<< How much mud are you willing to wade through to get to me? >>
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Marin's eyes flickered back and forth as he stepped down from the safety of the trees. He'd been climbing and running through them since he was [Name]'s age. Speaking of the girl, he hadn't seen her today. At least, not yet.
Not seeing [Name] wasn't rare. She always kept to herself, and during the free time she would go off somewhere that nobody knew. But now Marin was well aware of what she did.
The day the two of them officially "met", he had seen her wandering the forest before stopping and watching the other four-year-olds. Her gaze had been blank, so he figured that she was just acting with no clear destination.
She should be coming any minute now. Ever since she had seen him and heard his song, she always hid in one of the trees surrounding the clearing to watch him. It was both endearing and kind of creepy. But he figured that he knew the reason. The music box was a big part of [Name]'s life, even though she probably didn't remember it. She must've been intrigued by the song itself.
Marin would call out to the girl, inviting her to come down or even join him. But the moment she realized he had seen her, she ran away. Every single time.
Caught up in his thoughts, Marin didn't notice when he tripped on a particularly big root of a tree.
Why is the ground getting closer? he wondered. Wait...OH NO--
His face planted into the ground, at a particularly muddy part as well. He groaned with distaste, sitting up and rubbing his face in a desperate attempt to rid of the mud that coated it.
A quiet snort stilled his hand. Marin looked up, not caring about the mud anymore. Up in the tree, [Name] was looking away from him, covering the side of her face as she snickered. She peeked through her fingers, saw his mud-stained, dumbstruck face, and then those quiet snickers developed into a giggling fit.
"Hey!" Marin pouted before smiling fondly. He must have been the first person to see her laugh. It was a shame, it sounded like his beloved music box.
Marin's offended face only made [Name] laugh harder. She toppled over in laughter, falling into another mud puddle below the tree.
Needless to say, the shock shut her up.
"Ewe!" she spluttered, rubbing her face with one hand and attempting to scrape out the taste of mud with the other. Marin cackled at her expense. [Name] glared at him, before grinning mischievously. She scooped up a sloppy ball of mud from the puddle, lobbing it at Marin.
It landed on top of his head, splattering his entire upper half. Marin stared at [Name] in mock disbelief from behind his dripping blue locks.
"Oh, that's it!" Marin said, pushing himself up from the puddle. He scooped together some mud of his own. [Name] grinned childishly, already preparing to meet his challenge. Marin struck first, throwing a well-aimed ball at his junior. Unfortunately, well-aimed shots don't count if your target dodges them. The (h/c)-haired child ducked, letting the unfortunate tree behind her tank the hit.
She jumped at Marin, throwing another ball of mud at him. Marin quickly intercepted it with a ball of his own. The two collided mid-air in a burst of the brown sludge.
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Isabella's usually gentle purple gaze was now disappointed and slightly cold when she surveyed the two dripping children. The two shivered, her eyes sending chills down their spines.
"So," she said, the poor children flinching. "Care to explain?"
[Name]'s mind was scrambling to find a way to get out of her situation. Worst-case scenario, she had to tell the truth. Second worst-case scenario, pin it on Marin.
No, [Name] frowned. She couldn't do that to the one sibling who had played with her. Usually [Name] didn't care that much about her "family" (having never really connected with them), and if it had been anyone else, she would've gladly pinned the blame on them.
Except for Emma. She didn't need Norman's wrath on her. That had a meek 5% chance of survival.
It looked like her only option was to tell the truth. She opened her mouth, ready to spill the beans, but Marin beat her to the punch.
"I was dancing and [Name] accidentally got in the way. I kind of kicked her into a mud puddle, and she grabbed my leg to stop herself from falling, and you can guess what happened."
[Name] blinked at the boy, surprised at the somehow believable lie. She didn't know Marin had it in him.
Isabella sighed, placing a delicate hand on her forehead. "I see. So you kicked [Name] into a mud puddle, and she took you down with her."
Marin laughed nervously. "Well, when you phrase it like that.."
[Name] stifled a laugh. She cleared her throat, walking up to Isabella. She didn't touch her but instead looked up innocently with big doe eyes.
"Mama, can I take a bath?" she asked. "The mud doesn't feel nice."
Isabella smiled warmly. "Of course, [Name]. Come with me. Marin, you should be able to take a bath by yourself."
"Mom, I'm 10 years old. I'll be fine," Marin grinned.
