Small fingers slowly wrapped around the colored paper sweetly wrapped around colored wax as it moved across the white paper. Little sun’s made their appearances in the top corner of the blank pages as each child spilled their imagination across each page with the crayon grasped in their hand.

“Clean up, time for recess” The teacher called over the quiet class as everyone finished up pouring their thoughts onto the white page.

A small boy glanced over at one of the girls sitting at another table. Lowering his eyes, he let his small eyes move across the page, with a boy holding a girl’s hand with the sun shining and cars and butterflies around them. With his name written in his best handwriting and your name written the best way he could. Placing his crayon back in the cup, he slid off the chair and carefully folded the page once then twice over before making his way over to your desk.

“Do you want to play on the swings today?” Some of the small boy’s friends asked as he looked over their shoulders to see you standing up and skipping out the door for recess.

“Yeah sure… there is just something I want to do first” The little boy said as the teacher herded everyone outside.

The sunshine hit the playground equipment as laughter filled the air. Kids happily chased one another as others played on the swings and on the other equipment. The small boy watched from behind one of the trees as the same cute girl walked around, picking up dandelion flowers and watching bugs. Taking a deep breath, he gathered all the courage he could muster in his small body before walking over to the little girl.

“_____?” The little boy called your name, you lifted your head as you saw a boy in your class.

“Hey V” You called him by his nickname causing the little boy to part his lips with a smile. “Wanna help me look for bugs?”

“I-I… I actually wanted to give you something…” V stammered, the toes of his shoes digging into the dirt below between the clumps of grass.

“You did?” You lifted your head up as you wiped your hands on your pants before standing upright.

Watching the boy stand before you, he carefully pulled a folded paper out from behind his back, his small hands slowly unfolded the gift that he had sweetly made for you.

“I’m sorry, I messed up on the flower in my hand…” He softly whispered as he took a step forward and handed you the masterpiece between his fingers.

Outstretching your hand, your fingers gently tightened around the paper feeling the tension, V released his hold on his gift before you pulled the paper towards you to look it over in more detail.

“How did you know that my favorite flower was purple?” You lifted your eyes from the beautiful masterpiece that you could see the time and effort he poured into every of the different colors of each crayon.

“Purple just suits you, since you are a princess” V complemented knowing, even at his young age, that purple was a color for royalty. A smile spread across his face as he watched your eyes slowly move across the work of art, a sweet smile curled onto your lips as he knew that just seeing your smile was all the reward that he could ever want.

“A dirt princess” You giggled, slipping the gift into your back pocket, you knelt down in the dirt once more. “Wanna join me?”

Nodding his head, he joined you down on his knees as the two of you slipped your hands through the dirt trying to find unique bugs and make them little houses from mounds of dirt, pulled grass and other forms of nature to try and make the bugs that you found right at home.

Working alongside V to make bug houses every recess, the two of you began to build a beautiful friendship. As the snow began to fall, the bug houses turned into small igloo and snowball fights between you two, not to mention the countless snow angels the two of you made one after another. As the seasons changed so did the years, sometimes being placed into other classes than one another, the two of you continued to meet at recess when you didn’t have the same classes. Elementary school turned into middle school then into High school, continuing to talk and hang out with each other from time to time, the friendship between you two continued to grow and mature as did the two of you.