Daniel turned around as he heard the door opening. His heart was nowhere near calm, and it didn’t calm down at the sight of Noah in the door, either. The need to punch something grew significantly stronger. He stared at Noah from the other side of the room and cursed himself for ever befriending him all those years ago.

                                                             ***

Daniel got adopted by the Philips’ just before the summer. That meant they had the whole summer before Daniel would have to start school. He would theoretically start second grade in the fall, but his mom was never really too concerned about Daniel going to school, so Alice and Nathan decided it would be best for him to start first grade, so he would catch up on what he had lost due to the moving between schools when he was in foster care.

They had spent the summer getting to know each other better, and Daniel quickly felt at home in his new home. It didn’t take too long before he let out a sleepy “good night mom” one night and after that, ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ grew more and more natural for the three of them. They had especially spent a lot of time in the park near where they lived. Alice would take Loki – a 40 kg Rottweiler – on a walk around the park and Daniel and Nathan would play football, Daniel shooting at Nathan in goal. Then Daniel would tackle Nathan and he would fall over, and when they were both down he would tickle Daniel until he cried from laughter and had problem breathing. Daniel loved it.

One time they were in the park – right before school started – Daniel and Nathan were kicking the ball between them while Alice was sitting on a bench with Loki, watching the two of them. Nathan had kicked the ball a bit too hard and it passed Daniel and rolled away. Daniel ran after the ball and found it at the feet of another boy.

“Do you want to play?” Daniel asked, as he picked up the ball. The other boy nodded and the two of them ran back to Nathan. “I’m Daniel”, he said.

“I’m Noah”, the other boy said and smiled. “Is that your dad?” he asked and pointed at Nathan. Daniel nodded as he kicked the ball. Nathan smiled to himself, still not entirely used to being referred to as ‘dad’ by someone else. “He’s young”, Noah stated as he kicked the ball back to Daniel.

“Really? I think he’s old”, Daniel said without hesitation. The smile fell from Nathan’s face.

“You two good here?” he asked. When they both yelled ‘yes’ he walked over to join Alice on the bench – it wasn’t as if he was included in the game anyways.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Alice asked as he sat down with a frown on his face.

“He just called me old”, he said baffled. “You think this is funny?” he said as Alice started to laugh.

“You’re not old, babe. He’s just a kid!” she said.

“Excuse me, is that your kid over there?” a woman on the bench next to them asked, pointing at Daniel and Noah playing.

“Yeah, Daniel”, Alice said.

“Hi, I’m Deborah. I’m Noah’s mother” the other woman said and shook their hands. “How old is he?” she asked.

“Just turned seven.”

“And, uh, can I ask how old he two of you are?” she asked, a little embarrassed.

“I’m 25, and he’s 27”, Alice said. “He’s adopted”, she added, when she saw the look on Deborah’s face. “We’re not some ‘teenage knock up’s’” she said with a laugh.

“Well it’s none of my business anyways. I didn’t mean to pry”, Deborah said.

“It’s fine. We’re pretty used to getting some looks”, Nathan said with a shrug. “Anyway, how old is Noah?”

“He’ll turn six this fall”, she said. “He’s so excited to start first grade.”

“Yeah, I know how it is. Daniel is super excited. He is also starting first grade. He’s had some…difficulties this last year”, Alice said. They kept talking as they watched Daniel and Noah play.

When school started, the two of them ended up in the same class. They only lived a couple of blocks away from each other, and they had been best friends since that day in the park.

                                                            ***