“wide eyes and small facial features

the delicate lines of an innocent creature”

-soft core schizophrenia

“Oh my ladybug so cute.” the lady cooed. Her child gripped her finger and stared at her mama, making tiny baby noises with her mouth.

This was the first time the new mom had gotten a chance to truly show her baby off. The surgery she had gotten to have her child taken out of her stomach was well worth it, to see something so important laying before her.

So perfect, so beautiful. Ah, evolutionary need to adore children at it’s finest.

An old friend of her’s had also had a baby recently, a beautiful babe who was really chubby. A ball of fat that made her want to squeeze her to death when she saw the pictures, whose name was Rebecca.

The mother turned away, keeping her baby in the corner of her eye as she picked apples from the stand, alongside another woman who also had a baby. Babies, babies everywhere. It’s amazing really, just how many people think getting it on in the last three months of the year is a great idea. Then again its winter time, what else is there to do?

“How old is she?” the other woman asked with a smile. The girls mother grinned, so proud of her child. Their family had showered them with presents of clothing and diapers. She was the first biological grandchild on both sides of her family. Regarded as precious, lovely.

“She’s two weeks. How old is yours?” The girls mother asked, genuinely curious.

“He’s turning a year old in just over a week. His name is Liam.”

“I like that name. What does it mean?” 

The baby girl stared at Liam, and he stared back. He smiled a big messy grin and blew a raspberry. The baby smiled. A loud screech came from the other side of the store, and a harried blonde woman carrying a baby girl, just as blonde darted by.

“Are you going to be enrolling your child in the schools around here?”

“Yes, I hear they’re pretty decent. Of course, most of my true education came from books, so I’ll be giving my daughter loads of those.”
~~~

“Blah blah blah boring mom stuff that isn’t relevant.”

“Blah blah.”

What is relevant is who was in the store at that time. 

Not everyone notices just how connected everyone and everything truly is. Who hasn’t spent hours dreaming about how if they had made just a slightly different choice, from something as seemingly big as choosing a different college, to something as extraordinarily small, like deciding to stop and put an extra sugar in their coffee, had affected their life?

Same with those we meet, and those we don’t. People have a profound impact on who you are as a person. Who your friends are, who you love, your enemies. The people in this store, big and small, will shape each others lives in amazing ways.

If you look closely enough at your life, you’ll see a lot of things. So pay attention, things are about to become relevant again.

By the way, Liam means "Strong Willed Warrior". And if you're wondering, Danielle means "God is My Judge"

~~~

“I’ll see you around.” the girls mother concluded their conversation with a smile.

Danielle's mother poked her daughters belly.

“what have you done to my mental facilities?

actually, i think you were good for me.”

-soft core schizophrenia

“they’re just a cruel reminder that you’re still a human being

stuck in this world of apathy”

-soft core schizophrenia

“Duck look at your own paper.” she said. Though there was a smile on her face, her tone was sarcastic, mean almost. She wanted to hate this boy.
“Why? I wanna look at you.” he said. The smile was still in place, so Dani ducked her head down to look at her paper instead, diligently filling out the answers. A skill needed to avoid someone.

He turned back to Jaime and started chatting to them about something or another, while Dani and her friends raced to get their done so that they could talk to each other without distraction. 

“How’s your parents?” Dani asked Rosalie. She frowned in thought. Her hair was white blond and long, eyes big and blue, skin incredible pale. She looked like a china doll.

“Still on vacation I think. My grandparents are watching us. Richard isn’t talking again.” 

“Ok. Can I come over then?” Dani asked. She knew that Demetri practically lived over there, so she would get to play with two of her friends at once.

“Sure.”

“Can I come Dani?” Came a voice from right next to her ear. She jumped and screamed, and Liam laughed.

