Hatchetfield.

it's nice to have a friend

"Hey, we're the same age! How come I never knew you in high school?"

An alternate universe where Emma did in fact know Paul, and they changed each other for the better.

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Paul gave one last wave to his mom before joining the other kids who were in Ms Miller's kindergarten class. He gripped the straps of his backpack as he walked over nervously, eyeing the others who were already chatting and laughing. Kindergarteners were really loud. Ms Miller was calling out, almost shouting, trying to get them into two lines.  Paul's eyes fell on a girl with brown hair near the back of the line. Her shoes were pristine and her backpack lacked the glittery, dollar store charm of the others', but her eyes flashed wildly as she turned to scold the boy from the other line who had grabbed one of her tight plaits. She looked scary, about as scary as a five year old could look. He timidly approached the line, arriving at the last second possible before they started moving again.

They all sat cross legged on the rainbow rug in the middle of the classroom, and Paul tugged on the fuzz nervously as he watched his classmates chatter excitedly. His eyes were once again drawn to the girl from before, who was sitting straight-backed on the edge of the carpet with her hands folded neatly in her lap. Her gaze fell on him, and her brown eyes bore into his until he had to look down at the handful of red fluff he had pulled up. He quickly dropped it, smoothing his hand over the carpet to remove the evidence as Ms Miller started talking. When he summoned the courage to look back at her again, she was staring straight at Ms Miller with a smile creeping across her face.

"And Paul and Emma are going to sit here." Paul's attention was back to what Ms Miller was saying as he heard his name. She was pointing to a table at the back of the classroom, and he watched as the girl, Emma, jumped up from where she was sitting and walked over to him. "Come on!" she held out a hand to him. He took it reluctantly and let himself be dragged over to his new seat.

"I'm Emma, and you're Paul, that's what Ms Miller said," she chattered as they sat down.

Paul nodded shyly in response, but Emma barely realised as she continued to talk his ear off for the rest of the morning. Paul happily listened, grateful that she was doing all the talking so he didn't have to say anything.

When lunch came Paul slowly went to get his backpack from his cubby, keeping his head down. Everyone around him was chattering excitedly, and the noise was putting him on edge. They had all seemed to have formed groups in the two hours they had known each other. Paul turned and jumped. Emma was standing behind him, staring at him intently as she gripped the strap of her back pack.

"Where will we sit?" She turned and began to walk towards the door. Paul followed her, confused but perfectly willing to follow her lead. He hadn't realised that they had agreed to sit together, but he was grateful as she grabbed his arm and pulled him along.

They spent the rest of the day like that, with Emma leading and Paul following along. Paul liked Emma. He didn't really know any other kids. Sometimes he would play with the neighbours, but usually it was just him and his mom. Hanging out with Emma made him feel less out of place with his classmates.

After school Ms Miller rounded them all up and brought them into the playground. Paul brought a toy car out of his pocket, which Emma seemed fascinated with, like she'd never seen one before. They took turns driving it back and forth, making race car sound effects. At some point Ted, the boy who had pulled Emma's pigtail earlier, tried to take the car, but Emma scared him away by yelling at him. They kept driving the car between them as the afternoon went on, the sound of children playing around them fading away as they were collected by parents.