Tummy Flutters | ✓

I

When the group of children saw Catherine Wilson and Peter Romano all snuggled up together inside the small cupboard (which had more than enough space to fit another child), they automatically assumed that they were a couple. One of them threw the other a knowing glance and nodded in agreement, as though they were all thinking of the same thing.

One started chanting the most haunting words a second grader would ever hear: "Catherine and Peter sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love, then comes marriage. Then comes a baby in a baby carriage ..."

The rest joined in. They wouldn't stop, not even when Catherine and Peter denied being a couple.

"—k-i-s-s-i-n-g. First comes love ..."

Catherine was getting angrier by the second. She clenched her fist so tightly that they began to turn white. "He's not my boyfriend!" she screamed at them, trying to keep her tears at bay. She deeply disliked it whenever people didn't listen to her. It was upsetting and frustrating.

"If Peter isn't your boyfriend, why does he act like one?" someone shouted behind her.

It was only then that Catherine noticed she was behind Peter, who was in a protective stance. She rolled her eyes, knowing that she was also perfectly capable of standing up to bullies. After all, her favorite Disney princess was Mulan, and she didn't need a man to protect her.

Catherine turned around to see whoever said those words, so she could give him a piece of her mind. She was going to reply with an intelligent comeback—one that would have him running for his mother to ice that burn he received. But no words spilled from her lips when her eyes met his.

Tommy Granger.

Her Tommy Granger.

She stared at Tommy, dumbfounded. This was the same boy who let her borrow his crayons when she forgot them at home (on purpose); the same boy who said that her drawings were really pretty, even when others told her otherwise; the same boy who lent her his jacket before, so that nobody would see the chocolate stain on her dress.

But that same boy was amongst them—the children who were ganging up on them.

After he said those words, the kids laughed and high-fived him as if he had just told the best punch-line ever.

Catherine really tried to keep her tears at bay, but they started trickling down her cheeks. Why? She always returned his crayons in their proper places. She always said thank you whenever he complimented her drawings. She gave back his jacket and even told her Mom to wash it with the most fragrant detergent.

Then, why?

Catherine willed herself to stop crying and glared at Thomas Granger with the same intensity of the sun's fire. "You're such a simple-minded dweeb, Thomas" she told him. Then, she walked away, making sure to shoulder-bump him on the way.

She headed for the backyard, not knowing that someone was following her close by. She sat down on the ground and hugged her knees to her chest. "You did a good job today, Catherine," she told herself. "You did a good job."

Catherine stared into the distance, all the details she missed coming back to her. She remembered how Thomas scowled when she asked to borrow his crayons (and she already used the magic word!). She recalled how the teacher told him to compliment her drawings, and he didn't want to do it at first. Finally, she remembered that it was Thomas who spilled his chocolate drink on her favorite dress, and he was forced to lend her his jacket. She was too blinded by her one-sided crush to notice these small, important things.

Catherine decided that she didn't like Thomas anymore. When they would go back to school this Monday, she was going to give him the cold shoulder until he apologized.

"Catherine!"

She looked over her shoulders to see who called her.

It was Peter Romano.

"It's Cathy, by the way," she called back, gesturing for him to sit beside her.

Upon hearing those words, Peter beamed like the small ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. He thought that his eight year-old body won't be able to contain the happiness that he felt at that exact moment