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 Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:12 pm
Ainsley was standing outside, staring at the road from the front porch. She had Octavian Oswald in her left hand, holding onto his paw carefully with her own, and the current day's Word of the Day calendar page in her right. She didn't just grab it and go outside, no, it had pushed her to go outside when she had studied the word and the meaning of the word. She sighed lightly, holding the piece of paper up to the sun, reminded of why she came out here when she looked at the words that were on the paper once more.  She wanted to vanquish her fears of crossing the street alone. She always wanted a hand to hold, someone to make sure it was okay to cross but she was ten now and she couldn't do that forever. Plus with her alternative identity as Sailor Chibi Hypnos, crossing the road should be a piece of cake that ********* would quickly eat up... but it wasn't so easy to just brush away the fears as you watched cars drive down the road.
Sure, she had Octavian Oswald by her side to protect her but what if he got hurt? He was so small it was more like she was holding his hand so he could cross the street and that just didn't seem like enough. She wanted to overcome it on her own, she wanted to not have to search out a stranger's hand to get where she needed to go. There was a world out there waiting for her on the other side of the road. All she needed to do was cross it.
Her hand clenched around the paper, almost forgetting it was there, as she took a step down from the porch. She could do it, she was brave. She let monsters chase her, and she protected the innocent from danger! What was crossing a small road alone in comparison to that? It didn't seem like much but the child stood there on the edge of the road with her breath held, looking both ways carefully and then taking a step only to step back again.
She was hesitating, and her face was turning blue. She couldn't put up with this forever, and soon a loud sigh exploded from her mouth as she found herself unable to hold her breath anymore. Not only that, but she wasn't able to cross the street. She didn't really need to cross the street alone, did she? She could walk over the rooftops, and brave the darkness. Those were notable, right? She didn't need to cross the street yet, there was no hurry!
She sighed, disappointed despite her more positive thoughts, while her grip on the paper loosened and she uncrumpled it. She would flatten it out and she would tuck it away for the day she was ready to vanquish her fear. The day may have not been today as it was marked on the calendar but that didn't mean that it couldn't be another day.
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:13 pm
7 AM and the sun was shining through the window when Ainsley woke up with the warmth on her face. It was the beginning of a nice summer day but the warmth shining onto her bed was too much to deny, the child quickly rolling over to lay in it and then falling back asleep. It wouldn't be until 8:30 AM that the child woke back up and finally crawled out of bed. She wasn't too full of energy, but she wasn't doing a zombie walk either. She casually made her way to the bathroom, completing the upstairs morning routine before making her way down.
Bell was no where in sight, possibly off doing errands that couldn't be put off, leaving Ainsley with the house mostly to herself.
Breakfast was quiet, but not at all boring. Ainsley had forgotten to take her Word of the Day calendar back upstairs over the past few days and it had been sitting on the kitchen table when she came down for breakfast. It was there, so the child thoroughly read the word, definition and sentence several times over. She'd had trouble with pronouncing it, but that didn't sway her against continuing to try. She was determined to get it right before she finished her breakfast, and by the time she had finally taken her last bite, her toast had gotten cold and her orange juice warm. Although odd, the fact food got cold and liquids got warm went unquestioned in Ainsley's determination to get this word right.
If she couldn't say it right, she would just have to play the part. It was like a servant, right? They did chores, and all the things people wanted them to do? That seemed like the closest relation the child could get and so she decided to start the game off she would do the dishes, and tidy up the kitchen.
Wouldn't Bell be surprised when she got home and found the kitchen neat and tidy? Why stop at the kitchen though? Ainsley soon found herself cleaning the hallway and the living room as well. Things that had been out of place were quickly put back to where the child thought they went, even if that wasn't necessarily the right place for it. She tidied up the shoes that were by the door, neatly stacking the shoes on the rack so they wouldn't be in the way before sweeping all the dirt outside.
"Voila," she exclaimed to herself, satisfied that the downstairs was nice and tidy.
However, now the porch was dirty and the child couldn't have that. She slipped a pair of shoes on, took the broom outside with her, made sure the door was closed behind her so no new dirt would enter the house and mess with her new pride and joy. What good would it be if it got dirty before Bell had the chance to come back home and see it? Natta, is what good it would be.
After thoroughly making sure the door was closed, the child went to sweeping the porch off until it was free of not only the dirty she had swept out onto it but the dirt that had built up on it from normal usage and weather.
