048. Childhood
Characters: Lovi & Ludwig
Genre: Friendship
Rating: K
Time Period: pre-K
Tower Destruction: A Tale of Sadness
Pre-school was stupid.
Lovi's thoughts were quite clear on this subject. Pre-school was stupid and annoying and she didn't like it at all. And it was bad enough that Daddy had forced her to go yesterday and the day before, but now he was making her go again...
"Come on, sweetie." Or at least he was trying to make her go again. It wasn't working particularly well, though. As he was currently kneeling in the parking lot outside her open door while she glared at him from her car seat. "Don't you want to go and play with the other kids?"
No, because the other kids were stupid—especially Sadiq and the stupid potato—and the teacher wouldn't let her go and play with Antonio. She'd managed to sneak away on the first day, but since then the teacher had been keeping a close eye on her and wouldn't let her leave to go find him. Which wasn't fair.
She continued to pout and scowl down at her daddy, who sighed and ran one of his hands through his hair. He fluffed it up like he always did when Lovi didn't want to do what she was told. "Come on, sweetie. You know Daddy has to go to work and I can't leave you with your mother..."
Lovi didn't see why she'd have to stay with anyone; she could take care of herself. Daddy had even said that she was a big girl and big girls shouldn't have to go to stupid pre-school. "Don't wanna..."
Daddy sighed again and then stood, rubbing at his knees as he turned and stared at the building for a few seconds. Then he shook his head, leaned into the car, and plucked her right out of her car seat.
To say that Lovina was not amused would be a bit of an understatement.
"No! Don't wanna!" She immediately started kicking and screaming, attempting to free herself from her daddy's arms. He had to clutch her tight to keep from dropping her.
"You've got to go to school, sweetie."
"No!"
But he ignored her... Ignored her screams and flails and carried her into the building. Lovina eventually gave up, going limp in his arms as she glared at the other kids and parents who were making their way to their classrooms.
He finally set her down on the floor when they reached the doorway to her classroom. And then ruffled her hair and messed it all up. She frowned up at him and immediately tried to smooth it back down.
"Hello, Lovi! How are you doing today?"
And that was the teacher, who had been standing just inside the classroom, helping Tina hang up her jacket. Now she walked out to greet them, smiling down at Lovi with a big smile.
Lovi immediately moved to hide behind her daddy's legs. She didn't want to go...
But Daddy just stepped away and then gave her a gentle push forward. "Now, you be good for Miss Montay, sweetie. And remember that you're going home with Antonio's mother after class."
Lovi huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, sending him an unhappy pout. Which he completely ignored. He just ruffled her hair again and then walked away, down the hallway and back toward the car.
Not fair.
And the unfairness of the moment only continued when Miss Montay sent her a too-big smile and took her hand, leading her into the classroom. "All right, Lovi. Why don't you come in here and play with the others?"
Not fair.
~.~.~
All Ludwig wanted to do was build a tower. He was currently sitting on the floor in his pre-K classroom with a box of bricks in front of him and all he really wanted to do was be left alone so he could build a tower.
But Lovina wasn't letting him.
"Stupid potato!"
She'd immediately come over to him as soon as her father left the classroom, ignoring their teacher's prompting to go play with one of the other girls. In a pretty typical Lovina-fashion, she'd walked straight over, dropped onto the floor next to him, and then knocked over the tower that he'd been building.
Ludwig hadn't known how to respond to that. He'd just stared at her as she glared at him like he'd done something wrong. Then he'd reached out to pick up the blocks and she'd immediately grabbed them all and tugged them toward her with a "Stupid potato!"
"Um..."
"Lovi, remember what I said about playing nicely." Thankfully their teacher came over to rescue him. "We don't steal toys from each other. Or call them mean names. Why don't you and Ludwig build a tower together?"
Lovi gave the teacher a look angrier than any look he'd ever seen before. A look that held all of the anger in the entire universe.
"No!" And then she stood up and kicked the bricks by her feet before she stomped off toward the table that held the crayons and paper for colouring.
Miss Montay sighed and shook her head, then smiled at Ludwig. "Just tell me if Lovi is mean to you again, Ludwig. She should leave you alone for now."
