all in a crafternoon

Valentina was on a craft craze at the moment. It all started with the soft creature she made Simon when she had intended to give him the heart locket back, but he wouldn't take it.

She thought about how many times she told him they were just friends. He couldn't say anything but hold on to the soft plushie made from a fuzzy sock. It could have been a rabbit, a cat, even a hamster.

She wondered now if he'd thrown it in the trash. It didn't much matter to her as she stuffed a sock and formed it into a body. She'd decided to sell them at the bakery. Valentina took a huge needle from her treasure of thread, beads, and stuffing.

It was quiet and near the end of the bakery hour. She looked up to see Ste watching her.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Whatever you want it to be." She went back to stitching up the bottom. He came around to see the gray form.

"Do you want to make one?" Valentina asked.

"Are you serious?" He grinned.

"Are you afraid too?" She smirked.

He sat down across from her.

She showed him what to do with the sock. She turned it wrong side out and took a sharpie pen to draw its ears. Next, she threaded a needle with black thread and told him how to do the back stitch. She did a few stitches and showed him to follow the dark line.

Ste only sighed.

"You should make one for Gabby," Valentina told him. He winced hard as if he didn't want too.

"Well, make one for yourself, then." She shrugged. "You, are rather selfish, you know."

"Me?" He almost bellowed as if he was a little kid who never got anything.

"I dunno why you're so mean to her." She didn't think she would ever say it, but it felt good to confront him, about what she'd seen. "You're..you're funny and happy around me..and you don't even know me. But..but Gabby's your girlfriend and you can be..so ugly."

Ste frowned a sour stare. He poked himself with a needle.

She took the sock from him and finished up. He was quiet.

She handed him over the plushie she was working on before she started his. It looked quite plain, yet cute.

"This is for you. It might come in handy sometime." She pushed the soft plushie toward him. "I know you don't have time to think what she's going through, but she's had some hard times too. She was only adopted you know, a year or so ago. She's lived in a lot of foster homes before she found a real home. I was a lucky one. The parents I have are the only parents I know. I've never wanted to look for my real parents."

She went back to sewing on the other plushie he'd started. He studied the soft fuzzy creature he was still holding.

"You better start being nice to her, before you lose her." She handed the sock back to him and two hand fulls of stuffing for the ear. He followed her instructions and she then handed him a huge ball of stuffing for the body.

He stuffed the sock and Valentina worked with it to make a fat shape where the creature could stand on its own. It didn't take much work to sew the ends. She put on the beaded eyes and sewed a mouth from the thread.

"And you can give this one to Gabby." Valentina smiled.

It was a matched set.

Ste only nodded, but she wondered if he would keep that one for himself, too.