The sun was beginning to grow higher in the sky and with it the temperature as well. The tasks the child was doing and had already done were beginning to show as wear on her. She was getting tired and thirsty, and thankfully with the porch now as clean as the house, the child was able to go back inside. She hadn't thought about it, but when she slipped off her shoes not only did she forget to move them so they wouldn't be where she'd just moved all the shoes from but there was dirt on them that soon fell onto her nicely cleaned floor.
It went unnoticed by the tired child, barely remembering to put the broom away when she went to get a drink before flopping down on the couch. She relaxed after what she thought was a good job done, and found herself looking at the table where a pad of paper that hadn't been tidied up or tucked away laid. Once again she'd forgotten to put the Word of the Day calendar away.
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:15 pm
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:53 am
Park painting
★ ☆ ★ Ainsley, Alexandre ★ ☆ ★
A trip to the park to read turns into Q&A on the study of the world & castles.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:56 am
It was Day 236 and a week since Ainsley had finally started studying words via her Word of the Day calendar again. Today would be the seventh word and that made it very special! She would have to do something to make today different than any of the other days, and when she found a notebook from the last year of school she knew exactly what she would do. She would have a review, or maybe write a story using the words! However, first she had to find her Word of the Day calendar and today's word, and it wasn't in her bedroom.
Basically, the child had completely forgotten where she had put it, or more correctly, left it. The day before, and most of the week, the calendar had been downstairs and the child forgot all about it. It would take some clever detective work and searching to find it! She would search the upstairs first, starting with her bedroom but when she didn't find it there she would check her sister's room. Of course it wasn't in Bell's room, but that didn't stop Ainsley from curiously peering in, and even trying on her sister's shoes before leaving to look in the bathroom.
Surprisingly, the calendar wasn't in the bathtub or above the toilet. It wasn't by the sink, or even under it. It didn't seem to be anywhere in the bathroom, or any of the other rooms she had so cleverly checked upstairs which could only suggest it just wasn't upstairs. If it wasn't upstairs, then logic suggested it could only be downstairs or not in the house. It made sense, the child soon remembering that she had last seen it downstairs on the breakfast table when she was eating the day before.
It didn't take long for Ainsley to flee the bathroom and find herself downstairs, finally with her Word of the Day calendar in her hands. She'd found it right where she'd left it the other day, on the living room table. It still had yesterday's page on it, but with a quick pull, the child removed it to reveal today's word. She studied the word on the page carefully, trying to remember the definition and the spelling of the word. She tried to say it out loud several times as well before she sat down on the couch with the calendar in her hands. She had given herself enough time, or at least enough time she felt a teacher would give her, before she put the calendar face down on the table as well as flipping over the six removed pieces of paper so she couldn't see them.
"I can do this!" She cheered herself on as she picked up the pencil, opened the notebook to a fresh page near the back of the book and then word down what she wanted to do. The list consisted of three things: correctly writing down the seven words, defining them and then finally making a short story using all seven of them. She left a space at the bottom to do all of it and then carefully looked at the paper.
What was the first word? Her eyes shot towards the calendar and the six small pieces of paper that were spread over the table. It would be so easy to just flip them over and look at them... She quickly shook her head, trying to look at the paper. She would do this by herself! She focused her thoughts back on earlier in the week, her pencil pressed against the paper eagerly.
Fraudulent
Cuddle
Nullify
Exculpate
Vanquish
Subservient
Argumentative
She looked over the list she made, making sure there was space for the next part while remaining determined not to erase any before she seen if they were right or not. She hoped they were all right, but she still had two more parts to do and she didn't want to linger too much. She had to define those words, and although some came more easier than others like exculpate because she remembered explaining it to Gwenliana, others were not as clear to her. Beside
Fraudulent : liar
Cuddle : to hug softly
Nullify : to break
Exculpate : to free from blame
Vanquish : no more fear
Subservient : to clean
Argumentative : arguing
She didn't think on it too long, trying not to linger on what she wanted to write for too long. She let her pencil do the thinking, sliding carelessly over the paper as she wrote the words as they came to her: There was once a fraudulent prince named Endymion who could never be exculpated for what he had done. He had tried to nullify a princess instead of cuddling her. The princess was brave though, she was not argumentative and had no desire to be a subservient, instead she vanquished what he started.
