litafan82: Older Alex, I hope. Not kindergarten Alex. haha. Nita: Aww, thank you! :) Eljh55: Thank you so much. I'm glad you're enjoying it. Cmoni: There's nothing like little AO. I think they would have been the cutest little girls ever. lachach: Thank you so much! That really means a lot to me. You always know how to make me smile. :)

February 14, 1981

Seven-year-old Olivia was a precocious little girl. As a first grader, she was now separated from the kindergarteners, which gave her a new sense of responsibility as well as a new sense of adventure. First graders were allowed full-access to the 'big kids' playground and Olivia took advantage of these new opportunities. There were more swings, a bigger jungle gym, a taller slide, four-square courts and, Olivia's personal favorite, the monkey bars.

Before winter rolled around, Olivia had already mastered the jungle gym and the monkey bars and she was looking for something else to give her a rush of adrenaline. She had decided to swing on the monkey bars and skip one bar in between, but that proved to be too easy for her. She would have skipped two bars in between, but her little arms weren't long enough for that yet. Maybe when I'm a fourth grader, Olivia thought.

Instead, she had her eye on the swings. She had already mastered the art of jumping off of the swing while it was mid-air, but she had yet to master the art of jumping off with her eyes closed.

"Alex!" Olivia said excitedly.

"What?"

"Come on!" She grabbed Alex's hand and hurried her over to the swings.

"Olivia, you're gonna pull my arm off."

"Sorry," Olivia said and slowed down.

"If you wanna play on the swings, just tell me you wanna play on the swings," Alex told her as she started rubbing her arm.

"Sorry," Olivia said and removed Alex's hand. She had no idea why she wanted to do it, but she had the sudden urge to rub Alex's shoulder for her.

"It's okay," Alex insisted. "What are we going to do?"

"Play eyesies closies," Olivia said excitedly.

"What's that?" Alex asked. Her new glasses were slightly big for her so she had to keep pushing them up so they wouldn't slide down her little nose.

"You jump off the swings with your eyes closed," Olivia explained. "It's easy. I saw Corey do it yesterday."

"Olivia, Corey is a fifth grader," Alex pointed out. "He's a big kid. He can do things like that. First graders can't."

"Not other first graders, but I can," Olivia told her, not quite sure if she was brave enough to do this or if she just wanted to impress Alex.

Olivia hopped onto the swing and started to move her legs so the swing would go higher.

"I feel like I'm flying, Alex."

"Be careful," Alex said worriedly. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Nothing can hurt me," Olivia insisted. When the swing was the highest she had ever gotten it, she closed her eyes and started to count to three. On the count of three, she jumped off the swing and missed her landing.

"Olivia!" Alex said and hurried over to where Olivia was now on the ground clutching her knee.

"Ow," Olivia said softly. Her injury was the worst pain she had felt in her entire seven year existence, but there was no way she would let Alex know that. Instead of saying anything else, she scrunched her face and did everything possible to prevent herself from crying.

"Let me see," Alex said and removed Olivia's hand from her knee. Little Alex was horrified when she saw the blood start to pool on the surface of Olivia's knee.

"It's not that bad," Olivia insisted.

"Oh, yes it is!" Alex told her. "Don't move."

Alex was grateful that she had her Hello Kitty purse with her at recess instead of in the classroom where she had planned on leaving it. She opened her purse and pulled out a tiny first aid kit that her mother had given her in case of emergencies.

"This is going to sting," Alex warned her. "You need to think of something pretty."

"I don't want to think of something pretty," Olivia insisted.

"Okay, think of the monster truck show you went to last month."

"Oooh," Olivia said as she closed her eyes. "I love monster trucks."

"They're scary," Alex told her as she poured some peroxide on a cotton ball and prepared to blot Olivia's cut.

"No, they're not," Olivia said excitedly. "There's this one at the show with tires that are twice as big as me!"

"All done," Alex said after she put the Band-Aid on. "You didn't even cry with the peroxide."

"It's because I'm tough," Olivia told her and then became shy. "Well, I'm tough and you're good at taking care of me."

Hearing her say that made Alex start to smile. She quickly kissed Olivia's knee and helped her up.

"Do you want to go to the nurse?" Alex asked.

"No," Olivia insisted. "My Alex fixed me up just fine."

"There's something I have to give you when we get to our class," Alex told her. "I made cookies for the whole class, but I made a special one for me and one for you."

When the girls were back in their classroom and enjoying their class party complete with candy, cookies, and punch, Alex pulled out the cookies she had made especially for the two of them. They were chocolate chip cookies about the size of their hands that Alex had decorated. There was one with a pink 'A' for herself and one with a pink 'O' for Olivia.

"It's for the first letter of my name and the first letter of your name," Olivia said and started smiling at her. "I love these."

"Me, too," Alex told her. She grabbed the cookies and arranged them on a paper plate so that hers was first and Olivia's was second.

"Alex plus Olivia equals AO," Olivia said and held Alex's hand under the table.

"AO are two letters that belong together more than any other letters in the alphabet," Alex told her and started blushing. "Just like you and me belong together."