Something That Happened 1

Their story begins on a morning in August. It is the first day of first grade—the perfect time for a beginning.

He is six years old and she prides herself on being six and a half. She's bigger than he is, but that doesn't stop him from pushing out his arms and knocking her into the sandbox (because she's a girl, and boys are way better than girls). There's a tiny scratch on her knee and her once pristine, white dress is no longer so.

This is their first encounter (of many).

She does not cry, but instead kicks him in the shin with her expensive polished shoes, mutters an "I hate you," and runs off to find her friends.

He finds her intriguing. And while all the other boys think that girls have cooties, he is beginning to realize that girls may not be as bad as they make them out to be.

So every day, he trips her or pushes her down. And every day she kicks him, but never cries or tells the teacher. And eventually he trips her just so he can help her up because (even though everyone else thinks it's gross) he likes the feel of her hand in his.

When she starts to smile at him from across the classroom, he can no longer concentrate on his work. This day he doesn't bother tripping her to try to hold her hand.

They talk and slowly become best friends. She kisses him on the cheek
and he tries to kiss her lips. She giggles and turns away because she knows that her daddy wouldn't like that.

She finds out that he's Jewish and makes it a point not to tell her daddy because she really likes him and she doesn't want to risk losing what they have. But by now she's six (and three quarters) and secrets spill like milk from the innocent little girl and the next thing she knows, her daddy is suggesting she not play with her best friend anymore (she hears him tell her mommy that he's a bad influence on her). By six (and three quarters), she is well aware that daddy's suggestions are actually orders.

Reluctantly, she begins to ignore her best friend. He tries to hide his sadness, but by this point, she knows him too well. The easiest way to forget about their friendship is to start kicking him again. So he trips her every day and she kicks him in the shin.

Soon, she's befriended two girls she knows from her church (although they only come on select holidays), and he has found a dopey-looking friend who looks like a tree compared to the rest of their grade.

They drift apart and she pretends that she never really cared about him and he does the same.

Puck and Quinn never did make sense anyway.