Heart of a Child

“ Happy Birthday to you…” then everyone put their hands together to give her a round of applause. Smiles and tears of joys are everywhere. Relatives took their picture with the birthday celebrant. People are wearing a long brown dress because that color is the motif but their genuine smiles made them colorful. “1.2.3 Click!” some are giving their best shot at the photo booth. On the other side, I can see a paradise. Chicken, a combination of marshmallows and hotdogs, spaghetti, a jar of lemonade and more variety of food placed in one long table. “Cling, cling, cling !” kids run quickly where that sounds came from. When they saw the cheesy ice cream in a cone, their lips stretched wide up to their ears. Me? I’m just sitting in the trunk of a cut tree in front of that birthday party waiting for my friend to go outside. That celebration is my friend’s grandmother birthday party.

“Laine, come here!” a loud voice calling me coming inside the party. I round my eyes to see who is calling me. I saw a girl wearing a brown simple dress on the terrace waving at me. That’s my friend, waving her hand that sign that she is inviting me to go inside. Wearing a loose short and a simple shirt, a typical outfit of a kid, I quickly entered their house because I’m excited to eat an ice cream.

Sitting at our favorite place under the tree, we are both rubbing our stomach because of so much food that we ate. Stains all over our clothes but as a child, it doesn’t matter.

“Laine!” then I saw my classmate. She is Ginalyn, a chubby girl with a long curly black hair, my best friend in school. “Let’s go to school, let’s watch Hannah.”Hannah is also our best friend. She is practicing their talent and the production number with other contestants. Hannah is the representative of our section in Science Fair. “Sure!” I answered and followed her. Before I leave I say goodbye and give waves first to my friend who invited me to the birthday party.

We easily opened the gate of our school. I can hear our footsteps stepping on the dried leaves. A strong wind blows to us that made our hair messy. We heard a beat of music from afar. We continue walking, and then we saw some props outside the gymnasium. In our excitement, we run rapidly to the gymnasium. Few people were sitting at the front of the stage. Some contestants are preparing their costume for their costume rehearsal. Organizers are teaching other contestants in their production number. Teachers are cutting letters for the back graph. I and

Ginalyn walks near of the stage. We looked for a chair but no more sits are available so we chose to stand beside the stage to see clearly the person who is performing. Loud music covered the whole place. One contestant starts to perform. She is holding a stick that has a feather on the top, wearing a color brown wrecked mini skirt like in history. Her back-up holding a bamboo and they formed it like a chair. The girl sits on the bamboo then her back-up lifted her and she started to wave her hand. We are enjoying watching her talent because it’s new in our eyes. But the next thing happened was so unexpected. Their eyes are all in me. Laugh is all I can hear. A strong wind blows; I can feel the cold air comes from wind in my legs. I can’t feel anything below, literally. I quickly raise my short, yes my loose short. Someone pulled it down thank God I’m wearing underwear. I turned back, I saw a boy sitting in a chair beside the stage laughing. He looked at me and said, “I said three times, don’t block, I can’t see who's performing.” maybe, because of a loud music why I didn’t hear that. As a child, it’s okay because I don’t care. What is wrong with a kid wearing just an underwear? They are still innocent, no malice. After that unexpected happening, I chose to go home.

As a woman now, I realized I should fight for myself that time. People don’t have the right to bullied others. When I remembered that moment I also realized how it is so nice to be a kid. I missed being a girl who doesn’t care what people think about imperfections, who is not afraid of judgments, who don’t how to grave ill feelings, easy to forgive and a girl who only knows is to love others unconditionally. No pride just happiness and simplicity.