Maggie and Orangio Part 3: Sandcastles and serious talks
Where adults are not (always) as clueless as they seem, and kids are going to be just fine.
Note from the author: if you haven’t met Maggie and Orangio yet, head here before reading this episode:
The principal sat them down in her office, on two plush red chairs. Maggie dangled her feet, staring at the trinkets lined up on the desk. As the principal moved to sit, Maggie tried to sneak a look at a picture in the corner. The lady noticed and handed it to her, settling on her own plush chair with a smile.
‘You already met Orangio, and the other two are Stella and Barbara; they’re twins.’
Maggie’s eyes widened and darted to the edgy boy slumped on the other chair. He was examining his shoes very carefully.
‘Principal Blake is your mum?’ she blurted out. Orangio shrugged; the lady laughed, then leaned forward on her desk, steepling her fingers with a mischievous smile towards her son.
‘Yes, Maggie, I’m Orangio’s mum. I’m so glad he found you. Even though that means he wasn’t in school like he was supposed to be.’ Orangio glanced up to his mum.
‘I’m sorry,’ he grumbled. Principal Blake waved that off.
‘We’ll discuss it later. For now, I think we have more urgent things on our plate.’ Her face became serious as she studied Maggie from under her pink-rimmed glasses. ‘My dear, do you want to tell me what happened?’
Maggie really didn’t want to. Cricket, Glimmer, and the others might be bullies, but she wasn’t ready for the whole playground to call her a snitch. She placed the photo back on the principal’s desk and sat back, rocking her legs back and forth and looking ahead at nothing. The lady sighed.
‘I understand. Maggie, I hope you realise that we can’t have children running away like that. You kids are our responsibility; we don’t want you getting hurt or lost.’
Maggie looked up at the principal’s glasses and nodded. The lady leaned forward with a smile.
‘I’m glad we agree on this. So, Maggie, I won’t ask you any details of what happened. I just have one question; I trust you’ll give me an honest answer. Will you try to run away again?’
Maggie pondered; she glanced at Orangio, who was observing her. He smiled for a second. She turned towards the principal again and shook her head.
‘No,’ she answered quietly. ‘I won’t run away again.’
‘Very good,’ nodded the principal. ‘That said, Maggie, I just want you to know that if you ever feel upset or unsafe, you can always come to your teacher or to me—you don’t need to tell us anything and we won’t ask questions. We’re here to give you a safe space. Okay?’
‘No questions?’ asked Maggie before she could stop herself.
‘No questions, my dear. It’s a promise.’ The principal smiled and handed the little girl a jar of candies. ‘Would you like a sweet?’
‘She’s had enough of those for today,’ snickered Orangio. That earned him a glare from Maggie, who was already reaching for the jar.
The principal was still chuckling when someone knocked on the door. She pulled herself together and invited the knockers to enter.
Miss Brown ushered in Maggie’s parents, who rushed to their daughter’s side. After thanking the teacher and sending her back to class, principal Blake offered them chairs. Maggie’s parents sat around her as the principal summed up the events with the help of Orangio, who reluctantly answered questions on where he’d found Maggie and where they’d been.
‘I’ve excused Maggie from class for the day,’ stated the principal. ‘I think it’s best if she comes home with you for now. This is not a punishment,’ she added, seeing the concerned look on Maggie’s mum, ‘we have all been very scared and Maggie and you need to recoup. We’ll see her tomorrow as usual.’
‘I suppose you’re right,’ sighed Maggie’s mum. Her dad squeezed Maggie’s shoulder.
‘We’ll call the office when we get home, tell them all is fine and take the rest of the day off. How does that sound, Blossom?’ he asked.
Maggie blushed a bit at the nickname, but smiled and leaned against her dad, squeezing his arm.
‘Perfect,’ concluded the principal, rising from her chair and shaking everyone’s hands, including Maggie’s. ‘Then, miss Brown will see you tomorrow, Maggie. Orangio, you stay. We’ll go home together later.’ Orangio sighed and stood up. From the door, Maggie waved at him, and he replied with a nod, sinking his hands in his pockets.
