Work Text:
Kat was going to playschool for the first time, and she was a little
bit scared, she knew that some of the children there would be bigger than
her, and she was nervous about going in.
Chewing on the end of her long brown hair, a habit of hers when scared,
she walked slowly up the path to the big wooden double doors holding her
Mommy's hand tightly. She knew Mommy was going to stay with her for her first
few days, but still...
When Mommy opened the door and took her inside, there were loads of kids
running and jumping, shouting and bouncing, all much bigger than her, and all
very loud. Just then, a young boy came over to her. He had a great big beaming
smile, and a coronet of wild brown curls sticking out from his head like a permed
halo.
Reversing into her Mommy's legs, Kat peered up at the boy, he was taller
than her, and he was very pretty looking. His teeth gleamed in the sunlight as
he smiled again. Taking her hand, the boy said "Hi girl, I'm Ray, come play with
the paints with me." Looking up at her Mommy to see that it was alright, Kat took
Ray's hand and went to paint a picture with him.
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Mommy, smiling as she watched her little girl making friends with one of the
slightly older kids, walked into the room, said hello to the other adults there,
then went and asked if Kat had remembered to tell Ray her name - she hadn't.
At breaktime, when they went outside to play on the trikes and pedal cars,
some of the other boys called to Ray to play cops and robbers with them. Grinning
at Kat, he ran over to them, asking if his new friend Kat could play too.
The other boys didn't want Kat to play. Cops and robbers was a boys game, not
a girls game, so she wasn't allowed to join in. Ray, clearly torn between them joined
in for a little while, but kept looking over to where Kat was sitting on the ground
with a sad look on her face. He kept getting caught, so he left the boys playing to go
and see what was upsetting Kat.
Kat, staring tearfully at the flowers in the border, didn't see Ray coming until
he sat beside her and asked what was the matter. Confused, Kat burst out "I fort
you wuz my fwend - why you leve me to pway wiv the boyz? You much pwittyer than them!"
Ray, grinning, put an arm around her shoulders, and said "I can have more than one
friend Kat. Yes I'm your friend, but I'm friends with them too. Why don't you come and
say hello?" Kat, looking over at the other boys with big, wide open eyes, said "Me not
fink dey wanna be me fwend. Dem not like you, you nice."
Ray, taking her gently by the hand, he lead her over and said "Gerard, Bob, Frank,
Mikey, this is Kat. She started this morning, so be nice - she's scared of you as it is,
no more being mean and not let her play. You made her cry." Mikey nodded, Frank grinned,
Bob smiled, but Gerard said "But she's a girl. What can she play at? Girls can't run fast,
or jump high, they can't race pedal cars or build towers, so how's she gonna play?"
Kat, her little hands curling into fists on her little hips shouted "I can too. You
just watch me. Hey, you, (pointing at Bob and Frank) we gonna race -Ray, you set us off.
Iffn I win, I play wiv you." Grinning to themselves, and expecting an easy win, the two
boys stood in line beside her and when Ray called "Go" they ran off, but Kat, arms and
legs going like pistons, over took them, spun round and was half way back before they
even noticed she's changed directions. When she arrived back with the other three boys,
Ray had a look of pleased suprise on his face, but Mikey and Gerard looked astounded.
Ray, laughing, said "Well Kat, it looks like we've got a female friend in our group
now." To which Frank shouted "The group's got a new girlfriend". Much to the amusement
of all the adults, and Kat, beaming with pride, never worried about going to playgroup again.
THE END.