Austen sometimes struggles with feeling caution and uncomfortable when she first enters a situation. Even when at a party at a friend’s house, you see her standing around quietly for the first ten minutes before she starts partying like her wild self.
Her tendency to need a warmup period and to start slow causes her to cling to the people she’s familiar with. She gravitates towards the friends she’s known since she was 6 months old. Her preschool teacher insists that she is friendly with all the kids, but Mommy worries when she seems flustered upon first entering the crowded classroom. She always looks for Jack, who’s her oldest friend in the class.