It was done, and the child quickly flipped over the pages and the calendar so she could see how she did. She frowned a bit, realizing she'd made some simple mistakes but had also seemed to have mixed up some of the meanings with things that weren't exactly related to it. Subservient seemed to have been the word she messed up the most, and she made a note beside it to study this one later, as well as some other notes in the margin, before drawing a little happy face and writing "Good Job Ainsley" at the top of the page.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:58 am
Chalk it up to Summer
★ ☆ ★ Ainsley, Millicent ★ ☆ ★
Ainsley goes to the park to take part in the annual end of summer sidewalk chalk day.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:01 pm
Ainsley had spent most of the afternoon at the park, drawing on the sidewalks with chalk for a twist. It wasn't her normal scene, but she did enjoy drawing bunnies and princesses in tall towers on the sidewalk for everyone to see. Despite the fact she would often get upset when people didn't see them and happened to walk across them, or when people did see them but just didn't care, Ainsley went home satisfied with a job well down. She was glad to be home but when she walked inside of the house she shared with her older half sister, her only regret was that Bell didn't get to see it!
"Bell, I'm home!" She announced upon arrival, carefully removing her shoes and setting them out of the way. She double checked to make sure that the door was closed and then she slid across the floor to the kitchen to see if Bell was in there making dinner yet before practically running up the stairs and then darting for her bedroom.
Ainsley bound into her room with a sparkling excitement, eager to see what today's word was. She went straight for it, darting under her bunk bed and ripping the previous day's page off of the calendar with excitement. Ainsley's eyes skimmed over the top portion of the page, looking at the spelling and pronunciation of the word before her eyes automatically fell down to the definition.
She didn't like what she seen when she read over the definition, her hands clinging to the paper as she fell against the wall and slowly slid to the floor. Although she didn't want to remember what had happened that night, it was the perfect word to describe what had happened to Gwenliana that cold Christmas Eve. Memories found themselves flooding back to the child as she remembered the moments leading up to and after Gwenliana's deliquesce just like the tears in the corners of her eyes.
She sniffled, her hands finding themselves at the corner of her eyes. It was hard to just get over it when your friend disappeared, or better described as, deliquesced in your arms. She still wanted Gwenliana to be here, to teach her how to dance in exchange for her teaching her all the words she was learning. She could imagine them laughing together, and dancing together, but now all she could imagine was everything they couldn't do together now.
"Gwenliana... I miss you... It's been 243 days since you... since you..." she trailed off with a whine, trying to wipe away the tears. It hurt to think about when she was reminded of it so thoroughly by something she enjoyed but she didn't want to think that Gwenliana was watching over her only to see her crying. "I can still hear your voice when I listen to the wind, feel your cool touch in the breeze but I can't see you anymore Gwenliana, I can't touch you anymore... We can't dance together anymore..."
Her lips felt dry and soon she buried her face against her hands as they wrapped around her knees. She wished Gwenliana was there to hug, to comfort her sorrows away. Gwenliana's cool touch, her soft words would cheer her up and if that didn't work Gwenliana would do a beautiful dance, offering her hand out to Ainsley to join her. They would dance their sorrows away together but... but... Ainsley couldn't think about it anymore. It couldn't happen anymore and all she could do was just sit on the floor wishing to erase the the ink off the piece of paper with her tears.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:07 pm
Despite the fact Ainsley wasn't feeling very great about the word from the previous day, the child hesitantly reached out for the calendar as if it would bite her if she moved too suddenly. She wanted to continue, and she knew Gwenliana wouldn't want her to stop something she loved to do because of that event. She would be strong, carefully pressing her fingers across the pad of paper to smooth out the wrinkles she had caused the prior day. The child made a strange face when she read the words off the page, a gasp following it. It didn't make sense, this was a word of the day calendar, not two words a day calendar. How come this was two words? Had they made a mistake when they printed it? Perhaps this was supposed to be one word? Or maybe the word of the day calendars got mixed up with the two words a day calendars.
"This can't be right," she spoke out. "This is two words!"
Ainsley held up the pad to the ceiling, wondering if perhaps she would be able to see something different under a better lighting. Nothing changed though, so Ainsley tilted the pad to the left and then to the right. Nothing worked. It remained two words on her word of the day calendar. This wouldn't work at all, there had to have been a mistake.
