Two of the older girls glanced at me with shy smiles. A young boy, maybe ten years old, was bolder. He got up off the ground and ran toward me, a mop of dark brown hair falling into his eyes. Brushing his hair away from his face, he peered up at me with a huge grin. He was missing his two front teeth, and it only made him cuter.
“Hi!” he said.
“Hi, there.”
“Who are you?”
“Mia. Who are you?”
“Cameron. You can call me Cam. Did you know asparagus makes your pee smell funny?”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. As solemnly as I could, I answered, “I did know that.”
“He’s been telling everyone that fun little fact,” one of the older girls said, calling out from her spot under the tree.
“What happened to your arm?” Cam asked, gesturing to my cast.
“Oh, I tripped over a tree root.”
Cam’s brown eyes widened. “Really?”
I nodded. “I’m clumsy.”
The boy latched onto my uninjured hand and pulled me toward his friends. “Want to sit with us?”
“Sure,” I said, parking it on the grass and sitting on my haunches so my sundress hit my knees.
Because they were kids and naturally inquisitive, they asked me tons of questions without worrying if they were inappropriate. But they were adorable and full of energy, and before I knew it, we were all engaged in a game of tag and I wasIt.
Pretending to be out of breath and slow, I sank down to my knees. The youngest girl of the group—a little blond moppet named Lily who happened to be Cam’s sister—approached me.
“Help!” I panted. “I’m tired!”
The girl took another step toward me, coming within my reach. I attacked her with tickles, her shrieks of laughter loud and infectious.
“You’reIt!” I teased, standing up, brushing the grass off my knees. My dress was dirty, but I didn’t care.
“I don’t want to beIt,” she said. “I want a hotdog.”
“Me too,” I said. I held out my hand to her, and she clasped it. “Let’s go.” I looked at the other kids. “You guys hungry?”
There was a chorus of ‘yesses’ and then we were off for food. The gaggle of kids surrounded me. The older girls, who I learned were thirteen—Allison’s sister and her friend—were at that age where they thought adults weren’t cool. But they were excited to talk to me. Guess I didn’t scream adult to them. They asked me questions about clothes and makeup, and they brought me into their inner circle.
“Will you fix my hotdog for me?” Lily asked, scrambling up to take a seat on a picnic table bench.
Before I could answer, Darcy jumped in, “You don’t have to make her a hotdog. I can do that.”
“Ah, so Lily and Cam belong to you,” I said with a smile. Lily had Darcy’s nose, and their resemblance was easy to see once they were together.
“I claim them,” Darcy said, picking up a paper plate and filling it with a little bit of everything and a hotdog.
“Plain,” Lily reminded her.
Darcy set the plate down in front of Lily and then before the little girl could protest, Darcy had a paper napkin tucked into the front of Lily’s dress so she wouldn’t get food on herself. “I’m not a baby,” Lily muttered as Darcy moved on, fixing a plate for Cam.
I made my own paper bib and stuck it in the front of my dress. I winked at Lily who giggled. I procured myself a plate of food and was munching away, purposefully getting mustard all over my face to make Lily feel better.
“You’re messy!”