麻豆社

By Rosa Moody

Freya was a perfectly ordinary little girl, ordinary in every possible way. Except that is for one perfectly extraordinary little thing. You see, Freya believed that if she ever tried to do anything new, she'd fall apart. The fear had always been so strong she'd never actually tried. But she really, really believed she would, and that was enough.

One day, Freya was feeling brave and so decided to test it out on something she'd wanted to do for a very long time. And so, that Saturday morning, she went along to a ballet class at the local community centre.

She was nervous and scared and at times certain she'd fall apart. But she stayed, and she enjoyed herself. Until of course, she actually did fall apart, just as she'd always imagined, into five thousand tiny pieces.

As Freya lay there broken she felt more fragile than ever. Because now everybody knew just how fragile she actually was. Just then, a girl named Skylar walked up to the five thousand pieces that lay scattered across the floor, and began gathering them up into a beautiful turquoise velvet bag. Carefully, she carried the bag to her favourite place, which was a tree-house at the bottom of her garden. Speaking to the pieces in the bag, she told Freya that she'd been brave to try something new and that she was right to believe in herself. Better still, Skylar believed in her now too, so even when Freya didn't, her friend would. She gave the bag a big shake. And with that, Freya was whole again.

Skylar went on to explain that everyone is fragile, and everyone falls apart from time to time. The secret she said was to talk about it, and to believe in yourself the way your friends do. Freya felt better but wasn't sure everyone fell apart. What, even mum? Even Dad?! "Oh Skylar", she said, "I wish I could see things your way!" "But you can!" said Skylar. And she handed her a pair of sparkly red glasses. Freya put them on and for the first time saw that everyone was scared, and that people were falling apart all over the place. But she also saw friends with colourful bags, ready to pick up the pieces. As Freya went to hand back Skylar's glasses she realised she didn't have any on. "Oh no!" said Freya, "I've lost your glasses!" "But I don't wear glasses, silly" said Skylar. Freya looked around and again saw that everyone was fragile. But the glasses were gone.

The next week Freya returned to ballet class. And she didn't break. Nor the next week, nor the week after that. The week after that, she did. But guess who was there to pick up the pieces? Yes, Skylar, and a whole load of friends she'd met since. Friends that in time she too would need to scoop up into her very own colourful velvet bag.