First Love

I remember the first girl I ever fell heads over heels in love with. I was 6 years old then and had just moved to a new neighbourhood. I was a very shy kid and had a hard time making friends. Usually my sister or my mother would take me to a playground or someplace where I could make friends. On this occasion it happened to be my sister to whom this duty fell. My sister was the outgoing type and made friends easily. Soon after moving to the neighbourhood she already knew most of the kids that lived there. One evening she took me by the hand to meet her new friends.
When we reached all the kids were busy playing with a ball in a huge circle. The intent of the game was to throw the ball from one person to another and whoever the ball came to had to state his or her name aloud. It was kind of a getting to know you game since most of the kids there were new.

We joined the circle and the game went on. After a while it became apparent to me that no one was interested in throwing me the ball perhaps because they felt I was too young. I felt sad and left out. Soon after the ball went to a little girl who was my about my age. She was dark skinned, had short hair and a cute smile. She seemed very warm and friendly. She said her name was Lily. As she caught the ball she looked at me and smiled and I knew she wanted to throw the ball to me which she did. At that very moment I fell in love with her. Lily was a vivacious and lively girl and her outgoing personality appealed to me. She was also a little flirt and would love to flirt with us boys. This would often cause a lot of jealousy among us. I remember one time when a boy called Mickey came into the picture. Mickey was very good at dancing and Lily took a great deal of interest in him. In her flirtatious way she would proclaim that she would marry only Mickey one day. That really peeved me no end and jealousy raged thorugh my tiny being. I tried hard to learn to dance like Mickey but gave up on that as I wasn't very good at it. However I tried other ways to make her notice me. I was very good at sports and used to play
hockey and football both of which I was very good at. Lily would often sit near the playground and watch us play and applaud at our games. Whenever she would be nearby I would do my best to impress her. At one such occasion I fought off 5 defenders on the field and took the hockey ball single handedly and ferociously towards the goal and ended up scoring. I looked at Lily afterwards and it seemed she had hardly noticed but was busy talking to a friend. I was happy nonetheless at my clever goal.

I never did get around to getting over my shyness and getting close enough to Lily to be good friends with her. She remains a beautiful memory in my heart.