Ryden Oneshots

Purple Nail Polish

Ryan turned into the kindergarten parking lot entrance. He was a couple of minutes early, and when he looked around and saw a parking spot open next to a beat up purple mini van, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he pulled in next to it.

On the seat next to him, one of Ryan’s notebooks was there with a pen in case he got any spur of the moment inspiration, and he briefly contemplated ripping a page out and writing a little note to leave on the bright purple mini van before he stopped himself, blushing furiously even though no one else was there. He opened the car door and slid out, glancing at the front of the windshield where a note could be perfectly placed under the slightly bent windshield wiper before rounding the car, brushing up against the mini van’s various bumper stickers before heading towards the school entrance.

There were only a couple of more minutes left before kindergarten let out and the front entrance of the school was full of gossiping parents, mostly mothers dressed in bright colors, crisp capri pants, and frosted hair. As he walked closer, Ryan could see a couple of the middle-aged women look him up and down. He ducked his head, hair flipping in front of his eyes, and he hid his smirk. They weren’t really his type.

“Are you here to pick up your child?” one of the mothers asked him, and some sort of righteous anger mixed with confusion welled up within him. What was it about him that made people think that he had a five year old child? Plus, the way that the woman asked it, so seemingly sweet but with an undercurrent of superior disapproval, made Ryan remember why he hated picking his sister up. Soccer moms.

“Sister,” Ryan tersely answered before slipping through the crowd of women to lean up against the hard brick wall of the school, an unrelenting white windowsill digging into his shoulder. He ignored the chatter of the women behind him and peered over, a bright flash of color catching his eyes, looking into the classroom.

The school district wasn’t that large. There were only three morning kindergarten classes, but it just so happened that the classroom that Ryan mistakenly peered into had exactly what he was looking for. The flash of color that caught his eye was the bright red of the teacher’s glasses. They weren’t that big, it was just a little splash of color really, but it wasn’t surprising that those glasses caught his attention. Especially when the eyes behind those glasses flicked up and caught his own, and when Ryan’s line of vision swept down, he could see pillowy lips quirking up in a smile.

Ryan slyly smiled back, biting his bottom lip before pushing himself off the wall as a loud bell rang, signaling the end of classes. Behind him, Ryan could hear the excited squeal of the kindergarteners and the loud stomping of running feet. Above it all, he could just make out the clear, soothing voice of the teacher telling them all to have a good weekend.

Only moments later, a crowd of children burst through the front door, and Ryan looked around for his sister, hoping that maybe she decided to stay behind - - maybe to help the teacher clean up so that Ryan would have to go in and find her. Just then, however, a tiny ball of energy crashed against him, hugging him around the waist.

“Ryan!” his sister yelled, her voice muffled against the soft cotton of his shirt. “Ryan, today we learned about amphibians. Did you know that a frog is an amphibian? They start out as tadpoles - - little wriggly worms, but then they grow legs. It’s so cool. Mr. Urie shows us a movie about Frederick the Frog. Can we get a frog?”

Nicole took a deep stuttering breath, body still thrumming with excitement. “Wow, that’s awesome, munchkin,” Ryan humored her. “And you’ll have to talk to dad about a frog.” Ryan took the piece of paper from his sister’s hand, telling the parents what they studied that day and what they should go over for homework. He smiled at the bright pink paper that the assignment was printed on, recognizing it from the storage closet. More specifically, from when it fell off the shelf, bustled off when he was pushed against the metal cabinet. “Mr. Urie is a good teacher, huh?”