Prologue
PROLOGUE
WILDER
When I was five, life was simple. My dad had just moved us to Guam thanks to his boss. The U.S. Navy didn’t care that I had to leave my friends behind. They needed my dad to move to some island in the middle of the ocean, far away from everyone I knew. I wouldn’t even get to see my grandma and grandpa for years and years and years. It wasn’t fair.
“Hey, are you moving in? Are you?”
I spun around, my red fire truck clutched in my arms and digging into my skin. I might have held my toy a little tighter…and maybe my breath. “Huh?” I grunted when I found a little boy standing there, staring at me, a big grin showing off his missing teeth. He was drastically different than me. His hair was bright red and curly, while mine was dark and straight. And he stood a little shorter than me, but that could have been the uneven sidewalk we were both standing on.
“You. Are you moving in? Because if you are, I am too. We can be best friends. My mommy and daddy just moved here last week. We have a pawk over there.” He pointed down the street behind me. “We moved here from Fwowida. Where did you come fwom?”
“San…San Diego,” I muttered quietly. This boy was strange and like no one I’d ever met.
“Awedome! You can be my new best fwiend! I’m Micah.”
“I’m Wilder.”
“Wilder? That is a funny name. But I wike it! We are going to be best fwiends!”
Before I knew it, Micah had steamrolled into my life, and, like he predicted, we had become best friends. We were next-door neighbors, started kindergarten together, and were practically inseparable. It was amazing. Until it wasn’t. Two years after I met my greatest friend, my dad was transferred somewhere else, and while military brats always say they will keep in touch and that we will be best friends forever, it never happens. You lose touch, friendships fall apart, and you move on with your life. Each new town brought a new adventure, and in order to survive, you had to leave the past in the past and start brand new. At seven, my heart broke when I said goodbye to Micah, gave him one tight squeeze, and climbed into the car that would take us to the airport, but this time, I left him my firetruck to keep him company since I would no longer be there.