we loved with a love that was more than love // JENLISA

10

School has started up again -- proper school, as opposed to the catch-up classes you took over the summer -- and you're still the smallest kid at Pinks Middle School, but you've never felt so grown up.

You're in the sixth grade now and some of the other kids sprouted up over the summer -- Gemma Wilkins grew at least three inches, and all of her friends are sporting training-bras. The other girls seem to be envious of their new curves, but you don't mind. Change, you've found, is a double-edged sword, and you're happy that it's passed you by.

Lily Myers -- your best friend, next to Luca -- hasn't hit her growth spurt either. Like you, she doesn't care, so when the other girls sit in a circle at recess and talk about boys, the two of you skip out to the field to practice cartwheels and round-offs, pretending you're Olympic gymnasts.

You like Lily a lot, even though you're pretty different. She wears basketball shorts nearly every day -- even in the winter -- and she's better at football than most of the boys in your grade.

At first, you didn't get along. Lily's loud and blunt and she was briefly your sworn enemy after she told on you for puking in the bushes that day last year. You vowed to never speak to her again, but when you returned to school a few days later she ran up to you, clamped two hands on your shoulders, and demanded to know if you were feeling better.

Kindness, you're realizing, takes many forms.

***

You and Lily have been fast friends ever since. It didn't take long for you to find out that Lily lives around the corner from Jennie and Lisa -- three houses down from Maya. You played in each other's back yards a few times over the summer, and she's the only kid from school who's been in your treehouse.

Toward the end of summer her parents invited you, Jennie, and Lisa over for dinner, and that's when they hatched the plan to have you and Lily walk to school on your own.

School isn't far from your house -- just a few quiet blocks -- but Jennie always walked with you last year. At first it made sense, since you were new to the area, and even after you learned the way she continued to stroll beside you.

It was nice -- you love spending time with Jennie -- but when Lily's mom suggested that the two of you are old enough to get to school on your own, you sat a little taller at the dinner table.

Lily clasped her hands together and begged, batting her lashes at her mom, but you just looked at Jennie and Lisa with wide, hopefully eyes. Lisa smiled at you and Jennie tried to hide a grin against Lisa's shoulder.

"That's fine with us," Lisa said, never looking away from you. "If it's okay with El."

You nodded emphatically, biting your bottom lip as you smiled, and Lily squealed.

"Our little girl is growing up," Jennie said, hand pressed over her heart. Lily's parents chuckled, like it was a joke, but Jennie reached behind Lisa's chair to cup the back of your neck, and you knew it wasn't.

***

On the first Friday of sixth grade, someone else joins you and Lily on your walk home.

You notice him first -- the tiny black and white kitten at your heels. When you point him out to Lily she stops in her tracks, gasping in delight as she bends to pet him. He doesn't have a collar or tags and, no matter how many times Lily tells him to stop wandering so far from home, he trails behind you.

You don't look back when you and Lily part ways at the corner of your block, but when you hear her disappointed sigh you know he's following you.

Your smile hurts your cheeks.