Austin Moon, Ally Dawson, Dez Wade, and Trish De La Rosa were all childhood friends. They all met when they were seven years old, and they've been inseparable ever since. Let's take a look at where their journey begins.
(1st grade, Marino Elementary)
It was recess, and as soon as the bell rang dozens of little feet rushed out the door onto the adjacent playground. Now, most seven year olds would love recess. I mean who could resist the magical slide, the swings that make you fly, the challenging hop scotch, and the wonderful freeze tag. Unlike most seven year olds, there was one girl who stuck out. Her name was Allison Dawson, preferably Ally. She was a straight A student, had excellent citizenship, always colored inside the lines, and never participated in recess. She preferred to spend her time outdoors under a shady oak tree reading a book. You could never catch Ally without a book in her hands, but she didn't read the ordinary princess books or the classic Biscuit books, no she wanted to be a veterinarian and she studied for it. So one day as she was sitting under her favorite oak, she saw a shadow cast over her page. "Excuse me, your blocking the Sun". "No one can block the Sun! Unless it's sunblock!". Ally looked up to find the obnoxious and idiotic voice belonging to none other than Austin Moon. "What do you want Austin?" Ally asked. "I was just wondering if you wanted to play with me, ya know do something other than read that stupid book!" Austin replied. By now Ally was furious! "No one insults my preferred taste in novels Moon, and why would I want to play with an academically inferior kid like you?" Meet Austin Moon. He's seven years old, loud, rambunctious, has a low attention span, and is always in the time out chair. After what Austin perceived as in insult from Ally, he stormed off to go find someone else to play with. Ally settled back down with her book, and was about to resume reading when she saw Ms. Crenshaw approaching her. "Ms. Dawson, I have been slack about enforcing this rule with you, but I am forcing you to interact with your classmates. It is not good for you to never get physical exercise, and this will help you become closer with your classmates. Now go!"
On the other side of the playground is a short Latina girl with the curliest hair you've ever seen arguing with a redhead who was very tall for his age. "Stop pulling my hair, or I'm telling!" "Who are you gonna tell? Huh? I just wanted to see if it would go back to being curly!" Suddenly the short Latina girl loudly yells "TEACHER!", and soon Ms. Crenshaw comes rushing over. "What's the matter Trish, is something wrong?" Meet Trish. A seven year old with a fiery temper, notoriously curly hair, and an interesting fashion sense. "Teacher, Dez won't stop pulling my hair, and he's annoying!" "She started it, she called me a tree!" Meet Dez. He's seven years old, tall for his age, has red hair, and also has an interesting fashion sense. "Trish, Dez, you both need to be nice to watch other. So apologize. Good, now go mingle with someone else"
Ally didn't like having to interact with her fellow classmates, but she never disobeyed the teacher. Slowly walking the edge of the sandbox, she stops right in front of a pair of dirty Converse. "Hey Moon, you wanna do something?" "Well, well, well. Ally Dawson wants to play with me? I never thought I'd see the day." "I'm not doing this because I want to, I'm forced to." Suddenly Austin jumps up on top of the slide, shouts "FREEZE TAG", and grabs Ally wrist, pulling her into the empty field along with all the other kids. "Austin, I don't know how to play". "It's okay, just stay behind me. You'll be on my team" As Ally watches in amusement at how her fellow humans could waste so much energy just stupidly chasing each other, she doesn't notice that she's lost Austin. At this point she's vulnerable, and scared. Unexpectedly, she feels a hard shove to her back, and as she's falling she's expecting to come into contact with the hard ground. Unfortunately she hits something soft, something like Austin Moon's cheek. Suddenly everything goes quiet as all attention is turned towards them. Looking around, all Ally hears is "Ally kissed Austin" "Ally kissed Austin" "Ally kissed Austin". Not believing her luck, she just stays rooted to the spot in fear. Suddenly Austin steps in front of Ally and says, "this wouldn't have happened if someone hadn't pushed her so hard" If it wasn't bad before, then things had definitely gotten worse. All around them kids had created a circle, chanting "Austin likes Ally" "Austin likes Ally" Austin likes Ally". Ally was so embarrassed that she didn't notice Austin grab her wrist and lead her away from the taunting kids. They also weren't around to see Trish and Dez emerge from the crowd, and shout "Hey, what are you looking at?!" Soon the crowd scattered, and the day resumed as normal. Except the four people it impacted, they would never forget.
These four soon to be friends were connected in a way that no one knew.