Disclaimer: The story and characters are mine. No one else’s. So don’t steal.

Author’s Note: A one shot, when Nirupa and Adam are in elementary school. Yes, I know, how adorable. This has a connection with Lejos de Romántico (an interracial romance that I’m writing), but there’s no need to read that one first. This has no connection with “Meeting” or “On That December Walk in May.” So without further ado . . I present to you Little Nirupa and Little Adam. This was meant to be (hopefully) bittersweet. And for the purposes of this fic, Nirupa and Adam are in the same class. Beware of the mocking of Western accents.

Author’s Note 2: Thanks to Staring at Horizons for liking/reviewing my stories. This goes out to you.

 The Main Characters of Childhood Memory (and Lejos de Romántico):

Nirupa Vasireddy – seven-years-old

Adam Etedel – six-years-old

Setting: Mid Fall

All was fine, normal and boring at Dakota Elementary School.

All except for the sounds of yelling that filled the air, that is.

“Nirupa is a chicken!” to be exact.

“Nirupa is a chicken! She is a chicken! Scaredy cat, scaredy cat!” were the mad chants that broke the whistling, shimmery silence. “She’s scared to go on the jungle bars! Nirupa is a chicken!”

The subject of this whole cruel tirade was a little seven-year-old girl named Nirupa. Skinny, black-haired, wide-eyed and clad in blue jumpers and a red shirt was the best way to describe her right then. And right now she was running away from a group of kids chasing her, mocking her. Always mocking her and her existence. What did she do to deserve this? you ask. The answer: nothing. It was just your everyday average first graders making fun of an innocent quiet person. Led by Adam, Nirupa’s enemy of sorts (and whom she called “Braggart”), this group of twenty or so first graders harassed anyone they could – constantly. And their favorite prey happened to be the unsuspecting, quiet, shy ones – Nirupa, in this case.

This was just your normal, regular day when you were a seven-year-old. Especially if you were Nirupa.

As fast as her short legs could carry her, she ran over to the jungle bars and without thinking of what she was doing, nor the fact that she was afraid of heights, she began to climb up it. Please, please, please, please, please – was all she was thinking. Just the word “please” and that was enough for her to, a few seconds later, reach the top. Clambering up as fast as she could was good, she decided. ’Cause here they come now.

Sure enough, Adam’s Tyrants (as they were secretly called by the teachers at the school) showed up then and formed a circle around the jungle bars.

Murmurs of amazement began to arise within the crowd. Whispers of “Nirupa actually climbed up the bars!” and “So she’s not a chicken after all” circulated like a raging wildfire. Nirupa tried to ignore them as best as she could and searched for Adam in the crowd of nameless faces. She needed to talk with him – and now.

Her brown eyes met with his just then. They flashed a challenge at her. She knew what to do then and gingerly started to climb down, watching where her feet went every step of the way.

Finally, a few slow minutes later, she was down on the ground and defiantly facing Adam. “All right, Braggart,” she said with her hands on her hips in a candid manner, “Lemme ask you something. What’s the points of all this? What’s the point of all of you chasing me? You know that’s not going to do you any good,” she said matter of factly.

“Nothing. Why?” Adam hid his astonishment at the way Nirupa was acting. The quiet one was actually being rebellious . . was that something to see! “We haven’t done anything to you – we’re just havin’ some fun. Right, guys?” he asked his cronies.

“It may be for you, Adam, but . . “ She trailed off. “Hey, what are all you doin’ here? Get outta here – Adam and I need to have a talk.” She glared at him when she said this.

Adam sighed. “Go, you guys. I’ll see ya later.” With grumbles and mutters, the horde of students walked off to where the tire swings. At least they were fun.

When they were gone, Adam turned back to Nirupa. “All right, now what do you want?” he shot her a frustrated look.

“All I’m askin’ is for you and your little gang to stop makin’ fun of me and chasin’ me around. It’s not doing you any good, obviously.”

His eyes flashed. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” She just smiled sweetly at him. He just gave her a baffled look, but nodded. The quiet ones were always scary. They were the ones you had to watch out for. “All right, I will. It wasn’t fun teasin’ ya anyway.”

Nirupa shot him a look, but couldn’t help but smile bemusedly.

Later that day, Nirupa and Adam gave each other half and half of each other’s snacks while the rest of the class looked on in both amazement and shock.

Fast Forward to the Present:

Smiling slightly at the treasured memory that had been held close to her heart all these years, Nirupa, now twenty-two, turned to Adam, and nodded her head yes, the smile still on her face.