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They were once just two children, free of problems and strife which came coupled with the inevitability of growth; Children who met every once in a while in a park they would gradually begin to desert with flowing age.
Wesley Kim had just been at the ripe age of 5 when she met Carter Volkov.
They had been at this park—which at the time had just been freshly opened after two years of renovation from the former old, bleak, and empty one—where Wesley had been swaying on the swing, her little legs barely able to touch the ground as she kicked them around, trying to gain momentum. Carter appeared right about now, hand tucked within his mother's as he appraised the newly built park in awe.
He couldn't help but compare it to the tiny playground area at his kindergarten, and all he could think was that this one was a bazillion times better. There were four slides—two flat ones that sloped down from an elevated platform one could get up from a colourful ladder behind, and another two which were like tunnels, windy and twisty, just as appealing as the other slides around, but definitely not the slides at his school.
He looked up at his mum, tugging her arm eagerly and she looked down at him with a smile only mothers could imitate so affectionately. A small chuckle slipped from her lips as she bent down to Carter's height, holding his shoulders as if he were about to receive some secret information from the government, or something. He was enthralled.
"You can go play." She reached up to ruffle his towhead hair. "But I want you to remember, this playground is for everyone and you have to be nice, okay? Everyone has got their own turns to take."
Carter giggled, pushing his mum's hand off his head. "Mummy, I know. I know. I will be fair."
"That's my good boy." She smiled again and stood up, giving him a small encouraging push on his back that he didn't even need.
He scrambled off into the playground where myriads of other children he'd never seen before were around. Even though he had his eyes fixated on the slides earlier, he wanted to play on the swings first. He wanted to swing as high as he could, touch the sky with his toes and look at everyone fleetingly at the height four times of his.
Luckily, there was a vacant swing when he reached there.
It was next to another girl, around the same age as him, who had her light brown head of hair tied into pigtails at the base of her head. She looked bored, a complete contrast to everyone else at the park, including Carter, who was teeming in excitement. Her pale hand was wrapped around the chain of the swing, her head leaning on it as her disinterested eyes skimmed the vicinity of the park with no clear destination to stop at.
As Carter sat on the blue seat of the swing next to her, he began to kick his legs, like she was, and he somehow had managed to get more momentum than her, and was swinging, although it was very wobbly. He glanced at her as he swung and waited for his swing to stop moving before he decided to talk.
"Do you want me to push you?" He asked her, and when she didn't look, he cleared his throat, looking down at the toes of his shoes.
"What?" her voice squeaked. Though it was soft, the attitude showed through it and she sounded like she was mad, but at nothing in particular. Just mad.
"I can help push you." He rephrased his earlier words and, as if it weren't obvious enough already, he pointed to his own swing.
She looked at him, with narrowed eyes and a slightly upturned nose. "Don't push me off."
"I won't." Carter grinned, hopping off of his seat to go behind her, he pushed with all of his might to get her swinging, and it was nothing like what his swinging experience was; it was a steady sway and Carter was glad he was able to produce such a nice movement. He pushed her until she was tired of being on the swings and wanted to go home, content with just being able to make someone swing something so smoothly.
Before the girl could run off to her mum, Carter asked her for her name and she gave it impatiently, bouncing on her toes and ready to leave.
"Wesley." She mumbled out, turning to leave.
"Mine's Carter." He said, then shouted the next line because she was getting farther and farther away. "It was nice meeting you, Wesley!"
Wesley didn't once turn back, actually began to run towards a woman Carter assumed was her mum, but he was okay with it. He was happy he made someone swing, even though it hadn't been himself.
