Thirteen years earlier:

It was the first day of kindergarten, and every child was thrilled. To start their day, each little tike was dressed up by their parents in nice clothing to begin the school year; by recess, every shirt, dress, or pants either had wrinkles or small patches of dust covering the fabric.

Well...nearly every child was thrilled and had wrinkles or dust on their clothes.

Grayson Summers sat alone on the swing set, slowly rocking back and forth. He was less than thrilled. He was bored, actually. Sadly, that was the side-effect of having no friends.

His family moved to the great state of Virginia last month, so he had no connections to any of the kids in his town. Most of them already had friends from preschool and now ran around with them on the playground or in the large grass field, which was speckled with wildflowers.

It also didn't help that Grayson wasn't the most outgoing child. He tended to observe, rather than explore situations; stay quiet, rather than discuss all of his thoughts and feelings. Some children were playing with kickballs and soccer balls, but he didn't want to interrupt anyone already playing in those friend groups.

Some kids seems too weird to interrupt. At one point during recess, he saw a boy in his class chase a girl with a worm he dug up. Grayson tried remembering his name—John, Jack, Jake? He decided it didn't matter, because in the moment, he would rather not be friends with someone who pulled live worms from the ground.

So, Grayson Summers was content sitting on the swing, gently kicking around the wood chips with his feet and pretending he was fine with not belonging. Unfortunately, others took notice.

"Do you have no friends, or something?"

Grayson immediately stopped staring at the wood chip he was fixating on and looked up at whoever was in front of him.

A little girl stared right back, and he was surprised that she wasn't even asking the question in a rude way. By context alone, she should have asked in a condescending tone. However, a whole smile lit up her curious face.

She was wearing a light green sundress, and Grayson quickly noticed that the color matched her eyes perfectly, even down to the small threads of gold woven into the fabric that mirrored the specks in her iris. As a five year old boy, Grayson thought this was the coolest thing ever. He decided right then and there that whatever this girl had to say to him, he would give his full, undivided attention. An ice cream truck could have magically appeared out of thin air, and Grayson still wouldn't dare to look away from her in fear she would disappear.

Grayson nodded his head in response to her question, which only made her smile more. He grew more confused.

"Okay, okay, stay right here," she exclaimed excitedly.

She ran away from the swing set and into the neighboring field where she then bent down and seemed to be searching for something. Grayson shifted on his swing, trying to get a better view of whatever this mysterious girl was doing. When she finally stood back up, she ran back to him, panting for breath, but still smiling. She was always smiling.

"Wait," she yelled suddenly with a pout, causing Grayson to startle. "I forgot to ask what your name was? You wouldn't want to be a stranger, would you?"

To this, Grayson shook his head, perhaps a little too eagerly.

She laughed a delightful laugh. "Good, good. My name is Talia Eloise Chase, but people call me Lia. What's your name?"

"Grayson," he responded with a small smile. Talia, Talia, Talia, he repeated in his head until her name was the only thing on his mind.

"Now that we're introduced...here." Her small hand reached out in front of him, holding an object.

It was a flower—a daisy to be exact. Grayson looked back up at her, slightly confused at her gesture.

"If you accept this, you can be my friend. I have a lot of friends, so I can introduce you to all of them and then you'll have a lot also. Don't tell the others when you meet them," she whispered, "but I never gave them a flower." At this she giggled. "You just look like you need one. You know, something pretty and colorful to make you smile."

Without a second thought, Grayson accepted the daisy, desperate to be any part of Talia's life; big or small, he wanted to see that smile of hers for the rest of his existence on this Earth.

When his fingers brushed against hers, Grayson realized that he now had two pretty and colorful things in his life.

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