"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."

She padded over to the TV in the living room and grabbed the remote. "Here, this turns it on and off," she turned it on. "The volume is here, and you can press this for the channel guide." She handed him the remote and marched back to the kitchen table to work on her homework.

She was in two steps above in math, so she took math with the accelerated fifth grade class. This meant she had slightly more homework than the other students in her class, and couldn't simply do it in ten minutes. But, Amelie really enjoyed her math homework. It was never something she felt was an obligation, but rather a game she got to play after school.

When she had finished she walked back to the living room to find Adrien sitting three feet away from the TV, watching CNN of all things. "Why are you watching that? Could you not figure out how to change the channel?"

"Um, no not really. It's okay I thought this was interesting. I never watch TV at my house. We, um, don't really have one." Adrien mumbled the last part and looked down at his criss-crossed legs.

"You don't have a TV? What do you do when you're bored at home? I always either read or watch TV," Amelie said.

"I hang out with my family. Or I read. TV is not popular where I'm from," Adrien said.

"And where are you from?" Amelie asked.

"I live out in the country," Adrien said, looking away. "Do you want to show me what you like to watch?"

"Sure, one of my favorite shows starts at four so we only have a few minutes." As they watched, Amelie explained the plot and characters to Adrien. It was hard for her to believe that there was anywhere where TV was not popular, but at age ten she was already becoming aware of the smallness of her perspective, and was interested in hearing about another way that people lived.

"Would you like to come over again some time? This is nice," she said after the episode was over.

"I don't think I'll be coming back to this area with school for a while, but the next time I do, can I come by your house?"

"Yeah that would be great!" Amelie grinned.

Adrien walked over to the mantle and examined the pictures scattered across it. "Can I see the rest of your house?" he asked.

"Sure. I'll give you the tour!" Amelie listed up her chest proudly, "Sorry it's a bit messy right now."

She showed him the upstairs, which pretty much just included her brother's sparse bedroom, her father's matching one, two bathrooms, and her room. She was embarrassed to show him her room. She still had a plastic kitchen set and matching workbench as well as some baby dolls in her room. They were for playing pretend when she had friends over. Even though she knew they were meant for much smaller kids, she loved imagining her life in a different world, or as an adult, and she needed the correct props to do it.

They peered out of her bedroom window to the backyard and she explained that in summers all of her friends in the neighborhood would hide in the tall hedges that separated their houses and pretend the clearings between the hedges were rooms in their very own house. They tried to sleep out there once but were dragged back in by some frantic parents.

"Can you show me? I want to pretend to live in a hedge." He threw her a coy smile.

She pouted a little at his mocking grin. "Don't laugh, it can be really fun, I'm serious!" Amelie did not want to be embarrassed of what she loved.

"I'm sorry! I am serious, you've made me curious!" He said.

"Well, okay, if you really mean it," she replied.

They went downstairs and re-dressed in all their winter garb. Once they reached the hedge she grabbed his gloved hand with hers. "Follow me!" she ordered and ducked under a branch. He giggled as she dragged him in with her.

When they emerged in the big clearing she knew that he was impressed. From in here you could not see any of the houses. It truly felt like you were hidden inside an enchanted room. They both looked up at the sky, a crisp blue above them. Then Adrien opened his mouth and blew out a stream of cold mist. "I realize now, I'm not a train...I'm an ice dragon! Roar!" He began to run around the clearing with his arms tucked behind him in wings.

"If you're an ice dragon, I'm a dragon of fire. I have to stop you from freezing over the world!" Amelie followed after him, breathing steam onto all the spots he had started blowing his ice breath. They raced through the bushes and various clearings, more than once tackling each other into gasping piles of giggles and steamy breath.

The fourth time they dissolved into a puddle of laughter, Adrien looked up at the now purple sky and said that he had to go. They reluctantly got up and began walking back to the alley where Amelie had found him earlier.

Her dad would be home from work very shortly. "Are you okay getting back from here? You know where you're going?"

"Yea, we're meeting just around the corner from here, I'll be okay. Thanks for hanging out with me today. This was great," he said, looking her right in the eye.

"Of course, I agree. I had a lot of fun with you! Come back again, okay?" she was hoping he would realize how sincere she was in her offer.

"I promise I'll try," he shuffled his feet awkwardly. "It may be a year until I am back. We don't take field trips often." He looked down, "don't...." he started, "don't...forget me.....please." Amelie let out a huff of breath and lurched towards him, pulling him into a hug. He immediately wrapped his arms around her as well.

"I promise. I won't forget you. We're friends now." She nodded as she said it.

"Okay, good." He smiled, "Bye Amelie," he said her name with a flawless accent, that others usually stumble over. He winked. "See you later!"