"Let's play hopscotch!"

"Sure but I'm not gonna go easy on you."

"1! 2! 3!" She counted as she hopped on the spaces on the drawing on the floor, "Eight, nine!" She jumped and landed at the final box, "Ten!"

"Ten?" I smiled.

"I cant count up to twenty now!" She beamed at me like a proud child coming home from kindergarten with 'excellence' stars patched on her shirt.

"Really?"

"Yep! Watch!" She held up her fingers and began counting and I listened intently, waiting for a certain number. ". . . nine, ten, eleven, twelve . . ." she continued counting before she waved her hands in front of my face, ". . . twenty!"

I clapped right after, proud. "That's really impressive," I commented.

"My brother taught me that!" She picked up a stick and started drawing letters on the ground, "I also know A E I O U and covonsonanst."

I chuckled before correcting her, "Consonants."

"Yeah, that!" She smiled widely and handed me a pebble. "Your turn!" She pointed at the drawing on the ground. Oh, right. Hopscotch.

"Alright, let me see," I threw the pebble, eyed the spaces and began to jump, "One, two . . ."

"Hey! You stepped on the line!"

"Ugh."

"Hey!"

". . ."

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah."

"It's not even that hard to jump, you just pretended to trip and fall so I could win, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry."

"Here," she extended her hands toward me, "I'll help you get up. Let's start over. This time, let's play fair, okay?"