The two finished their lunch in silence, and then it was back to class as though nothing had ever happened. Lucy found she couldn't forget Kevin that easily however. How could she? He was the first person that had approached her and spoken to her like it was an everyday occurrence since…well, ever actually.

Kevin Crumb was in her class, as luck would have it. Only half paying attention to the teacher's lesson, Lucy studied him from across the room. Like her, he kept quiet and was never called on. He seemed content at his desk however, as though he had just come up from being underwater for a very long time. He continued to eat lunch with her, but he never spoke. Outside of the cafeteria, they both went back to barely existing.

In a burst of boldness, or perhaps desperation, Lucy decided to put an end to that.

She walked up to the boy, who was sitting on a yellow handkerchief on the bench by the playground during recess. "You want to play hopscotch?"

Kevin blinked at her, as stunned as he had been the first time that she was speaking to him. "T-Thorry?" he stuttered, his lisp distorting the 's.' It seemed to be the only thing about him that wasn't immaculate.

"Do you want to play hopscotch?" Lucy said again. "With me."

His eyes darted over to the set of squares painted on the concrete. "I-I dunno how…."

"I'll teach you. Come on." She held out her hand for his.

Staring at her with a look she couldn't quite identify, Kevin slowly relaxed and took her hand, allowing her to pull him towards the hopscotch board.

"So what you gotta do is throw a rock –" Lucy scooped one up from the pavement. "and throw it onto a square." She tossed it lightly, landing on the number eight. "And whatever number it lands on, you gotta jump there to pick it up." She demonstrated, holding her arms out when she had to stand on one leg. "Then you jump back to the start." She met Kevin back at the first square and held out the rock to him. "You try."

Kevin gave the stone in her hand a reproachful look. "It's dirty."

"Of course it is, it's a rock." Lucy frowned.

He shook his head and stepped back. "It's dirty." He repeated. Lucy may have been imagining things, but she was certain his voice had gotten deeper. It had a sort of accent to it that it usually didn't. She would have brought this up, but Kevin was beginning to twitch, and he looked as though he may break down.

"Here." Lucy threw the stone again, landing on the seven this time. She darted back to the bench where he'd left his handkerchief, ran back, and held it out to him. Kevin gave her an odd look, brows furrowing together. "This way you won't have to touch it, but you can still play."

Cautiously, as though she was holding a loaded bomb, Kevin took the handkerchief from her. He ran it through his fingers a moment, looking up to give Lucy another one of those looks. Lucy wasn't sure what that look meant, but it made her feel special; it made her feel seen.

Kevin carefully followed the path of the hopscotch squares, balancing on the seven while bending down to pick up the rock. His balance was surprisingly good. In fact, it looked as though he was holding himself higher as well – no, perhaps stiffer was a better word.

Deciding not to give it too much thought, Lucy took the stone from Kevin when he hopped back to her, throwing it once more to take her turn.

The trend continued from there; Lucy and Kevin would eat lunch together and play together at recess. In between those things, they found themselves talking to each other more and more every day. By the end of the month, you could even call them friends.

Life had taught the children to be quiet and reclusive, but they found themselves comfortable around one another. When they were together, the rest of the world didn't exist. Sure, Lucy thought her friend was odd sometimes, but she blamed that on her own lack of social interactions. She thought most people were odd.

Still…there were times when Kevin's eyes seemed to change and Lucy swore she was talking to a different person. The idea was silly however; a body couldn't hold more than one person could it?