"Time out!" Austin huffed, completely out of breath, his hands on his knees.
"No time outs!" Jace said, running past him and tagging his back. "You're it!"
Austin stood up and sighed as his friends scattered around him, running in all different directions across the playground to avoid being tagged.
Taking in a deep breath, Austin began running again, chasing after Dez.
Austin lunged forward to try to tag Dez, but Dez was too quick and Austin ended up on the ground.
"Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me!" Dez chanted, running off.
Austin sighed and dropped his face in the grass.
He didn't know what was wrong with him today! He was the best tag player in the whole second grade! But today, he was just off his game. He blamed it on the fact that he had stayed up really late watching a movie the night before.
He groaned as he pushed himself up from the ground.
As he sat up, his eyes fell on a girl sitting under a tree, reading a book.
Ally Dawson.
Austin hadn't spoken to Ally much, she kept to herself most of the time. She always chose to read during recess while he played with all his friends.
But he had always been curious about her.
She was always very quiet at recess and lunch, but never shied away at raising her hand to answer a question correctly in class. She kept to herself most of the time, but was always very polite and cheerful when someone spoke to her.
Ally Dawson fascinated him and he wanted to know more about her.
Austin glanced back at his friends, who had dispersed across the playground, evidentially taking a break from their game of tag.
Austin quickly stood up, dusted the grass off of him, and made his way over to the tree Ally was reading under.
"Hi!" Austin said happily, standing in front of where she sat on the ground under the tree.
Austin's presence started Ally, causing her to jump and toss her book on the ground.
"I'm sorry!" Austin quickly apologized, reaching down to pick up her book and handed it to her. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's okay," Ally said softly.
"I'm Austin!" Austin smiled.
"I know," Ally giggled.
"Oh," Austin said. "Well I know that you're Ally."
"Yes I am," Ally nodded.
"So Ally..." Austin said slowly, sitting down next to her. "Whatcha' reading?"
"The Wizard Of Oz," Ally told him.
"No way!" Austin said excitedly. "I watched that movie last night!"
"Really?" Ally said, his excitement now infecting her.
"Yes!" Austin nodded. "It was so cool!"
"I love that movie!" Ally said. "This is my first time ever reading the book, though."
"I've never read the book," Austin said. "Is it different from the movie?"
"Kinda," Ally said.
"How?"
"Well, in the book, Dorothy's shoes are silver instead of ruby."
"What?! That makes no sense! Why would they be called ruby slippers if they aren't ruby!"
"They don't call them the ruby slippers in the book," Ally giggled.
"Oh," Austin said bashfully, blush covering his cheeks and ears.
"AUSTIN!" Dez yelled from a distance away. "Are you gonna play?"
"Yeah!" Austin hollered back, standing up. "Hey Ally, do you wanna come play tag with us? I mean, you don't have to! You can keep sitting here and reading if you want. I just thought-"
"Yeah, I'll play tag with you guys," Ally smiled, cutting off his rambling. "That sounds like fun!"
"Awesome!" Austin said happily before the pair ran over to join the rest of the players.
The children gathered in the middle of the field and picked Jace as the tagger before saying go and spreading out as they took off running.
Jace ended up tagging Piper, who tagged Austin, who tagged Dez, who tagged Ally.
Ally had be mind set on tagging Austin, so she began to chase him down.
She reached out to tag him, but he was too quick, dashing away to avoid her tag.
"Missed me, missed me!" Austin laughed. "Now you gotta kiss me!"
Ally froze in her tracks.
"What?" Austin said, also stopping.
"Okay," Ally said.
"Okay what?" Austin asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion.
"Okay, I have to kiss you," Ally said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But not right now, everyone would see."
Austin was stunned. He didn't know what to say. He just stood there with a blank exprression on his face as the bell rang and all the students began filtering back inside the school.
"Meet me under the tree tomorrow," Ally said.
Austin nodded, his eyes wide.
Ally smiled softly before following the other students inside, leaving Austin standing there with a very confused expression on his face.
But despite the confused expression on his face, Austin felt butterflies in his stomach as excitement took over for some unknown reason.
Ally Dawson was going to kiss him. And he was excited about it.
What was happening?
Austin woke up extra early the next day, setting his alarm clock nearly an hour earlier than when he usually got up; but today was a big day.
Austin took a shower, which he only did in the morning on holidays, but he considered getting kissed by Ally Dawson a holiday in his book.
After getting out of the shower, where he shampooed his hair three times, Austin picked out his outfit.
He decided to wear the jeans he would normally wear, but instead of his normal t-shirt, he put on a short sleeved white button up shirt. He then put on his black sneakers and completed the look with a black clip on tie.
After looking himself up and down in the mirror, Austin decided that he still wasn't dressed nice enough. So despite the ninety degree heat index outside, Austin decided to wear a black leather jacket to make himself appear cooler.
