September 1993
It was Daisy's first day of school. She had an early birthday, so while most kids started at 5, Daisy was starting at 6 years old. She was super excited about the whole thing. She had spent the week prior to her first day prepping stuff with Mum and Dad. Unlike my first day of school, Mum and Dad were extremely excited for Daisy. So while Daisy was starting kindergarten, I was starting grade 2. Which of course, nobody really cared about.
The morning of our first day finally came, and Daisy was up bright and early. I accidentally woke up late, so I had less time to get ready. Mum was planning on driving us to school, so I had to make sure I wasn't late. If it wasn't for Daisy, Mum wouldn't have even been driving me. Daisy was the one who convinced mum to drive me too, instead of making me take the bus.
We had a couple minutes before we had to go and I was in the washroom putting my hair back in a ponytail. Daisy ran into the washroom, and Mum followed her. Daisy stepped up on her stool, and grabbed her headband. She always wore that headband. It was rare to see her not wearing it.
"Alright, honey." Mum said as she grabbed the hairbrush out of the drawer. "How do you want your hair done?"
"Bows!!" Daisy smiled. "I want bows!"
Mum laughed, and picked out a pink bow from the same drawer the brush was in. In all honesty, there wasn't much mum could do with Daisy's hair. It had such tight curls, that it made it hard to work with. The only part that didn't have curls was her bangs in the front, which was odd. They were only a slight bit wavy at the most.
"You should do Kevin's hair!" Daisy laughed as mum did her hair. "He's got longer hair than me!"
I laughed a bit. "No thanks. I'm happy with a ponytail."
Funny thing was, that I did actually have longer hair than Daisy. Mum forced me to grow it out because then at least I looked like a girl. I didn't mind it, in all honesty. I could put it back and it stayed out of my way.
Surprisingly, Mum actually laughed a bit too. She seemed to be in a pretty good mood.
"For once, I agree with you." Mum said. "A ponytail looks just fine on you."
"Awww!" Daisy laughed. "You should give him a bow!! We'll be twins!"
"I'm sure Kevin doesn't want a bow." Mum laughed. "Or do you?"
"Do it!! Kevin! Do it!" Daisy cheered happily.
"Alright, alright." I laughed. "I'll wear one."
So, after Mum finished up with Daisy's hair, Mum put a bow into my hair. She put a light blue bow right where the elastic for my ponytail was. After that, we were ready to go. Daisy was so excited to go she practically sprinted out the door, dragging me with her.
"Hey! You two!" Mum yelled at us. We had run off ahead to the car, whilst Mum and Dad were still at the door. "Come back here! I want to get a picture!"
Daisy dragged me back, and we positioned ourselves where Mum wanted us. She pulled out her big bulky camera, and took a picture. Once she got her smile, she let us go and get in the car. Daisy couldn’t stop talking about how excited she was as we got in the car.
"You know, it almost looks like we've got two girls." Dad smiled as they walked to the car, clearly in no rush like Daisy. "Just what you wanted."
"I know." Mum grinned.
School was about the same as it had been in the past two years. The only difference was that Daisy was now at school too. Often, she spent a lot of time with kids in her grade, but if she saw me in the hallway, she would always give me a hug. The other kids in my grade made fun of me for it, but I didn't care. It's not like I had any friends anyways.
Usually, when we had recess, I just kept to myself. I would find something silent to do, and entertain myself. Every now and then, Daisy would join me because she didn't like me being lonely. But most days, I was pretty alone.
One day partway through the school year, I was going about my day like usual. I was in my second to last class, which was my language class. Everyone had to take a language class to improve their fluidity in German, and then later in our school years we could choose to take either a French or English class. I was doing my grammar worksheet when a teacher from another class knocked on the door.
"Excuse me?" The teacher said. "Mind if I borrow Kevin Hutcherson for a minute?"
"Sure. Kevin? Can you go with Ms Bell for a moment?"
Confused, I packed up my stuff and went with the teacher named Ms Bell.
"Is something wrong?" I asked quietly.
"It's your sister, Daisy." Ms Bell sighed. "We're trying to get her to calm down, but she keeps crying for you."
"What happened?"
"I don't know. She wouldn't calm down enough to tell me."
We walked down the hallway down to Daisy's class. Daisy was sitting outside of the class, bawling loudly. Another teacher was trying to calm her down, but it didn't seem to be working.