"I know," Isabella said. "Come now, [Name]."
As she was being led away to the bathroom, [Name] turned her head to shoot a questioning yet grateful look at Marin. The blue-haired boy in question only smiled.
"[Name], I know that isn't what happened," Isabella said suddenly. "Tell me the truth. How did you end up like this?"
Cheese and crackers.
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"Hey, Mud Girl!"
[Name] turned around cautiously, a bit ticked off by the greeting. She clutched the broom to her chest. Three smiling faces - actually, scratch that, two smiling faces and one passive. They were the only other kids her age. While Norman and Ray were the only ones with perfects scores despite their age, Emma and [Name] were close behind, with [Name] a few points ahead of Emma.
Emma, the energetic ginger, smiled brightly at the other girl, making her squint against the light emitting from the literal ball of sunshine. It was a wonder how Ray and Norman weren't blind by now.
"We wanted to know, do you want to play tag with us tomorrow?" Emma asked. Ray scoffed.
"Correction, you wanted to know," he corrected. Emma pouted at the ravenette, only for him to shrug nonchalantly in response.
[Name] shook her head, bringing the broom closer to her. Her eyes were frantically looking for a way to get out of her situation. Ray, noticing this, cut off any hope she had.
"If you're trying to get out of the conversation like you always do, there's no point," he said, positively deflating the girl. "Emma's not going to let up so easily."
[Name] tried to continue her sweeping. Her best chance was to humor the trio until she could get her way. Ignoring them would make Emma even more persistent.
"Ray doesn't play either," she mumbled, "so--"
"But he plays once in a while," Norman cut in, "while you don't play at all."
( "Please don't interrupt me," [Name] muttered, although nobody heard her. )
"Yeah! That's not healthy!" Emma chimed in. "Mama says you have to get a lot of exercise so that you don't get sick."
"Again, Ray--"
"Stop using me as an excuse," said boy snapped.
"Then stop being a good excuse," [Name] retorted. Norman chuckled.
"She has a good point, Ray."
Ray sputtered. "Wha- I- Whatever."
The other two laughed at his expense. Even [Name] mustered up a small smile. Ray scowled, turning his head to the side in a childish pout. The children only laughed harder.
"Emma, Norman, Ray, what are you doing?" A girl with long black hair walked up to the quartet, hands on her hips. "You should be cleaning up, not bothering [Name]."
"But Susan," Emma whined, latching herself onto Susan's leg like some sort of monkey. "We wanted to ask [Name] to play tag with us after lunch!"
Susan smiled, ruffling Emma's bright orange hair. "You can do that after you finish your chores."
"But Susannnn.."
Susan shook her head, a stern look replacing her kinder one. "No 'buts', Emma. Go do your chores. That goes for you too, Norman, Ray."
Norman smiled innocently. "Of course, Susan. Come on, Emma. We can ask [Name] later."
"Fine," Emma pouted, sticking her lip out. Susan smiled.
"Good. Now go."
Ray ended up having to drag a loudly grumbling Emma to do their chores, Norman walking beside him, shooting [Name] an apologetic look. In [Name]'s eyes, they looked like two parents dragging their troublesome child away to do schoolwork or something.
Susan chuckled, looking back at the (h/c)-haired girl who had resumed her sweeping.
"Sorry about those three," she said. [Name] shook her head, subtly moving in the opposite direction of Susan as she swept. Susan sighed. [Name] certainly lived up to her reputation. How Marin had managed to make her laugh was beyond her.
Speaking of the boy, he came jogging up to the two girls with a bottle of glass cleaner in one hand and a towel in the other. A small smile made its way on the younger's face before disappearing as soon as it had appeared. Nevertheless, Susan's eyes still caught that little slip-up.
"Oi, [Name]!" Marin called out, catching up to the two. "I heard from Emma that you'll be joining us in tag later!"
[Name] deadpanned at the excited boy, now inching away from the older children at a faster and much more noticeable pace.
"I didn't agree to anything.." she mumbled. Marin frowned, raising the squirt bottle. [Name] yelped as the cold water sprayed onto her face, immediately flinching and reeling backward like a cat.
"Marin! Don't do that, glass cleaner could permanently damage her eyes!" Susan scolded her elder sibling. Marin shrugged.
"It's fine," he reassured. "I already finished cleaning my part, so I switched out the cleaner bottle for an empty one, and filled that with water."
"Oh." Susan deflated. [Name] was already across the room by the time the two stopped chatting.
