The blue sky was warm and clear as ten-year-old Mathias Kohler led his good friend, Berwald Oxenstierna, to the great oak tree next to the yellow playground. Normally, they would play soccer with other boys in their class, but today was different; today was important. Today was the day Mathias revealed to Berwald his long-time crush on Lukas Bondevik.
Lukas wasn't like other boys at the town elementary school. He wasn't girlish either. Lukas was in his own Lukas-class that couldn't be imitated by any other; even if they tried with all of their ability. His haired compared to Mathias' was a muted blond matched with a pale face that had chub which was certain to go away as he got older. He was constantly shy, his facial expression showing it, but it made him that much more cute in Mathias' opinion. He was constantly reading, mythology, he had learned, and as a result kept himself away from the class and didn't have many friends. Because of this, Mathias found it almost impossible to approach, much less speak to, the boy.
"What d'ya want to talk about, Mathias?" Berwald asked with blank curiosity. Ever since the two met when Berwald moved next door ink Kindergarten year, the boy's face was the epitome of stoicism. "Not yet," Mathias said, "Wait until we get to the tree."
Lukas usually sat underneath the big oak tree, reading the latest book he'd checked out in the library. At the moment, however, he was inside taking a make-up test, but they had to speak quickly in case he finished early.
The two sat down, the leaves blanketing them with shade. That of which was perfectly welcome, as the past week had been attacked by a heat wave, six classmates including Berwald and Mathias having to go back inside yesterday after developing minor fevers.
"So, Berwald."
"What?"
"If I tell you somethin' do you promise not to get weirded out?"
"'Course I won't. What are you talking about? Tell me!"
"Okay. So, um, y'know Lukas, the quiet kid who sits in the back of the class?"
"The one who doesn't talk to anyone?"
"Yeah, that's him. Well, I, uh, kinda like him."
Berwald seemed to contemplate as if tucking this newly revealed information into a safe to be used for blackmail at a later date. You could never tell what he was thinking, unless you were fluent in Berwald-speak, as Mathias had taken a liking to calling it, but even then if was difficult. It seemed to be an eternity until he finally spoke.
"Like like?"
"Yeah."
Another torturously long moment of silence.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with that," Berwald spoke slowly as if he was testing out his words, "just don't go announcing it to the entire class. Then you both will be made fun of and everyone will start to sing the 'Sittin in a Tree Song'. What do you like about him anyways?"
"Ah, I don't know." Mathias stammered, growing even more embarrassed as he was before, "He's just so cute and I like the way he gets so into his books that he doesn't realize the teacher's callin' on him. He's really shy, which fits him a lot. Wait. You're sure you're not, ya know, grossed out by it?"
"Nope. In fact, lately, I've been thinkin' that Tino's pretty darn cute."
Mathias slouches back with a sigh of relief. He was really nervous about Berwald's reaction. He had started to laugh when he caught the last of Berwald's words.
"Wait a sec. You like Tino? As in the new Finnish kid Tino? When were you going to tell me? We're best buddies, ya know!"
Berwald huffed, "How long did it take you to tell me about Lukas? 'We're best buddies, ya know!'"
Mathias cringed in defeat, "True, true." They both got up, and were just about to turn around to head back to the playground when a twig snapped, and there was Lukas, complete with a countenance of shock.
"Mathias Kohler, you idiot!"
Oh my gosh. I try so hard. I work and slave my butt off, writing a page and a half by hand and then typing it out only to find out that it barely scrapes seven hundred words. The disappointment. Let's just hope that this author's note stretches it out a bit. Anyways, I didn't really want to attempt Sweden's accent with this, so I just did standard American elementary speak with both of them. I have a tendency to delete my stuff because I'm embarrassed by it, but let's just hope that doesn't happen with Playground Confession because really, I find it cute. I did change my username, it used to be SatanHerself but I changed it to RantingFangirl to correspond with my Tumblr. Yay, Fifth Grade AU!
