Teenage Woes

My daughter Alli is as friendly and outgoing as I'm reserved and careful in social settings. A month ago we went to a friend's house for a game night. There was a boy there--one that Alli and her friend Livi have known since they were born. For some reason, on this particular occasion, this boy was the object of much admiration, causing Alli and her friend to compete for his attention. Did I mention that my daughter is 4? Anywho, Alli didn't do well in the standoff, and Nathan, the man of the hour, let Livi hold his hand instead of Alli. I would feel for Alli, except that by the end of the night Alli and Livi were exchanging Valentines while Nathan languished. Neither one of them would give the poor boy the time of day. I'm sure he can glean some life lessons from the experience.
You would think that the incident ended there, due to the age of the participants and the obvious lack of 4 year old social capitol. They don't exactly have the capacity to understand complex relationship dynamics. Or do they?
A few weeks later, Alli and I were playing dolls in the playroom. She stopped playing and said to me, in all seriousness: "I will never forget the night when I was disgraced by Nathan." After collecting myself, I tried to reassure her that Nathan was just "silly" that night.
She wasn't buying it. "He doesn't like me," she said, like the world was about to stop mid-rotation.
"That's not true. The next time you play, I'm sure everything will be fine," I said, wondering if I was dreaming in teenage land and needed to wake myself up.
Then came the funniest sentence Alli has ever uttered. It was: "But if he sees Livi, he'll feel a special attraction to her, and he won't know that I'm special."
I told her that I thought she was special, and she said, "Thanks, mom, that makes me feel happy."
So there you have it. My four year old is an old soul.