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The Kindergarten Affair

By Areku

Part 10: The Victim

Of 'Cloths'

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"We have a treat for you today." The teacher spoke over the noise of all the littluns in front of her. Unfortunately her words did not give rise to a hush, instead the awe, created by her words, provoked speculation.

"Are we having on a field trip?"

"I bet school is canceled for the whole rest of the year!"

The teacher rolled her eyes, "Hardly."

"Maybe there's a fire drill an we all can go outside and play."

The teacher's eyebrow twitched, "We have some new toys." (Your tax dollars at work. They're not being used to teach the little lovers to read, but being used to entertain them so they won't have to read. ^_^)

There were squeals of delight, and a general movement toward the play-area.

"You cannot play with them, or see them till it's room time."

The squeals of approval turned into moans of disapproval. The crowd was not at all happy with this decision and was prepared to mutiny if the chance arose.

The teacher remained expressionless and did not try to calm them. That after all was what the teacher's aide was for. Where was she anyway? The aide was never around when you needed her.

Amidst the general clamor, Akito was quite content speculating on the additions to the already large toy selection. "I wonder if they finally got a kitchen set. Every classroom has one but ours has one. Yurika what do you think?"

Yurika was gazing off into the air around the teacher's head.

"Yurika? You okay?" He nudged her shoulder.

She shook her head and her eyes went back to normal, "I think that the toys'll be really fun stuff."

"You're spacey today."

She cocked her head.

"Even more than usual."

"Alright class, if you don't all shut up now none of you will get any playtime. You'll all just sit at the table quietly with your hands folded in front of you, and wait for your parents to come and pick you up." The teacher was tired of the yelling if you couldn't tell.

About half the students fell silent. The other half started saying "But I wasn't talking!" or "You can't make me cause my Mommy will get mad." etc.

"I will count to three. If by then you are not all sitting quietly all of you will be punished."

At that the clamor started again, even stronger than before. Most of the shouting was about the unjust punishment of the entire class.

"One."

All but four voices fell silent.

"Two."

The other students subdued the loud mouth chidren with bodily force.

"Three."

The room was silent.

"Very good. Now the lesson today..." the day proceeded as usual.

*****

Room time came soon enough for all the anxious little children. They burst through the dividers that separated the tables from the toys and immediately saw with some disappointment that the 'toys' were cloths, dress up cloths.

I shouldn't say that they were disappointed, because many of the children were overjoyed that the toys weren't cars or blocks. The ones that were happy with the new toys were of course female.

Yurika giggled as she dragged Akito over to play. He followed, 'like a lamb being led to the slaughter'. "Isn't this the best ever Akito."

No reply.

"I always wanted to play 'cloths' and I was telling my daddy for years and years that the school should have cloths and now he finally got some."

That statement was very close to the truth. Yurika had sporadically nagged her father about dress up cloths. He took care that her wish be granted, and insured that the school would get some for their kindergarten class.

Yurika stuffed a skirt over Akito's head and left it to hang around his shoulders.

Now Akito had come to realize that he could not escape Yurika and it would be much less painful if he didn't try. So he stood there and underwent the humiliation of having long pieces of material thrown over his head.

Yurika pulled a long dress over her head and proceeded to try and zip up the back. The zipper got caught on her shirt so she left it half down.

"Okay now we're ready to play, okay Akito?"

"Yeah."

"Okay now you gotta be my friend who's a girl..."

"But I don't wanna be a girl."

"But then who's going to be my friend? So you gotta be a girl."

Then the volcano erupted. "No, no, NO! I don't wanna be a girl! I won't be a girl! I don't wanna play a stupid game where I have to be a girl! I didn't wanna play cloths but you made me and I'm NOT being a girl! We always have to play..." He looked down at Yurika.

Her head was tilted forward so her bangs fell over her eyes. "Akito, you don't have to play with me if you don't want to. I didn't wanna make you." She looked up at him, and the tears poured out of her eyes.

"Yurika..." Akito hadn't intended to make her cry. Now that the damage was done, he did not want to apologize. That would hurt his pride.

"You can go play something else Akito."

"Okay, I'll be the girl."

Her face automatically lit up, she stopped crying, and her voice bubbled out, "Oh goody now let's go to the ball." ^_^

Normally someone in Akito's position would have got the feeling that they had just been manipulated. In most cases this would have been true. But Yurika was, and is, not the type to cruelly use people to her best advantage.

"So first we gotta go to the ball and sit and wait for someone to ask us to dance. Then you gotta be the prince and he comes and dances with me not you, cause you can't dance with yourself." ^_^

"I gotta be the prince too?"

"Yes, so now we're at the ball and we're sitting here." She pulled him onto the ground. "Oh friend, I wish the price would dance with me. Now you gotta say 'oh look he's coming this way.'"

"Oh look he's coming over here."

"Ohhh," she giggled and blushed, "he would never dance with me. Now you gotta be the prince."

Akito dutifully stood up and took off his skirt, which was still hanging around his neck. He offered her his hand.

"Oh do you really wanna dance with me Mr. Prince."

"Yeah."

"Nooo, you gotta say, 'I've been waiting to dance with you all night.'"

"Um, yeah, what you said."

"Oh Mr. Prince, that's so romantic."

Then Yurika took his hands and spun around a little. The dress trailed under her feet, being much too long for her. She tripped and with a little yelp fell forward on top of Akito. (Could you see that coming?)

"Oh Akito thank you soo much for catching me. Now Mr. Prince will you carry me away to your castle."

"Yuuuriiikaaa," Akito moaned, "Get off."

"Oh Mr. Prince, will you wipe my tears away," she got little staries in her eyes, "then you can give me a rose crested ring. Then we can get MARRRRIED."

Lucky for Akito, the teacher had come over. "Yurika, your mother is here."

"Awww, bye Akito." She started to leave, then paused, "You're coming over tomorrow right?"

"Yeah?"

"See ya' then." And she left.

END

AN. Oh sorry about the upload mix up. That was a very bad day.

Um that whole stuff about the prince wiping her tears away is inspired by Rev. Girl Utena. And no I haven't seen alot of it. It was just the only fairy tale ish anime I could think of.

Disclaimer, the rights to Nadesico are held by Kia Asamiya, Xebec, and ADV. All of which I greatly respect, and have no intention of ripping off. So please don't sue me.