365 days.
That's how long I've been at the Amazing Sunshine Daycare, but so far, I haven't experienced any of the 'amazingness' of it. Every day, the atmosphere inside this place has grown darker and darker, and I keep wondering when it will become so dark that I might go blind from it.

Suddenly, I hear a yell, but before I can react, I'm hit on the side of my head by a soccer ball, causing a stinging pain. My vision blurs, but when I can see again, I see three pairs of eyes staring at me, laughing.

"You're such a baby, it couldn't have hurt that bad," Sara taunted. She was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen.

"It did hurt!" I yelled, even though we were only four, I still knew what bullying was, and that was all thanks to Sara and her friends.

"Gemma, why don't you go cry to mommy?" Isabella, Sara's best friend, chimed in. When I thought no one could be meaner to me than Sara, Isabella always managed to prove me wrong.

"Stop it..." I whispered quietly, holding back tears. "Awww is little Gemma going to cry?" Sara said tauntingly, clearly intending to push me over the edge. And it worked, because in that instant, tears started running down my face. I looked down, hoping to hide my tears, but Jada noticed. Jada was the nicest one from Sara's group, but obviously, she wouldn't just stay silent after seeing me cry.

"Oh come on, you guys made her cry" Jada said, laughing, clearly joining in on the fun of bullying me. "Poor little Gemma-"

"That's enough. What's wrong with you three?"

I looked up and saw a little boy with dark brown hair that fell in front of his blue, ice-cold eyes. "What?" Sara asked, clearly surprised and confused. "I said that's enough. bullying isn't pretty," he replied firmly.
"Whatever, Bash," Sara said, exasperated that she had been called out.

I watched as Sara and her friends walked away, glancing back at us with scornful gazes. Just then, a boy whose name I had just found out to be Bash turned to me and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, thank you," I replied, feeling a mix of gratitude and uncertainty.
"Thank you for what?" he inquired, his eyes widening with surprise.
"For helping me," I explained. He seemed surprised by my response.

"Ah, I see" Bash replied, a hint of realization crossing his eyes "But you know, there was another reason I helped you." Confused, I asked, "Another reason?"
He leaned closer, a hint of mischief in his eyes. "I also wanted to see Sara's face. Her defeat was amazing!." I looked at him and smiled.

"anyway, what do you want to do?" he asked, now smiling at me.
"I wanted to play soccer, but the others are playing with the soccer ball right now," I said, feeling a little disappointed.
"Well, then let's draw with the chalk for a little bit, and then we can play soccer when they're done," he suggested.
"Okay, that sounds amazing," I said, smiling back at him.

"Wow, you're really good at drawing!" I exclaimed, a little too loudly.
We both looked around to find half of the kids staring at us. He laughed, clearly unbothered by the attention, I was surprised I could never imagine being so comfortable in that situation.
Bash laughed "Thank you, it's my favorite thing to do when.." he trailed off, becoming distracted.
"When what?" I asked, trying to get his attention back.

I moved closer to him to get his attention, and it worked. He jumped slightly and looked at me, surprised.
"Oh, nothing, it's not important," he said, smiling at me, but this time, it didn't seem genuine.

As he went to turn back to drawing, a flurry of kids ran past us, one of them knocking me over and sending me tumbling onto my butt.
"Hey, look," Bash said, pointing towards the cleared soccer field.
"The soccer field is open!" I exclaimed, excitement building within me.

He laughed and put his hands out in front of me. "Come on, Gem, it's our time now,"he said, his icy blue eyes shining in the sunlight, all of the sudden Sunshine daycare wasn't so dark after all. I looked up at him, taking his hand and letting him help me up.

"Yeah, our time," I replied, Without a moment's hesitation, we ran towards the soccer field, our feet propelled by the wind, holding each others hand.

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I hope everyone enjoyed chapter 1!