Recess was nearly over, and Dellie didn't think Fiona was coming back from the bathroom. 

She'd nearly finished the emission nebula she'd drawn while scuffing the toe of her sneakers into the dirt at her feet (it was just wavy lines and dots. A lot of space was just waves and circles, anyone could be an artist), her head propped up on her hand which was propped up by her elbow on the picnic table she'd joined Fiona and her friends at twenty minutes ago. They were all gone now. Maybe bringing up the Bill Nye video they'd watched in science had been too much, but she thought everyone liked Bill Nye. Her class always sang along with the theme song- those days, she didn't feel as alone in her excitement for science.

"Dellie! Hey, Dellie!" She looked up, because that wasn't her brother's voice. Teachers called her Delilah since that was what was on the attendance sheet, so the kids who she walked up to called her Delilah too- a longer name to push more space between them. Calvin had told his friends who he used to kind of share with her to call her by her nickname, but she'd told him to stop.

 It was Nicolas (long name, but there was too much distance between her and a classmate she'd never spoken to for anything shorter) and he was looking right at her with a smile. She looked behind her to check for the person he was smiling at.

"Watch this!"

Dellie raised her head off of her hand when Nicolas turned around and started to climb the out-of-bounds wall- six feet of stone, sanded to a shine, constantly being repainted to cover grade-school graffiti- while a kid with crooked glasses and Band-Aids on his face cheered him on. She knew her classmates called him Dickie, but she had no idea what that was short for. Dickolas? No, that sounded ri-dickolas.

That was a good joke. She wished she could tell it to someone. Maybe Calvin if he wasn't so busy playing football with his friends.

But besides, she was too entranced with the pure confidence and sheer force of will of the boy pulling himself up by his toes and fingertips. Nicolas Kae-Knott was a trouble-maker, she'd been told- in the weary sighs of Mrs. Teller as she filled out an incident report beside Dellie during one of the recesses she let her stay inside to do homework, from her Dad in a much less exasperated tone as he spoke of his friend's rambunctious son. 

But he didn't look like trouble now- not when his eyes were fixed on the top with lazer focus, tongue poking out of the side of his mouth, not when Dickie jumped and whooped like Nicolas was cresting the top of Everest. Dellie found herself smiling too- she hoped he made it to the top.

He was very near his goal when he slipped, and Dellie stood up. He was fine (he only fell three feet), but now there was dirt on his knees and a frown on his face as he looked up at the untouched top. 

"Did she see that part?" They both turned to look at her. She blinked at them. They blinked back.

"I think she did." Dickie answered with a slow nod of his head, and Dellie wondered if they knew she could hear them.

"You did great!" She called out, not sure what else to do. "I'm sure you'll get there next time!"

Nicolas beamed as though her words had given him some sort of gift, and soon enough Dellie was grinning back- he didn't know that he'd given her an even better one. Today, the universe had flipped on its head (metaphorically of course, the universe had no up or down)- Dellie didn't have to approach Nicolas Kae-Knott as she'd had to approach Fiona and Dina and everyone else she worked hard to convince she was worthwhile as a potential friend. For the first time, it didn't look like he needed any convincing.

Next lunch, maybe she would ask him if she could call him by a shorter name.