Burning Out Bright

THREE YEARS OLD
“Can you please try, Natalia, to not dirty every single piece of clothing you have?” Bella Greene yanks off the pair of Burberry plaid dress from her three year old daughter and exclaims, “How on earth did you manage to even get your diapers to look this shade of brown?”

“I went to--”

“I don’t really want to hear it, Natalia. It’s a rhetorical question.” Bella scans the closet and finds the Kate Spade overalls that she’s looking for. Putting the overalls on her daughter in a gentler manner, she hopes fervently that this ensemble would not return to her crumpled, muddy or torn. It is difficult to say which was worse when it came to her daughter.

“What’s a-a re…?”

“Rhetorical question, darling.” Her mood slightly lifted up by the adorable sight of her daughter in the pair of expensive and well-crafted overalls (it was a pity that Ryan, her husband, objected to Natalia taking part in any sort of advertisement or her beautiful daughter would have already captured the hearts of all mothers everywhere). “It means a question which you aren’t really expecting an answer to.”

Smiling indulgently at her daughter, whose face was pinched in concentration as her three year old brain tried to process this complex thought, Bells run a comb through Natalia’s auburn curls. Then she says the magical words which her daughter had been yearning to hear, “Alright, honey. Let’s go to the sandbox.”

Natalia’s face lights up in a smile sweet enough to melt anyone’s heart (and Bella certainly felt her own heart softening the slightest, almost completely forgiving her daughter for ruining the plaid dress before catching herself and gently chiding her subconscious for being gullible). Slipping her hand into Bella’s, she says, “Thank you, Mummy.”

Bella sighs, happily.
***
The sandbox was no ordinary place.

It was filled with toddlers, gleefully gurgling as they built mansions and castles out of ordinary sand and their young inquisitive minds. However, these children were not wearing Gap overalls or Target shirts. Instead, they were dressed with tender loving care from nannies (Bella Greene was regarded as a curiosity for spending so much time with her daughter. After all, there were many other pleasures in life to enjoy-cruises to christen, parties to attend and so many people to kiss up to. Being stuck with a baby full of snot was not one of them was positively terrifying to these women) at the height of the latest designer baby clothes.

Aside from the odd Bella Greene, these mothers had hardly cared for nor bought those expensive clothes. It was important to them that their babies dressed as fashionably and with as much taste as they did but they simply oversaw their needs. It was left to the nannies to run the day to day care for their children and to select clothes for their wards, clothes that were so outrageously priced that these nannies would never have the money to buy.

It is these mothers whom Jennifer Kingston hopes to associate with through their nannies, of course.

Yes, it is unheard of for people of Jennifer’s status (in these privileged circles, it was more accurate to say that in their eyes, she was nothing at all) to be invited to people like Bella Greene’s house for a play date. But she is determined to change that and win herself a date with Leonora Aarons’ mother or rather Leonora. The crux of the situation depends, to Jennifer’s utter dismay, on her second son.

Jennifer had failed completely and miserably with her first son, Eric, who is seven this year. She blames herself for taking notice of her son too late, when bringing him to the exclusive sandbox was no longer an option because he was simply too old. Furthermore, Eric is far too interested in finger-painting (to Henry Kingston’s delight, as he had oft admired art that he could not afford. The idea of having an artistic son positively thrilled him) than to accompany his mother around to hunt for prospective, rich friends.

However, Adam Kingston is remarkably different from his brother. He had none of his brother’s friendliness or exuberance. He is a sleepy little child and though Jennifer refuses to admit it, she thinks Adam is also incredibly boring and thus hardly has a chance in getting her a play date.

Jennifer is right about two things but wrong about one. She is right in thinking that he is very different from her brother and did not possess his brother’s friendliness. However, Adam is as far from boring as possible. Instead, he is simply empathetic and thoughtful for his age. He realizes that his mother had an unhealthy obsession with all things glamorous and thus, decides to adopt a bland deposition to attract little attention although he does wish to make his mother happy.

