What Little Worlds

Two

"Hey how old are you?" she asked.

"Oh, um I'm ten. What about you?"

"Me too. I'm in fourth grade. Are you too then?" Amelie said.

He paused. "Uh no my school works a little differently. We don't have grades like you, although we're still kind of grouped by age. I'm with kids between eight and eleven right now."

"Oh that's cool. I would like that I think. Although that's a lot of kids. Do you know everybody?" There were about one hundred kids in her grade, she thought.

"Yea, there are only ten of us so I know them all really well," Adrien replied quickly.

"Only ten! My class has twenty five! Do you like them all? What if one of them is really mean? You have to see them all the time anyway?" Amelie could not decide if always being with the same kids would be really wonderful or horrible. She loved her math class that had only five kids, but that was only for one hour per day.

"Yeah. I love them. They are like my family. We look out for each other. They're all very important to me," he explained. "They're not here right now and I think that's why this is so hard. Everyone has to do this like me, but it's the first time we're out alone so it's strange. Normally we don't ever work alone."

"I understand. That sounds like a fun school. At my school not everyone looks out for each other. Sometimes kids are mean." They kept walking. She could see her house, twenty more steps from this place. She realized then that she had forgotten to count her steps for the first time all year. She had even forgotten about cracks.

"This is it!" she exclaimed as they turned onto her driveway.

"Do you want some cookies?" Amelie asked when they were sitting in the kitchen. She was allowed to have two Oreos and a cup of milk after school, according to Dad.

"Sure."

She grabbed the blue box and put it on the island. They she walked over to the counter and hopped up on it. She knelt on the top and reached into the cabinet for two cups. "Can you help me?" she asked.

"Yeah," Adrien said. He walked over to her and smiled up at her when she handed him the cups. She hopped down and pulled the milk out of the fridge. She sat down at the island and patted the seat next to her for Adrien. He awkwardly sat down and watched with curiosity as she dipped her Oreos in milk. She ate the Oreo then swung her legs in front of her chair and grinned at him.

Where could this kid be from that he did not know to dip his Oreos in milk? She raised her eyebrows at him and lifted her chin towards his Oreos.

He slowly reached for the cookie and picked it up. He looked over at her and she nodded. He held the cookie over the glass of milk and glanced again at her. She winked and smiled and he dipped the cookie in milk. She could tell he was hiding a grin.

"Now I'm going to eat this soggy cookie?" He asked, skeptically.

"Exactly. And then you're going to thank me for showing you the light," Amelie replied.

He ginned and ate the cookie, his eyes widening dramatically. "At last, I see the light!" He exclaimed, with the cookie still in his mouth. He shot her a toothy grin with flecks of Oreo peppering his teeth.

When they had finished eating, Amelie said, "So I have to do my homework before Dad gets home, or I get in trouble. It should only take twenty minutes. Do you want to watch some TV until I'm done?"

Adrien sat up straighter in his chair. "Yea, sure. I can watch television."

"Great. What channel do you want?" Adrien didn't answer. "Actually, I can just show you how the remote works and you can scroll around. I don't even know what's on at this time anyway."