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"Children," Isabella called, ringing the bell. "Time for your daily tests! I wish each and every one of you good luck."
There was quite a lot of complaining as the children followed Isabella to the testing room. [Name] fiddled with her skirt, relaying the information that she missed in yesterday's tests one final time.
"Psst! Mud Girl!"
[Name] looked beside her to see Emma slipping through the crowds to get to her, the same old grin on her face. She mentally sighed. She was going to have to tell Emma her name eventually since there was a pretty big chance that the girl was going to keep bothering her.
"My name's [Name]," [Name] said quietly, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Oh! Sorry," Emma laughed, "I never got to know you since you don't talk to anyone! Sorry for calling you Mud Girl all the time."
[Name] shook her head. Emma grinned regardless, continuing to babble on about who knows what. How did the girl get all of this energy? Just being near the second sun was tiring for her.
"Anywho, what do you think you'll get on the test?" Emma asked, leaning in so that she could hear the other girl (she had already learned that [Name] mostly spoke in mumbles). [Name] blinked, snapping herself out of her thoughts. She looked down, pondering the question.
"There's at least an 86% chance that I'll get most of them right, save for a few," she began. Emma was already looking concerned when the girl mentioned that weirdly specific percentage. "But there's also a 10% chance I could get a perfect score, and a 4% chance that I could get less than half correct. I highly doubt that though. What about you?" [Name] asked, turning to the sweating ginger.
"Ah! Uh, I think I'll get most of them, if not all, correct too!" Emma hastily repeated what the (h/c)-haired girl had said. The said girl blinked owlishly at her.
"It's good that you're so confident," she said quietly. "I wish I had that energy."
"Oh, uh, thanks! I guess?" Emma tilted her head, before springing up in [Name]'s face. [Name] flinched, not used to such close proximity or volume. "But don't worry! I think you're great just the way you are!"
"But you don't know me that well.." [Name] trailed off, seeing the obvious pout on Emma's face.
"So what?" Emma asked. "I know that everyone thinks you're really shy and cold, but you're actually really nice! I mean, you've been talking to me for 2 minutes! That must be your new record!"
[Name] stared at her, wondering 3 certain things. One, that Emma was right, she had been talking to her for more than she normally would've. Even Marin hadn't gotten that far. Two, why, and how did she keep track of how long they talked? And finally, why was the walk to the testing taking so much longer than she remembered?
[Name] began to scoot to the side in an attempt to get away from Emma. Unfortunately, she collided with none other than the dancer boy, Marin, who gave her one of the cheekiest grins she had ever seen, second only to the one he had during the mud fight.
Ew. She had shivers just thinking about it.
"Sorry sister, but you're staying here with Emma," Marin said smugly. "You need to socialize more. Nobody wants to live a life of isolation. You're playing with us after this, like it or not."
[Name] briefly wondered if murder was legal wherever Grace Field was located.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, they had reached the testing room. Each child filed into their corresponding seat. [Name] breathed in and out to calm herself. She slipped on her headphones and prepared the scanner in her hand to start the test.
"Age 4, Type 1. Please answer every question within 10 seconds." The familiar automated voice droned in her ears. "We will begin now."
The questions were dependent on analyzing information, quick eye-movement, and memorization skills. All things that [Name] excelled or were proficient in. But some required knowledge of things that even she didn't know.
"Question 5. Select the figure from the following that could not be a possible net of Solid A."
That one, [Name] thought, quickly scanning it and hearing the following beep. It has a 0% chance of being any solid's net.
"Question 10. List all of the following cities in reverse-alphabetical order."
BEEP.
"Question 23. Name the 73rd term of the following sequence."
BEEP.
"Question 48. Count the total number of cubes in the following solid."
BEEP.
"Question 57. Study the number pattern and fill in the missing numbers in the clockwise order."
BEEP.
"Question 60. Give the formula that can be derived from the following conditions."
BEEP.
"Type 2 will commence shortly."
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well, that's it for the 2nd chapter! do you guys want me to do longer chapters like this around once a week, or do you want me to cut them in half to around the previous chapter's length to update more frequently?
p.s. alright so about the 'mud girl' comment, emma only called you that because the one time she saw you, you were covered in mud and she's literally four, she doesn't know what she's doing. she can't be racist even if she knew what that was. you're all beautiful, she didn't want to offend you in any way.
also, Ray isn't a sex god, he's a kid, thanks.