“NO! Because you’re super annoying to me Liam and I never want to talk to you again.” she shouted. He looked sad, shocked, and a little angry at her words. He sat down and they didn’t talk for the rest of class.

~~~
Rosalie was intensely inspecting a leaf that she had picked up from the ground while Gwen climbed the tree to see if she could find any spiders.

“Jared, pick me up, I think I see one!” Gwen screeched excitedly. Jared picked up the incredibly light seven year old to help her reach it. She cupped her pale hands around a daddy long legs that she was sure wouldn’t be able to bite her because of her big spider book she always carried around.

Jared picked a brown fall leaf the same color as her hair out of her head, and together they sat down and examined it, even though he couldn’t care less.

“RJ, we both have to start at the inside of the rope.” Dani was arguing. For the past five minutes they had been trying to play jump rope with only two people, and failing quite miserably. Maybe it would work if both of the girls weren’t quite so stubborn.

“But it looks cooler if we both start outside of the rope and then both jump in.” RJ said with a firm tone to her voice that said she wasn’t going to change her mind.

“But it’ll actually work if we start on the inside of the rope.”

“We can turn the rope.” Nigel and Greg volunteered.

“Shut up.” the girls said at the same time. Of course Dani automatically felt awful because Nigel was super sensitive but he should know better by now than to get in the middle of what her mother liked to call, her and RJ's "impassioned discussions".

Liam, with his group of of friends watching protectively nearby, came up behind her and tapped her shoulder.

“Dani, can I talk to you?” he asked. She looked around at her friends. Surely they would provide some excuse as to why he absolutely could not talk to her. Unfortunately she forgot her friends were awful people and RJ pushed her towards him. They walked a little ways away as to not be heard.

“I’m sorry for scaring you, you don’t like me anymore.”

“I’ve never liked you, I like that tree more.” she snapped, not quite willing to forgive him. His face went stormy, and she immediately felt more awful than she felt with Nigel about jump ropes.

“Fine, I hope you and your stupid tree are happy.”

Before he could stomp away, she grabbed him by his sleeve and pulled him into a somewhat awkward hug. He remained stiff for a moment before giving in and hugging her back. She was tinier than him, one of the smallest in the class. The second youngest too. He was one of the oldest, though Demetri was older.

“I like you Duck. I like you more than the tree because even though it gives me shade you gave me your extra juice box last week and sit next to me when I cry.” 

“Why do you cry anyway Dani?” 

“Shut up Duck.”

~~~
“This isn’t nice, you know.” Lincoln said, a shade of worry coloring his tone.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. Of course it wasn’t nice, but it was so much fun.

A group of girls that Dani said moved almost like a wolf pack strutted around the playground. There were at least ten of them, and they all wore bright girly colors like pink and had on lipgloss and attempted to flip their hair like they were in the movies.

To be honest, Dani and RJ liked being girls, it’s just that more boys were fun in their grade. They ran around more and got into trouble and played way better games. Whenever they hung out with them, which was a lot, they got scrapes on their knees and chased the girls around the playground.

Rosalie wanted to be a boy, and Gwen didn’t care, so they came along too. Today was going to be extra fun, because the wolf pack criticized and bullied their group a few days ago. Dani wasn’t even allowed to hit them, because her daddy said never start a fight, just finish it. Then she held RJ back. That meant revenge was on the menu. 

“Do you have the leaves?” Brian asked. Everyone started pulling handfuls of fall leaves they had collected in their pockets that day.

“I have the spiders.” Gwen said, holding up a dirty, ragged, styrofoam cup of dead spiders she had somehow found. 

“Everyone on the count of three.” said Harley. One...two...THREE!

Warrior calls came from their mouths, and they assaulted the poor, unsuspecting girls with dirty leaves and spiders. The girls screamed in their tiny little high pitched voices, and all their assaulters could do was laugh and laugh.

Of course, they didn’t laugh when they got in trouble later and their parents reprimanded them. But they did laugh some more the next day at recess when the pack of girls walked passed them and glared in tight, synchronized motion.