name the next day. She would most likely have to remind him again tomorrow. "It's okay. You can call me Nini."

He gave her the biggest, cheesiest smile she had ever seen. This made her giggle.

"Nina, can I call you Nini?" Liam asked from across the table. He was done with his drawing. "But if you want I can call you Nina. I can say your name, you know."

Nina glanced over at Richard, whose smile suddenly disappeared. She hoped that he didn't feel bad that he couldn't pronounce her name. That would make her feel terrible. It was just a name.

"Okay, you can call me Nini,"'she said. Hopefully if other people called her Nini, Richard wouldn't have that sad look on his face.

His smile appeared again. Good. She realized she liked it when he smiled.

From that point on, she was called Nini by everyone, even her own moms (the second she came home she announced to her family that she was now Nini). Only because she didn't want to make the curly haired boy sad.