Chapter 2: The Girl With the Sketchbook, Part 1
Grown-ups often described a wedding as one of the happiest days in a person's life. Sora didn't see the appeal. His aunt wanted to get married on the beach, which should have been great, but his parents would not let him play in the sand or the ocean. "You'll ruin your new suit," his mother explained.
And after the ceremony ended, they had to stand around getting pictures taken. The lady in charge of the photography seemed nice, but she kept taking the same shots over and over and over again. "Mommy!" Sora moaned, tugging at her arm, "Please can I go play?"
"For the last time, no. When she's done taking pictures of the whole family, I still want you to stand with us."
"Whhhhyyyyyy?"
"So you don't get sand all over your nice clothes."
Sora pouted. "I hate nice clothes." It didn't help that there weren't any other children his age at the wedding. His mother was the first in her family to marry, so he had no other cousins yet. Those on the groom's side were either too old or too young to take any interest in him. But as he stood still and pretended to smile at the camera for the millionth time, something caught his eye. A little girl sat near the photography equipment. She held a sketchbook and crayons in her lap. He couldn't see what kind of picture she drew, but her hands moved fast across the page and she wasn't paying attention to anything else.
As soon as the photographer finished the group shots, Sora moved away from his parents and ran over to the girl. "Hi!" he greeted her, "I'm Sora! What's your name?"
The girl jumped and spilled her crayons. He leaned over to see what she'd drawn, but she pressed the sketchbook against her white dress, away from him. Then she stared at him with wide blue eyes. Sora waited for her to say something. When she didn't, he tried again. "HI!" he said louder- just in case she couldn't hear very well, "MY NAME'S SORA! What's your name? Wanna play with me?"
She still didn't respond.
"Whatcha drawing? Can I color with you?"
Nothing.
"Okay, we don't have to do that. What games do you like to play?"
The girl hugged her sketchbook tighter and looked at the ground.
Sora tilted his head. "What's the matter? Don't you know how to talk?"
She continued to stare at the ground without nodding or shaking her head.
"That's okay! I can talk for both of us! If you don't wanna color…" Sora glanced around and found a big stick lying in the sand. "…I know! When I play with Riku- he's my best friend- we like to have sword fights! Here, this'll be my sword! We'll have to find another one for you." He lifted the stick high in the air. "Oh! I have a GREAT idea! We can pretend that your coloring book is your shield! YAH! Take THAT!" He waved it around and pretended to jab at the sketchbook with his new toy.
Finally, the girl opened her mouth. "MOMMY!" she screamed, tearing across the sand to the head photographer.
"What? What'd I do?" Sora protested, chasing after her, "What'd I do? Come back! I just wanna be your friend!"