At the front of the room, Ms. Sanada clapped her hands together to capture the attention of her kindergarten class.
"Now class, it's time for play-time!" She exclaimed, probably happier than the class was about this, which, in a way, was a bit creepy, but who really cares because she's not important.
Anyway, the class cheered in a uniform unison and quickly scattered about to get the best toys. At the far side of the room, a small group of children were gathered, discussing their soon-to-be-game.
"I want to be the dog!" A little girl with blue hair cried almost instantly.
"Natsuki…we're not having pets in this game." A carrot top explained.
Natsuki's face dropped a bit, "But…"
Speaking too slow, she was cut off by a blonde haired boy, "I call being Mai's husband!"
"Okay! So that means we need a daughter now!" The carrot top responded equally joyous.
Another child with spikey black hair jumped on the girl, "I get to be in Mai's family!" She exclaimed.
Mai laughed at the girl's antics, "Okay Mikoto, you can be the daughter!"
While this exchange was going on, Natsuki kind of just stood there, looking at all the other kids playing. A ebony haired boy, Reito, a dark green haired boy, Takeda, a smiling brunette, (who also happened to be Nastuki's best friend) Shizuru, a bored red head, Nao and a pink haired girl, Shiho.
Everyone hustled around finding their families. Innocently, Natsuki approached Shizuru.
"'Zuru, I wanna be your wife." She said.
"But you can't, Natsuki." The brunette replied.
"Why? I can't be the dog so I wanna be SOMETHING!" Natsuki told her as she stomped her foot. What a short temper.
"Because I want to be a wife." Shizuru explained, unphased by her friend's temper tantrum.
"Then I'll be the husband." She concluded happily.
"Silly! Girls can't be husbands!" The brunette giggled.
With a frown, Natsuki crossed her arms, "Fine, there can be two wifes then!"
Shizuru sent her a smile, "Natsuki, there can't be two wives…."
"Why?" The blunette yelled.
"Because, mommy says that only a man and a woman can be married!" She answered, patting her friend's head.
"Then what am I gonna be?" Natsuki hollered desperately.
Just then, Takeda came up from behind Natsuki, "You can be my wife…" He answered shyly.
Natsuki turned around, looked at him and sneered, "Ew, no." Then curtly turned around again.
Shizuru placed a hand on her hip, "Natsuki, he was only offering!" She repraminded.
The blunette's face contorted into a look of defiance, she leaned towards Shizuru and lowered her voice as if she was trying, and failing, to relay some kind of secret information, "But, 'Zuru, boys have cooties…"
The brunette busted out into laughter, "No they don't! Watch Natsuki!" She called as she grabbed Reito who was speaking to Nao and hugged him then released the boy. He carried on his conversation with the red head quite unphased by the sudden hug.
"See? I'm all fine." Shizuru said, spreading her arms for emphasis.
Natsuki sighed. "Fine…then can I be your daughter?" She asked.
"Sure." She replied with a smile then turned to Reito, "Reito, Natsuki's gonna be our daughter." She told him.
"But I already told Nao she could be in our family…" He responded, sounding a bit guilty.
Shizuru turned back to Natsuki, opened her mouth to tell her sorry, but Natsuki had stomped away already. The blunette grabbed Takeda's arm angrily and told him she was going to be his wife and Shiho was going to be their daughter. (Because, frankly, she wasn't mean enough to make Takeda marry octopus-head…)
So the game ensued, everyone got their homes set up and got into character.
Shizuru's family was a calm one. At the moment, the family was sharing a happy family moment. All three of them sat in the living room on a mat, which was supposed to be their couch. Instead of pretending to to watch television, they were having a family discussion and simaltanously building things with Legos. A happy family? Quite.
In Tate and Mai's home, the two were a happy couple and Mikoto was their very rambunctious sat at their make-shift kitchen table and read a pretend newspaper, Mai and Mikoto were just sitting down to enjoy their plastic food. Tate soon got up, kissed Mai on the cheek and left for work. After he left, Mai began to clean up the plates (and pryed the plastic food out of Mikoto's mouth). Once that was done and out of the way, her and Mikoto took two steps over into their living room and sat on their bean bag chair couch to pretend to watch television.
