"Hi," you say, and there's a slight lisp in your voice as you speak. You're in a park bustling with children of all ages, shapes, colors, and sizes. You're young, and you've just moved to the city, and you have to make new friends. Again. Daddy says this is the last time you'll all move. This is it. He's found the perfect place and the perfect job, and everything was going to be good now. Even at such a young age, though, somehow you suspect he wasn't telling the truth. That doesn't matter just now. You just want to make friends.
"Hi," the little blond girl you approached replies with a smile as bright as yours. She's a little younger than you, but you just want to play some hopscotch and it's no fun without at least a partner. So you suggest it, and she accepts with a vigorous nod and an even brighter grin. "I'm Nell, by the way."
"Maddie Kate," you say, and with that you toss the piece of chalk down the playboard you drew up, where it lands on the big, chalk pink 6. You flash her a mischievous smile, and she glares playfully and tosses her own. And that's how you spend the rest of the afternoon, forging a friendship over playful competition. You find yourself wishing that, for once, your dad is right, and this sticks. You like this Nell girl.