Social Studies
Jun. 21st, 2019 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
intheheartTitle: Social Studies
Rating: G
Summary: Summer finds life difficult sometimes.
Warnings: none.
Notes: none.
Summer feels like an anthropologist among humans.
Sometimes she pretends she is. That she's an alien, sent here to learn as much as she can, so she must take notes and make rules and never be bothered when people dislike her, because she won't be staying. She pretends this especially often at school.
At home, she doesn't need to pretend. She loves her family and she doesn't want to be not one of them. And besides they don't treat her like she's different, or at least not like different's bad.
She wishes so much she didn't need to pretend anywhere.
--
The rules are useful.
She tried to write them out once, but there were so many. Don't take things so literally. Don't burst out with things that don't make sense. Don't object when people hug you. And others-- do make eye contact, do answer questions, do speak up so we can hear you. It's not fair that everyone else seems to know them already, but Summer never really thought life was fair.
She notes them down in her mind every time she runs into a new one. It helps; her interactions get smoother, her life easier.
It still isn't fair.
--
And then sometimes, she doesn't have to follow them.
She can do what she wants at home, but she's always been able to do that. It's when she starts meeting people outside that things become easier. Lars, who likes her just as she is, and doesn't care about any such rules. Gina, who helps her understand, who lets her break the rules and then explains how she can bend them. Even her first boyfriend, who shows her that she can be loved, just as she is.
It could be worse. She knows that. At least sometimes she can be free.
--
Thomas isn't like her. He understands things better. He's still sensitive though, and what her aunt used to call picky, and Summer thinks her son is not so different from her.
Still, he is his fathers' son, and he chafes at the rules she requires. She's never been able to explain to him why things must be this way; she's never quite been able to explain it to herself. All she knows is that her rules work; they ease the way. If she doesn't always follow them, at least she knows why she doesn't.
It helps. That's all she needs.
Rating: G
Summary: Summer finds life difficult sometimes.
Warnings: none.
Notes: none.
Summer feels like an anthropologist among humans.
Sometimes she pretends she is. That she's an alien, sent here to learn as much as she can, so she must take notes and make rules and never be bothered when people dislike her, because she won't be staying. She pretends this especially often at school.
At home, she doesn't need to pretend. She loves her family and she doesn't want to be not one of them. And besides they don't treat her like she's different, or at least not like different's bad.
She wishes so much she didn't need to pretend anywhere.
--
The rules are useful.
She tried to write them out once, but there were so many. Don't take things so literally. Don't burst out with things that don't make sense. Don't object when people hug you. And others-- do make eye contact, do answer questions, do speak up so we can hear you. It's not fair that everyone else seems to know them already, but Summer never really thought life was fair.
She notes them down in her mind every time she runs into a new one. It helps; her interactions get smoother, her life easier.
It still isn't fair.
--
And then sometimes, she doesn't have to follow them.
She can do what she wants at home, but she's always been able to do that. It's when she starts meeting people outside that things become easier. Lars, who likes her just as she is, and doesn't care about any such rules. Gina, who helps her understand, who lets her break the rules and then explains how she can bend them. Even her first boyfriend, who shows her that she can be loved, just as she is.
It could be worse. She knows that. At least sometimes she can be free.
--
Thomas isn't like her. He understands things better. He's still sensitive though, and what her aunt used to call picky, and Summer thinks her son is not so different from her.
Still, he is his fathers' son, and he chafes at the rules she requires. She's never been able to explain to him why things must be this way; she's never quite been able to explain it to herself. All she knows is that her rules work; they ease the way. If she doesn't always follow them, at least she knows why she doesn't.
It helps. That's all she needs.
