My first day of kindergarten, I remember feeling so small. The hallways were so long and intimidating, the cool stone building reminding me that I had been ripped away from my safe haven filled with Barney and Aunt Mellis' hugs that smelled like perfume and Mac and cheese. I looked up at mommy and squeezed her hand, she looked down at me and smiled "this is it zo" she pointed to a door that was covered in paper daisies. "see what does the sign say, try and read it with mommy M-I-S-S D-U-P-R-E-E, G-R-A-D-E K-I-N-D-E-R-G-A-R-T-EN" I nodded along as melli read, the letters just looked like lines. Just then a lady came to the door, she had a yellow flower dress and a bunny pin, she was pretty with yellow hair unlike Melli's black hair, but her eyes were big and blue, she smiled at me, I hid behind mommy. "Hello, what's your name" I clung even harder to my mother. Melli answered for me "This is Zoe, Zoe come say hello" It took all my guts to chirp out a little squeaky "Hi". The Bunny pin lady spoke again "Why what a pretty name, I have a kitty named Zoe." This piqued my five year old interest "I like kitties." She smiled "what's your name" I asked growing bolder "My Name is Miss Dupree, would you like to come inside?" I looked at Melli and when she nodded I agreed. When I walked in Miss Dupree showed me my desk, it had a big lined strip at the top with more lines "see, this is your desk, it say Z-O-E" she then walked away to greet another kid. There was a desk attached to mine, it had more lines that I couldn't decipher. As kids funneled in I began to get nervous, other desks were filling up with two students each and the seat next to mine remained vacant. The bell had rung and I was still alone. Miss. Dupree began to speak. "Good morning my buzzing bees, please take your seats. Hello everyone, my name is Miss Dupree" a resounding "Hi Miss Dupree" was her answer "and this is Kindergarten class 3. Now we're going to take it nice and easy today, I know everyone's new so I want you to get to know one another. The person sitting next to you is your buddy for the year. You two will work to together, be buddies on field trips, and hopefully become friends. I want you to start by asking each other questions like what's your favorite color, do you have any pets, just get to know each other." That's when I began to panic. I had no buddy, I was buddy less. Everyone else had a buddy, just when I was panicking on my state of singularity there was a light knock at the door, Miss Dupree flitted over to open it, and in tumbled in him. He had thick black hair that was disheveled and needed a good combing. He wore long pants and a long sleeve shirt even though it was late august, and his blue eyes had a mischievous look about them while still looking sad. Miss Dupree just smiled down at him. "And what's your name?" he replied only half paying attention "Duncan Osmont". Miss Dupree just ruffled his messy hair "well hello Duncan, you can just go sit next to Zoe, Zoe, please raise your hand" I did. And he sauntered over, he plopped down and dropped his worn teenage mutant ninja turtle backpack on the floor, he just stared at me. I started to wish that I'd remained buddy-less. "Hi" I managed to squeak out "I'm Zoe" he just smirked "well I know that dumb- dumb, it says so on your desk. Are you stupid or something?" I didn't know what to say, I kind of wanted to cry, but I somehow managed to keep talking to him. "Miss Dupree says we need to get to know each other, you're s'posed to be my buddy for the year…" this caught his attention he raised his hand up high "Miss Dupree, I don't want a girl to be my buddy, she's stupid!" Miss Dupree whipped around "Duncan! You apologies right now! We do not call people stupid, it is not nice! And Zoe is a very nice girl, I'm sure you'll like her if you get the chance. But for now, apologize." He turned to me biting his lip, "sorry" he bit out in a very insincere way, but Miss Dupree seemed to buy it because she was back to walking around the classroom. Duncan just glared at me and whispered to me "you're not my buddy".

Days passed, according to Duncan I was buddy-less. He just stared at me while Miss Dupree taught or read to us. I was learning my alphermbet and I knew four whole letters by heart. A is for apple, B is for bumble bee, C is for Cat, and D is for Duncan who is a big mean stupid jerk. I was jolted out of my letter induced daydream by the recess bell. I hated recess, I had to watch all the other kids play and I just sat out by myself, I was afraid the other kids would call me stupid like Duncan did. Just then one of the bigger kids sauntered up to me he was large and sweaty. "Why don't you play with the other kids, you freak." I could only mumble incoherently "what, you can't talk, are you deaf or something?' some kids started to huddle around me the big one just kept going "you are a freak" and he pushed me onto the ground. "Freaks get beat" he began kicking my tummy, it hurt so bad, like I couldn't breathe, and then it stopped. I looked over and Duncan had the big bully on the ground and he just started pummeling him until his nose bled. I tried to get up and stop him, but when I did I only fell down again. This got Duncan's attention. He ran over to help me up. "th-thanks" I mumbled clutching my ribs biting back the urge to cry. He scratched his head and looked at me "If anyone ever tries to hurt you again, you come get me, ok?...and….I guess we can be buddies, I mean how else am I going to stop you from getting beat up…..well stop smiling, it's creepy." I was beaming ear to ear. I had a buddy.

Duncan and I were inseparable, we found out that we lived 7 houses away, so everyday Duncan would ask his mommy if he could come over, and everyday she would walk him over, so happy that he had made a friend. Duncan's mother was a frail looking skinny woman with thick brown curls that fell to her shoulders and the same green eyes as Duncan's, but hers lacked his mischievous glint. We would sit on my bedroom floor on my fuzzy purple rug, Duncan said it was girly, but he still wouldn't stop running his fingers through it. We talked about how both of us moved here and how he had a pet iguana named poncho. He said he had a big brother Dereck; he called Dereck a bad word. One day, when Duncan and me were at my house after school He said he moved here with his mommy and Dereck because his daddy was the boogeyman. I was confused "but you don't look like a boogeyman, boogeymen are s'posed to look scary, and you look too pretty to be a boogeyman" his green eyes lit up but then darkened "My daddy's a monster, so I must be one too." I took his small hand in my even tinier ones and looked him straight in the eyes "you aren't a monster, you are good, and monsters aren't good. You're not a scary monster, you're Duncan." He just looked at me like he was trying to figure something out; I made the same face when we were learning numbers. Then he looked down at our hands, I was still holding his hand in my. His sleeve hiked up a little and I saw something funny on his wrist, I pulled up his sleeve some more and saw big long yellowish marks on his wrist. He gasped and yanked his hand away. "What's wrong, did I hurt you." He held his arm and looked down at the floor. "What is that on your arm." He wouldn't answer, "Does it hurt?" he still held on to his arm and stared at the floor, he stayed quiet for a long time. I couldn't take it. I walked over and grabbed his arm, he tried to yank it back, but I wouldn't let go. When I started to push up his sleeve he started panicking and tried knocking my arms away from him until I pressed my little lips against the biggest of the yellow splotches. He stopped moving but was visibly tense. "What are you doing?" he asked puzzled. "Kissing it better." I kissed all of the blotches on his arms, and when I ran out of blotches to kiss he stepped back, I thought he was freaked out, but instead he pulled his shirt over his head and I saw them all, all the blotches, some were yellowish like the long ones on his skinny arms, but others were purple, some blue, and some had a green tinge. They were every where, some even over lapping. I kissed them all. From the purple circular one on his shoulder to the angry red spots on his left hip. And he let me. When I was done he did the strangest thing. He hugged me; he hugged me so tight he must've hurt himself in the process. And although I couldn't see his face I could hear he was crying. And although my first instinct was to panic. I just held him tighter and smoothed his hair as he cried.