• The small girls entire body trembled slightly as she looked at the unfamiliar building. Was she scared of being in the building, or of its intimidating appearance? No, her school was bigger. The boy standing next to her gave her hand a sqeeze and said softly “you don’t need to do this” he held her close, but she shook her head.
    “im going in there, I havent given up- I still need to do this” he held her nervous body tighter to him. “I love you” he whispered.
    “and if you need to do this, im right here with you” she smiled slightly and squeezed his hand before walking into the building. Looking at the walls.
    “think about it love- if I hadnt moved- I wouldn’t be a panther, and I wouldn’t know you” that’s when she caught sight of the buildings mascot and chuckled “the irony” of course there was their panther on the wall. They were panthers too-. He held her even tighter, that’s when she saw the mats on the ground, and smiled “I need to show you something” childish playfulness flashed in her eyes; before climbing onto the bleechers and jumping backwards onto the mat, doing a few fancy flips she improvised on her way down. Then hit the mat with a thud.
    “honey- you are adorable” he laughed “don’t do that again or youll be adorable with a broken neck” then he scooped her up and held her against him. “lets go?” she smiled, the more he held her the better she felt about being here. About sharing the expirience with him.
    Within ten minutes she had wandered into another unfamiliar room, to an unfamiliar teacher who simply smiled and asked she would please go elsewhere if she was going to wander so that SHE couldn’t get in trouble for their pressance, she knodded and quickly whispered “do you know where the middleschool is”
    “you are awful big middleschoolers” she answered
    “im visiting.”
    “fine, down the hall, don’t get in the way”
    “thank you,” she mumbled in response, of course her love gave her a ‘don’t worry about the lady with a stick up her bum’ look and smiled at her. The tighter he held her, the more she knew this was right. From there they entered the middleschool. A few teachers stopped “are you Isa’s sister?” they would ask her, of course but was the family resemblance so uncanny that total strangers know her sister so well they know her? She smiled and would answer the usual “they are fine” and “im sure they miss you too” before moving onto the main event, the elementary school- the one she did know. She looked at her boyfriend with tears in her eyes. Whispering “I need to see the garden” the garden wasn’t some amazing gorgeous garden. It was a few trees and some flowers, but to a small child, that is a whole world. She held on her love’s hand as if the jaws of life would need to pry them apart and entered the outskirts of the building. She pointed saying things like “that was my locker” and “this was where I had preschool” but she knew they werent all the same, the rooms changed as the people did, and the old people were long gone. That’s when she got to the garden. She saw a little boy, almost identical to her elementary school friend. Sitting on a hopscotch court. “they- paved over the garden” she whispered as she started to cry.
    “sweetheart- it was a long time ago- maybe it wasn’t even there?” he held her, rubbing her shoulders and her back as soon as she burried a damp face on his shoulder. “noone will have doupleganger memories” he whispered “its your world now, and only you know what its like… its your secret” then he whispered in her ear “but you can share the world with me on the ride home.”