A/N: A series of fluffy ficlets written from prompts sent to me on tumblr. Thanks for reading and I'll gladly accept reviews and requests. :)
The unwritten rule among Jane's classmates was that boys only played with boys and girls only played with girls. "That's how it has always been and always will be," one of the girls told her. "Boys are gross and they play weird games." But Jane saw nothing gross or weird about the games the boys were playing, especially when they pretended to be dinosaurs. They still needed a velociraptor and five-year-old Jane wasn't going to let anyone stop her from being that velociraptor.
It was a bold move, but Jane had done what no other kid in her class had ever done before; she had broken the gender barrier and, as far as her kindergarten class was concerned, Jane Rizzoli now ruled the playground. It was the happiest time in all of her five years, that is, until a girl named Maura transferred into her classroom in the middle of the school year.
"She gives me butterflies in my tummy," Jane told the group of boys she played with. "And she shared her fruit snacks with me yesterday. Does that mean she likes me?"
"Who cares?" one of the boys shrugged. "She's a girl and girls are gross."
Jane slugged him in the arm. "Girls aren't gross! I'm a girl!"
"Don't listen to him," another boy cut in. "Pull her pigtails. If you don't pull her hair, how is she going to know you like her?"
Jane considered it solid advice, so the next day she quickly yanked one of Maura's pigtails while she was eating lunch. She hadn't meant to hurt Maura, but she accidentally pulled so hard that Maura cried. "Maura, I'm sorry," Jane said, but it was too late. Their teacher intervened and Jane spent the rest of lunch and recess sitting in the corner while her classmates played outside.
Pulling Maura's hair had backfired, so Jane decided to take the next bit of advice her friends had given her: she was going to cut in front of Maura while she was in line for the slide. Jane was used to pushing and playing rough, so when Maura was about to take her turn on the slide, Jane pushed her out of the way and took a turn instead. Now she knows I like her. Jane was expecting Maura to pick herself up off the grass and run into her arms, but when she saw Maura's expression as she walked toward her, Jane wanted to run away as fast as she could and she would have had she not been paralyzed with fear.
"Why are you so mean to me?" Maura yelled. "I shared my fruit snacks! I let you use the red crayon first even though I needed the red crayon! I was always nice to you!"
Jane looked down at the ground. "I like you," she mumbled.
"What?"
She grabbed Maura's hands in hopes that it would emphasize what she was about to say. "I like you! I think you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen and I was pulling your hair and pushing you so you'd know I like you."
Maura's eyes grew wide. "That's not what you're supposed to do, Jane. When you're mean to me, it makes me not want to play with you or share anything with you. If you want me to like you back, you have to be nice."
"I never liked being mean to you," Jane admitted. "If I'm nice, will you go on a date with me?"
"A date?" Maura asked. "But we can't even cross the street by ourselves."
"A recess date," Jane explained. "We'll have lunch together and then we'll play with any toys you want to play with and I'll let you get on the slide first."
When it was time for lunch the next day, Jane nearly jumped up from her seat and hurried to her cubby so she could grab Maura's gift. "Thank you for going on a date with me," Jane said as she handed Maura a flower and a bag of fruit snacks. It was the first of many nice gestures Jane showed Maura throughout their date and, when it was time for them to line up after recess, Jane received her very first kiss on the cheek.
