The dry leaves crunched underneath my shoes on the dying grass as I side-stepped left to catch the soft, yellow football. I just missed it! I sighed, my breath visible in the chilly fall air, and picked it up to toss it back to Cam. He threw it to someone else, and we tossed it around the circle in the front yard for a bit. As the last of the kids made their way back to the daycare house from school, we went inside for snack.

We crowded around the dining table with our pretzels and orange slices as Gail handed out the drinks. She asked what we wanted to do today; it was a full day, so the kids would have to split up their activities. Some of the boys and I wanted to go back outside to play with the ball, and maybe even go a couple streets over to see if the kids at a different house wanted to join us. The girls all wanted to do an art project- colouring, gluing construction paper, or something from the craft book.

“Kristin, are you sure you don’t want to stay inside with the other girls? Look at Kate, she wants to do an animal craft,” Gail tried to persuade me to stay inside. Kate sat there quietly, as always, a perfect example of a responsible young lady. She was one of my best friends at daycare, but I didn’t always want to stay inside, and she never wanted to come outside. I glanced at the craft book: it was some sort of construction paper and pipe-cleaner bunny.
“I don’t really feel like doing a craft right now, I want to play catch with the boys! I like hanging out with the boys more than the girls sometimes,” I said confidently.
“It’s okay if she plays with us,” said Cam’s little brother.
Gail rolled her eyes and scoffed, as if I was insulting her by not staying with the other girls. “I guess you can do what you want to.” At that, I raced to dump my snack bowl in the sink and put on my shoes.

When my mom came to pick me up later, I got in trouble for being “snarky” to Gail… whatever that meant.