For as long as he could remember, Buddy had been looking forwards to going to school. Meeting new kids and learning things his parents and older siblings didn't know.

All of those feelings of anticipation dissipated as soon as he got a look at the playground through the chain-link fence.

Gravel covered most of the ground, except for the yellowing grass-covered sports fields on the far side. August heat had scorched them to what was probably closer to a powder than a plant, but it was, undeniably, grass. There was a swing set and a tall slide and a tether ball pole within the area he was allowed to stay, but at the moment, he wasn't.

He shifted his composition book and pencil into the same arm that was clinging onto the paper bag with his lunch inside, just to free up a hand to clutch onto his mother's skirt.

"Changed m' mind," he mumbled. "I rather stay with you." Ella Holley wiggled the hem of her skirt out of her young son's grasp and bent down to be at his eye level, or at least close to it.

"You were looking forward to it when we left. What changed?"

"I don't know any of those kids."

"That's the point. To make new friends. That's really why people go to school," she chuckled, turning him around to look back through the fence. "Look at all of them. Someone in there might be the best friend you'll ever have."

"Promise?"

"Well, you'll never know unless you go in and see. I can't pick out who's going to be your best friend. Only you can do that, Buddy."

Buddy furrowed his eyebrows in concentration and tried to make out all of the kids running around on the playground, already forming friendships that he was missing out on. Some were chasing each other around, some were play-wrestling, some were jumping off the swings at heights that made him a little nervous, some were simply plucking out blades of yellow grass and tossing them to the side, some were trying to climb up the slide as others went down, leading to tumbles for both parties and some were just sitting under the big tree in the middle of the playground, probably talking to each other. He pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and squinted harder. He never had been able to see all too well, and the glasses made it better, but he was still getting used to them.

"What if none of them want to be my friend, Ma?" He asked, looking back towards her.

"Sweetie, how many kids do you see in there?"

"I dunno. A lot?"

"Exactly. No one there knows anyone else in there. All of them could find a friend right away."

"That one didn't." Buddy pointed through the fence at one solitary child, sitting on a wooden bench with three paper bags lined up beside her. She had her hands clasped in her lap and was looking around the entire yard, just like he was. Except she was inside it and he was still too scared to go in.

"Maybe she's waiting for someone very special to be her friend."

"Is she waiting for me?"

"She might be. You should go find out."

Buddy had his free hand on the gate and was about to push it open before his courage faltered once more.

"What if she's not and she laughs at me for having glasses?"

Ella leaned down to place a gentle kiss on his forehead. A farewell kiss. It was time that he had to go inside and if she stayed, she only prevented it.

"She's not going to laugh at you, sweetie. I bet that you're exactly the friend she's been waiting for. Now, go introduce yourself and I'll be right here at 3 o'clock to pick you up. Deal?"

Buddy nodded. "Deal." It didn't feel like a very good deal.

Ella blew him a kiss, followed by a wave as she crossed the parking lot, leaving her youngest son to go make some friends for himself. Buddy waved and blew one back, but really all he wanted to do was run after her and stay home. Home was safe. Home was cozy. Home had Larry's big radio and the piano he could hide under when thunderstorms hit. School had neither.

Buddy looked back at the girl on the bench. She still hadn't moved and still had three lunches beside her. Why would she need three lunches? Why did she have three in the first place? She wasn't much bigger than him; she wouldn't eat much more. Buddy couldn't tell if it was the question of her number of lunches that convinced him to enter the gate or desperation to find at least one friend, but he wasn't going to wonder on that for too long.

~

All five members of the Winter family had walked to the little school that morning. Isabella tried to convince her husband that she could handle a simple school drop-off by herself, but Frank would hear none of it.

"All three of them are having their first day of school. It's a big day, Bella. I ain't missing it!" He insisted. He wasn't wrong; it was definitely a big day. The only first day of school she'd experience. Most other mothers had several first days of school to look forward to instead of one. Then again, most other mothers didn't have triplets.

She'd put out three pre-selected outfits for her kids to wear in the morning to alleviate any clothes-selecting hassle that inevitably arose when she had three nervous 4-year-olds to deal with. Even so, somehow Juliet was running around in one sock, trying to find her shoes (by the door, as always), Vincent kept cleaning and re-cleaning the lenses of his glasses with the little cloth she'd given him for such a purpose and Violet was still asleep with only half an hour until school started.

Somehow, through a miracle of mothering, Isabella convinced Vince that his glasses were perfectly clean and that no one was going to mock him for having a smudge, helped Juliet find her sock and get her sneakers on, woke and dressed Vi, did two sets of pigtails, combed the third head, got herself looking presentable, fed everyone breakfast, made three lunches and locked the house behind her a full five minutes before she originally wanted to. Each of her red-headed children was carrying a paper bag lunch, a pencil with their name written on it, and a composition book. As long as they brought the same three items with them every day, she was doing an alright job as a mom.