"Daisy?" I asked as the teacher and I approached her. Daisy immediately looked up and ran over to me. She gave me a huge hug and buried her face into my shirt. Her tears were soaking right through my shirt, and I almost fell over because of how fast she ran into me.
"The other girls don't like me!!" She sobbed.
"Why?" I asked.
"They said I'm too fat!! And I'm not allowed to play with them!!"
"Sweetie, can you tell me who told you that?" Ms Bell asked softly. Daisy named a couple names while still sobbing onto my shirt. I was pretty upset that the other kids called her fat. I didn't understand why people had to be so crude to each other. So what if she was a bit chubby! It didn't matter!
Ms Bell went to go grab the other students who called her fat, and brought them out to say sorry. The kids said sorry, and then Ms Bell let them return to class. Unfortunately, Daisy still couldn't calm down, so Ms Bell suggested having me call home so mum could pick her up. As much as I didn't want to, I did. Mum wasn't happy about having to leave work early, but since it was for Daisy, she did it anyway. While we were waiting for Mum to come, I sat with Daisy in the office and tried to keep her calm. She was pretty hurt about the whole thing. When Mum came, Daisy ran right into her arms and cried. I would’ve stuck around to see what happened after, but Mum made me go back to class.
I later got home by bus. When I entered the house, I could see Mum waiting for me at the dinner table. Since I had to pass through the kitchen to get to the hallway where my room was, there was no avoiding her. Silently, I walked into the kitchen, and felt Mum's eyes following me.
"Sit." She demanded just as I passed the table. I did as I was told.
"What happened with Daisy?" Mum demanded to know.
"She didn't tell you?" I asked with a bit of surprise. Usually Daisy told Mum these types of things.
"No." Mum sighed. She actually looked hurt about Daisy only telling me.
"Oh. Well, the other kids aren't letting her play with her, I guess."
"Why?"
"They, uh, said she's too fat."
Mum looked about ready to snap. "THEY WHAT?!"
Even though it was a question, I didn't dare answer. I couldn't tell if she was mad at me, or the girls who called Daisy fat. I stayed silent and let mum prepare for her rage. But, to my surprise, she took a deep breath and calmed down.
"So, she only wanted you?" She asked.
"Yea." I replied.
"Alright, well, she won't talk to me, so can you go and make sure she's ok?"
"Yea, sure." I said. I got up from the table, and headed to Daisy's room
"Thanks Kevin." Mum sighed. She remained seated at the table, and buried her head in her arms.
I opened the door to Daisy's room to see her laying on her bed, still crying. I walked up to her bed, and sat down next to her.
"You ok?" I asked her.
"No." Daisy sobbed.
"You wanna talk about it?"
Daisy turned my way, and gave me a hug. For the second time in one day, she soaked my shirt with tears.
"I'm not fat, am I?" She asked me quietly through her tears.
"No, you're not!" I told her. Obviously I wasn't going to tell her she was on the chubbier side. I didn't want to make her feel worse. "It doesn't matter what they say! They're just mean!"
"Thanks…" Daisy sobbed.
I ended up sitting with Daisy for almost two hours. And surprisingly, Mum didn't come and drag me out of there to get my chores done. Actually, she did the chores I was supposed to do, which shocked me. She must've really wanted Daisy to feel better.
By the time Daisy calmed down, it was past dinnertime. Normally, Mum would've made dinner, but instead, Mum wanted to get takeout because of how late it was. It wasn't uncommon to get takeout when someone was upset, or when it was too late to make dinner.
"Daisy?" Mum poked her head through the crack in the door. "I'm getting fast food for dinner. What do you want?"
"Happy meal?" Her eyes lit up and she stopped crying. She absolutely loved happy meals from McDonald's.
"Alright. And Kevin?"
"Oh, uh." I didn't know what to say. Normally Mum just got me something cheap, and didn't let me choose.
"C'mon, quick. I haven't got all day."
"Uh, same as Daisy?" I said.
"Ok. I'll be back in 15 minutes or so, ok?" Mum said as she came up to Daisy. She gave Daisy a hug. "Hope you feel better, honey."
By the time dinner got home, Daisy had forgotten about the whole name calling, and enjoyed her happy meal.
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