A beam of sunlight shined brightly on the alphabet carpet, displaying lazy dust particles, fluttering and swirling in their inconsistent way.

Five year old Alec stared into it thoughtfully, one slightly pudgy hand was wrapped loosely around his Princess Leia eraser, the other in a firm fist. He sat this way for awhile and, finally, he broke out of his trance like state to look at Eliot…

Eliot, who like every other child (besides Alec) in the small class, was too busy coloring diligently, and seemed not to notice his friends quiet distress.

"Eliot?" Said a voice full of child-like innocence and caution.

"Hmm?" Eliot barely even looked up and continued his drawing of a…dog? Lion? Giraffe, maybe? Oh it didn't matter, this was kindergarten, and the adults would pat him 'Good Job' on the back anyway. Alec hadn't said anything yet so Eliot took the incentive and helpfully supplied,

"Is it 'bout girls? 'Cause I can help ya if it is." It was not unusual to find one of his male peers so asking something or other about this subject. I mean, he may only be five, but he was able to get over half of the girls in the class to give him all of their blue crayons…on his first day.

"Sort of…"

Eliot huffed and made an over dramatized sound of someone angry with the world. "Well go on then," He said, prompting Alec, using the I-haven't-got-all-day tone he heard his Daddy using on frequent occasion.

Poor Alec was only able to get a couple seconds worth of mumbling before an impatient Eliot broke in.

"Darn it Alec! You know I can't hear a dang thing you're sayin'!"

Giving as good as he got (attitude wise, of course), the dark skinned boy gave his own version of Eliot's exaggerated sigh and took a painfully slow time to scoot over to Eliot's crossed leg position.

"I said, how does one person tell another person that they…you know," he leaned closer to 'whisper' using his outside voice, "like 'em."

"That's easy!" Eliot said with a roll of his eyes, "They give 'em give presents. That's what my Daddy use to do."

"Oh…well what if that don't work?"

"Hmm…Well then they just tell 'em."

Alec sigh was full of let-down and disappointment, he let his head hang for a moment, then looked back at Eliot. With an air of hopelessness he asked,

"And if that don't work either?"

Realizing how much time he was wasting with talking to Alec, when he could be making more pictures of…whatever, he wasted no time coming up with a conclusion.

"Then that persons just plain stupid!"

Moments passed and Eliot went back to drawing, and Alec was once again looking into the sunbeam. He nodded his head, suddenly seeming sure of something. He turned to Eliot once more, this time leaning into the sunbeam, not caring that he sent the dust into a state of frenzy, and plopped a sloppy (not to mention loud) kiss on Eliot's Kentucky tanned cheek.

"Stupid."

'Cause, you know, he could live with that.