In Fair Verona

XXXIII

"Why are you crying?"

The tan girl with pigtails looked up at me. Her dark brown eyes were red and swollen.

"I don't get it." She sniffled as she talked.

Children around us were loud and playing. We were told once we were done the worksheet it was free time.

"The clock worksheet?"

"Yeah! I don't get the long stick on the clock and the short one and then the other long stick."

"I finished mine. I can help."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Besides my friends are being mean and I don't like them anymore. I'm making new friends."

"Okay. What's your name?"

"I'm Casey."

"Isn't that a girls name?"

"No!"

"Okay. I'm Arianna."

"Okay."

I sat down next to her and quickly filled out her worksheet so we could play.

"You have bad handwriting."

"You're so mean."

"My mom made me practice a lot. She told me she's going to teach me cursive soon."

I stayed quiet as I finished the worksheet.

"Let's play with the..." I looked around to see what wasn't being used.

I couldn't find anything.

"Okay, everyone come hand in your worksheets. We have recess now."

Are school had a system where some kids had recess first then lunch and then other kids had lunch then recess. It was to minimize how many kids were out on the field.

"Wanna play hopscotch?" I ask.

"Only if we play it properly."

"You just hop?"

"No. You throw a rock and it lands on the number. If you miss you go to the back of the line. You start from one and slowly make you way up."

"That's dumb. Let's play four square."

"Hey, you," some boy with dark brown hair says. "We're playing manhunt wanna play?"

We both say sure.

"Not you. Your a girl."

"I'm playing," she says.

"No girls aloud."

"I will out run all of you!"

"No you can't!"

"Try me!"

Then the recess bell rang.

Everyone ran out the class doors and out the doors to the black top.

We all gathered in a circle and did "sky blue" to decide who's it. We had to do it twice because the one boy rage quit when he was picked then joined again once they re did it.

The boy who'd been arguing with Arianna was it. I also discovered his name was Jake.

"I'm going to prove you wrong."

He was so angry.

The rest of recess Jake only chased Arianna.

He never caught her.