Thaddeus Rose was in the first grade when he felt his first stirrings of love. He didn't know what they were, but he felt them all the same. And like most little boys, he had no idea how to express it.

He fell in love with the way she, the new student, smiled at everyone in the classroom as if they were already her best friends, he fell in love with the way she drawled out Crystal Fentress, he even fell in love with her knobby knees.

He had the good fortune of the teacher choosing the empty desk in front of him for her to sit at. In another era, he would have dipped her braids in his inkwell. Instead, he declared his love by giving her ponytail a good yank.

She didn't cry out as most girls would have, but she did turn around to look at him. "You want something?" she asked.

A lump formed in his throat and he shook his head no vigorously.

At recess, he watched her out on the playground as she shimmied up to the top of the monkey bars without the slightest bit of fear and then he watched as she dangled herself upside down, her ponytail reaching toward the earth.

"Why are you paying any attention to a dumb old girl? You like her or something?" asked the skinny towheaded boy beside him.

Eddie had been his friend as long as he could remember, but calling Crystal a dumb old girl, not to mention his injured pride from the suggestion that he even liked a girl, set him off and he balled up his fist and landed a solid punch to Eddie's left eye.

"Okay, okay," Eddie said after he'd landed in the mulch and threw up his hands in surrender. "I take it back. Let's just play cowboys, okay?"

So they did. Girls forgotten. For the moment anyway.

When recess was over, the teacher saw Eddie's swollen eye. "What happened to you, Eddie?"

"I ran into the corner of the slide," Eddie answered without hesitation.

The teacher didn't look as if she believed it, if her pressed lips were any sign, but if he wasn't willing to give up the child responsible for it, what could she do?

Thaddeus gave him a grin when she turned her back. Eddie was a true pal.

sss

Thaddeus stepped up his efforts in the 6th grade to get Crystal to notice him. She was aware he existed, of course. As small as their little town in Texas was, they'd been together all the way through grade school being that there was only one teacher per grade. But she paid as much attention to him as she paid to a fly on the wall or so he believed.

He found his perfect opportunity one day when the teacher on cafeteria duty had to step out to the bathroom. He picked up a glob of his gravy-covered mashed potatoes and stood up on one of the cafeteria tables. "It's time we mount a revolt, fellow students. How long must we suffer such terrible food? We have to rise up and take back the school. We are the people."

He lobbed his ammunition towards a poster about staying in school, which happened to be attached to the cafeteria's door.

He was noticed alright, by the principal, who chose that unfortunate moment to come through the swinging door and whose new tie was the causality. "In my office, Rose, now."

He went back out, trusting Thaddeus would follow, and the room that had been stone silent during the proceedings now buzzed with discussion of the event.

Defeated, he came down off the table where one of the boys tripped him for no other reason than to garner laughter from his friends. He twisted around and landed on his backside against the wall. He intended to stand back up and deck the boy. As long as he was already in trouble, he might as well go whole hog.

Crystal blocked his path, however, along with one of her friends, who stood shaking her head in disgust at him, but he barely even noticed her. It was Crystal whose reaction he was waiting for.

"You are the biggest goof I have ever seen in my life," Crystal said.

She was laughing at him, not just giggling but hearty laughter. He wasn't sure that had been the reaction he'd been after. He had been acting silly, but he'd wanted her to be impressed at his willingness to stand up against authority, at his willingness to have a little fun on an otherwise dreary day.

He hung his head in embarrassment but found he was rewarded with his first kiss. A quick, sweet peck right on his cheek. It was over almost before he knew it had began, but the sensation of it lingered there a little longer. It was as if butterfly wings had brushed against him. He wanted to clasp the side of his face and somehow capture the kiss forever. If that was the prize for being a goof, he gladly accepted the title.