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“Echo, say hello.”
Echo’s sticky left hand held onto that of her mother’s while her sticky left thumb rested gently in her mouth while her eyes narrowed at the rather suspicious boy with red hair peeking out from behind another woman, neither of whom she recognized. The first day of preschool excited her, as her mother promised she’d make lots of new friends, yet, so far she’d only met one boy who hid behind his mother’s legs.
Speaking of which, Echo looked up at the woman in front of her, her nose wrinkling as she took in the beautifully colored, yet wild hair pulled into two pigtails. Echo’s eyes blinked twice before she decided the woman’s hair was almost the color of Sakura petals, if not with a bit more purple to them, yet the way she smiled down at her son, saying nothing—while she looked the part of a mother, she didn’t seem like a mother for some reason.
“Zeno. Come on out from behind me.”
“Mmm... no.” The boy’s face rested in the nook of the woman’s knee while a hand wrapped around her legs, clutching onto her while she balanced a video camera in the other hand.
“Come on. You don’t need to be afraid.”
“Not afraid. Protecting mama,” the boy muttered, his eyes deftly on the people in front of him. The woman placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, letting out a rather soft laugh.
“Well, you can’t very well protect me from there, can you?”
At that moment, Zeno looked up at her, coming out ever so slightly. Echo saw a few other children arriving with their parents, some mothers, some fathers, yet this one child continued to ignore her, something she didn’t like at all. She removed her thumb from her mouth and let go of her mother’s hand. Without hesitation, she stepped over and grabbed onto the boy’s hand, and tugged him away from his mother. “Come on!”
She’d squeaked the words out, yet Zeno wasn’t much better, letting out a rather disgruntled sound. “Your hands are icky!”
“School!” Echo pointed, pulling Zeno behind her into the question while he reached out for his mother in protest at the little girl pulling him away from his mother.
“Mama!” he called out and then said, “Not funny!”
Echo turned her head and saw the woman—his mother she guessed, standing there with her arms crossed while one hand was lifted to her mouth while she laughed. Despite the wildness of her hair, there was an elegance she exuded which made the small child flinch. The woman let out a laugh. “Well, what are you trying to protect me from Zeno? There aren’t any enemies here, are there?”
“Not funny!” Zeno repeated.
“Wait until your father hears! He’ll be so mad he was called away on an ARKS mission and didn’t get to see this!” The mention of the ARKS mission made the parents whisper to each other things Echo couldn’t hear, nor that she cared about. “You are so adorable!”
“I am not!”
“School!” Echo stated rather loudly, tugging on Zeno’s hand while he pulled in the other direction.
Zeno continued reaching out to his mother. “Protect mama!”
“Zeno?” the woman laughed. “If you’re with me protecting mama, then who’s going to be here protecting the school?”
What happened next—
Zeno attempted standing up straight to solute his mother while saying, “Yes mama!” as a camera flash went off, and Echo continued pulling in the other direction, still demanding that they head into their preschool. Then, they were falling, her falling forward and he backward onto her. Echo instinctively let go of his hand and scrapped up her palms. She sat up, sniffling as they stung, but fought back the tears.
“Ow,” Zeno muttered.
Echo wiped a tear away, thinking she’d be a big girl and stand up like her mother told her.
It was then that she saw her brand new dress, the one her mother picked out specifically for her first day of preschool, what with the pink ribbons, and pink pom-poms, and the white lace. Looking down, she saw the pink skirt was torn, the white lace stained, the ribbon undone and she was quite sure one of the pom-poms was now missing. Her ponytail was also half-undone and her hair a complete mess.
Echo sucked in her breath.
“You meanie!” There came a sniffle, then the tears along with the small fists pounding into Zeno’s side, not caring that he didn’t like her tired. “You meanie!”
“I’m meanie?”
“Aren’t they adorable,” one of the other parents said.
“Not adorable,” Zeno muttered while Echo continued to cry and thump on him for her ruined dress.
“They’ll make quite a cute couple when they get older,” someone other than their parents said.
“Not cute,” Zeno continued muttering.
“This must definitely be another one for the two of your picture albums, isn’t it?”
“Well, they just met,” Echo’s mother said, trying to laugh the incident off.
“They did? It’s so adorable!”
“Not adorable!” Zeno protested. “Not cute!”
~