Title: Misconception
Story: In the Heart
Colors: Harvest gold 6 (asters), russet 6 (woven)
Supplies and Materials: Bichromatic, canvas (Summer is five, Ivy sixteen, Aaron twenty-one), stain (“There is nothing that makes a man suspect much, more than to know little.” - Francis Bacon, Of Suspicion, 1625), modeling clay (nothing), glitter (Look to your left. Write about what you see).
Word Count: 869
Rating: G
Summary: Ivy's worried about Summer.
Warnings: some misconceptions about Asperger's, thoroughly debunked.
Notes: Time for fluffies! For cotton candy bingo prompt "flower chain." Also, the Kendalls sometimes go up to a lakehouse in Connecticut on vacations, which is where they are now.


In the lazy unseasonable heat, the drone of bees in the background, Ivy lay on her stomach in the grass by the lake and tried to decide if the sky's blue was eyewatering or merely bright.

Her brother sat beside her, his back against a tree, his knees propped up and a book in his lap, but Ivy knew from occasional glances that he hadn't turned a page since they got out there. Probably asleep behind his sunglasses. Not far away from them, Summer bent over her lap with a frown of fierce concentration between her brows. Ivy rolled over and squinted at her, trying to see what she was doing, but she could see nothing but wisps of hair escaping from her ponytail and the slowly reddening skin of her neck.

Ivy reached back and poked Aaron with her foot.

He snorted and jerked, and said, "What?" Yep, definitely asleep.

"What do you think Summer's doing?" she asked. "She looks so serious."

"What?" Aaron asked again, and reached up, lowered his sunglasses. "I don't know. Reading or something."

"She's only five," Ivy said. "She can't read yet."

Aaron snorted, this time deliberately. "Just because you didn't figure out how to read until you were six doesn't mean Summer isn't reading now. I wouldn't put it past her."

Ivy ignored the slur on her character. "She's been like that all afternoon. Maybe she's plotting world domination."

Aaron reached forward and pinched her bare foot, lightly. "No, that would be you, little sister."

He had a point. She rolled her eyes, but he had a point. "Okay, then why do you think she's doing that?"

"Maybe she found a rock," he said. "I don't know. I've been reading about Aspie kids, apparently they hyperfocus a lot."

"Whatever that means." Ivy propped her chin on folded hands, staring at Summer. Her little sister had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome only a few weeks ago, and Ivy still didn't know what to do with that.

Aaron, characteristically, had gone to his university library and gotten out a whole stack of books. She'd peeked at a few, and hadn't understood much-- just that Summer would probably have trouble interacting with people, and that she'd have trouble understanding things. What did that even mean? Did she not have emotions? Did she not love them?

She didn't like meeting Ivy's eyes. She didn't like being touched. She didn't like talking to people if she didn't have to. She'd always been a strange kid, but...

"Is she going to be okay?" Ivy asked Aaron, without looking away from her sister. "You're the one who did all the reading."

"She'll be fine," he said, and his tone was so reassuring Ivy rolled over and looked at him. "Seriously. Now that we know she's got Asperger's, we can adjust for how she thinks, and she'll be okay."

Ivy wrinkled her nose. "I thought... I dunno, one of the things I read made it sound like she wouldn't... like she didn't have a lot of emotions."

"Misconception," Aaron said, and shoved his glasses up his nose the way he always did when he was going to start a lecture. "She feels emotions just like you or me, she just might have trouble expressing them. Might. Everybody's different. Anyway, it's not like she's a sociopath or anything, she just thinks differently. So whatever worst case scenario you're cooking up, it's not going to happen. She's a smart kid, a sweet kid, and c'mon, she's got your mom and my dad on her side. What do you think's going to happen?"

He had a point. Ivy's parents were unconditionally loving and always there, and absolutely ruthless in defense of their children. If anybody could take care of Summer it was them.

And what he said made sense. Summer didn't seem to get people sometimes, but she did seem to understand pain-- any time Ivy cried, Summer was there to curl up on her lap and hug her with tiny arms.

"I dunno," Ivy said, at last. "I just want her to be okay. And to love me."

"She loves you," Aaron said, with an eyeroll. "God knows why."

Ivy kicked him. "Shut up."

"You shut up," he said, and kicked her rather more gently.

That might have developed into a wrestling match if Summer hadn't straightened suddenly and come up to them. She didn't say a word, only dropped a chain of asters onto Ivy's hair, and another onto Aaron's hair. She crowned herself with the third with ceremonious solemnity, then nodded to herself, and wandered off up the hill, towards the house.

"....huh," Ivy said. Well then.

"This is pretty," Aaron said, readjusting his so it lay at a rakish angle across his eyes. "Still worried?"

"Yeah."

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh? What about?"

Ivy patted the aster petals gently, then inspected her fist. "Whether I'm going to bruise my knuckles on the next person who talks about Summer like I did. Why'd you let me do it?"

He grinned. "'Cause you were scared and really concerned. Try not to get suspended again."

Ivy waved a lazy hand to show how little she cared about his petty objections, and flopped back onto the grass. She hadn't decided about the sky yet.