"Mom, I wanna watch Barney!" Mikoto called.
Mai picked up her imaginary remote and changed the channel silently.
A few moments of silence sat in the room before Mikoto spoke again, "Mom, I wanna watch Dora!"
"Okay." She said and repeated her motion of changing the channel.
Silence.
"Mom, I wanna watch Little Bill!" She cried.
"Okay." The carrot top replied and made the gesture of changing the channel again.
Another silence.
"Mom, I wanna watch Dr. Phil!" Mikoto exclaimed.
"Oka-" Mai answered, almost robotically before she proccessed what she had said, "Wait, what?"
Next door, Shiho watched this scene (as they had no walls, only pieces of string to show where the houses stopped and started), and being such an influenced child, she turned to her mom, Natsuki, who was sitting next to her on the floor.
"Mom, let's watch T.V!" She called happily.
Natsuki stopped pouting for a moment and turned to her, "Fine." She said, stood up and took a step away into her kitchen, which was where they decided to put the television. Perhaps the girl decided she might as well play along.
They both took a seat at the little table and stared at the cardboard box in silence.
"Mom, I wanna watch Imagination Movers!" Shiho spoke, trying to copy Mikoto.
"No." Was Natsuki's curt reply.
"Why?" She asked sadly.
"I hate that show." The blunette told her.
Silence. A very uncomfortable silence. So Shiho tried again.
"Mom, let's watch Yo Gabba Gabba!" She requested.
"No." Natsuki told her, not even looking away from the cardboard box.
"Why? I thought you liked that show?" Shiho questioned.
"I do." The blunette responded, "I just hate you."
The pinkette's eyes began to well up with tears, "You can't hate me, I'm you daughter-"
"Don't care. Now go away, my stories are on."
With that, Shiho ran off in tears. So Natsuki sat in silence for a few minutes before Shiho re-appeared with Takeda by her side.
"Natuski, Shiho says you said you hate her…" He said.
The blunette didn't look their way, simply kept looking at the T.V. "'Cause I did."
"Why?" He asked.
"'Cause I do."
"But you can't hate your daugh-" Takeda started, but was soon cut off.
"Why not?" Natsuki yelled, jumping out of her chair.
"Because mommies and daddies have to love their kids!" He yelled back.
"No I don't, I don't have to do anything, because I hate her, and I hate you!" She shouted, "And I'm tired of all your crap! I don't have to take this!"
"Don't yell at me!" Takeda bellowed.
"I will!" She screamed as she took a step to their front door.
"You can't leave the house!" Takeda yelled.
"Watch me, bitch!" Natsuki roared and stepped outside of the string.
By that time, the whole class's attention was on the family. The teacher was in complete shock to hear such a thing coming from her students! So shocked, in fact, that she was at a gaping loss for words for several moments and sat there with her jaw slacked before she could finally get to her senses and spring into action.
"Natsuki Kuga!" She called as she jumped out of her chair and towards the little girl. Who simply stared at the teacher innocently.
"What's wrong?" The little blunette replied, her fury instantly gone.
"In the corner, now! Expect a call to your parents!" The teacher yelled as she pointed to the corner in the far end of the room.
Natsuki immediately became defensive, "Why? What the heck did I do?"
Ms. Sanada roughly grabbed the little girl's wrist and pulled her towards the corner, "Your language towards the other children!"
Natsuki vainly struggled to pull her wrist out of the teachers grasp, "Whaddya mean? We all speak the same language!"
This made the teacher abrubtly stop and whirl around, "Oh? Now you want to be a smart aleck?"
"…Who's aleck?" The blunette asked only adding to teacher's fury.
"Oh I'll have fun talking to your parents, Ms. Kuga." Ms. Sanada growled as she continued to pull the girl to the discipline corner.
"Okay?"
