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 Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:23 pm
Day Care was turning out to be surprisingly neutral for Fish so far. He had not managed to make any friends yet, but he had not managed to make any enemies, either. The imitable and admirable Crowley was not there, but neither was the abhorrent and obnoxious show-off, Vox the magnificent. He had gotten a few extra animal crackers at snack because he was new, but he had not gotten to play with the puzzle he wanted it because some girls had already staked it out.
Seeking something to do, he staked out the reading corner and found a sparkly book about schools of fish.
Here arose the problem that, other than the word 'fish', Fish could not read.
He tucked the book under his arm and set out back into the hustle and bustle of the classroom, looking for someone who might be able to decipher the cryptic words.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:29 pm
Darsh was not exactly feeling the whole daycare thing. Mostly because the assistants had so many children to look after and were kept so busy that none of them had time to pay attention only to Darsh and make moon-eyes at him and coo and tell him how wonderful and precious he was. Then again, it was loud and chaotic and there were plenty of opportunities to get into all sorts of mischief. So maybe it wasn't altogether awful.
At the moment, Darsh had found himself a bucket full of giant crayons and was not-quite-furtively drawing on one of the walls. He knew he wasn't supposed to and therefore he was in a corner shielded from the teacher's sight. Then again, if someone caught him they'd be paying attention to him and even that would be better than anonymity. Taking half a step backwards, he admired the bright red and blue fishes he'd put on the wall. Auntie Emma would be proud, they looked really good.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:48 pm
Fish toddled up besides the blue boy, meaning to ask him if he knew how to read, because he looked like he might, but then caught sight of what the budding graffiti artist was scribbling on the wall.
"Ohhh," he said, dropping the book. It could wait. This was cooler. "Those're fish!" he said. "'R really good!"
He smiled at the boy. It was one of those perfect baby-tooth smiles. He hadn't gotten to the point where he was losing them yet. "M' name's Fish," he declared, "Like your drawin'."
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:54 pm
Darsh turned his head to regard Fish. It was one of those slow look-overs where someone was making up their mind about something. Then he gave the other boy a big, bright smile and in a movie-starlet move, tossed his hair. "Thanks. Wanna play?" It was the least he could do, offering to share his wall. The blue boy grabbed a purple crayon and offered it to Fish. He approved of Fish. Fish had complimented him.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:06 pm
Happy to have been approved of, Fish took the crayon and focused on the picture on the wall. "Draw 'nother fish?" he asked, and then nodded. It seemed like a good idea. He traced a shaky, careful shape on the wall, but felt like it didn't look as good as the others. Vox had seriously put a dent in his confidence.
"Wha's your name?" he asked inquisitively, giving his fish some fins and a pair of kissy lips. He, personally, had never seen a fish with kissy lips, but fish in books and on TV had them a lot, so it made sense to draw them.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:09 pm
"Darsh!" Said Darsh proudly. He liked saying his name. "S'yours?" He even remembered to ask while watching Fish draw his own fish. "S'good!" He added when the other boy seemed to be pausing. In fact, it was at least as good as any of Darsh's fish. But the little boy had a rather inflated opinion of himself and everything he did.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:38 pm
"M' name's Fish," repeated Fish, supposing Darsh hadn't heard him before, which was okay because Darsh had been drawing, so he'd been busy. Sometimes when Daddy and Feely started drawing, they didn't talk for hours.
He smiled shyly and compared his fish to Darsh's fish.
"Thanks," he said bashfully, "Your's's better."
He put the purple crayon back in the bucket and found a blue one after a bit of digging. He started to draw waves over the fish.
"Fishies need water," he explained.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:57 pm
Darsh, who was prone to getting caught up in his own little world, had indeed missed his initial introduction. "Fish! Like the picture!" As if Fish hadn't just pointed that out a moment ago. As if he had discovered the similarity all by himself.
Nodding in agreement when told his drawings were better (of course they were.) He took his own crayon and started imitating the wave-shapes Fish was making. "Like this?" Darsh asked, getting a little over-enthusiastic with the size of his waves. Of course fishies needed water! This boy was smart.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:19 pm
"Like the picture," nodded Fish, grinning like an idiot. It was easy to get caught up in Darsh's little world with him. The ocean was taking shape pretty nicely, the waves were nice and big. Well, it was a big ocean. So it needed big waves. In his mind, this made sense.
"Fishies swim in th' ocean," he explained precociously. "So do, uhhh... doll-fins!" But he didn't know how to draw a dolphin, so he drew another fish.
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Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:22 pm
"An' octopussies!" Darsh added, getting his half-remembered Bond villians mixed up with his sealife. He drew a blob and then some long wavy tentacle-ish things coming off of it. Then, for good measure he gave it yellow spots and nodded at Fish. This was a good world they were making.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:43 am
Fish looked at Darsh's blob. He squinted at it. He saw what it was supposed to be. "Thassa good octopush," he said.
"There's coral in th' ocean," he intoned after a bit of thought. He drew some strange red blobs near the bottom of the picture. "See? Coral."
It had never crossed his mind that maybe they were not supposed to be drawing on the wall.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 10:37 am
Darsh nodded approvingly at the coral. "Fishies like coral." He wasn't sure if that was true or not, but he knew that as long as you sounded authoritative on something, people were likely to believe you unless they knew better. He bent down to retrieve a green crayon from the bucket.
"Oh. No! Nonono!" The daycare assistant that discovered the two boys was a substitute, and she was really not suited for dealing with all the strangeness that came from cabbage-kids. It had not been a good day for her. And now two of the little hooligans were drawing all over the wall! "Stop it! You naughty boys!"
Darsh merely scowled at her and turned back to his work. He was not pleased that their rythm had gotten messed up by a stupid grownup.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:08 pm
Fish looked ruefully at the substitute assistant and then raised the crayon again, meaning to go back to his art. Then he paused. Was this... being naughty? He'd never done anything like this before, just heard about it. But what was she going to do to him? She wasn't the normal teacher.
He went back to the picture and started to draw a turtle, since he thought those lived in the ocean. Forget the silly teacher. He instinctively took a step closer to Darsh, though. Strength in numbers and all that.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:32 pm
The sub stared at the two little boys, sputtering a bit. This was not okay. "You boys stop that right now. We don't draw on walls, we draw on paper. Now come on, we'll get you some paper." She decided to take the nice route... for now. But just for good measure she bent down and grabbed the bucket full and crayons and then snatched the crayons Fish and Darsh were holding right out of their hands.
For his part, Darsh couldn't believe it. He blinked. He stared at Fish. Then he turned around and stared at the sub in absolute shock. Had this woman just taken his crayon? And Fish's too? Fish was his friend and so Darsh's ire immediately extended to encompass outrage on his friend's behalf as well. "Gimme my crayon. Please." He didn't think she deserved please, but it was worth a shot.
The sub shook her head. "No, we're going to go draw on paper." She looked over at Fish. He had seemed almost hesitant to disobey. Maybe if she could get him to agree, the other one would as well. "Now..." She had to search for a name. "Fish. Lets go color on some paper, like we're supposed to do. Coloring on the wall is bad."
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:43 pm
Fish had never been bad before. Fish had never been punished before. As a result, he had no real idea about what was going on. He had just been playing! And besides, the wall was much prettier now! Couldn't the lady see that?
He didn't want paper. He wanted to finish his picture. Here!
He looked at Darsh. He looked at the substitute. His lower lip wavered dangerously, and then he began to wail. Long, hiccuping sobs. It just wasn't fair! And she was so mean!
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