Vince and Juliet seemed to be more peppy and excited about the concept of school than Violet, but they were more peppy and excited about things in general. The older of the two girls never seemed to have as much to say as her sister. So she remained quiet and reserved. As her siblings skipped ahead, Violet hung back, holding onto her mother's hand as they walked.

"Something wrong, Vi?" All she got in response was a shaken head. Two red pigtails shaking back and forth. "You don't seem too excited."

"I'm not."

"Why's that, sweet pea?"

"Cuz I don't wanna go." A common sentiment. One she'd been sharing since the idea of school was first brought up in the household.

"Don't you want to make some new friends?"

"I've already got friends," Violet pointed at her two siblings, who were walking a couple dozen feet in front of the rest of the family, chattering excitedly. "Don't they count?"

"Sure they do. But where's the fun in having a sleepover with all your friends when they already live in the same house as you?"

Her mom made a good point, but Violet hated to admit it. Being forced to go to school to make friends felt like the Fourth of July barbecues they held every year. They were always filled with kids that she didn't know and was forced to make friends with. None of them ever wanted to be her friend. The sting of constant rejection had numbed some, but it didn't mean Violet liked it.

"I don't want sleepovers." It was a mumbled lie, just to save face. That way, if she didn't come home with stories of a new friend, her mom wouldn't be disappointed or surprised. Isabella dropped the discussion. Reasoning with Vi when she got pouty was like reasoning with a brick wall.

Only a handful of kids were running around the playground when they walked up to the fence. Mostly playing by themselves, but a couple had already started to play together. By the time they were up to the gate, the excited pace had slowed down a bit and butterflies had taken over tummies.

"Nervous on your first day?" Frank asked as he caught up to his children. Small nods. "There's nothing to be nervous about. You're going to have fun, so get in there and make some friends." He pushed open the gate and sent each of them through with a small pat on the back. Violet didn't breathe again until she heard the gate shut behind her. She hadn't even realised she was holding it. The butterflies were hitting her harder than her siblings and her hands were nearly shaking. A chance glance back at her parents showed the two of them already leaving to head back home. Some 'big special day'.

When she turned back, Vince was already making a beeline for the swing set, looking like he might shove another kid to the ground for a chance to reach them first and Juliet had struck up a conversation with a girl who was carrying not only her supplies and lunch, but a little pink purse as well. Both of them had left their lunches and supplies on a little wooden bench. Not exactly sensible, but her siblings weren't exactly the most sensible people. Violet joined the discarded lunches on the bench and set hers next to it. If they came by later to see someone had stolen them, all she'd hear during lunch was how hungry they were. That is, if they even sat with her at lunch.

Violet didn't know much about the rules and procedures of school, but she did know about other kids and how they couldn't be trusted. So it was only reasonable that she felt a little on edge when one of the shrimpiest kids she'd ever seen began walking towards her. He paused a couple feet away and almost looked like he was going to change his mind before continuing and hopping up onto the bench on the other side of the lunches.

"Hi," he managed to squeak out.

"Hi." She was speaking cautiously. He was a stranger and he'd come right up to her, which felt far more bold than she was feeling. Violet wasn't sure if she was completely comfortable with it.

"Umm..." The boy looked around the playground, like he was trying to find something. He was; something to say. "Would you like to maybe play?"

"Why?"

"Well, I don't got any friends here, and you're sitting all alone." His cheeks were turning as red as her hair as he spoke. Nerves or fear? Violet couldn't tell. She looked out over the playground, surveying for her siblings. Each one seemed to have gathered a circle of friends already. This kid seemed okay enough. A little funny-looking, but he wasn't loud or mean and he hadn't teased her yet.

"Yeah, okay." She hopped off the bench and extended her hand to him, just like she'd seen all the adults do. "I'm Violet."

The kid followed suit. He wasn't too much smaller than her; about an inch or two. "My name's Buddy."

"Ever been to school before, Buddy?"

He shook his head. "Never. It's my first day. I don't even know what it looks like on the inside." This news relaxed her. If he didn't know either, maybe she wasn't so behind everyone else.

"Neither have I. Or my brother or sister."

"Are they here right now?"

Violet nodded and pointed to her identical sister, wearing the same pigtails and dress as her, chatting the ear off the girl who brought the purse to school, then a couple of feet behind her, where Vince was loading up for a jump off the swing. He was going sickeningly high. Violet couldn't look.

"What about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?" She asked, desperate for an excuse to look away from the swing set. Luckily, Buddy nodded.

"But they're not here. I have two brothers and one sister."

"Where are they?"

"They don't play out back anymore. Larry told me it's cuz they're too old for it."

"How old are they?"