Once he was happy with his outfit, Austin went to brush his teeth; he brushed his teeth more diligently than he had ever done before going to the dentist.
"Good morning, Austin," his mother greeted him as he entered the kitchen. "Wow, you're all dressed up! What's the occasion?"
"Ally Dawson is going to kiss me," Austin told his mother proudly.
"Oh is she now?" Mimi smiled. "Huh, you smell very... Strong..."
"Thank you!" Austin said. "I sprayed febreaze on myself!"
"Ahhhh," Mimi nodded. "And may I ask why?"
"Well, daddy always sprays that smelly stuff on him before you guys go on dates," Austin explained. "So I thought I'd do the same thing."
Mimi couldn't hold back her smile.
"Well aren't you just the cutest little Romeo?" Mimi said to her son, ruffling his hair.
"Mom!" Austin said, pushing her hands away from his head.
"Right, I'm sorry," Mimi said, holding back a laugh. "Well, you better get going, the bus will be there soon."
"Bye mom!" Austin said as he grabbed his backpack and ran out the front door.
The bus stop was at the end of Austin's street, right in front of his aunt's house, which was on the corner.
Austin glanced around his shoulder after he arrived at the bus stop and spotted his aunt's petunias.
He smiled, figuring Ally would probably like if he brought her some flowers, before rushing off to retrieve the plant.
He picked the flowers quickly and successfully got on the bus with the flowers without his aunt catching him like she always did.
Austin smiled to himself as he sat down in his usual seat.
"Today is gonna be a good day" he thought to himself.
None of Austin's friends rode the bus, and Ally didn't either, so Austin spent the ride to school gazing out the window and daydreaming about the many different ways this day could play out.
When he got to school, Austin practically jumped off the bus and skipped to his classroom; clutching his lunchbox in one hand, and the flowers in the other.
Austin placed his backpack, his lunchbox, and the flowers in his cubbyhole before walking over to his desk.
The kids who rode the bus always arrived at school earlier than those who rode with their parents, so the classroom was still fairly empty.
Not long after Austin say down, his friends began to filter in.
Lost in a funny story Dez was telling them all, Austin barely noticed the brunette girl entering the classroom.
But when he saw her, she made him do a double take.
She was wearing an orange sundress. Orange was Austin's very favorite color.
She noticed him staring at her and gave him a shy smile before she took her seat at her desk at the front of the class.
Austin waved back at her, feeling butterflies in his stomach when she smiled at him.
"Hey, why are you all dressed up?" Piper asked as she sat down at her desk in front of Austin's.
"Yeah, I was wondering that too," Dez said, looking at Austin suspiciously.
"Uhhh..." Austin said slowly. "My mom is doing laundry and so all my other clothes are dirty."
"Good Morning class!" their teacher, Mrs. Watson, said, saving Austin from having to make up any more excuses for his appearance.
Austin zoned out as Mrs. Watson began talking, getting distracted by his own breath.
He couldn't have bad breath when Ally kissed him! He would never outlive the embarrassment!
Suddenly, he remembered that he thankfully had a pack of gum in his desk.
Glancing up to make sure Mrs. Watson wasn't watching him, he quickly removed a piece of gum from its wrapper and placed the minty stuck in his mouth and began subtly chewing.
"Austin!" Mrs. Watson said sternly. "Are you chewing gum?"
Austin's face heated up as every eye in the class turned to look at him.
"Noooooo..." he said slowly.
Mrs. Watson raised an eyebrow at him.
"Fine," Austin sighed.
"I'm sorry Austin, but you know what that means," Mrs. Watson said, walking over to him, holding the trash bin in one hand. "No recess and you have to stay an extra ten minutes at the end of the day."
Ausin sighed and tossed his gum in the trash bin.
"Tough luck, buddy," Jace whispered sympathetically.
Austin shrugged, glancing over at Ally and blushing when he saw that she was smiling at him sympathetically.
The school day passed excruciatingly slow, especially when the rest of the kids went out to recess.
Austin caught a glimpse of long brown hair and the flash of an orange dress standing outsode the classroom until Mrs. Watson went to tell them to go play outside.
At the end of the day, Austin's friends said goodbye to him before they went out to wait for their parents, Ally smiling softly at him, a spark in her eyes as she left the classroom.
Once the ten minutes were up, Austin bolted to his cubbyhole to grab his things and the now slightly wilted flowers before rushing outside.
To his surpise, standing right under the big oak tree just like she said she would, was Ally Dawson.
"Hi," Austin greeted her nervously.
"Hi," Ally smiled.
"These are for you," Austin said, handing her the flowers. "I took them from my aunt's yard."
Ally giggled.
"Well they're very pretty," she said. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Austin blushed.
They stood in silence for a few long moments.
"I wanted to stay with you this afternoon, you know," Ally said matter of factly. "I would have too if Mrs. Watson hadn't told me off."
"That's very nice of you," Austin said. "You didn't have to do that."
"I know," Ally said. "I wanted to."
