A/N: I wrote this story back during the second season. That explains why John is 5 months.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OC.

Making Friends

My name is Kristen Allen. I am a 20 year old junior in college and I have a 3 year old daughter named Emily. She is the cutest (although I am not impartial) little girl with her dirty blonde hair and green eyes. The eyes she got from me, but her father and I cannot for the life of us figure out where she got blonde hair from. His is black and mine is dark brown.

I got pregnant with Emily just after the start of my junior year of high school. Life was hard for me from then on. James, Emily's father was supportive, and both his parents and mine were supportive. We were going to marry after we graduated high school, but although we had a child together we knew that wasn't enough to keep us together. So he gets her on weekends and when I have a night class.

I did graduate with the rest of my class, and I decided that, to support my daughter, I needed some higher education, so I enrolled in the junior college in my hometown. I was able to live with my parents until I got my AA. I had to decide where to go from there, so here I am renting an apartment not far from the university I wanted to attend.

Shortly after moving, I decided to sign Emily up for daycare. The cheapest one I could find was at the local church. I was thinking that while she was there I could take some courses during the day and then take one night course a week, when James would take care of her.

While I was there, a young woman walked in, put her backpack and bag away and then turned to walk into one of the rooms. I guessed that she was between 16 and 18. That's when she noticed me filling out the paperwork to get Emily enrolled.

"Oh," she said, startled. "Are you here to pick someone up?"

She had a soft, sweet voice that I knew would be comforting to the kids.

"No," I replied. "I'm enrolling my daughter, Emily. I'm taking some day courses in college and I figured this would be better than a baby sitter." I smiled.

"What class will she be in?" She smiled back, a little tentatively.

"She's three. The director took her into the class to show her around. She's the one playing with the girl by the dolls."

"Well, I'm Amy. I'm 16 and I work here after school. My son is in the infant room and I'll be in there with your daughter."

I was taken aback. This girl has a baby? I thought. My next thought was, Look who's talking. You weren't much older than her.

As I was thinking, I looked her over. She was pretty, but not beautiful. She had mouse brown hair and big brown eyes. She also looked like she had been hurt severely.

I don't know what made me do it, but I decided to try to get Amy to talk to me. On impulse I said, "Do you think you could meet me at the diner after you get off?"

"I would have to ask my mom to watch John for a while, but sure. Why?"

I decided to lie then. I didn't want to reveal my life story just yet. "Um…I wanted to talk about some things that might happen while Emily is here and I don't want you to think she's bad, or a pain in the butt." I laughed.

Amy smiled a little. "Uh, ok. I guess that would be fine."

"Great," I said, a little too enthusiastic. "Shall we say around 6:15?"

"Sure." She turned to walk into the classroom just as Emily was brought back to me.

At 6:15 I was sitting in a window booth, waiting for Amy. Emily was with James, and would be spending all weekend there. When I saw Amy, I waved to show here where I was and then waited. She walked in and sat down across from me.

"Now I've already told the other workers at the daycare about Emily's sensory seeking needs. I just wanted to make sure you're up to speed."

"Her 'what' needs?" Amy looked confused.

"Sensory seeking; she craves sensations. I gave them a list of things to do that will get her to calm down. Just look at that if she starts bouncing or running into people or messing up other people's drawings. Here's where you can find more information." I slid a list of websites across the table to her.

"Like I don't have enough to do," she murmured.

"I understand," I said, without thinking.

She looked at me incredulously. "No, I don't think you do." She sounded angry. "I'm a 16 year old high school student with a five month old baby. You're in college. How can you know what it's like to have a baby and go to high school?"

She stormed out of the diner. I just let her go. I knew she wouldn't listen to me…not yet anyway.

On Sunday, I went to church alone. I made sure some of the women from the daycare saw me.

"Where's Emily?" the director asked after greeting me.

"She spends weekends with her father and goes to church with him," I answered and proceeded to tell her my story. I made sure that several people could hear, including one pretty blonde teenage girl who looked very eager to learn about the new person in town.

On Monday evening, I was a little surprised to see Amy greet me with Emily hanging onto her leg.

"You're my favorite person, Miss Amy," she said. When Emily saw me though, she quickly let go of Amy and ran over to me. "You're my favorite mommy, Mommy."

I laughed and said, "That's because I'm your only Mommy.

"How was she today?" I asked.

"Oh, she was good. We used some of the suggestions on the list you gave us if she started getting out of hand and they seemed to help. I wanted to apologize."

"For what?"

"For the way I acted the other day when you told me that you understood. I heard your story today from my friend Madison, who probably heard it from Grace. Neither one of them can keep a secret." She smiled.

I smiled back. "That's ok. In a small town like this, everybody knows everybody else's business anyway."

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did, but I guess you could ask me something else. Sorry. I'm kind of sarcastic and literal at times."

She looked a little confused. "Do you think I could go to your place or call you if I need to talk? It seems like my mom doesn't understand, and I know my friends don't."

"Come talk to me anytime you need to. My door is always open. I really do understand and I can help, offer advice, tutor you, even babysit; whatever you need."

"Thanks, Kristen. I really need someone right now."

"It's no problem. I was hoping we could become friends."

She smiled and said, "Me too."