Once the teacher had put Natsuki in the corner and sat back down at her desk to pick up the phone to call Natsuki's parents thus becoming distracted, Shizuru took this chance to sit inconspiciously close to the corner where Natsuki was sitting.
"Why'd you say stuff like that, Natsuki?" She asked quietly.
"Stuff like what?" The blunette replied, not looking at her best friend.
"Like what you said to your family in the game." Shizuru elaborated.
"Whaddya mean? I was just playing 'house'," Natsuki said turning her head to face her friend. "I didn't really mean that I hated them…I was just 'tending…"
"But Natsuki, that's not how you play house, it's supposed to be what a real family's like." She explained. "And naughty language isn't to be yelled or even said!"
This made Natsuki's face turn into one of confusion, "But that's what my family's like…and they're real…they're not a 'tend family, are they, 'Zuru?"
For the first time in her young life, Shizuru's face held deep concern, she reached out a stroked Natsuki's arm, "No, Natsuki, they're not pretend, but that's not how other family's act…"
"It's not?"
"No…"
"But on mommy's T.V shows, families are really act even badder." Natsuki told her.
"That's T.V, that's not real." Shizuru replied.
"Nu-uh, T.V's not 'tend, the news isn't 'tend, is it, 'Zuru?" Natsuki asked innocently.
"But T.V shows are different from the news." The brunette explained.
"How? How are they different, 'Zuru?"
The girl was about to reply, but was cut off by the teacher, "Ms. Fujino, I hope you're not talking to someone who's supposed to be in trouble!"
"No, Ms. Sanada, I wasn't." She lied.
"Keep away from there or I'll have to make a phone call to your parents as well."
Shizuru stood up, "Yes, Ms. Sanada." Before she walked away, Shizuru shot Natsuki a regretful look.
Twenty minutes later, Natsuki still sat in the corner when her parents busted in the door.
"Natsuki." Her mother announced sharply, gesturing her finger for the girl to come towards her.
"Mommy!" She jumped up happily and ran over to the woman.
"You can just stop right there, Natsuki, you're in big trouble." Her father spoke in subdued anger.
Natsuki cocked her head in confusion, "No, silly, I just got done being in the corner! I'm not in trouble no mores!" She explained.
"You're going to be doing more then just sitting in a corner when we get home." Her mother told her as she grabbed the girl's hand.
The tiny blunette ripped her hand from her mother's, "I don't wanna go home yet! I wanna stay an play with Shizuru!" She exclaimed.
At the mention of her name, Shizuru snapped her head up to the other side of the room. "Natsuki, you don't wanna be in more trouble do you? Just do what your mom says…" The young brunette told her friend.
Natsuki's eyes started to water at her best friend's complience, "Why? 'Zuru? Don't you wanna play with me too?" She asked.
Shizuru's heart broke in two at this, "'Course I do, we can play tommorrow, just go home for today!" She called, trying to make the young girl smile again.
Natsuki's shoulders slumped, "Fine…" With her head to the ground, she solemly followed her parents out of the room.
Tommorrow never came for Natsuki, unfortunately. That would be the last time anyone ever saw the girl alive.
The next day, Shizuru wondered where her friend was.
Two weeks later, Natsuki's face appeared all over milk cartons, newspapers, and the news. No one knew where she was.
No more than a month after that, the police found the girl buried behind a local park. Her body bruised and battered. It was also noted that abuse was prominent for more than a two years before her death.
Three days later, her parents were convicted for the murder of their only child.
To this day, Shizuru still has no idea where her best friend is. During that time period, her parents kept her away from anything concerning Natsuki Kuga. When asked about it, her parents told her Natsuki and her family moved away.
I remember playing house in kindergarten. I was thinking about it the other day and I remembered this kid who always took things so seriously when we played. He'd like pretend he'd get fired from work and yell at his children. Eventually, we made him stop playing with us and I felt kinda bad. So I went over to him and asked him why he acted like that and he told me that's how his dad acts. To which I think i vaguely remember telling him that that's not how we play and everyone had to be happy. Though, he never turned up on the news, I haven't seen him since second grade, but I'm quite sure he's still alive.