Daydreamer

Raindrops Falling

Chapter 1: Frolicking in a Field of Flowers

The lush green grass shifts with the quick steps of children.

Laughter floods the air with its joyful wonder, drowning out the

titters and chirps of birds. Along the tree line shadows dance

and twirl in their own game, mimicking the children’s movements.

The children move in circuits, laughing and running in a

game of chase. They tumble and roll and jump. Grass stains their

knees and dirt mars their faces. The pigtails of the little girls are falling loose while the little boys have hairs sticking out in every direction.

It’s a whimsical sight. To any adult watching it would be

nostalgic, running with no cares in the world and imagination

running wild. Everything looks so big to the eyes of children.

The forest is dark and creepy, a place where a crazy wizard would live or elves would hide, and the jungle gym is a prince’s

castle.

With the sun shining and birds chirping, a better day could

not be found for a game of tag.

“Tag! You’re it, Lisa!” A small boy with a mop of curly blonde

hair and blue eyes yells as he touches the shoulder of the red

haired girl. She squeals and turns to chase him. They race

towards a dark-haired boy who hasn’t noticed their approach.

He turns too late, the three of them fall in a pile of

laughter.

The girl pokes his arm while yelling “tag! You’re it,

Danny!” The first two children jump up and run away while he

huffs and pushes himself off the grass. He spots another boy

close by and rushes towards him, hoping to catch him off guard.

Danny is inches from touching the other boy’s arm when he

notices. With a grin he takes off towards the others.

Around the yard they all run, around and through. They move

as fast as their little legs will allow them. Two children hide

behind the slide and giggle as they watch the others run.

The boy who is it sneaks behind them and scares them. Shrieks ring out as they dash towards their friends. “Ahh! Don’t do that, Sammie!” the girl yells at the boy.

“Haha, girls are so easy to scare!” Sammie laughs and they chase each other past their friends.

Two girls break off from the group, sitting on a soft patch of

grass. The blonde-haired girl is sitting behind the red headed

girl. They giggle as she braids her friend’s hair and watch their other friends run and play.

“Gee, you are the best at braiding hair,” Lisa says to her

friend. It was not uncommon to find the three girls sitting in a

circle during recess and braiding each other’s hair. Gisel, Gee,

blushes at the compliment but thanks her friend. They both watch

their friend Vanessa, Nessa, climb the ladder up to the slide.

“Nessa is so brave!” Gisel whispers. Deep down, she wishes she could be brave enough to wrestle with the boys and play all day

with them. But the boys are scary and enjoy playing in the dirt.

“She is all dirty,” sniffs Lisa, “her pants are stained and

her ponytail is falling out. I don’t mind playing with the boys,

but I don’t want my clothes getting all dirty.” They fall silent

as Gisel continues to braid Lisa’s hair. She pauses her work as

Sammie tackles Danny and they roll across the ground.

Lisa grins, “Danny is so nice, letting the others catch him

and beat him.” She sighs, stars in her eyes. “He is so much

bigger than them and the best at sports. He is the nicest.” Danny is the boy in the class that all the girls like and giggle about.

“Sammie is also nice,” Gisel says. She turns pink when Lisa

turns around.

“I guess,” she huffs and turns to see the boy they are

speaking of tell a joke, making Nessa laugh the two other boys to stop chasing each other over the slide and stand with their friends. “Where are you going?” She asks Gisel.

“I want to go hang out with our friends,” she states, “Isaac was going to tell us about the new book his dad got him!” she races over to the group. Lisa crosses her arms and stomps over to her friends and listens to the stories of their friend. For being the more reserved of their group, he loves telling stories. Real or fake, he can pull anyone in.

Soon all of them are sitting in a circle and tossing around

ball as Isaac continues his stories. Gisel begins to create a

braid of grass blades and Lisa and Vanessa start a handshake

game.

Sammie grins to himself as he sees everyone distracted while listening to the story and pulls a blade of grass and turns to the girl beside him, Gisel, and begins to poke her with it.

Gisel flinches and looks up. Everyone seems to be caught up

in their little world to pay any attention. She then turns to the boy beside her who is trying not to grin.

Shaking her head, she huffs and turns back to her grass

braid. It happens again, a tickling touch to her arm. “Sammie!”

She calls out while tossing her handful of grass at him.

The air thickens as grey clouds roll across the sky. Sammie jumps up and speeds away from the fuming girl. The first drop of rain slams onto his head and he stops to gaze up into the sky.

A misting rain begins and one of the boys notices the girl

moving closer to the trees. He races to her and grabs her hand.

The other children are trying to catch the bigger drops of rain

in their hands.

The boy and girl look at each other before racing on the

slick grass back to their friends. Gisel laughs at Sammie’s

attempts of splashing Isaac with his puddle jumping.

Lisa huffs and shoves her wet hair behind her ears. While

she is examining the increasingly wet shoes on her feet, Vanessa

slowly moves behind her. Lisa squeals when she feels water drench her backside. She turns around to find a laughing Nessa and stomps her foot, resulting in the two of them being splashed by the water.

The two girls look towards their friends and grin at each other.

Together, they run as quick as their small legs can carry their bodies. Within an arm’s reach, they jump and splash Sammie who

stops his examination of a toad that had hopped its way from the

forest into the yard.

The sudden movements have both him and the toad jumping. It begins to hop its way back to the trees and Sammie follows, jumping behind it. The two girls shrug and jump behind their friend, as the rain begins to lighten up and sunlight peaks from the clouds.

The three other children stop spinning and playing in the

rain to watch their friends. Danny continues to watch the rain

and tries to collect the last little bits of raindrops in his

hands. Gisel begins to wring out her hair while Isaac continues

to watch their friends move around the yard. Danny moves slowly,

hands raised towards the sky and eyes watching intently.

Sammie jumps too far after the toad and splashes mud over

the two girls following him, prompting a shriek from them. Gisel

and Isaac turn in their direction and Gisel rushes to her

friends. She helps Lisa brush the mud off her pants while Vanessa is bent over laughing at Sammie who is sat in the mud staring at the toad sat in front of him.

Isaac turns away from the four friends when he hears Danny

gasp.

“You all need to come see this!” Danny exclaims. The girls

rush over and Isaac heads back to help Sammie up, listening to

the girls’ excitement over whatever Danny found.