‘I’ve always said you’re good with children, Morty,’ smiled the principal, sitting down to peruse documents.
‘Whatever,’ he mumbled, moving to the table on the side of the office and pulling out a book from his backpack. Perhaps if he caught up on homework, she’d give him less grief for the skipping.
The next day at recess, Maggie was playing on the swings again with Kay and Jimmy again, when she saw Cricket, Glimmer, and the rest of their clique strut towards the sandbox. She watched them, pensive, until Kay tugged her sleeve.
‘Are you coming?’ Jimmy was already on his way. Maggie smiled and followed them.
When the three reached the sandbox, Glimmer was kicking a castle under the horrified stares of two young starlings.
‘Oi!’ shouted Maggie. ‘Leave them alone.’
Glimmer looked up and smirked. ‘Run along, freak. They don’t want your help.’
Maggie shook her head, perking up all the spikes and petals until they created a giant halo around her face, and the starlings looked at her wide-eyed.
‘I’m not running away this time,’ she said, her hands curled up into fists.
Cricket advanced towards her with a frown when a voice startled all of them.
‘The principal is coming!’
Maggie and Cricket turned simultaneously towards the school building. Principal Blake was indeed striding to them with an expression that didn’t promise anything good. Cricket, Glimmer, and the others glanced around for an escape, but it was too late. The principal stopped in front of the scene with her arms crossed, taking everything in: the ruins of the sandcastle, the little ones sniffing with their eyes red, Glimmer beet-red with her shoes full of sand, and finally Cricket and Maggie with her crown of spikes and petals.
‘So, would anyone like to explain to me what’s going on?’ she asked, calmly.
‘I… she was threatening me, Ms Principal!’ Cricket pointed towards Maggie. ‘She wanted to poison me with her spikes!’ Maggie opened her mouth, incensed, but the principal laughed.
‘Is that so? Stephen Alioth, right?’ Cricket nodded, lowering his head.
‘And you? Glimmer Sheratan, is that correct?’
‘Yes,’ Glimmer nodded eagerly, ‘the fr… Maggie destroyed the little ones’ castle. I was helping them rebuild it!’
Maggie snorted. The starlings stopped crying and looked at Glimmer in disbelief. Chloe hissed ‘Liar!’ and earned herself a glare from the older girl. Principal Blake raised an eyebrow.
‘How kind of you, Glimmer. Please, come to my office. I want to hear all about this unfortunate affair. You too, Stephen. Everyone else, recess is almost over, so don’t be late for class.’ The principal held her hand up wide, waiting for the kids to precede her. Glimmer came out of the sandbox, sighing and shaking sand off her shoes. Cricket looked at Maggie, then at the principal with a frown.
‘Why doesn’t she have to come too?’ he grumbled, following Glimmer.
‘Don’t worry, Stephen, I’ll speak with Maggie later,’ smiled the principal, marching them to the school. Just before they disappeared inside, she turned and winked to Maggie.
‘You friends with the principal now?’ frowned Jimmy. She shrugged.
‘She knows it wasn’t my fault.’ The starlings were hard at work rebuilding their sandcastle. Jimmy, Kay, and Maggie got on their knees to help them.
‘You know they’re going to learn you’re not poisonous sooner or later,’ said Kay. The bell rung, and they all got up to go back to class, rubbing sand off their clothes.
‘It’s okay,’ answered Maggie as they crossed the door back into the school, ‘they’re not that strong. Maybe if I’m not afraid of them, other kids will stop being afraid, too.’
Jimmy and Kay smiled, and the three children made their way back to class.
Writing musings and news
As you may have noticed, June and July have passed in silence. The first half of summer was quite hectic for me, and unfortunately that meant putting writing on the shelf once again. I am currently working on developing support systems so that, hopefully, it won’t happen as frequently anymore.
Maggie and Orangio were also a bit step out of my comfort zone in trying to create a lighter story with a different kind of character. The result was far from perfect, but I am so happy I managed to bring them to a proper conclusion.
I hope you enjoyed reading about them.
See you soon!
Magnolia Fay
Congrats for bringing your characters and their story to a conclusion!! That is always an amazing feeling 😍