Chapter Text
The first day of kindergarten is a staple of childhood that one barely remembers when they get older, however, it’s nostalgic in a sense, the reading corner, show and tell, playing house, the oh-so sweet purity of one's mind at that age.
Never worrying about death, popularity or status and only worrying about if you have enough time to play in the sandbox after you’re done using the swing, or the innocence of playing house with your friends not yet knowing what life was like in the cruel world.
-
Noel’s mother dropped him off outside the kindergarten holding his small hand before bending down to meet his eyes;
“Okay Noel, I’ll be back soon to take you home, Alright?” She smiled, She was a very pretty woman when she was younger, from what Noel remembered she always had her hair down and the most beautiful green eyes.
Noel found himself tearing up realising he was to be without his mom for hours, she embraced him and ran her hands through his freshly cut hair, embarrassingly for Noel, early on in his life he sported a bowl cut and thick-lensed circular glasses.
“Oh Noel, It won’t be long, You won't even realise I’m not there, you’ll make some wonderful friends, I'm sure,” She paused holding his cheeks in between her hands which were freshly manicured her nails painted a vibrant red “I’ll tell you what, when we get home we can watch that French cartoon you like and I’ll pick us up slushes from 7-11?”
Noel wiped away his tears and nodded mustering up a smile, she kissed his cheek before gently encouraging him inside the building, he looked back at her and waved, and she waved back.
-
The inside of the kindergarten was very overwhelming, there were kids everywhere picking their noses and coughing freely over each other, Noel grimaced in disgust. He turned his attention to the cubbies scanning them for his name, he found it directly next to someone called ‘Mischa Bachinski’ a unique name, especially in Uranium city.
A voice suddenly snapped Noel out of his confusion.
“Що ви робите?” A very thick voice was heard behind him in a language that was not English or something he was familiar with.
“Excuse me?” Noel replied turning round to face the speaker, it was a boy around his age who was wearing sweatpants that were too big for him along with a hat that was flipped backwards that was, surprise, also much too big.
The boy pointed at the cubby reading ‘Mischa Bachinski’ and pointed at himself “I am Mischa.” Noel took this as a hint and hastily put his backpack on the cubbyhole’s hook and ushered it to the side.
“Do you speak English?” Noel enquired while the boy, who was presumably called Mischa, hung his bag up, the bag was tattered and ripped where the bag strap connected to the actual bag itself as if it was thrifted or a hand me down.
Mischa tilted his head in confusion before digging out a lanyard from underneath his again, oversized jumper, and showing it to Noel.
‘I am from Ukraine and know very little English, please be patient!’
Noel was not sure at all what Ukraine was or where it was located, but he smiled at Mischa before pointing at the cubby where his name sat and pointed at himself “Noel.” Promptly he held his hand out and to his pleasure, Mischa shook it and repeated the name back.
-
It had been a few days later and Noel found out from the teacher that Mischa knew some English, such as the basics but he might switch to Ukrainian sometimes, Noel liked Mischa’s accent, he thought it was sweet just like the way Mischa thought Noel’s voice was soothing.
It was shown and tell before home time, a ginger girl named Ocean brought in a CD called ‘Up with people!’ she said it was among her parent’s collection and expressed her love for singing and theatre, show and tell continued for some time, each person bringing up something they liked, dolls, cat plushes, candy, or even shells.
It was Noel’s turn and he was extremely nervous, he’d brought in a CD of a French film he liked he was in the middle of rambling about the plot before a laugh and mocking tone came from a child on the carpet.
“A stupid film? Are you serious, Noel?” The child he’d known to be Lewis snickered and continued “It’s bad enough with your weird hair and big glasses”
Noel didn’t know what was happening, suddenly his face heated up and he felt his eyes well up with tears, he knew he shouldn’t have brought it in, he was stupid for even attempting the silly idea, before Noel even realised he ran out of the class and retreated to the playground plopping himself under a tree, throwing the DVD case on the floor cracking the case ever so slightly.
Noel hated being away from his Mom, he hated new people and especially hated Lewis.
A rustle of grass emitted and a shadow stood over him, it was Mischa and he was holding the DVD case, He sat next to Noel silently before speaking.
“Don’t listen to Lewis, he is what we call in Ukraine a ‘мудак’.”
“Is that a swear word, Mischa?” Noel giggled in response turning his head to face the Ukrainian boy.
Mischa smiled nodding, he had made Noel Gruber happy, he spoke again, this time looking into Noel’s eyes.
“I think your film is cool, Noel.”
