Prologue
The school day was over at Pinnacle elementary. Being in the 3rd grade was ok. But I could tell that being 9 was hard. I didn’t have many friends in school. I ran to the school bus and headed to the back seat where it was quieter.
The school bus came to a stop almost in front of my house. I rushed down the isle of the bus and jumped down the stairs coming straight to a halt when I finally looked up. There was a moving truck in front of the house next door. I stood there for a minute just looking when I saw my mother, a pretty lady and a boy about my age walk out of the house and walk up to the truck. They were unloading stuff so that means that they are my new neighbors.
The lady looked really nice as she was talking to my mother. They were laughing and then when the bus drove off, my mother looked up and smiled. “Maggie, come meet the Mariots. They are our new neighbors.” She motioned for me to join her by the truck. “This is my daughter Margaret. Maggie for short. Maggie this is Mrs. Mariot and her son Dimitri.”
I shook hands with Mrs. Mariot and then smiled at Dimitri. “Hi.” I said.
“Hi.” He said shaking my hand back. It was all we said, but I could see the friendliness in his eyes.
“Maggie, this is the lady I was talking about the other day. She and I went to school together and she actually had Dimitri here about the same time I had you.” I looked up at my mom in surprise, then looked back over to Dimitri. “He is just a few days older than you are.”
I smiled at him and he smiled back.
“Sweetie, it’s time to go do your homework while I make dinner.” She turned towards Mrs. Mariot. “Patsy, would you guys like to join us? I bet Tom would love to see Dave again and we can let these two get to know each other more.”
“Of course. It was probably going to be take out tonight anyways since we don’t have anything unpacked. We will be over in about 20 minutes?” At my mom’s nod, we turned and headed back into the house. I looked over my shoulder to look at Dimitri again and saw him watching us go. He smiled and winked at me as I left.
This was going to be a good friendship. I could tell.
