Hidden Burdens (working title)

Progress

Everyone came along for support, including, to their surprise, Kimmy. They sat with the other parents, watching and cheering Miguel on.

The first class was just stretches and doing flips on the colorful mats. It did not take long for Miguel to make friends with a couple of his classmates, another boy and a girl. Seeing Miguel run around with his peers and getting to do what he loved was definitely worth the last seven months and how much he had come along since that shy, little boy hiding behind his sister.

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Kimmy also continued to meet with Nicole on Wednesday.

Nicole seemed like a nice lady and Kimmy enjoyed it as another chance to make art besides at school, and even as an excuse to get out of school. She wasn't progressing as much as Mary and Miguel were, a concern for Ben. Nicole wasn't concerned at all and welcomed Kimmy to take as much time as she needed.

Some just needed a little extra time than others and that's okay.

This week, Nicole moved the table to spread out a long sheet of white paper. She had Kimmy lay on the paper while she traced around her body with a purple marker. Nicole never got too close to brushing against her, even when she traced between Kimmy's fingers.

"Now, I'd like you to write as many positive words you like about yourself as you can think of," Nicole said once Kimmy got to see how the tracing turned out. She handed her the box of markers to let her choose a color.

Kimmy scanned the markers before deciding on green. She yanked the cap off and attached it to the other side of the marker. The only problem was, Kimmy didn't know what to write.

Nicole gave Kimmy some examples such as being kind, if she was a fast runner, or even a good speller. Maybe Kimmy saw herself as being kind, but she definitely wasn't a fast runner or a good speller.

Kimmy reached over on her left hand to write "kind" where her heart should be. She then sat back on her feet and twirled the marker in her hands. She also managed to think of how good she was at video games and wrote "good at video games" and waited to see if that was okay.

"Good! Anything else?"

Kimmy sat there for another minute, trying to rack her brain for something she liked about herself. When nothing else was coming to mind, Nicole left to invite Ben to help.

Ben pulled a red marker from its box. "Well, Kimmy is a good listener. She hardly gives us a hard time." He then wrote "Good Listener" on the right side of her head where Kimmy's ear would be. He also wrote "Animal Lover," acknowledging how well she does with Samson and recently Maple.

"I would say Kimmy is selfless, especially with the sweet things she's done for Miguel." Ben added "selfless" underneath "kind."

"Is there anything you want to add, Kimmy?" Nicole asked. "Now that Ben shared a few suggestions."

Kimmy stared at the outline of herself with all the positive words Ben had written so far. She couldn't remember anyone mentioning that many things they liked about her, before. There were things Kimmy wished about herself, but nothing was coming to mind she liked currently.

"You know," Ben spoke up once more. "I only rarely see it when you're watching your YouTube videos. You have a beautiful smile, kiddo."

Kimmy instantly looked up, but only with her eyes. How could a motion someone does with their mouth be beautiful?

He reached over and wrote "beautiful smile," arching the letters so they were in the shape of a smiling mouth. "I hope we can see more of your smile someday."