First Meeting
Having been immersed in creating what he hoped would be his own telescope out of Legos, Ronnie hadn't initially showed much surprise when the preschool teacher had announced they would be having a new student come in that day. He didn't really interact much with the other children, not out of spite or fear, he just saw no reason to. He was perfectly happy by himself, with his toys and books.
Sometimes the teacher expressed worry that Ronnie was going to have a hard time making friends, and the boy could remember his father's words in response being 'he's just socially independent'. Ronnie had no idea what any of it meant, but it made him feel important in his father's eyes.
At this age, Ronnie would be lucky. He wouldn't have to deal with bullies, just kids who sometimes got mean about sharing their toys, or taking turns in games. Nobody ever made fun of him for his big round glasses or his curly hair, or his suspenders which he wore every day. He liked dressing like that, it made him feel grown up.
A short while before learning time, after Ronaldo's telescope had toppled and he had cried, he sulked in his little plastic chair at the activity table. The teacher wiped his tears, and told him he could rebuild it later, and to come sit down on the puzzle mat with the others for story time.
The door to the classroom opened halfway through 'Where the Wild Things Are', and perhaps the tiniest child Ronnie had ever seen shyly walked in. And Ronnie immediately noticed something worth being excited over, the koalas on their over sized sweater, and the stuffed lemur in their arms.
"Boys and girls, I'd like you all to meet our new friend. Would you like to tell everyone your name, honey?"
The child peered shyly around the room, eyes so dark and wide, they were almost mystical, and mumbled, "Lars.", but his 'r's sounded like 'w's and it came out sounding like 'Lauws'.
"Lars," the teacher repeated to clarify it to the children, smiling, "Would you also like to tell us where you came from? You came from very far away, didn't you?"
The child nodded, "China," they chirped, and buried their face against their stuffed toy again.
The teacher smiled to the class, "China is a very big country, isn't it? I'm sure everyone would love to hear more about it! Do any of you have any questions for Lars?"
One child piped up, "Are you a boy or a girl?"
Lars turned a little red in the face, and shuffled their feet uncomfortably, and the teacher told the child that wasn't an appropriate question to ask. Lars managed to stutter out, still looking nervous, "Boy."
"We got my brother from China, and he has black hair. Why is your hair red?", another child asked.
Lars rubbed his cheek nervously with a tiny hand, "M-my daddy has red hair."
"Wooooah," the child whispered, looking surprised.
The teacher then told the class it would be better if they asked questions regarding what Lars liked, and what his favorite things to do were. But even then, all the questions just seemed to make Lars look very nervous, and the boy was getting quieter with each answer, as if he were afraid to answer them. When another student asked why he talked funny, Lars shied up completely, even when the teacher asked him if he was alright.
Ronnie decided now was the perfect time to speak, since everyone else was done, and cheered from his spot on the floor, "Are those koalas? I LOVE KOALAS!"
A couple kids turned their heads to look at him, and Lars just stared with wide eyes, looking a little shell shocked and confused. Looking down at his own sweater, he realized what the other boy had been excited over, and yelped, "O-Oh! Yeah! K'walas!", he nodded, shaggy hair getting in his face.
The teacher warmly invited Lars to sit on the puzzle mat for the rest of the story. Lars ended up sitting a small distance away from Ronnie, a little isolated. She would show everyone the pictures once she finished the words on the page. Most of the children would make giggles at the monsters' or tiny 'roars'. Ronnie had read this story over and over at home, he knew what happened, and wasn't too surprised. What did surprise him was Lars' reactions when he saw the pictures, the tiny boy giving a soft 'wow', his eyes big and wide.
After story time, it was time for arts and crafts. Lars had quietly waited for the teacher to put the book down before he picked it back up, and looked at all the pictures in awe, like they had been the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. When the teacher kindly invited him to sit with his classmates for the activities, he shyly shuffled over, and took a seat in the corner, picking up one of the paintbrushes dipped in blue paint, and began to work away on a blank piece of paper, making big circles with hair, horns, big eyes, and sharp teeth like he'd seen in the story. To an adult, it looked like a blue scribble monster, but to Lars, it read like a masterpiece, and he kept working away on it. When he thought the blue needed something else, he grabbed the black paint, and added more and more lines.
A little girl looked over, and whined, "That's too scary!"
Lars looked at her worriedly, then at his painting,"B-But...Island monsters."
"Monsters are icky and bad!"
"Max's monsters were good," Lars tried to counter, remembering the story, and pouted as he looked at the paper.
Ronnie saw the painting, then the boy's sad face, then chirped, "Those monsters are good! They made Max king of all the Wild Things and were his friends! And this monster looks like those monsters, so it has to be good!", he reasoned, and went right back to scribbling his rocket ship.
The girl gave a whine, and went back to painting her butterfly, and Lars curiously watched Ronnie, hugging his toy lemur tightly while the teacher happily suggested putting Lars' painting on the wall.
During lunch, Ronnie ate his jelly sandwich in content silence while he dreamed in his head about rocket ships and exploring the deep depths of the earth. Lars stayed in the corner of the room, almost afraid to eat his lunch after kids pointed out the fishy smell the herring made, and how weird of a dessert he had, especially since it contained beans.
After lunch, the teacher led all the children outside to the little playground on the gravel, and showed Lars around, showing him the play structure, the monkey bars, the slide, the 'fort' and even the little vegetable garden the class had been growing that year. The little boy showed a bit of interest in the garden, seeing the same vegetables his mother grew at home...the home that was thousands of miles away. The new house didn't even have room for a garden. Lars' stomach knotted, and he quickly wandered away to the fort, seeing it completely empty, and climbed up the ladder to stay inside, and hope the day would end soon enough.
In the meantime, Ronnie had taken this opportunity to rebuild his Lego telescope. True, it didn't have a lens, but he was still able to peer through it, and hope his glasses would work just as fine. Mars was bound to show in the sky anytime now. He needed to test out how it worked, and decided the window in the fort would be a good place to test it out. Crawling up the ladder, he immediately noticed he wasn't alone, seeing the tiny new boy sat in the corner, looking upset, "Why are you sad?", he frowned.
"I wan' go home," the child whimpered, rubbing at his eyes, trying not to cry.
"The day's almost over-"
"No. Home," he sniffled, "China."
"...ohhhh," Ronnie nodded, and sat a space away from the boy so they were side by side, "It's not so bad here! We get to paint, and build things, and read books, and explore-"
"Exp'ore?", the boy repeated, chewing on his thumb habitually.
"Yeah! We get to see things nobody else has ever seen before! That's what exploring is!", Ronnie grinned. At least, that's what he deemed as exploration. It was a grown up word he liked to use.
"...Like Max?", Lars piped up.
"Yeah! Like Max!", Ronnie grinned, and lifted his telescope to his eye, peering at Lars through it, "I found you!", he laughed, which made the tinier child frown a little less.
Lars reached for the telescope, and the other handed it over carefully, "I'm Ronnie," he remembered to introduce himself.
The new boy repeated his name as he examined the Lego creation, chirping 'Wonnie', and peered through the mock spyglass, giving a small smile, "I'm exporing Ronnie."
"Your first discovery!", Ronnie cheered, and then grinned, "Now that you've discovered something...want to help me find Mars?"
For the first time that day, Lars grinned openly, and the two clambered about the playfort, laughing and giggling until it was time for their parents to take them home.
Ronnie decided he could handle having a friend.
And Lars decided this new place might not be so bad after all.