Lacey supposed she had always felt a little alone. For the first six years of her life she was an only child, yet neither of her parents had much time for her. Her mother was a journalist and her father an editor. They were a match made in heaven. They would spend hours and hours in the living room going over different columns and rewriting material for publishing, but almost no time with little Lacey.
A school counselor noticed she wasn't making friends. That she was struggling with opening up around the other children. It was then her parents decided to spend less time on work and more with Lacey. Eventually her mother took a job in a place called Green Grove. It didn't make nearly as much as her old job, but it meant more time could be spent on 'being a family'. Her dad agreed but kept his job in New York. He said he would relocate in time for the new school year, but he couldn't find a decent replacement in time for her first day at Green Grove elementary.
School in Green Grove wasn't much different from school in New York. Lacey still struggled to make friends. She would speak to the other girls her age, but nothing really fit like it was suppose to. Or at least the way Lacey thought friends were suppose to fit.
The first few weeks of school she spent on a swing set. It was Lacey's favorite recess activity. She loved the way the warm autumn sun felt on her skin as she got closer and closer to its rays.
Most children found comfort in their mother's voice or their fathers embrace, but while those things were great, nothing felt as good to Lacey as the sun. It was also one of the things she loved about Green Grove. The sun just seemed to shine brighter in the small town. It was friendlier.
She would push her legs back and forth as hard as she could before jumping off with both arms reaching out, believing for just a moment that the sun was what eternity felt like. Warm and inviting. Her perfect fit. The feeling would last just long enough before she came crashing back to the ground.
The angry buzz of the lunch bell was always hard for her to hear. It meant going back to a classroom filled with people who just didn't fit. While the rest of her classmates came together and hooked onto one another, Lacey just seemed to float off to the side. Stuffed into a corner desk shirking away from the hustle and bustle of students trying to settle in after lunch.
One day after the bell sounded off, Lacey noticed something different about her class room. The wall that had once separated her class room from the one over had been pushed apart. It actually more like some sort of sliding door. On the other side of the door was a whole class room filled with students pushing their things into bags. Before she could finish contemplating what might be going on, her teacher called for the classes attention.
"I'm sure you all have noticed that we can now see our friends in 2A. It saddens me to say it, but who used to teach over there is no longer able to see to the needs of her students. So this is what's going to happen. Half of her students will join us in 2B,while the other half will join in 1B".
He then instructed all of Mrs. Isate's students to sit at the story rug until he could sort out seating. Lacey was in a corner with two empty seats. She knew that meant she would have to share with two of the new students. One in front of her, and one in the back. She rested her head on her desk as new students steadily begin to fill empty seats. She ended up with a boy sitting behind her, and her girl in the front. She eventually learned their names were Jo and Danny. They seemed close. They fit. Just like everyone else, they had found someone to fit with.
Lacey felt a little stupid for hoping she might find her pieces.
A week later she spoke to the boy, the one named Danny. He and Jo were kicking a red ball back and forth, and she almost kicked him in the face when he raced after the stray ball. Instead she swung her legs the other way, and he slipped in sand while trying to avoid her feet.
She took a few seconds to take him in. He's about her height, with brown skin and short dark brown hair. She also notices he's missing one of his front teeth. As he gets back to his feet she sees that his knees have a few faint scratches from his fall.
He wipes his hands on his shorts before speaking to her.
"You're pretty good at that. If I saw it was you on the swing I would have waited to get the ball".
He was talking to her? He was being nice to her. He wasn't going to yell at her for nearly taking his head off?
Remembering her manners and forgetting her shyness, she replies to him with a nod of her head. "Thanks. You're pretty good at kickba-"
"Soccer. It's called soccer and my dad's been practicing with me. He promised to put me on the team when I'm a little older".
Lacey couldn't help the irritation that flared in her chest. Who was he to correct her?
"Maybe next time you should play with a soccer ball. It's the black and white one". On that note she began to push herself back and forth on the swing again. Making sure to keep her eyes in front of her, and not on the boy to her left. On one of her forward swings she noticed he's got his kickball back, and is making sure to keep far away from her stretched limbs.
Two weeks after her class changes, everyone is getting ready for something called "Fall Fest" .
Lacey walks hand in hand with her pregnant mother as they navigate through the busy town, trying to avoid ladders and the decorations that cover the sidewalk. Though the hustle and bustle can be a little unnerving at times, she enjoys these walks with her mother. As her stomach grows larger, her mother complained more about not wanting to be on her feet too much. She would go on and on about back pains and swollen ankles. Though not as busy as the streets of Green Grove, her home was going through some changes of it's own. Her mother and father spent weeks getting the nursery together. They painted the small room soft shades of pinks and lavender. A brown crib was pushed against the wall and something called a changing station stood in the corner. Various racks and containers were filled with clothes, diapers and toys. Her grandmother had sent a really pretty car seat, and her aunt got the baby something called a basinet.
