Princess Charming

Princess Charming

I stared up at my mom with wide, expectant eyes. I tugged on her skirt, and she knelt down and scooped me up into her arms. She sat me on her hip and I buried my face into the curve of her neck, her chin resting on the top of my head, nestled in my soft curls. My eyes closed as my mom rubbed my back, and I drifted off to sleep.

*****

I grabbed Megan's hand and we raced over to where our moms were talking.

“Mommy?” I asked, looking up at her excitedly. “Mommy mommy mommy?” I insisted impatiently while she listened to Megan's mom, who was also being besieged with 'mommy.'

“What?” Mom finally asked, looking down at me exasperatedly.

“Mommy, can me and Megan get ice cream?” I begged. Mommy glanced at Megan's mom, and they exchanged a look while Megan and I waited impatiently, hopping from one foot to another.

“Sure.” Mommy answered. Megan and I jumped up and down in excitement, and we rushed to the end of the walkway that we were on, where the ice cream shop waited with promising glass doors. It took our combined strength to push open the door, but once we made it inside we were greeted with the wonderful smell of freezers and ice cream cones. Hand in hand, we walked up to the freezer that held the ice cream. We stepped onto the bench in front of the freezer and pressed our noses to the glass, peering in at the hundreds of different colors and flavors of ice cream. Our eyes were wide with simple, innocent excitement, our hands pressed against against the glass as we waited for our moms to come. Green, pink and orange swirls, frosty white, white with chocolate chunks that were nearly black, blue, pink. Our warm breath fogged up the glass, our small hands leaving small hand-prints.

*****

It was noisy, and there were people, tall and short, everywhere. I pressed close to against my mom, gripping her hand like my life depended on it.

“Here you go, sweetie! You'll have so much fun, all these nice people, and I'll be back to pick you up later, okay?” My mom told me in a sugary, encouraging voice, bending down so that her face was level with mine. My eyes widened in fear as I realized she was leaving me here.

“No mommy, I don't wanna stay here.” I whimpered.

“Go, you'll be fine, Hailey. You'll have fun, and mommy will be back to pick you up.” She promised. She stood up, and I stayed there, and watched her walk away. The first day of what mom called 'kindergarten.'

*****

“Have a day good at school, honey! You too, Megan!” Mom called as Megan and I hopped out of our car. Megan grabbed my hand, and we walked into our school, turning into our third grade classroom. We were both dressed in red, white and pink- it was Valentines Day, and today our class was exchanging Valentines Day cards. We each had to make one for everyone, so no one was left out. We hung up our backpacks that were too big for us, then went to join the morning circle.

“Okay class, so everyone has a bag with their name on it, and throughout the day you can pass out your Valentines Day cards. After lunch, we can share the heart cookies we made yesterday, sound good?” Miss Krista, our teacher announced, and there was a chorus of 'yeah!' from around the circle. We went to work soon after, and right before lunch, I passed out the Valentines Day cards I'd made everyone. I did Megan's first, and after I had done all the others, I crept over to Kyle's bag, and after staring at it for a minute, carefully stuck the card I had spent hours making into his bag. I smiled, blushing, and made my way back to my seat. I looked up through my bangs at Kyle, who was working on multiplication, his nose scrunching up adorably as he focused. I looked back down at my own paper, lightly drawing a heart with K+H in it, before quickly scrubbing it out with my eraser.