Once upon a time, there was a school named the Child Development Center (CDC) which belonged to its mother school, George Mason University. At the CDC, the polar bear class was filled with six-year-olds. Two of the students were named Baljit and Vivi. The two did not talk to each other much, though they knew who the other was. There was not any animosity between them, at least, not yet.
One day, the kids were all playing outside at the playground. Vivi was with some of her friends, laughing and watching the other kids. They did not feel like playing today. Then, Baljit came running by, and she noticed that her shoelaces were untied. She bent down to tie them, and that was when Vivi saw that Baljit tied her shoes differently. Vivi turned to her friends.
“Did you see that?” she asked. “I don’t tie my shoes like that, do you?”
Her friends shook their heads and stared at Baljit, who had run off to chase after her own friends.
“That’s so weird,” said Liliam. “Why would she do it backwards like that?”
“I don’t know,” said Vivi. “Maybe she does everything else backwards too.”
The group wandered off, but Vivi kept thinking about Baljit’s shoes. So weird, she thought; she didn’t learn that way, and none of her friends had either. It must be some strange Baljit thing. That was it.
The next day, Vivi was walking up the path to the school. The pavement was slick from the night’s rain, and Vivi had forgotten to put on her rainboots. She was hurrying since they were going to fingerpaint banners today, and as she raced to the door she failed to notice that her shoelaces were untied.
WHAM went Vivi. She sprawled to the ground, her backpack swinging around to hit her face. She blinked, her arm throbbing, and looked around to see what had made her fall. Her eyes surveyed the ground, and she soon saw a white line on the gray pavement.
“My shoes,” she whimpered, and as she reached to tie her shoes she winced, a lance of pain shooting through her arm. She sniffled.
“Vivi?” said a voice.
Vivi looked up and saw Baljit standing over her. The other girl knelt down, her shoes squelching with the rainwater.
“Here, let me help you,” said Baljit. Vivi nodded, and Baljit grabbed Vivi’s loose shoelaces. “I think they were just lose,” she said as she tied them in her strange way. “There we go, it should be fine.”
Vivi looked down at her shoes, and then back at Baljit. “Thank you,” she said. And she was grateful, except… “Why do you tie your shoes like that?” she blurted out.
“Oh,” said Baljit, getting up. “That’s just the way I was taught. I couldn’t learn the bunny ear way, so my mom taught me how to go around the tree.”
“That’s weird,” said Vivi, but she was smiling and she accepted Baljit’s hand to get up.
As they went through the double doors and headed to the clinic, Vivi asked, “Could you show me how to do that later?”
“Sure,” said Baljit.
EXTRA:
Later that day, during lunch.
“I saw you with Baljit before,” said Liliam. “I thought she was weird?”
“No,” said Vivi. “She just learned differently, that’s all.”
THE END.
Written by Group 4
Group members
Belen
Liliam
Baljit
Vivi
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