Though Jennifer Kingston was an expert on finding ways to insert herself into the world of the rich and privileged, she was an idiot in handling her children. This thought would not occur to her until her children are grown however and is, regrettably, something that cannot be altered.

Nodding in approval of her son’s clothes, Jennifer ushers Adam out of the house. Feeling a tingle of excitement that she rarely does, she thinks to herself, This would be the start of something wonderful.

Unusually, she is right.
***
“What does she think she is?”

Although Bella Greene does not have the nasty habit of eavesdropping on others’ conversation, she finds that she is partial to news about Jennifer Kingston. It amazes her that the woman never gave up, no matter how the others perceived her (which was not a good impression, in all honesty). Although her goals were not ideal, the manner which Jennifer approached them made Bella feel awed.

“It is ridiculous of her to think that I would actually pass the message to Mrs. Aarons, as though she would actually set a play date with Adam, that oddball son of hers.”

Bella raises her eyebrows and eyes the little brown-haired boy whom the nannies were glaring at viciously with renewed interest. Keeping an eye on her daughter who was already happily jabbering with Leonora Aarons, the daughter of the woman whom Jennifer Kingston seemed to be trying very hard to integrate herself with, Bella allows her to take a closer look at the Adam Kingston.

Adrian is tall for his age and like all typical boys, he is rather messy. However, he is, also, to Bella’s alarm, incredibly quiet. When Natalia approaches Adrian to play with her, Bella feels a surge of pride and waits for his reply. Instead of agreeing with her daughter, Adrian simply shrugs and walks away.

Out of the corner of her eye, Bella sees the nannies tittering bemusedly. Bella muses over this; it was a little odd how Adam rejected Natalia considering how hard his mother wants to be accepted by Bella’s social crowd. (Bella admits silently, that her social circle is rather selective and snobbish and had she not married Ryan Greene, one of the centerpieces of this social crowd’s crowning jewel, she would’ve already faced the same fate as Jennifer.)
It is also extremely unusual that Natalia would’ve been rejected, as she is usually considered one of the most interesting kids in the sandbox to play with.

All in all, Adam Kingston is a surprisingly interesting child and Bella intends to keep her eye on him; something that she knew her daughter would be doing as well.

Although she knows her mother would not approve, Natalia sits down into the soil nearby. Usually, she would’ve respected her mother’s rules but this time was an exception because this is war.

After seeing a boy standing alone by himself, she’d approached him, wondering if he wanted someone to play with. She had been rather certain that he would have agreed (Natalia is not conceited enough to think that everyone liked her and enjoys her company) but then the expression in his eyes somehow changed slightly and he shook his head, a quick and silent no.

As though he knows that Natalia is staring at him, the brown-haired boy turns around from the bench he is sitting on with another woman, probably his mother, and sticks out his tongue at her.

Gritting her teeth in determination, she displays her fiercest expression; one that she knew would bait anyone into a fight. The boy didn’t budge; instead he stares back with a cold indifference. This scares Natalia slightly and she quickly stands up, returning to her safe circle of friends.

She wonders if she had underestimated the brown-haired boy. She’s beginning to think that she had not seen the evident wish to be included in Adrian’s eyes a moment before she had decided to approach him.

But most of all, despite of her annoyance, she thinks that the boy is somewhat interesting; someone she’d like to know.
***
Adam does not like the auburn-haired girl.

Firstly, she was obviously one of the rich people Mother wants him to play with although they often bore him with the spoilt way they kept running back to their nannies. Secondly, she was rude, thinking that he had been there to play with others though he had not been; he was forced to do this. Lastly, she had disappointed him.

He had thought that perhaps she would be different but she was the same as the rest of them. The auburn girl had run away from him after a little bit of testing. She was like the others, never liking anyone else who was slightly different from them.

And though he had trained himself, even at this tender age, to not be surprised when the peopel around him didn't live up to expectations, he'd found the way that girl behaved to be almost...

...disappointing.