“Here,” Sam thrusted a clutch of baby dandelions at Susie, a girl with braided pigtails and matching pink dress and sandals. She was a bit smaller than he was, roughly around 3 ft high. His cheeks flushed bright red as he turned his head away from her. When the girl looked up with a fluster, he shoved the delicate flowers into her hands and met her gaze for a second, then scampered off to the slide where his friends were playing. Susie brought her hands to her chest, and felt her heart pounding, hearing the thumps every second. Is this what mommy calls love? Is this what you feel when you really, really like someone?


She hesitated for a moment, and carefully observed furtively as she approached to Sam surrounded by his friends. He was a lovely little boy with neat looks and dirty blonde curls, bouncing whenever he took a step, a type of guy who everyone thought was a nice guy. She took a step towards the vibrant red slide, then was startled for a second as she took one last look at him before actually making her final move. Sam’s friends soon cleared out from the sight of her who was still at a distance, whooping and cheering as they scattered off and hid behind a tree only about 5 meters away.


“Um..” Sam mumbled, not sure what to say. Susie looked askance at the group of boys behind the tree and took a deep breath. He waited on Susie to say something, but instead, came an unexpected soft peck on the cheek. He gaped at her with astonishment, unable to understand what had happened. Staring back at him was Susie, her legs crossed and smiling shyly, blinking occasionally looking for any signs of a positive response. Finally, after a while, he beamed at her and grasped her hand.


Being in their own world, they let out a chuckle of embarrassment and awkwardness. Everything Susie saw was bright and dazzling: the shining sun, beautiful birds chirping, and even her fellow classmates who always had failed to meet her satisfactions were actually tolerable.


Not long after, rang a painful shrill of the bell, notifying children end of kindergarten. Susie let out a small sigh and eked out a smile. She clumsily hugged him and ran towards the direction of her street, looking back at Sam occasionally, who watched her go standing at the other side of the road, smiling and waving goodbye vigorously.


“Bye! See you tomorrow!”, Susie yelled at the top of her lungs. She skipped down her front porch and ran into her room, and climbed on top of her bed. Then she closed her eyes, and giggled silently, slowly falling asleep, wishing for tomorrow to come quickly.