I'm the child of perfection. I don't say this to be cocky but to pay homage. My parents are the perfect couple. They met each other and married after one day. In my youth I wanted the very same for myself, and I was constantly on the lookout for love.

Not many second graders out there believe in everlasting true love, but I did. Mrs. Mercury's second grade class was where I spent all of my 7 year old days from 8am to 3pm. It was a good class with an engaging teacher and nice classmates, except for Melanie Defoe who was an utter nightmare to me at every chance she got. She would always call me "Big Mess Agnes" and pull my hair. Maybe I was a big mess. At the time I was spending all of my attention on finding the love of my life, not making friends.

"It's time for reading circle!" Exclaimed Mrs. Mercury in her ever cheerful voice. I loved reading circle. In my head every storybook, no matter the genre, became a romance. More than loving reading circle, I loved love.

Seats were not assigned in reading circle but everyone knew the deal. We were creatures of habit who always sat in the same spots. To the left of Mrs. Mercury was Leonard Bean, teacher's pet. On Leonard's left was Rory Lewis, then Malanie Defoe, Craig Murphy, me, and Brenda Jeffrey. It was back to Mrs. Mercury after Brenda because, you know, that's how circles work. We all took our "assigned" seats and prepared ourselves for the story. As I turned to ask Brenda if she wanted to swap my chips for her jell-o at snack time, I came face to face with a boy I had never seen before.

The boy was asian and his hair was shaved close to his head. I noticed it straight away because I had never seen that haircut before on anyone who wasn't black. Mrs. Murcury's second grade class was noticeably dichrome, half black and half white. I was black but the guy sitting next to me wasn't. He wasn't white either and at the tender age of 7, I didn't know there was another option.

"Oh good, the new student has chosen his seat. Be nice to him Agnes and Brenda, ok?" Mrs. Mercury melodically mentioned as she held up the book she would be reading today. It was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish which, in my mind, was the story of how one lonely fish found a second fish and fell in love. It was happy ever after for the red fish and the blue fish, together forever.

I looked across the new kid and stared straight into the eyes of Brenda. She gave me a confused look and shrugged her shoulders. After doing the same back to her, I leaned back into my rightful place in the circle.

"What's your name new kid?" I asked a little too loudly as evident by the shushing of my classmates. While looking down out of shame, I noticed the new kid's leg was very close to mine. He was closer to me than to Brenda. He chose to sit here. That's what Mrs. Mercury had said. He chose to sit so close to me. This was it. Just like a fairytale, I had met my soulmate when I least expected it. He wasn't who I thought I would love and he didn't profess his love for me first thing, but he was staring at me. Oh, he was staring at me! I snapped out of my inner monologue just in time to hear him say:

"........ a boy and my last name is Chang."

"Nice to meet you Roy Chang!" I squealed when he was done talking. He gave me a weird look but couldn't say anything because Mrs. Mercury gave us a noise warning. Chang was a great last name. If it wouldn't have meant a ten minute stent in the punishment corner, I would have run right out to the customer service desk at the name store and exchanged his last name for mine.

If there was anything that I learned from reading circle that day, it was that love knew no color. Just like how the red fish found the blue fish, I found Roy Chang. From that day forward, the name of a certain Seuss book changed. It was One Kid, Two Kid, Roy and Agnes.

A/N: Moodboard picture by edoggypaws