Short Story: Future -- A Day at School for Aoko Madrigal

It was time to go to school!

I ran down the stairs and yelled to Aiko and grabbed my lunch. She’s always busy doin’ her hair, she brushes it like she’s a pony or something! Hehee… So I passed Mamae and she handed me my lunchbox and gave me a kiss. It was hard for her to bend down, ‘cause her belly’s swelled up again! She and Pai are always havin’ babies… she’s like a doggie or somethin’. I thought Eva and Ty-Ty would be the last ones, but then a few months ‘go, Mae and Pai tell us there is another baby on the way! They won’t tell me where they come from yet, but I asked Teacher and she says they live in Mae’s tummy until it’s time to come out. I tried talkin’ to the baby once, but all I heard was Mae’s stomach grumblin’. Then she blushed and hurried me along to play and I think she got a snack. Mae’s always hungry when she’s got a baby in her. Babies must eat a lot!

Pai was gonna drive me to school, and he was already honkin’ the horn, so I grabbed a bread roll for breakfast with some jelly and ran! Waait Pai! He left one time too early and thought he had all of us when it was just Aiko and her dolly! I ran and ran and ran, and my shoelaces danced like snakes around my feet. Mae saw and made me stop to tie my shoes. I hate tyin’ shoes… I wish I could just leave ‘em tied and put them on. Kate does that sometimes, but Mae says that makes them too loose and messes the shoes up fast. Pai doesn’t like buying too many shoes when we got p… perfectly good ones at home. I wonder if that’s why sometimes he buys the shoes without laces. Mae wears a lot of those, with fancy decorations or big heels! Or sandals. But we can’t wear sandals with our uniforms…

Marcus and Nadi and Kate already beat me to the car, so I jumped up and slipped in next to Marcus. He was lookin’ in his lunchbox to see what he got today. Looked like… an apple, and fruit snacks, and a sandwich with the crusts off, and… and animal crackers, same as me! I buckled in like Pai says to and then opened mine to look. He asked me what kinda sandwich I got.

“Um… looks like… like jamon y queso!”

He got peanut butter and jelly and we decided to trade. I like puttin’ the peanut butter on my animal crackers! Looks like they walked through the mud, heehee. I took a big bite of my jelly roll and Aiko came runnin’ up to catch Pai just in time. It was her turn to sit in the front today and she slide right in, wearin’ her new purple butterfly sunglasses.

“Oi Pai!” she smiled and reached to pick the radio station. And then we were off! Another day of school!

We got there on time and Pai kissed us each and sent us off to classes so he could go to his office. Today was my second day of second grade and I was really excited! Our teacher said we were doin’ addin’ and subtractin’ today! Kate says they’re easy, but I think subtractin’ is kinda hard… I do really good in Rubatoian though! And Gaian… although sometimes I mix ‘em up. Me and Aiko went to go say hi to our friends Jessica and Lena at the cubbies and the four of us sat together and talked about the weekend, giggling as Lena told us a story about goin’ to see the monkeys at the zoo. Jessica’s cat had scratched up her mae’s sofa this mornin’ and she said she was still in trouble. Even if they got you in trouble, I’d kinda like a cat… we told them about the new trick Bandit learned! He can go down our slide in the yard!

Then the teacher asked us all to get quiet and be ready to learn, ‘cause class was gonna start. She counted to tres like she always did and clasped her hands together. It works most times. Some of the boys were still noisy, but boys are alwaaays noisy. I looked over at their table and one of the ones not talkin’ smiled at me. I smiled back. His name was Tiago and he was one of the nicest boys in the whole class. Sometimes he’d play tag with us at recess!

We did addin’ and subtractin’ and reviewed how to tell time on the clock like Teacher said, and then we did a little spelling and history too. Soon it was time for lunch! She lined us up like little duckies in a row and she the mommy ducky led us down to go eat. She even looked a little like a ducky ‘cause she waddles, hehee. Lunch was yummy like always. Mamae makes the beeestiest lunches!

