AN: So here's the next part. And while this story isn't a songfic like my others, it was heavily inspired by the song Ever The Same by Rob Thomas. And this story can't exactly be described as a romance, but it's not just a friendship either. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll either never know or you'll figure it out as you read this. Reviews, please!

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March 22, 1973

"C'mon, Slowpoke, hurry up!"

I stopped to awkwardly adjust my new 'too-big-for-my-face' glasses. The neighbor girl waved at me from the sandbox we called our 'fort' across the playground.

"Wait up" I called as my feet carried me clumsily over. About three quarters of the way there I tripped over my shoelace and fell flat on my face.

"Oh, no! Are you okay?" She rushed over and held her hand out to me. Even at five years old, April worried about me too much.

She pulled me up and I dusted myself off, having to fix my glasses into place again. "Yeah, 'm okay."

"That's good. Hey, let's make a sand castle!" Still holding my hand, she dragged me into the small pit and started moving the sand into a pile. Then we leveled the top to make a roof.

"This'll be the tower." April plopped a clump of sand on the top. Then she dug a small ditch around the entire sculpture. "And this'll be the...um...what's it called?" She looked to me for guidance.

"Um..." I looked up, searching my young brain for the answer. "A moat?"

"That's right! The moat!" She nodded enthusiastically at me. "And I get to be the knight!"

"But I thought the boy was a'posed to be the knight. The girl's a'posed to be the princess." I squinted as if looking at her more closely would make her comprehensible. April was always confusing the hell out of me.

"We can both be knights! Princesses are boring. They just sit around and get kindnapped." She pouted at the thought. Then she grinned at me. "This way, we can save princesses together!"

I felt myself smiling back. "Yeah. April?"

"Hmm?"

I watched my finger draw little circles in the small rocks. "Will we always be together?"

"Of course! We're gonna be together forever, 'til the day we die." I thought it was a funny thing for her to say, since no one thinks they're ever going to die when they're in kindergarten. Still, it made me feel special.

"Promise?" I looked up cautiously.

She drew a big 'X' on her chest. "I promise, Marky. Cross my heart."