A love story

Delicate

The summer seemed to pass by in a blur. Allie didn't really see anyone from school except for one hang out with Nathan. They had come up with a way to work together playing Settlers of Catan to make the strongest empire possible. No winners just a good time. It quickly became one of Allie's favorite things to do, but only with Nathan. It was never the same with anyone else. She was to competitive with other people. The only time she was competitive with Nathan was when playing Chess or Stratego. She was a sucker for a good strategy game. Soon enough though 4th grade would start. She was able to pick her teacher this year because her Mother had done more than enough parent service hours. She had picked what seemed like the best teacher. Her name was Mrs. Ellis. Allie walked into her classroom, on the opposite side of the school from Ms. Sally's, on the first day. Just like last year she took a seat in the back of the room and observed. She already knew that her and Nathan were not in the same class this year, which was a shame. At least she would still see him outside of school. She had talked to Beck over email and he hadn't been sure which teacher he had. She had tried to talk to Stefan, but he never responded. Allie settled back and took note of everyone who walked in. Most of the people were those she had seen a few times before, but hadn't really ever spoken to. She noticed one girl with short dirty blonde hair and glasses. There was another boy who reminded her a lot of Isaac except he wore glasses and had more freckles. Two girls especially caught Allie's attention. Both of them were blonde, one was taller with longer hair. The other was a bit shorter and was absolutely gorgeous to Allie's fourth grade eyes. Behind her came another person who captured her attention. It was a taller boy with light brown hair styled perfectly and stunning blue eyes that almost rivaled Beck's. Speaking of which Beck came walking in after the taller boy. Allie caught his eye and they shared a grin. Beck came towards her and she stood up to meet him. She thought maybe things would be weird after the summer, but now that she was seeing him again absolutely nothing had changed. He looked the same as he had on that first day in 3rd grade. His hair might have been a bit shorter now but he was the same to her. Over the summer Allie had grown to accept the fact that she liked Beck. Not that she truly minded, what wasn't there to like? Still it made things a tad bit awkward for her when he got closer. Allie cleared her throat, "Hi, Beck," she said forcing herself to smile a normal amount. "Hey, Allie," he said grinning back.

This year Allie decided to pay better attention during introductions. It might be a better idea to learn people's names on the first day rather than waiting for them to talk to her first. The girl with short hair and glasses was named Imogen. Another girl with long brown hair that Allie hadn't noticed at first was named Isabel. The boy that reminded her of Isaac was named Collin. The blonde girl with the long hair was Kate. The stunning shorter blonde was named Ana. Finally, the boy with the short brown hair was Clayson. Allie was immediately determined to befriend at least a few of them. After all she needed more than one person to sit with at lunch. She would sit with Nathan, but you had to sit in the order of your line with your class. It was annoying and Allie had made the mistake of finding a seat on her own last year with Riley. Luckily no one had noticed the mistake before they were quickly back in line.

It quickly became clear that things were changing this year. People had always joked about crushes in the earlier grades. Some people had even genuinely had them, but it had never been this big of a deal. Just a week or so into the year, Beck confided in her his crush. "It's Ana," he said. Allie snorted, "Of course it is, you do know everyone in the grade has a crush on her right?" Beck nodded sheepishly, "Yeah I know, but I just can't help it you know. Plus I think she likes me back". Allie frowned, "Yeah, right". She didn't want to lose her friend. It was bad enough that she liked him when he clearly didn't reciprocate. She didn't think she could bear not being his friend either.

A few days later, Allie completed part of her goal for the year. She was talking to Clayson. It seemed like they were seriously starting to become friends. He was easy to talk to and very friendly. Definitely her kind of person. Plus she couldn't keep her eyes off him half the time. Sometimes she questioned if she liked him as well as Beck, but that wasn't possible. You could only have a crush on one person at a time. She had done a bunch of research on it over the summer. That is if you count random YouTube videos of how to tell if you like someone as research. Still Allie quickly became Clayson's first friend at AAA. She found out within their first 2 or 3 conversations that he was new this year. He also lived in one of the big rich people houses a few blocks away from the school. He had an older brother named Donald, which Allie thought was an odd name. He also ran a gaming channel that had an actual intro. This was one of her dreams in life, so she would constantly ask for details. She had resolved years ago that she would run a YouTube channel and write professionally when she grew up. Already she was writing a book at the same time as Beck. He was writing some dark mystery while she wrote a sci fi novel about interdimensional travel. The first few months of the year went relatively normal. Allie encountered some odd people outside of her class. One boy, named Mike, was able to throw up at will without putting his fingers down his throat. Allie had nearly thrown up herself the first time she saw him do it. Another boy named Simon and his friend Caleb were both obsessed with the supernatural. She found that she enjoyed the company of those two quite a bit, but she always drifted back to Beck and Clayson.

One day Allie resolved that she should probably have at least one girl friend at AAA. All of her girl friends were from home. Brynn and Oak with a few other girls she had met over the years. So, one day in the middle of November, Allie set out to find Kate. "Hi, Kate right? My names Allie," Allie said with a smile. Kate returned the smile, "Hi, Allie. I do know who you are". From then on the two girls were fast friends. Kate had other friends and so didn't usually spend much time with Allie at lunch or Recess, but the time they did spend together was well spent. Apparently Allie had just missed Kate's birthday in October. Allie also found out around that time that she now knew yet another set of cousins at AAA. "Oh yeah, Ana is my cousin," Kate told her one day. "Really," Allie raised an eyebrow, "I don't think I would have guessed, although I probably should have".

When Christmas wound down and January rolled around, Allie started to notice some changes. Allie's sister had got a pixie cut over the break and was apparently was being called Gay at school. Allie thought this was odd. Her sister was definitely as straight as they came, and gay wasn't much of an insult. It was around this time that Allie started to become self aware of her own feelings. More and more often she found herself staring at the back of Ana's head. When group projects happened Allie would usually just pick Beck and Clayson, but now she had started to include Ana as well. The more time she spent around Ana the more she realized that what she was feeling was very similar to how she felt about Beck and Clayson. It did feel different though. It almost felt more forbidden which also made it seem just a little more powerful somehow. Allie thought back to her sister coming home crying from school after being called gay. "Oh my gosh," Allie thought to herself one day, "I'm gay for Ana".

Allie wasn't sure what to do with the thought. It was just something she had thought of one day and it seemed to fit. Gay girls liked girls right? Well so did she so she supposed that made her gay. At the same time, however, she had only ever felt this for Ana which made the thought come back over and over. "I'm gay for Ana". She thought maybe the news should have been tougher to swallow, but it just sort of sat with her like a comfort explaining her feelings. Allie did love explanations after all.

By the end of the year Allie had become so tangled up in the whole Ana situation that she barely had time to think about Beck let alone Clayson. There had been moments between her and Beck that year. Like when they were partners and she had to read over his shoulder. She had felt very strongly how close they were in that moment. It was a delicate situation, they were friends after all, but Allie couldn't help herself. She liked three people at once. The whole year she barely had time to talk to Nathan. The had gone to his party in December. It had just been the two of them that whole time. It was a perfect time and he was just as comfortable as he had been the year prior. She just wished that she was able to see him more. May soon came to a close and the years events wrapped up. The year didn't feel half as eventful as the last, but at the same time twice as much happened. It seemed almost like time was speeding up, leaving her behind. Leaving her in Nathan's backyard on his 8th birthday.