Little Friends

"Can I play?" asked Belle softly.

"Sorry," said a snooty little girl with shiny black hair who really didn't seem sorry at all. "Only three can go on the computer."

"Oh," said Belle and walked away.

"Can I play?" Belle asked the boy and girl in the playhouse. They looked similar, like twins.

"No!" They shook their heads. "This house is for twins only!" Belle furrowed her brow. She really didn't think that could be possible as they seemed the only twins in the class.

She went to the water play area, but the boys playing with the boats there just splashed her when she got close enough to ask. Maybe she'd pass.

Then Belle noticed the library corner. It was quiet and deserted. Perfect. No one to splash her. No one to tell her she couldn't play.

Belle chose a book of fairy tale stories, then went to sit down on the multicoloured cushions piled up in a pyramid beneath the bookcase in the library corner. She was getting good at reading now, almost as good as a grown up, she thought proudly. Her Dad even said so. At home she had an entire shelf of Dr. Seuss books that she could read all by herself.

She sat down on the nice blue cushion at the very top of the pile.

"Ooch!" piped up the cushion. Belle sprang up from the cushion in alarm.

"Who- who's there?" she cried.

A little boy's head popped up from under the pile, causing a few of the cushions from the top to tumble down. He had very large brown eyes and a mop of brown hair and looked rather frightened.

"What's your name?" asked Belle more softly, worried she'd scare him away.

"R-Rumple," said the little boy.

"Hi Rumple," said Belle. "I'm Belle."

"Hi," he said softly.

"What are you doing under all the pillows?" asked Belle.

"Hiding," said Rumple.

"Like hide and go seek?" asked Belle.

"Sorta," mumbled Rumple. "Whatcha doing?"

"Reading," replied Belle, somewhat smugly. "I can read all by myself. Can you?"

"Uh-huh," Rumple nodded, knocking another cushion down the pile.

"Really?" asked Belle, impressed. She hadn't met another child her own age yet who could read. Maybe he wasn't telling the truth. "What's your favourite book?" she quizzed him.

"Cat in the Hat," said Rumple quickly.

"Mine too!" exclaimed Belle.

Suddenly, Rumple popped back down into his mountain of cushions and a second later came back up holding something in his hand.

Belle looked. It was "the Cat in the Hat."

"Here," he said softly and held it out to her. "If you're looking for it, I don't need it. I have 'Green Eggs and Ham' down here, too."

"Thank you," said Belle as she took the book. "Do- do you want to read it together?" she asked nervously.

"Okay," whispered Rumple, without moving out from inside his mound of cushions.

Belle picked up the blue cushion she'd originally coveted and sat down. She pulled a maroon cushion up beside the blue one for Rumple. "Come here, sit with me," she said and patted the free cushion.

"B-but my castle!" Rumple said to Belle, indicating the mound of cushions around him. "It'll get wrecked!"

But Belle wasn't looking at him anymore. She was already reading the book, fully immersed in the story.

Rumple watched her read. He was impressed. She didn't even have to move her lips. He noticed she smiled a lot. She had on a pretty blue dress. Her hair was brown like his. She looked nice. She wouldn't make fun of him, he was sure. He wanted wanted wanted to go sit there beside her! So gathering up all his courage, he took big gulp of air and crawled out from under his castle of cushions, to sit beside her.

She smiled up at him as he plopped down beside her on the cushion.

He gave her a little smile back. "Hey," he said and did a shy little wave.

"Hi," said Belle. Then her eyes went big as she glanced down and saw the cast on his leg. "Did you break your leg?"

"Sorta," he said, blushing furiously.

"Sorta?" she asked him curiously.

"A long time ago," he half-whispered. "Only it never got fixed then, so they have to fix it with operations now."

"Oh," said Belle, nodding sagely. She knew about operations. That's why her mum was in the hospital and she couldn't see her all the time. Her dad said she was still recovering. That's why they had to move here, to be close to the special hospital her mum was at. That's why she had to start this new school in the middle of the year and stay in the little apartment that didn't have a nice backyard. Belle thought about her old school and her old house. Her dad said they'd be back there by the summer, when the doctors said her mum was better and they could all go home and be a proper family again. Sometimes, when Belle felt sad, she wondered if it was really true, if things would really be back to the way they were again. Sometimes it just felt like one of those things grown-ups tell little kids, to make them less scared.

"I still don't walk good yet," confessed the little boy. "That's why Mummy Kate takes me in the stroller—not because I'm a baby. So don't listen if they say that because it's not true. I'm older'n all of 'em anyway."

"Really?" asked Belle. "How old are you?"

Rumple blushed. He really didn't want to tell Belle he was all of six, almost seven years old and still in kindergarten. Not to mention still one of the smallest in the class. She'd think it was too weird. But maybe if he made up a really high number, maybe then she'd be suitably impressed. He thought of the biggest number he could think of. "I'm three hundred!" he said quickly.

"Wow!" said Belle. "That is really really really old."

"Yes," said Rumple importantly. "Mummy Chris says I am 'ever so mature.'"

Belle giggled as Rumple imitated a very proper woman's accent. "You're funny," she said.

"Thank you," said Rumple and blushed bright red.

"Now come on," said Belle, "you havta listen to me read now. I'll read and you listen and then you can read and I'll listen, deal?"

"Deal," said Rumple.

"The sun did not shine it was too wet to play, so we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day…" began Belle.