Elma and the Chalk Sun
Starring Elma
Elma loves drawing chalk suns with Dinah, but after she scrapes her knee and cries, Rocco turns her tears into a cruel chant that other children repeat. When Rocco ruins her block tower and later kicks through her sun drawing, Elma decides to transform the joke by adding gray rain clouds, puddles, and a boot-wearing figure. By singing the chant herself, Elma takes back its power, and Dinah joins her again. Elma still cries when she is truly hurt, but she learns that facing hurt with creativity and confidence can stop unkind teasing from controlling her.
Chalk dust puffed up in little clouds as Elma dragged a yellow stick across the pavement, drawing a sun with six fat rays. "Make the rays wobbly, like mine," said Dinah, kneeling beside her with her own purple chalk. Elma giggled and wobbled a ray on purpose. Then her sneaker caught the edge of the chalk box and she tumbled sideways, scraping her knee on the rough concrete. It did not even bleed, but Elma's face crumpled and she wailed loud enough that three kids on the monkey bars turned to stare.
Rocco strolled over, hands in his hoodie pockets, and looked down at Elma's wet cheeks. "Rainy Elma, here it pours," he sang out, grinning. "Grab your boots and mind the floors!" Two other kids laughed and picked up the chant, clapping along. Elma pressed her hands over her ears, but the words kept coming, and her crying only grew louder. "Leave her alone," Dinah said, but her voice wobbled, and she glanced sideways at the kids who were laughing.
The next day, Elma bit her lip hard, determined not to cry no matter what happened. She built a tall tower of blocks during free time, stacking it higher than her own head. Then Rocco jogged past and clipped the tower with his elbow, sending blocks clattering everywhere. Elma's lip trembled for only a second before the tears burst out anyway, hot and fast. "Rainy Elma, here it pours!" Rocco sang again, louder this time, and even a girl who had never teased her before joined in with a smirk.
At lunch, Elma set her tray down next to Dinah's usual spot, but Dinah was already sitting with two other girls, laughing at something on a napkin. There was no empty seat beside her anymore. Elma sat alone at the end of the table, staring at her chalk box in her backpack pocket, the sun drawing still smudged on its lid. She did not cry this time. She just felt the quiet, and it was worse than any chant.
That afternoon, Elma sat on the front steps of her house, turning the chalk box over in her hands. She thought about the wobbly rays Dinah had drawn, and about how the chant always started right after her sun drawings got ruined. "If they want rain," she said out loud to nobody, "I'll give them rain." She popped open the tin, picked out a stick of grey chalk she had never once used, and tucked it into her pocket for tomorrow.
The next morning, Elma knelt on the pavement and drew her sun again, brighter than ever. When Rocco kicked a ball that skidded straight through the middle of it, smearing the yellow chalk into a streak, Elma did not cry. Instead, she grabbed the grey chalk from her pocket and drew fat rain clouds pouring down right over the smeared sun. "There," she said, sitting back on her heels. "Now it actually looks like rain." Rocco blinked, his mouth hanging open, the joke gone stale in his throat.
By the time three more kids wandered over to see, Elma had already added little chalk puddles and a stick figure wearing rubber boots. "Rainy Elma, here it pours," she said herself, tapping the drawing with her chalk. "Grab your boots and mind the floors." Someone snorted, but this time it sounded like a real laugh, not a mean one. Dinah dropped down beside her again, picking up the purple chalk like nothing had ever gone wrong between them.
Elma still cried sometimes, when things really hurt, but the chant had stopped following her around, because she had already sung it first. She kept the grey chalk stick in her pocket now, right next to the yellow one. When the bell rang for class, Dinah grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Elma looked back once at the chalk sun, rain pouring down its rays, and grinned wide enough to show the gap in her front teeth.
