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Hop. Hop. Hop. Bend over. Pick up stone. Turn around. Hop. Hop. Hop.
Five year old Michael Vaughn watched the young girl from a distance, his curious green eyes hypnotised by her bouncing pigtails as she hopped. She was unaware of his gaze, as the five year old threw the stone again, and continued her game of hopscotch.
Hop. Hop. Hop.
Michael continued watching in a trance, mesmerised by her steady hopping. He stood on the other side of the playground, unaware of the pudgy hand waving in front of his face, trying to get his attention. It was the hopping, and the way her pigtails bounced around her shoulders as she hopped along, that had captured his attention in the first place. He had found himself gazing up at this girl when he had come this way to fetch the football that had gone astray, and was unsure of how long he'd been standing there, just watching her. She was... Pretty.
"Hello? Hello? Mike?" Eric Weiss, his best friend, stood before him, irritably snapping his fingers in front of his face, and snapping Michael out of his momentary trance. "Anyone in there?"
Michael shook his head, trying to rid his mind of all thoughts of her. "Sorry... I just got..."
"Sidetracked? Yeah, well lunch is almost over, so hurry up, we gotta finish the game."
His friend turned, and jogged back to the game. Glancing one last time at her, he reluctantly followed, and joined the game once again...
The bell soon rang, signalling the end of their lunchtime. Around the playground, the sound of feet scraping against gravel was heard, as the children slowly made their way back to their classrooms. Walking aside his friends, he was oblivious to their excited chatter as they talked about what they were doing that afternoon after school. He was preoccupied, as his gaze landed upon the girl again. Although the bell had rung, she was sitting on the concrete, clutching at her knee, whimpering softly. She looked like she was hurt.
He jogged to catch up with his friends again, and told them he'd meet them at class. They barely took any notice of him though, and continued making their way back to the classroom. Michael turned, and made his way towards her. As he neared, she looked up, having heard the scuffle of his shoes on the gravel. Her eyes glistened from the recently shed tears, and her cheeks were tear stained. Curiously, he knelt down beside her, and her whimpering subsided to a quiet sniffle. She looked up at him, her eyes pained, yet questioning his presence.
"Hey," he smiled in an effort to get her to smile. "You okay?"
He received no response however, and she continued gazing at him intently with big, brown, doe-like eyes.
"I'm... I'm Michael. What's your name?"
"Sydney," the girl whispered, her voice barely audible.
"Are you okay, Sydney?"
"I'm... I'm okay. But it hurts." Sydney whimpered softly from the sting as she withdrew her hands that were clutching her grazed knee. "It really, really hurts."
"Come on, Syd," he gestured, standing up and offering a hand to help support her as she stood up. "I'll take you to the nurse's office."
With one hand around her waist, he placed her arm on his shoulder to support her weight. "Can you walk?"
"Yes." She whispered.
And together, they made their way to the nurse's office slowly. As she limped along beside him, Michael couldn't help but grin. She really was pretty.
He helped her up the few stairs of the nurse's office, and waited patiently outside as the school nurse tended to her grazed knee. The walls were thin, and he could hear her sharp gasp as the nurse applied the disinfectant, and her soft whimpers as it began to sting. After a few moments, she limped out again, a Bananas in Pyjamas bandaid on her knee. He helped her down the stairs again, and they stood in an uncomfortable silence outside.
"So..." He begun, looking around, and noting that everyone had gone to class already. "Will you be okay to get back to class? I could walk you there if—"
He stopped mid-sentence, as Sydney leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.
"Thank you." She mumbled in her sweet singsong voice timidly, avoiding his gaze, and instead, focusing on her shoe. "Thank you for everything, but I'll be okay for now."
He smiled, and watched her limp off, before making his own way to class hurriedly, as he was already a few minutes late to class already. Dashing into class, he sighed with relief as he realised the teacher was late too. A moment after he took his seat, the teacher walked in, and the class fell silent almost immediately. A while later though, Eric, who sat beside him, poked him in the ribs.
"What were you doing?"
"Nothing." He smiled.
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