Mal scrambled high into the tree, watching his fellow seven year olds head for the playground. He didn't particularly like them, they made fun of his name. A lot. Eth had said she'd beat the snot out of anyone who so much as laughed at her name, which got her a lecture from Mom, Dad, and her teacher, so he'd learned fast that hitting the other kids wasn't an option. Neither was Kage's way, which was to smile and tell her classmates it was okay that they thought her name was weird because theirs were stupid. Mom and Dad had been called in to talk to her teacher, too. So Mal just avoided his classmates.
He pulled out his plastic recorder and started playing quietly. The piano was too big to take anywhere, so his father had given him the recorder and sometimes the music teacher let him play the piano because he wouldn't bang on it.
"Hey." Mal almost fell out of the tree, but a hand steadied him. Grey eyes shone merrily and the dark haired boy hauled himself up from the branch below. "What'cha doin'?"
"Playin'." Mal held up the recorder.
"Huh. So're we." The other boy pointed to where more boys were standing in a loose circle by the track. "We're racing. I thought you might want to come play, too."
"Why?" Mal was confused. He was just the kid with the white hair and the strange name.
It was the other boy's turn to look confused. "Why not?" Mal can't come up with a reason, so the boy grins. "C'mon, it'll be fun. My name's Evan."
"I'm Malice." He winced a little, waiting for the expected laughing.
It didn't come. "Cool," Evan said. "Never heard that one before."
"My sisters call me Mal." Eth and Kage had said if he ever found a nice person who didn't make fun of his name, then they could use the nickname.
Evan grinned. "Cool. Let's be friends, Mal, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, he began tugging Mal's arm. "C'mon, they're starting!"
The other boys found out that while Mal had a weird name and different-colored hair, he and the new boy were still the fastest in the class. When Mal told his family, Mom smiled and congratulated him on making a friend. Dad asked about the races. Kage and Ethuil didn't say anything, because they already knew. They were scary like that.
~
Malice meets more people and makes more friends after Evan, but only a few meetings really stand out.
There was Brandon, a quiet blond that the adults just loved. He simply showed up on the playground one day and Mal befriended him in much the same way Evan had done with him- Hey, let's be friends.
After that had come Justice, a boy two years older than them who had lived in the area as long as Mal, but they hadn't had much in common until Brandon came along. Justice, wanting to show off his new self-defense from his karate classes, told Brandon to punch so he could block it. The eight year old punched- and went straight through Justice's guard and got him in the stomach. Evan hovered, worried that Justice would hit Brandon, but Mal, too used to having sisters, grinned and congratulated Brandon, "even though, you know, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean for you to hit him that hard". Surprisingly, Justice more or less adopted Brandon, and was by proxy adopted into their odd group.
Jessica was next at ten. Mal met her at the principal's office- him for being overenthusiastic with his volcano science project, her because she was correcting her teacher on his talk about evolution. "He's wrong," she said offhandedly. "Because if we came from monkeys, then that means God looks like a monkey, and really, if we were made in His image, then I'd imagine He'd like us to stay that way."
Mal really couldn't argue with that kind of logic, especially since he thought evolution was pretty stupid too. "Different people believe different things," he offered. "Just because we're right and they're not doesn't mean you should be mean at them about it."
The pigtailed girl thought for a moment. "There's no commandment for that."
"No," he agreed. "But it's common sense."
There were Daniel and Hannah, twins he met in middle school who the triplets had to fight for control of Beta Club. Mina was with him the day he, Evan, and Brandon blew up the chemistry lab his freshman year, and Justice swears up and down she must have switched out some of the ingredients to do that, since he just had that class the year before (they ended up going out).  Then John, who was an Air Force brat and was really smart even though he looked like a slacker.
True to form in a mostly military town, the people moved, faces came and went.  Jessica moved away the day after they finished sixth grade, and Daniel and Hannah went to a school for the gifted in upstate New York right after eighth grade.  John had only been in their high school for a semester, and Mina's family got orders to move right before their senior year("The new kid again in senior year," Evan had said, shaking his head. "Bummer."). Justice had been gone for a year by then, choosing to enlist in the Air Force, and Brandon had mentioned wanting to go the same way, but his father insisted he finish college first.
"It's not too bad," Mal had tried to console him. "Who knows, you might even get stationed together."
At the end of the day, Evan is the only one who is there all along, surprising since both came from Navy families. Mal, now days shy of eighteen, leans over the bridge in the park. A thin layer of ice covers the pond, and it'll be a month at least before the ice is thick enough to skate on unless they get a sudden cold front. Evan is sitting with his back to the railing, trying to sketch out the skyline in the fading light. "Hey, Evan?"
The dark haired teen looks up questioningly. He's a little shorter than Mal now, but muscled, and is more than competent on the football teams(both American and soccer). "Yeah?"
Mal grins a little sheepishly, the tips of his ears going pink under his cap. "Thanks for being my best friend."
Evan smiles broadly and raps Mal's knee with his fist lightly. "Hey. First, last, and always."
"You said it." Mal ruffles Evan's hair and takes off running. "C'mon, I wanna make some gingerbread!"
"You are such a girl, Malice!" Evan calls, but stands and quickly catches up. "You don't even know how to make gingerbread."
"No," Mal concedes, "but Mom does. I figure I can get her to make it and reap the benefits."
Evan laughs. "Race you there."
It's a tie.