“Thanks, Mischa.” Noel found his face turning a brighter red, but not out of anger or sadness, but something else Noel had never felt before, he felt as if butterflies were swirling around his tummy continuously, it was an uncomfortable, yet ticklish sensation.
“We should steal Lewis’ toy car, he will be so pissed!” Mischa jumped up grinning holding out his hand to lift Noel from the grass, Noel's mother was right, he had made a friend.
-
Noel had officially been at Kindergarten for a month now and he’d made other friends rather than just Mischa, but even so, Noel liked Mischa more than the other kids.
The kids he’d now found himself hanging with were called; Ocean, Ricky, Penny and Constance.
Ocean was the girl he’d seen with the ‘Up with people!’ CD, she was still very much ginger and her hair was always soft and long, she sported a black headband and was almost always wearing a shirt with some sort of music reference on.
Ricky was a sweet boy, He had crutches and was mute and communicated in ASL, he was interested in space and cats and his clothing showed that, he’d even made his own story about saving a race on a planet called ‘Zolaria’, a girl called Penny was his translator.
Penny was also sweet, Noel hadn’t noticed her before, she had gorgeous brown hair that Ocean and Constance always plaited for her, she wore many dresses and always looked so pretty in them, she and Ricky were unable to be separated, it was almost as if they were stuck together with glue.
Finally, Constance, was already deemed the nicest girl in the kindergarten, always volunteering to help teachers and following Ocean around everywhere, Wherever Ocean went, Constance followed, they were a package deal. She had her brown curly hair tied in 2 space buns and wore shirts with some candy-related designs on them.
Noel got along well with most of these people, he and Ocean quarrelled a lot, whether it be over who uses the sandbox next or what book should be used for reading time, it was constant arguing, oddly, Noel wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Noel! It’s my turn on the swing!” Ocean shouted pointing her finger directly in his face as he came to a halt.
“Ocean, I just got on it, plus, I thought it was Constance next?” He said signalling to the girl who was standing behind Ocean fiddling with her hair.
“Constance said I could have her go, didn’t you Constance?” Ocean turned to face Constance smiling widely
“Oh, I don’t remember if I did, but you can go I don’t mind!” Constance summoned a weak smile on her face, Noel thought maybe deep down she did want a go but didn’t want Ocean to be upset.
“Fine.” Noel hopped off the swing and walked over to Mischa who looked embarrassed and Penny and Ricky who were sitting on the bench giggling about something, almost as if they were teasing Mischa.
“Hi, Noel!” Penny was beaming “You’ll never guess what Mischa said!” She was kicking her feet back and forth off the bench, her eyes twinkling “He said he thinks you’re-,”
Mischa shot up out of his slouched position and covered Penny’s mouth glaring at her intensely before removing his hand.
“He said I was what?” Noel tilted his head, adjusting his glasses
“He said. Uhm..that,” Penny scanned Noel “That you’re funny?” She did not look at all confident in her words and seemed to be hiding something from Noel, ‘how odd?’ Noel thought almost forgetting what he came over for.
“Okay..?” Noel responded with an ounce of suspicion in his voice ”Do you wanna play house with me? Ocean stole the swing and I'm bored.”
Mischa, Penny and Ricky nodded and head off to the old yet still standing wooden house, the inside interior covered with crayon scribbles, arguing over roles before it was decided Noel would be the Mom, Mischa the dad, Penny the daughter and Ricky would insist on being the cat.
It was the end of playtime and while the kids went inside, just when Noel was about to leave the small hut, Mischa grabbed his arm.
“Mischa, it's reading time now, we gotta go inside,” Noel whined, he quite enjoyed reading time and didn’t want to miss even a single word.
He turned to face Mischa who was holding a pen.
“What are you doing?” Noel was concerned for Mischa’s wellbeing, because from his standpoint, a 5-year-old boy wearing clothes that were bigger than they needed to be, was standing very menacingly with a black sharpie.
“Just watch, Noel!” Mischa led Noel to the far corner of the playhouse, considerably the cleanest corner, and scribbled on the wall.
“Mischa! What are you doing!” Noel pulled Mischa away just to notice Mischa had written something,
M + N
With a little heart around it.
“We’re best friends, yes?” Mischa smiled pointing at it “This means that we will be best friends forever!”
The feeling was back in Noel’s tummy.
“Uhm, Yeah okay,” He smiled “Best friends.”
-
I’m sure we all miss these days of our life, even though I am a fortune-telling novelty carnival game, i too am envious of the purity of childhood. Unfortunately, for these 6 children, their lives would only get worse from here.