She didn't know what to do with the two words together on the single page and after a lot of debate with herself the child stopped fiddling with the pad of paper. She set it back down on the table and smiled, mentally smooshing the two words together into one. It was officially modusoperandi, not modus operandi. She found out that modusoperandi meant a plan or a way of operating and with a giggle she skipped off to do just that. She would use modusoperandi to figure out just what she was going to do today.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:08 pm
Ainsley was prepared for today's Word of the Day event, a notebook and pencil on the table next to it. She didn't know what the word was, too stubborn to give in to peeking despite the inner turmoil that was otherwise known as curiosity. She would be absolutely abashed if she had peeked ahead of time... okay, maybe she peeked a little. It was hard to resist your curiosity when it was staring you right in the face! There was no surprise when she tore off the previous page and set it aside with her notebook, but there was a smile. She had finally officially made it to the new day. "Abashed," she said without a doubt. It certainly helped she had peeked at the calendar previously, studying the word and the pronunciation with greed. Was it wrong to go ahead of the schedule to learn? Probably not, even if it was only supposed to be one word a day. Her pursuit of knowledge was growing stronger by the day and soon it would be harder for her to resist the temptation that the calendar caused her by sitting there.
For now though, Ainsley would continue strong, pulling out her notepad so she could write out the word repeatedly in rows until the page was filled. She would not be abashed by misspelling the word, not like she might be abashed when a handsome, princely bluenette walked by her in the streets. She hoped she would see him again, hoping that perhaps when she was better at the piano he would come to listen to her. He would clap, tell her she did a wonderful job and give her another piggyback ride.
Oh, wonderful thoughts. The child sighed softly as she finished filling the page with the word abashed. She had filled the page, but not enough, her hand soon drawing hearts amidst the words. It seemed like love was in the air today.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:10 pm
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:12 pm
Today's word of the day was such a simple one that after Ainsley had checked out to see what it was and what it meant that she ran off in search of something she could properly describe as having a stench. What better way to remember the meaning of a word than to experience it first hand? It seemed like a good idea.
Her search started inside the house but both her and Bell were fairly tidy that finding something that might have built up a bad smell was rather difficult for the child to manage. The upstairs, the living room, the kitchen and even the hallway were all pleasant to the child's nose even when she got on her hands and knees to stick her nose up close to things she thought might smell.
It was a weird thing for the child to be disappointed about but she was beginning to wish there was something around the house that had a bad smell to it so she could properly identify it as a stench. Maybe she shouldn't have cleaned the house earlier in the week! If she hadn't cleaned the house earlier in the week then she wouldn't be on a hopeless search for something with a stench to it. It seemed like she was never going to find anything... at least not in her house. That meant she'd have to take her search outside and see what she'd find out there.
Who knew what she'd find out there, and there was only one way to find out. Shoes slipped over her feet, and disappeared out of the house, leading with her nose, to smell what the world had in store for her.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:13 pm
It was Monday and the weekend was finally over but not forgotten. It was all over the news: Hurricane Irene had finished its course but not without leaving a mess in its wake. It had ripped through several states on the east coast over the weekend, causing power outages like raindrops that only fueled the flooding waters rise over the riverbanks.
New York had been one of the places that the hurricane had decided to dance above, its dress twirling around in the sky as the pleats of a dress. So much had stopped for the state, like the world had stopped spinning while the hurricane approached and then passed by as the star of the show. The child wasn't there but it didn't mean she didn't worry. Not only did her father live there but so many people did as well. It was hard not to worry about so many lives, so easily tossed around by the very planet they called home.
Ainsley hadn't had to suffer through the wind, rain, flooding, power outages that so many had that weekend but as she pulled her body up the stairs and away from the television that decided to continue coverage on what had happened over the weekend, she thought about them. Some people hadn't been as lucky as Ainsley, finding themselves now dancing through the air perpetually like the very winds that left the hurricane to watch over their family like Gwenliana watched over her.
It didn't take long before she got to her room, the calendar blowing in the wind from the open window. It was begging her to look, pleading her to pull away from her thoughts for a moment. Check me, read me, it is your daily duty. She heed the call of the wind, moving toward it until she stopped the wind from lifting it by holding the page in between her fingertips. The definition was clear, and the child smiled softly. She hoped there were people in the hurricane damaged cities that could be described as unselfishly concerned for others, altruistic men, women, children and animals. They would aid to those in need, those who needed help, without question.
