Crushed

Penny has her first crush.

If I'd thought about it, I would have realized it was probably coming -- I was five when I had my first crush, after all. (At least, that's what I'm told. I don't remember it, myself.)

I'm not counting Ray, who lives next door and is one of Penny's best friends, even though she's been saying for over a year that she plans to marry Ray when she grows up. She doesn't get fluttery about Ray. She is very definitely fluttery about Dominic.

Dominic is nine. (Ah, the appeal of the Sophisticated Older Man...) He has blonde hair and blue eyes. And he can dive off the diving board when they go to the pool on Thursdays. And do flips. Penny's very impressed by the flips.

Penny's friend Dylan also seems to have a bit of a crush on Dominic, and from what I can read between the lines, Dominic is perhaps not entirely unaware of their admiration, though at a loss as to what to do about it. ("He was like, 'Uhhhh, why do they like me?!'") I kind of feel sorry for him -- how embarrassing must it be, when you're in the fourth grade, to have a couple of first-graders tagging around after you making unsubtle (Penny is not good at subtle) cow-eyes?

We had this conversation on the way to daycare this morning:

"So why do you like Dominic, honey?"

"I don't like him, I love him!"

"Oh, sorry. Why do you love him, then?"

"Because he's soooo handsome!"

"Mm, I see. Is he nice?"

"Well, sometimes he's pretty silly."

"As long as he isn't mean."

"He's not mean. Mom! I wish, when we're at the pool and I'm drowning that Dominic would save me!"

"I wish you wouldn't drown at all."

"Mom!" (Translation: How am I supposed to enjoy a nice rescue fantasy if you're going to spoil the setup?!) "I love Dominic, but I'm not going to marry him."

"Oh, no?"

"No. Mom, don't tell Dominic that I love him!"

"I won't, I promise."

"...Why not?"

"Because you asked me not to."

"If you told him, he would be like, 'Uh...' He would think I wanted to marry him!"

"But you don't?"

"No. I'm going to marry Ray." (She is a girl of her word, I suppose.) "The other kids think love is gross."

"Sometimes kids are like that, honey."

"Why?"

"Probably because they're just embarrassed."

"They say kissing is gross, too."

"Kids are like that, too. Anyway, you shouldn't be kissing anyone at school, so it doesn't matter."

"Just Alex."

"Yeah, you can give Alex a kiss bye-bye in the morning."

"When you love someone, you want to marry them."

"Well, sometimes."

(pause) "Dominic can hold his breath and swim underwater!"

Ah, young romance...