"Larry's sixteen, Travis is fourteen and Patricia is thirteen."

Violet's eyes widened. "They're big kids!"

Buddy nodded excitedly. His siblings, he could talk about forever, if someone gave him the chance. Well, maybe not forever. Forever was a long time.

"Yeah! Larry's even learnin' how to drive. When he gets his license, I'm gonna make him take me out for ice cream whenever I want!"

"Can I come with you? I love ice cream!"

"Sure!"

They sealed the agreement with another handshake. Violet felt awfully grown-up when she did it. Buddy wasn't quite sure why they kept shaking hands, but he had seen his father do it with his friends, so it must have been pretty fancy.

"So what should we play?"

Violet looked around the playground. Kids were roughhousing everywhere and it made her kind of nervous. Buddy must have sensed her feelings about the kind of violence going on.

"Wanna find cool rocks?"

That sounded nice. Low-impact, and gravel always had really cool rocks. Most of them were grey, but when they weren't, there was something special about them.

"Whoever finds the coolest rock is the winner?" She suggested, grinning as she set her composition book down beside the three lunches.

"Deal!"

The two kids set to hunting for the coolest rock amongst the gravel walkways between the fence and the grass and the playground, staying close enough to each other to keep talking, but not so close that they kept hunting over the same patches of rock. They didn't look up from their mission until the shrill ringing of the bell sang out through the yard.

"Find anything cool?"

Violet frowned and held up her collection of findings. Mostly grey. Some had little bits of minerals in them that made them sparkle, but none were particularly exciting.

"Not really. You?"

"I found this." Buddy held up a rock so smooth, it looked like it had been polished and so blue, it looked like it had been painted. Violet knew it hadn't; she could see the minerals sparkling through the outside. That was just what it looked like.

"I bet that rock's magic!" She murmured, taking it from him to look over.

"You can have it, if you wanna," Buddy murmured, looking at the ground shyly. Violet blushed for herself as he said it. She discarded her own collection and slid it into her pocket.

"It's the nicest gift ever, Buddy, thank you."

Buddy could only grin, feeling incredibly pleased with himself. In a household with three siblings, all of whom had an incredible head start on him, it was tricky to get praise of his own that wasn't followed with a story of how 'Larry did this when he was your age' or 'remember when Travis got an award for doing this?'. But the nicest gift ever? That was his accomplishment. Making friends with the really nice girl who had hair that was the colour of carrots? All his. 

~

The two of them stuck close to each other that morning. They didn't talk too much (couldn't let other kids hear them say anything) unless they were alone. Which, in the case of their school, meant that the first occasion they had for semi-alone time was the cafeteria. Kindergarteners ate last out of the whole school, since there were more of them than students in any other grade, but it also meant that there weren't quite enough kids to fill the entire cafeteria. It left a table in the back empty except for the shrimpy boy with the large glasses and the girl with the long red pigtails. 

They didn't say much as they emptied their lunch bags onto the table. There wasn't much, but lunches hadn't been all too big ever since the war started, or so their parents said. Buddy didn't remember when the war started; only the jokes that it was his birthday that caused the war to start (it wasn't his fault that it started six days before he turned three) and the murmurs of worry that it might still be going on long enough for Larry and even for Travis to have to go and fight. He pulled out a bologna sandwich with mustard and a small baggie of baby carrots from the bag, glancing back and forth at each before deciding to start with the carrots.

Violet's family wasn't particularly concerned about the war. They were worried for the troops, of course, but her father was getting on in years and far too skilled of a surgeon to get drafted and Vince wasn't even six yet. There were no cousins to worry about; only sons of neighbours. Violet heard her parents discuss the war from time to time when particularly bad news came in, but it wasn't a constant storm cloud over the household, nor did it impact their lives too heavily. Some foods were rationed and others had gotten too expensive to buy every day, but that was the extent of it. She, in turn, pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a hard-boiled egg and the motherload of all school lunches: a little dish of chocolate pudding. 

Buddy couldn't help but be jealous of the pudding. His family wasn't poor by any means, but they certainly weren't rich enough to buy pudding powder for school lunches. Violet glanced up just quickly enough to catch him staring down the little plastic dish. 

"D'you want some?"

Buddy looked down at his lap in embarrassment before nodding slowly.

"We'll split it. You gave me the magic rock, so I'll give you half my pudding. Deal?"

The offer perked him right up.

"You mean it?"

"'Course. You're my best friend, after all." Violet couldn't deny that she felt a little shy admitting the second part. What if he didn't want her as a best friend and dumped her aside when he found better friends? 

Buddy, on his part, couldn't be happier with the admittance. 

"You mean it?"

"Only best friends give each other magic rocks an' pudding, right?"

"I guess."

"So we're best friends. An' as long as I have the magic rock an' you share my pudding, we'll be best friends forever."