Apparently it was something the adults needed to make a big deal out of.
Lacey was excited to for the new baby, but she couldn't understand why so much attention was being pushed onto it. Her parents' friends and coworkers talked about it constantly, and women were always running up to her mom to rub on her belly. Lacey can't remember ever getting so much attention. All of this excitement for someone they had never met. It made no sense. For all they knew the new baby could be evil or just mean spirited. What if it was loud and made a mess? These were things people should think about before they decide to like someone so much.
Before they could make their way into one of her mother's favorite bakeries something solid slammed into Lacey's side causing her to fall into a pile of decorations that had been nicely put together in front of the bakery. Something cold and wet was also covering her arm and jacket sleeve. She laid in the decorations and tried not to cry. Not only was she being jabbed in the back by branches, but someone wasted food on her favorite coat. It was burgundy with cream colored buttons going down the front and cuffs. It was made of very smooth fabric that fell to her knees. She got it as a birthday present from her aunt. She instantly fell in love with it, but wore it sparingly out of fear of ruining it.
When she raised her hand to look at the damage, she noticed it was some sort of chocolate shake or soft serve.
Moments after she had been pushed , she felt two strong hands pulling her to her feet. When she looked up she noticed it was a very tall man with wavy dark brown hair. He wore a green shirt that Lacey noticed went well with his brown skin tone. She couldn't quite place it, but something about this man was familiar.
"Im sorry, I'm so so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you , I swear!"
Lacey knew that voice ! That was the voice of the boy from her class, the one who played kickball. It was Danny!
There he was covered in chocolate and sprawled on the floor. He had come barreling down the sidewalk and ended up pushing her down and spilling his nasty drink all over her nice jacket. Lacey was really beginning to dislike this boy. She hated people who moved too much . It's exhausting to have to deal with, and this Danny kid was all over the place all the time. Her mother swore up and down that she would never put one of her kids on those leashes, but Lacey was willing to bet Danny's mom would be interested in a nice fitted harness for her kid.
Just when she thought he couldn't get more ridiculous, he jumped up and grabbed her arm and started to dab the chocolate off her jacket with his shirt sleeve. Lacey had never been more disgusted in her life. She yanked her hand out of Danny's grasp so forcefully he stumbled.
"It's ok" He said. "This shirt is super absorbent! It gets all the sweat like a sponge !"
Lacey sucked on the inside of her cheek to keep from speaking. She had no more patience for Danny. Not only had he spilt that chocolate mess all over her sleeve , but he then decided wiping it up with his sweaty shirt was a good idea. Not to mention her sore back from landing on the decorations. She wanted to go home. She wanted her swing set, and she wanted the sun.
Her mother tried her best to bend down and check her over, while kissing her cheek and insuring her she and her jacked would be ok.
"I'm sorry about my son Judy. When he get's excited it's all that more difficult to control him. I was hoping soccer would be a way to channel some of it out of the kid. I can get the jacket dry cleaned if you want?" Her mother thanked the man, but declined the offer. What she said next made Lacey furious.
"It's not necessary Vikram. Lacey tends to over react to the smallest things! I swear I've never known such a high maintenance child".
Did she cry? No
Did she yell ? No
Did she punch Danny? No
Just where had she over reacted? Maybe if people spent more time reacting to Danny he wouldn't be such a spaz !
"Well I would have been more upset than Lacey is".
Lacey did not recognize that voice, but it was coming from behind Danny and his father. When she looked between the two of them, she could see it was a tall thin blond woman. One of the fist things Lacey noticed was that this woman was very pretty. Though Lacey was fond of the jacket Danny had probably ruined, she was not too into clothes. The jacket was probably the nicest thing she owned. Danny's mom looked like she wore stuff straight out of the catalog. She had on a very pretty purple top, with a dark brown skirt. Her hair was very long and fell over her shoulders in deep waves. Lacey thought she looked like a Barbie. One of the really expensive ones that came out around Christmas.
Her mother attempted to hug the slim woman, but her stomach was making things like hugging difficult.
The blond woman was called Karen. That's what her mother called her before they hugged. Karen bent down and assessed the damage to her jacket.
She stood before speaking to her mother. " A nice cold wash looks like it will do the trick, but if its not enough please let us take care of it" .
"Karen, it's fine really hun. I'll take it to the cleaners before it sets. I've been meaning to get it dry cleaned anyways. There, now they will actually have some dirt to get off for the prices they charge."
That was Lacey's que to tune them out. She hated when adults talked about money. It made them grumpy and upset. A while back Lacey's mother and father were arguing over money and how much was going into the nursery. Apparently her father wanted to get a new car, but her mother didn't approve . She wanted to spend money on more changes to the house including the nursery. Her father felt like the nursery was already perfect and they had been saving up for the car long before she decided to have another baby. By that point things had gotten so loud that Lacey ran upstairs and turned on her favorite dvd. Anything to not have to listen to the arguing.