"You're a good word," the child smiled, resting her face against it tenderly before tearing the paper off the pad.
Ainsley looked over the word a couple more times and then she began to tear it up. First she tore it into two strips, and then followed the pattern opposite directions until she had a pile of small pieces of paper in her palms that she could carry in her hands as she made her way over to the window. Her palms held tight around the pieces as she made herself comfy in the window sill, looking down into the street below and then the sky above.
Slowly her palms opened and she allowed the gust to take the paper into it, the word whispered into the wind. It was too good to keep to herself, a word everyone should not just know but live by. She hoped her word would reach others and become understood as a way of life not just some fancy word. Was her wish strong enough to make it? The child blew into the air softly before leaning her head against her shoulder as she watched the piece of paper disappear with it.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:15 pm
The summer was almost over but every day Ainsley studied a new word with her Word of the Day calendar, but that was not the only thing she did daily. On top of keeping an eye out for new words from her calendar, she also kept an eye out on neighbourhood for danger. Whether it was for many of her elder neighbours or a youma thrashing down the street, it was very important to her that she knew if anything that went bump in the night. Today's word of the day described this best, and while Ainsley was looking out her window before bedtime, she smiled and said, "I'm vigilant."
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:54 pm
Ainsley had looked at today's word and frankly, it caused uncontrollable laughter in the ten year old. It seemed like such a funny word that the child loved it already. It was hard to find a usage for it in an every day sentence but that didn't stop her from using it randomly in sentences where it made absolutely no sense. It didn't even need sentence, just saying it repeatedly between giggles seemed to suffice for a short time. The word bushwhacked called for an adventure, the opportune time for one to test out the word. All she would need would be her best walking shoes, her jacket and Octavian Oswald. It certainly wasn't hard to get those and before she knew it she was bounding down the street. She'd only have to take these things with her to the park and she could go deep into the foliage.
The park wasn't very far and the whack across the nicely cut grass wasn't nearly as adventurous as what she had in mind or what the park had in store for her. She found her way to the trees, much like the ones the boy she'd met in the park earlier had been painting. She couldn't help but stop and look at the leaves while she made her way by. It wasn't the thickest place ever, but as she pushed her way through the bushes with her hands she couldn't help but think of the word and giggle. Where would this path lead her? Perhaps to a jungle? She'd never seen the other side of it before so it could very well have been but all she knew was that she was half way to bushwhacking!
She may not be cutting her way through, but if she moved her hands in the right way it would be like she was cutting through the wind as she pushed them aside. It was close enough, right? She would make her way through the park's trees, only looking behind her to wave goodbye to the neatly cut grass that the children played on, creating a path just of her own. She would walk somewhere no one had ever before.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:57 pm
Today's word of the day was difficult for Ainsley to understand for reasons other than just the pronunciation and definition. She could understand the words that were on the paper but she could not understand the full intent of their meaning but how could she? The child had spent her entire life surrounded by luxury, hidden away from the poverty of the world that seemed to consume its round blue soul.
It was hard to believe that there was destitution in Destiny City, right under the child's nose. It was hiding around the corner of her eyes, always just behind her so she could never see it. It seemed that no matter how hard she looked around the streets, it was always just beyond the sight of her eyes. It was there though, maybe in the least obvious of places.
Ainsley had seen situations of or close to destitution and she didn't even realize it. It was all around her, schoolmates who tried to hide their shame while being thankful it didn't matter if they came to school each day with the same thing on because it was the school dress code. Their backpacks were worn and torn, patched together with whatever would hold them.
The child frowned, wondering and worrying about all the people who lacked ways to survive. How could they survive if they lacked means? What was it that stopped them from having means? Did they have no food? No home? Was there anything she could do? Was it too late to help them? The child paced back and forth in the hall, unsure of what to do before she darted into the kitchen. She checked the cupboards, and in all the cabinets. There was so much food here. Could this food help others? The child stared at it all as she thought about it when suddenly she had an idea.
"Bell!" Ainsley called to her sister. "Bell!"
She grabbed an arm full of some non-perishables and ran in search of her sister. She had to find her and find out if she could take this food and feed people like she did bread to the ducks! It was a brilliant idea, the child's face gleaming to herself as she ran up the stairs to Bell's room. Oh, she hoped her sister would say she could.
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