The Guadalupe River creek ran low that summer, gurgling against Aurelia's ankles. The chubby fifth-grader found the cool water mildly comforting in July's oppressive heat. Sunlight filtered through the arroyo willows overhead, dappling her blue-and-white striped t-shirt and rolled-up sweatpants. The Japanese word for this, komorebi, encapsulated her malaise in a way an English translation could not. 
At that moment, Aurelia Ehrenberg had been wishing her t-shirt had pinstripes instead of horizontal bars. It was bad enough that pit stains had blossomed under her sleeves, she was conscious of the fact that she had overreacted to Colby's teasing and should not have left the party without telling anyone. But part of her had hoped the boy she loved would've run after her. Aurelia had requested two hamburgers and hot dogs from Mr. Vanderwal who had rented an entire food truck for the occasion. There was nothing wrong with wanting both, she reasoned, as there had been plenty of food to go around. Only Colby, whose birthday party she had been attending, could make her feel this ashamed for being hungry. 
"Would you look at all those calories," he had remarked, watching her double-fist ketchup and mustard onto her hamburgers and hot dogs respectively. "You could at least lay off the extra buns, darling. Those carbs won't do you any favors." 
That simple comment had knocked all the wind out of her as she waddled away, though not quickly. For how thick her legs were, they trundled like the rusty Tin Man unable to fully bend at the joints. Slightly duck-footed, Aurelia could not run properly. Not for the 100-yard dash during P.E. Not after a base kick in kickball, in which she was promptly tagged while hoofing 180 pounds of weight. Not even if a raging axe-murderer was chasing her. And for that, she was reliably picked last in team sports. 
But the entreating voice that called Aurelia through the din of cicadas knew where she'd be. Bakari Singleton, the boy who'd been her friend for as long as she could remember, crunched through the undergrowth and found her knee-deep in the cloudy creek. 
"You shouldn't be here," Bakari said. "Colby's about to open his presents. Everyone's wondering where you are." 
"Colby doesn't want me there," Aurelia said. "He thinks I'm... I'm..." 
"Regardless," Bakari cut her off, "I know he'd want you there when he opens your present." 
"How would you know? Bet he just wants another reason to tease me." 
Bakari set aside his sandals and waded into the stream, accidentally splashing his basketball shorts in the process. He placed both hands on her shoulders, staring directly at her with his brown, cow-like eyes. 
"Remember how flattered you were to be invited? And you saved your allowance for months to splurge on his present, so I know you won't want to miss his reaction." 
Aurelia blinked back the tears knowing her friend was right. She allowed Bakari to pull her out of the creek and back toward the picnic tables where Colby and the rest of their male classmates were gathered. 
Before school let out last month, they had been silently reading in Mrs. Gupta's class when Colby Vanderwal got up and began ostensibly handing out invitations to all the boys while the girls looked askance, scandalized to not be included. Aurelia thought she'd been passed over as well. She had always known she was a nobody until Colby sought her out in the library on their last day of school to hand her the cotton rag envelope sealed in wax. The letterhead even bore the flower-thingy of his family crest. Paralyzed, she couldn't fathom why she'd been invited to his birthday party except that their parents knew each other, and Mr. Vanderwal must've insisted he invite her. 
"Finally," Colby said as Aurelia and Bakari resumed their seats among the cornucopia of presents. "You were gone so long I was about to come looking for you." 
"Really?" Aurelia asked, though her voice came out too high and squeaky. 
"No, but I'm still glad you made it," Colby deadpanned. 
One by one, Colby opened the dozens of presents lying on the table. They were typical of what an eleven-year-old boy would want: gadgets, peripherals for his Alienware PC, gift cards to various stores at Valley Fair, etc. Bakari had given him a San Francisco Giants cap which Colby immediately placed on the crown of his tawny-blonde hair. 
When he reached the large box from Aurelia, he pumped his forearms a few times as if to weigh it. 
"This one's nicely wrapped. And hefty, too," he said coyly. "Do I detect a woman's touch?" 
It was actually Bakari's mom Yukari who had wrapped the present at their Japanese bilingual program since Aurelia didn't know how, and she felt her heart racing as Colby unwrapped it with dab hands, treating the paper like gold. She watched intently as the edges of his lips curled into a grin. 
"Huh, a chess set," he said cooly. "I s'pose you can never have too many. Thanks, Aurelia. You knew I was the New South Wales champion, didn't you?" 
Aurelia felt dizzy that Colby had identified her gift so easily. The chess set with its walnut-and-maple pieces had appealed to her sense of fun, which seemed a good enough reason to give Colby one in real life. For someone who'd only immigrated from Australia six months ago, he'd risen to the top of the social hierarchy at Van Meter Elementary School in an astonishingly short amount of time. Thus, she hoped chess would become a good pretext to hang out with him as they entered Fisher Middle School next month. 
"I d-didn't know," Aurelia stammered, "b-but I thought m-maybe you'd p-play me sometime?" 
"Sure, why not. I'll have my people contact your people. It's a date." 
Aurelia lifted her head a fraction, chancing a peek at Colby's hazel eyes to gauge his sincerity. They seemed to twinkle the more he smiled, dimples forming on his rosy cheeks. Standing up, he reached across the table to shake her pudgy hand with his warm, princely ones. 
"You don't have to be shy, darling. Why do you think no other girls are here? It's because I knew when I first saw you, you're the only one I wanted to play with." 
Aurelia swooned, a stomach full of butterflies. She had never been so happy to be noticed as she did right then.