While the adults continued their money discussion, Danny apparently saw it as a chance to bug her again.
He pushed his bangs out of his face and shuffled his feet. She hadn't noticed before, but his cheeks were a little red . She wondered why. It hadn't gotten colder outside, and he wasn't red in the face when he tried to clean her coat.
She could feel a slight lurch in her chest. Was he about to cry? Was it her fault? She didn't mean to make him upset. Geeze what kind of boy would cry after knocking a girl off her feet? If anyone was suppose to cry it would be her. The girl whose coat was covered in chocolate! As she proceeded to get agitated by the idea of Danny crying, he chose the opportunity to speak up.
" Um…Would you like to come to Fall Fest with me?"
Lacey wasn't the only one startled by Danny's question. Even the adult got quiet. When she looked up Danny's father was trying to hide a laugh behind his hand, his mother had one very pretty eyebrow raised her own mother looked like night owl. She guessed they were feeling the same as she. Why on earth would Danny Desai think she would agree to go anywhere with him? As far as she was concerned, he was a problem child. Like the ones you see in the grocery store running up and down isles and dodging carts. How would a child like him act at a event where people got dressed up?
Did she even care about hurting his feelings at this point? Obviously it didn't take much, so there was really nothing she could do to avoid him making a mess of her rejection. Lacey decided to take the band-aid approach. Quick, and clean.
"Heck no, num nuts!"
" Lacey Danice Porter! You apologize to Danny right now! Your father and I taught you better than to talk to someone that way!"
Her mother was furious. Lacey didn't have to look at her to know her eyebrows were drawing closer together and her forehead was wrinkling up, but not looking her in the eye would only cause more trouble. She acknowledged her mother with a look before turning her attention back to the Desai family. Danny's dad looked like he was struggling to keep himself from laughing, his mom looked only slightly offended and Danny looked mortified.
Lacey was never the type of kid who had a problem with saying sorry. Not if she felt it was deserved. This was not one of those cases. Danny had been terrorizing her for weeks now. If anyone deserved an apology it was Lacey!
Still, disobeying her mother was never an option. She would have to apologize to Danny or face punishment.
She pulled on the ends of the fluffy hair she couldn't fir into her beanie, and told Danny she was sorry for calling him num nuts.
He smiled and accepted her apology, but then he just had to continue to speak.
" Actually, it's gonna be me and Jo. We go to Fall Fest every year and I think you would like it if you went with friends".
Friends? He considered them to be friends? He had only spoken to Lacey a handful of times, and Jo had never said a word to her. This wasn't right. This wasn't how the pieces were suppose to fit together. She was suppose to feel finished when she found her pieces, but nothing about Jo or Danny fit with Lacey Porter. They were obviously close. It was something she would never be able to intrude on. There was no space left !
Danny grinned at her, his snagger tooth smile was almost charming when he showed so many teeth. He pushed his bangs back again before speaking again.
" Jo would love it if you came ! I know it would make her happy! "
This made no sense at all. She and Jo had never even spoken to one another. "Jo doesn't even know me. She's never said a word to me before".
"That's ok! If she talks to you, she might like you as much as I do!" As if just noticing how he sounded, Danny looked away from her and she could tell his ear and cheek were getting red.
She didn't know what to think of such an admission. If you listened to Danny talk, he already fit with Lacey. Like he thought he had found his puzzle piece. Yet he and Lacey has only had one civil conversation and it was short lived. He insulted her and she insulted him. Skip forward a few weeks and here they were. She with a chocolate stained coat and Danny with his toothless grin.
For some reason this made her feel good. It was comforting. Someone wanted to be her friend. Someone wanted to fit with her like a puzzle piece. No it wasn't happening the way she wanted it to, but Lacey can't remember anything in her life happening the way she wanted. Even so Lacey was not a sad child. A little lonely at times she would admit, but not sad. Maybe Danny was loud and clumsy and dirty but most kids were. So was Lacey. Just yesterday she had gotten sand in her hair from the playground.
Besides there was something warm about Danny at this moment. Something that made her warm from the inside out.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bakery. She could just only hear the adults following them into the shop. Danny and how good it felt to hold his hand made it hard for Lacey to hear anything over the way she was feeling.
As they made their way to the look at the selection of cupcakes she realized something . She didn't find her puzzle piece because she was looking for someone who just fit. Someone who was like her. She decided then and there that it was the wrong way to think about friends. Where she had been looking for something with smooth curves and cut outs like a puzzle, she found instead something more like sunlight. Finding a friend wasn't like completing a puzzle , but instead was more like feeling the sun from the inside out.