One lazy summer day toward the end of June when Olive was just six years old, she noticed a moving truck out her bedroom window while laying on her bed reading a textbook three grade levels ahead of hers. Interested, she closed the textbook and set it aside, climbed off the bed and walked over to the window, placing her hands on the glass and looking out. She noticed a navy blue Ford Explorer pulling up into the driveway of the house next door to hers and rolled her eyes, thinking it should really be updated to a more current model before focusing her attention back to the man and woman who were now getting out of the car, and then the woman opening the door to the second row and a boy who appeared to be about her age hopping out. She then remembered that the other neighbors had moved out of that house, and that those people must be the new neighbors. She ran downstairs calling "Mommy! Mommy!" before finding her mother in the kitchen talking on the phone. After another minute of Olive's hassling, her mother at last hung up the phone and turned to her daughter.
"What, sweetie?" she asked.
"The new neighbors moved in!" Olive exclaimed.
"Oh!" her mother said. "Why don't we bake some cookies to bring over and introduce ourselves?"
"Okay!" Olive said eagerly. About an hour later, after they'd baked a batch of sugar cookies and placed them in a plastic tray wrapped in foil, they left the house and walked next door, finding the new neighbors carrying boxes into the garage.
"Hi, welcome to the neighborhood!" Olive's mother said brightly. "We live next door."
"Hi!" the woman said with a warm smile. "I'm Kim Quimby," she said, and then glanced around before calling out "Fletcher?" The boy peered out from the side of the car and gave a shy smile. "Fletcher, come here and introduce yourself to the new neighbors!" she said as she took his hand and pulled him forward. "This is my son Fletcher," she then said, again smiling warmly. "And who's this?" she asked, turning toward Olive.
"This is my daughter Olive, and I'm Ann Doyle," she answered, also smiling warmly and placing a hand on Olive's back. Olive and Fletcher smiled up at the mothers, but they were both clearly only interested in each other.
"We made these for you," Olive's mother then said, gesturing toward Olive. Olive's mother handed the woman the tray of cookies.
"Oh, thank you!" the woman said gratefully, taking the tray. "Ann, would you like to come inside? Even though there's really nothing to see," she with a small laugh. "Of course," Ann replied. "Why don't you two go play," she then suggested to Olive and Fletcher.
"Okay!" they said nearly in unison. Their mothers went inside Fletcher's house, and Olive and Fletcher turned to each other.
"Wanna come to by backyard? Olive asked. "I have a playset. We can play in the sandbox."
"Sure," he said, smiling at her. She smiled back and paused for a moment, strangely attracted to him despite her young age.
"You coming?" he asked her a moment later.
"Oh. Yeah," she nodded. "Race you there?"
"Sure!" he said eagerly. "Ready, set, go!"
The two bounded off toward Olive's backyard, their eyes both locked on the playset.
They reached it at about the same time and stood there catching their breath.
"I won," Olive beamed.
"No, I so won!" Fletcher argued.
"No, I did!" Olive frowned.
"You're right, you did," Fletcher suddenly said.
"Thank you," Olive said matter-of-factly, rolling her eyes.
Just then, Fletcher smirked and pushed Olive into the sandbox.
"What the heck?" Olive yelled.
"Ha-ha," Fletcher taunted teasingly. The next thing he knew, he found himself headfirst in the sandbox with a bucket of sand dumped on his head.
"HA!" Olive yelled. Fletcher flinched when Olive raised her arm again, protecting his face with his arm, but to his surprise Olive just laughed. He nervously laughed along with her, trying not to look like a wimp, although he knew it was probably too late for that. But as the two looked at each other, they both knew they were going to become friends