...Ludwig really didn't understand Lovi. He'd never done anything mean to her. She'd just decided that she didn't like him, like how Feli had just decided that she did like him. It was really confusing. He'd asked Mutti about it before and she'd just laughed and said at Lovi was being 'an overprotective big sister'. Ludwig didn't know what that met, but he didn't think he liked it.
At least she left him alone long enough for him to be able to build another tower. He wasn't quite sure what to do once he'd built the tower, though. Gill usually liked to come in when he was building towers and attack them with dinosaurs or one of her stuffed animals. But that seemed silly.
"Stupid."
He sighed and lifted his head to look at the girl who was now standing across from him, frowning down at his tower.
He wasn't even a little bit surprised when she suddenly reached out and knocked the tower over again, grinning to herself in pride at the crashing sound it made.
"Miss Montay said to stop."
"I don't wanna."
He frowned and grabbed the blocks, piling them up out of her reach. She was making him mad now. He just wanted to play with the blocks by himself. There were lots of other kids. Why couldn't she go be mean to them? Why was it always him? He turned away from her and began to build another tower. He'd rather have her sister in his class, but she was too little.
And then she stomped over and kicked it down again.
That was when Ludwig lost his temper.
"Go away! I don't want to play with you! Leave me alone!"
He'd never yelled in class before—he barely even talked in class. Which was why the entire classroom suddenly went silent at his shout.
Even Lovi froze, staring at him with wide eyes. And then he watched, slightly horrified, as her eyes began to fill up with tears.
But before he could respond, the teacher was there.
"Lovina Vargas!" She grabbed Lovi's hand and tugged her away. "I told you to leave Ludwig alone! How many times do I have to tell you? Am I going to have to call your parents to come get you or are you going to be a good girl and stop knocking down Ludwig's blocks?"
Lovi wasn't listening. She screamed and tried to break away. "No! Stop it! Stupid! Stop!"
But teacher was obviously bigger. She pulled Lovi over to the time out chair and sat her down. "Now stay here until I tell you that you can get up or I'm going to have to call your mother to come get you."
Lovi ducked her head down so her hair covered her face and slouched down, but didn't otherwise respond.
And the teacher nodded, seemingly relieved that Lovi wasn't going to have another temper tantrum, and went back to dealing with some of the other kids who were fighting over a doll.
Leaving Ludwig sitting next to his ruined tower, staring at the girl who'd been tormenting him all day. Had he just hurt her feelings? Why? She was the one who'd been being mean to him all day. Why was she acting sad now? He hadn't meant to make her cry. He'd just gotten mad because she kept knocking over his tower.
But that wasn't nice to make a girl cry. Especially Feli's sister.
He hesitated for a few long moments, watching as she folded up even smaller and smaller.
What should he do? The teacher had put her in the time out chair and you weren't supposed to talk to anyone in the time out chair... But he'd made her cry.
Except that was when Natalya walked over to Lovi.
Natalya was one of the other girls in the class that most people didn't talk to, mainly because she never really talked back. She'd just stare at you and most people said she was spooky. But now she walked over to Lovi and sat down on the floor right next to the chair.
Lovi lifted her head after a moment, seeming to realise that someone was suddenly nearby, and stared at her for a moment in what seemed like surprise. But then Ludwig saw her sit up straighter and wipe at her eyes with the back of her hand. And then she sent a scowl across the room at him.
So...apparently things were back to normal?
Ludwig really didn't understand what was going on.
A/N: Baby Ludwig and Baby Lovi~ You know, I'm pretty sure that Lovi was actually trying to play with Ludwig here. She just has absolutely no idea how to play with other kids in a nice way, so it didn't really work. Because no one but Antonio would ever respond to someone destroying the thing that they're trying to play with as a declaration of friendship.
Also, literally everything I wrote about the first squiggly line break I wrote like 2 years ago. Yaaay for finishing stories that have been sitting in my 'need to finish this at some point' folder for AGES. ALSO I FINISHED 2 CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY. IT ALMOST MAKES UP FOR THE WEEKS OF SAD KILLING MY PRODUCTIVITY.
Let's see... Childhood. Obvious. They are children.
Next prompt issssss... Stripes!