Then recess came and we all got to go outside on the playground. Me and Aiko and some of our friends decided we’d play hide-and-seek. Tiago came over with a couple of boys and asked to play too, and Aiko told them if they did, one of them would have to be “it” primero. They did eenie meenie miney mo and picked Tiago. I felt a little bad for him, ‘cause he still has trouble countin’ to twenty sometimes, but he said it was okay. He went to go close his eyes and lean on a tree and we all ran off to hide. Better be quick, eeee!

Me and Lena ran and found a good spot behind the slides, under the biiiiggest one on the whole huge playground. It’s yellow and curves around slow until it lets you out at the bottom near the sandbox. We ducked under and tried not to giggle as Tiago got close to twenty, stumblin’ over some of the teen numbers. Those are hard.

“He’ll never find us!” she whispered, giggling as quiet as she could. I giggled too and nodded.

“Nunca!”

We heard lots of the first people gettin’ found and tryin’ to run for home base. That was when me and Lena decided to split up to make it harder to get caught. She ran over to the red slide and winked when she got there. No way he’d get us both now!

I could hear Tiago comin’ over with his sneakers crunchin’ on the wood chips and sand. “Come out, come out…” he called, pausin’, then walkin’ again. I tried to ‘member how to hide my shadow like Mamae showed me once. It was good for hidin’. I didn’t wanna cheat and hide inside the shadow though. Pai never liked that when we played at home.

He started to get really close and my heart went bump, bump, bump! I was gonna have to run! He came round the corner and right into my spot and stopped when he saw me, his cheeks goin’ all pink for some reason, and his smile came back. His eyes were lookin’ right at me and they were that really pretty hazel all the girls are always sayin’ they are.

“Oh, Aoko!”

“Eeeeee!” I turned on my foot to go and run, but he begged me to stop a second, “huh…?”

“Hold on… um… um… I… I wanted to ask you somethin’…” he looked down and his cheeks got pinker. Did he have a fever? Oh no, he was gonna have to go to the nurse and she would maybe give him a shot!

“Ask me somethin’…?” I blinked.

“S-si… um… um, I… I was wonderin’…” he scuffed his foot on the woodchips and looked back up—what was makin’ him act so funny? “I really like you… a-and… you’re… you’re nice, a… and… I was wonderin’… if you wanted to be my girlfriend? Y… you know… like Susie and Jose… they… they hold hands and sit together and stuff… so… so maybe… unless you like somebody else…”

Huh? Boys were so silly! Of course every girl wanted a boy to carry her books and sit with her and stuff! That’s all half the girls talked ‘bout! If Aiko knew, she’d be really jealous though… “U-um… y… you want to…?” I asked, not sure.

“S-si… yeah… if… if you want to…”

“I… I want to…”

“O-okay…” his smile came back, bigger than before. He reached out and took my hand and his was a little bigger than mine and warm and softer than some of the messier boys. I smiled back at him and he looked really happy. Lena squealed behind us and came runnin’ up, but we barely heard.

“Aoko, Aoko, you have a boyfriend!” she cried.

All the other kids started to crowd around but then the bell rang and it was time to go inside. What a busy recess! Me and Tiago held hands the whole way back and it was really nice. I think I was gonna like havin’ a boyfriend! I wondered what Mae and Pai and Abuelo were gonna say!

We went back inside and the whooole rest of the day Tiago was super nice and got me things and sharpened my crayons for me and pulled out my chair for me to sit. I never been’ treated like that before in my whole life, and I’m seven! I drew him a nice picture in art and he made me a paper flower and we took both home in our backpacks. When it came time to go home we agreed to sit together at lunch and he would play with my friends at recess. What a great day! I couldn’t wait to go home and tell everybody!

Pai came to pick me and Aiko up with Marcus and Kate already with him. We had to go get Nadia first before we went home. I wondered if I should tell him about Tiago yet… but then I thought no, I’d wait until I could tell him and Mae back home! He asked about our days and Kate did most of the talkin’ and Aiko went next, and by the time they finished we already got Nadia and were in Pai’s big car almost home. We pulled up in the garage and I grabbed my backpack and followed Marcus inside. I had addin’ homework to do! I’d tell Mae y Pai after snacktime.

I really like school!