"Thank you," Austin said softly.
More silence.
"Well..." Ally said slowly. "We should probably kiss now."
"Oh," Austin said. "Yeah, we probably should."
Ally placed the flowers on the ground and stepped closer to him.
"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," Austin said quickly, his stomach feeling like it was about to explode due to the swarm of eagle sized butterflies that were infesting it. "We can just pretend this never happened and-"
Austin was unable to continue talking because Ally had grabbed a hold of his clip on tie and pulled him down to meet her lips.
The kiss was short. It barely lasted two seconds, but Austin had never experienced something this amazing in his entire eight years of life.
Austin's eyes widened as he felt Ally's lips on his, he didn't even have time to close his eyes before she was already pulling away, her own eyes fluttering open.
"Well, I'll see ya later, Austin," Ally smiled, her cheeks flushed. "Thanks for the flowers."
Austin watched as she skipped across the field, her brown curls bouncing as she skipped.
He was stunned, he couldn't move, and he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.
The feeling of Ally's lips pressed against his own still on his mouth, making him feel like her could do anything.
It was an exceptionally warm night for the end of May, the humidity ruthlessly drenching them even after the sun had disappeared.
Austin rolled up his shirt sleeves as he escaped the crowded gym, desperate for some fresh air.
Glancing across the grassy field, he spotted an orange figure leaning against the large oak tree several yards from where he stood.
Austin smiled as he approached the figure.
"Hey," he said softly, resting his arm against the trunk of the tree.
"Hi," Ally breathed softly, her eyes still focusing on the horizon.
"Fancy meeting you here," he smiled down at her.
She finally looked up at him, rolling her eyes at him.
"Shouldn't you be inside spiking the punch or something?" she smirked.
"Hey, for the record, I've been completely against that idea since day one," Austin said. "In fact, your date was the one who ended up bringing the booze to spike the punch!"
Ally giggled lightly before the pair fell into silence.
"You know we're just friends, right?" Ally spoke up.
"Huh?" Austin said.
"Me and Jace," Ally said. "We're just friends."
"Then why did you agree to be his date?" Austin asked, crossing his arms across his chest and pouting grumpily as if he was a child throwing a tantrum.
"Because he asked me," Ally said. "Unlike you."
"Hey, I asked you!" Austin said defensively.
"Saying 'hey, did you buy your ticket for prom yet? If not could you buy mine too, I'll pay you back! Thanks!' does not count as asking!" Ally said.
"Well, I was GOING to ask you," Austin said. "But then Jace had to go and hire the glee club to serenade you in front of the whole class. And it's not like you could say no after that. I mean, when the quarterback has the entire glee club serenade you in front of the whole class to ask you to prom you have to say yes, even if you are just friends; it's like a law, or something..."
The pair fell silent.
"Were you really going to ask me?" Ally asked him softly.
"Yes," Austin said. "I was going to ask you the same day he did. I was gonna bring you out right under this very tree and ask you to prom. I was gonna get down on my knee and be all charming, I even took petunias from my aunt's garden!"
Ally thought back to the day Jace asked her to prom. After she said yes and class was over she went to lunch, and strangely enough she found a bouquet of petunias in the trash. Austin coincidently decided to eat lunch by himself that day.
"You look beautiful, you know," Austin said.
"Thank you," Ally blushed.
Austin looked at her. Her long brown hair was in loose waves and she was wearing a long orange gown. Orange was still his favorite color.
"You were wearing an orange dress the first time I gave you petunias under this tree," Austin smiled. "Remember?"
"When we kissed in second grade?" Ally said. "Yeah I remember."
"You were my first kiss," he told her.
"You were mine too." Ally said. "In fact, I kinda pretended to not understand the 'missed me, missed me, now ya gotta kiss me' chant just to have an excuse to get to kiss you."
"What?!" Austin said.
"Yes!" Ally smiled softly. "I had such a huge crush on you!"
Silence again.
"I'm in love with you," Austin said suddenly.
"What?" Ally said, her eyes widening.
"I'm in love with you," he repeated. "I have been since you kissed me ten years ago. And I know now that I've said this I've probably ruined our entire friendship, which has been the best thing to ever happen to me. But we're graduating in just a few weeks and I can't leave this place without telling you how I really feel. You don't have to feel the same way, I'd be surprised if you did, I just needed you to know-"
And just as Ally had done under that exact tree ten years earlier, she grabbed hold of his tie and pulled his lips down to meet hers.
This kiss was very different than the kiss the two of them had shared all those years ago; it lasted much longer, her hands moving up to tread themselves in his hair and his arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her to him tightly as he depended the kiss.
After several long blissful moments, they broke apart, foreheads resting against each other.
"I love you too," Ally whispered as she tried to catch her breath.
A large grin spread across Austin's face as he took her face in both of his hands and kissed her again.
And in that moment, he was sure he could do anything, as long as he was with her.
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