Hopscotch (OTA)

[st_ayedhidden]

It was Saturday and Annie was still at the inn. There was still a lot to figure out about the inn and everything that was going on. The Peter Parker here had a girlfriend and it wasn't her mom. Annie didn't like to think about it.

She found chalk at the boutique. Chalk helped her think and helped her keep busy.

The parking lot was covered in flowers, trees, and chalk rainbows. There was something that might have looked like Spider-Man and next to him a woman next to him with red hair.

The pictures were abandoned for a game of hopscotch. She threw a rock on number 6 and started to hop.

Comments

Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

It was hard to miss when the parking lot had turned into a color explosion that just about matched some of the most interesting carpet in the inn, and Corbie stopped to look at it. None of the artistic types around here had ever used chalk on pavement as their medium of choice. Emma, Lillith, and Piotr were more the painting type. Mack... well, she didn't really know what the hell Mack's thing was, but he liked it, so that didn't matter.

Her eyes followed from the drawings to the chalk, to the squares, to the little girl jumping through them. "What's that game?" she called over. Since her conversation with Regina she'd calmed down a lot about this mess, but she expected it wasn't getting any better. Peter'd claimed the kid as his. Liz was probably freaking out. That promised to get worse before it got better. Fun times.

Also, she honestly didn't know.

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie looked up and smiled. She was on one foot, but put it down when she saw Corbie.

"Hi Corbie!" She said, waving. "This is hopscotch. Have you never played hopscotch before?"

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie waved back before she walked over to take a closer look. "Hi, Annie." But when she looked at the numbers written inside the squares, she still didn't know exactly what was going on. "And nope, I don't think I've ever played hopscotch."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

"Did you want to play?" She asked excitedly.

Annie picked up the flat stone she had with her and stood at the beginning of the hopscotch court. She tossed the stone to the number one.

"So, you throw a rock and then you have to hop onto the squares, but you have to hop over the space you throw to." She explained and started to hop. "You can only use one foot, the same foot, unless you land on two boxes side by side. And you can't touch the lines or fall down or put your other foot down."

She reached the top of the court and turned on one foot. Annie then hopped back down the court and stopped at '2' to pick up her stone at '1'. She hopped to the finish.

"You pick up you stone and get back, you win that round," she said. "Then you throw to number two, and repeat. If you mess up, you lose that turn and the other person can get ahead."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie accepted with a smile. "Sure." And as she listened to the description, she started to remember childhood games that she hadn't thought of, let alone played, for years. Jumping, singing, clapping, rhyming. There was something about shadows jumping along with the flame of a candle, a group of little girls trying to follow exactly what the leader did. She hadn't been allowed to play that one.

So of course, she'd never let Gran see.

Her head tipped to one side as she took in the explanation. "So somebody could," she asked, just to clarify, "go through all ten and win without another player getting a turn?"

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

"Hmmm," She hummed. "Some people play it like that. I think it's more fun if we take turns. And if you mess up, you just restart your turn where you left off. That way everyone gets a turn no matter how good or bad you are."

Annie didn't like when things seemed unbalanced.

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie nodded her agreement of this rule. "Okay. Sounds all right to me. You go first. I think I want to watch again."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie nodded and threw her rock to number 1. She stopped there.

"Um," She said, looking to Corbie. "I have some powers... so I don't know how fair this is. If you want, I can go get my bracelet and put it on."

Re: Annie & Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

By now between their initial meeting and Peter's message through the journal system Corbie had her suspicions about that, but she hadn't really known until right this moment. She smiled. "Thanks for the honesty, but nah, you don't have to. What kind of powers?"

[st_recuerdame]

"Dante!" A voice sounded as a very friendly dog bounded over toward a new person they hadn't seen before. Dante stopped short of pouncing on her, but his tongue hung out and his tail wagged in greeting, he also gave a short yip of hello.

Miguel quickly ran to catch up with Dante. "I'm sorry! He won't hurt you, he's just really friendly." He hoped his friend hadn't scared her.

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie was not scared. Her eyes went wide and she looked delighted.

"Can I pet him?" She asked excitedly.

Her parents always told her to ask first when it came to dogs.

[st_recuerdame]

"Dante would like that." Miguel nodded toward her and Dante didn't need anymore encouragement to step forward, closer to Annie.

"Just be careful of his tongue. He likes to lick a lot."

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie giggled excitedly as she pet Dante.

"We're not allowed pets in the apartment, but I've always wanted a dog," she said. "I'm Annie!"

[st_recuerdame]

"I'm Miguel." He introduced himself. "And I wasn't allowed a pet either. Dante's a street dog and my friend." He was more than that but not many people could see the real Dante.

Dante licked Annie's cheek and wriggled in excitement as she pet him.

[st_ayedhidden]

"A street dog?" She asked, still petting. "I'm glad he's your friend. He seems nice."

Annie changed to scratch behind his ears.

"You seem really nice Dante," She said, giggling.

[st_recuerdame]

Dante's foot began to tap when Annie scratched him behind his ear. He liked this human.

"He's really nice." Miguel agreed and then added, "he can keep secrets, too. I tell him everything." It wasn't like any dog wouldn't keep secrets, too since they didn't talk, but that was different.

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie gasped. She crouched and looked Dante right in the face.

"Dante! You can talk?" She asked excitedly, expecting a reply.

Kitty & Annie

[st_alksthroughwalls]

Kitty had been trying to give Annie and Peter and Liz a little space, but what Peter said about Annie's past meant she couldn't stay away much longer. She saw that Annie had drawn a hopscotch grid, one afternoon, passing from one building back to the main building.

"Wow. I haven't played hopscotch forever."

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_ayedhidden]

She smiled to the lady who seemed really pretty.

"It's really fun!" She said happily. "Do you want to play with me?"

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"Sure. That would be fun." Kitty smiled easily at her. Cute kid. Considering what she'd probably been through, her smiles were quick and her eyes happy. That was a really good sign.

"You're Annie, right? My name's Kitty."

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_ayedhidden]

"Hi Kitty." She said. I like her name!

"Do you know how to play?" She asked. "Someone else didn't know how to play earlier. It's okay though. Learning is important."

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"I used to." But as Kitty looked at the hopscotch chalking, she realized, "But I'm not sure I remember. You should probably refresh my memory."

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie explained the same way she did with Corbie. She explained how to hop, how to jump over the rock, how to go in order from 1-10 and how you 'lose a turn.'

"The key is to go slow if you don't have good balance," she explains. "And... And I should warn you I have powers that help me be good at this sort of thing."

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_alksthroughwalls]

"That's okay." Kitty gave her a conspiratorial wink. "I have powers too and I've been training to use them a long time. I think I'll be all right. And if you win, well, fair's fair."

Re: Kitty & Annie

[st_ayedhidden]

Annie's eyes went wide.

"You have powers too!" She said excitedly. "What can you do? Can you fly? Or grow really big and angry? Or call lighting? Or have a suit that flies or, or...."

Annie ran out of powers she could immediately think of.

[[wowwie, sorry! I thought I replied ]]