a/n: I do not own these characters I am just using them. Don't sue me =]
I started writing this story while I was listening to "Can't Let Go" from Landon Pigg.
r&r please =] criticism is welcome. It helps me become a better writer.
New Orleans- Summer of 1986
As little seven year old Anthony DiNozzo jr. sat on the front step of his house drinking a juice box he noticed people moving in next door. He curiously watched as he saw an older man and woman walk up the steps of their new home and hugged each other. He then noticed a little girl getting out of the car. She had long black hair, in pig tails, and dressed in a dark shirt and overalls. As her parents walked into the house, she noticed little Anthony sitting on his steps and quickly ran over to introduce herself.
"Hi! My names Abby, well it's really Abigail, but I hate my name so everyone calls me Abby. What's your name?" she said cheerfully.
"Go away you freak!" he said whilst throwing his juice box at her then ran inside his house.
Little Abby ran to her house with tears filling her beautiful green eyes.
"Abby, what's wrong?" her mother said as Abby ran into her arms.
"The b-boy next door…threw his j-juice box at me and c-called me a f-freak." she sobbed into her mothers shoulder.
"Well lets go over and have a talk with that boy and his mother."
She signed to her deaf husband that they would be back shortly.
Abby's mother grabbed Abby's little hand and began walking over to the DiNozzo residence.
"Ring the door bell, Sweetie."
"Yes?" a woman said as she opened the door.
"Hello, I'm Elizabeth Sciuto and this here is my daughter, Abby. We just moved in next door. Abby said that she came up to your son to introduce herself and in return he threw his juice box at her and called her a freak." she said while trying to be as polite as possible. "It hurt Abbys' feelings very much and I was wondering if your son came come out to apologize to her."
"I am very sorry that this happened, Mrs. Sciuto. Anthony doesn't understand that he has to be nice to girls. He learned that girls are icky from his older brother." she giggled.
"I understand that completely. I have a son who is seventeen and lives with his grandparents, but I remember when he went through that stage."
"I do apologize, where are my manners? I am Caroline DiNozzo. Please, come in." she opened the door to let them into the living room. "Please take a seat. Anthony and I will be with you shortly. May I get you two a glass of lemonade?"
"No, thank you." Mrs. Sciuto said while taking a seat on the couch.
"May I please have a glass?" Abby said quietly and politely as she sat down next to her mother.
"Of course."
They waited about five minutes before Mrs. DiNozzo came back with Abby's glass of lemonade and Anthony in hand.
"Here is your lemonade, Abby." Mrs. DiNozzo said while handing her the glass.
"Thank you, Mrs. DiNozzo."
"Of course, Sweetie, anytime."
She looked over at Anthony with a stern face. "Anthony, take a seat next to Abby please."
As he walked over and sat next to Abby all he could do was keep his eyes on the floor.
"Anthony. I heard what you did to Abby. That is not how you treat a girl or anyone for that matter. That is just rude and disrespectful. You know you have been raised better than that. Now I want you to turn to Abby and give her your deepest apologies." his mother said firmly.
He turned and looked up at Abby then back at his mother.
"Go on, Anthony."
"I'm sorry, Abby." he said quietly.
"what are you sorry for, Anthony? And speak up."
"I'm sorry for throwing my juice box at you and calling you a mean name"
"and what was that mean name, Anthony?"
"freak." he said in almost a whisper.
"now apologize correctly."
Tony let out a deep sigh.
"I'm sorry for throwing my juice box at you and called you a freak."
"Now, Abby, since he apologized, what is it that you say?" Abby's mother said while turning to her.
"Apology is accepted and all is forgotten." she said happily.
"And why is it all forgotten?" her mother said while smiling proudly at her little girl.
"Because it's better to forgive then to hold a grudge."
Tony looked up at his mother in confusion.
"Mom, what's a grudge?"
"A grudge is when you're mad at someone for a long time" Abby said while getting off the couch. "Mrs. DiNozzo, where do I put the glass now that I'm finished?"
She smiled at how adorable and polite Abby was.
"Just hand it to me, Sweetie. I'll take care of it."
Once Abby handed her the glass she turned to Anthony.
"You have any toys to play with?" Abby said curiously.
"I don't have Barbies." Tony said while getting off of the couch.
"Ew! Barbies are gross. I like G.I Joe!"
Anthony smiled and shouted, "I like G.I Joe, too! Wanna play?"
"Sure!" Abby yelled happily.
As the kids both turned around to go play outside with G.I Joe, Mrs. DiNozzo called out for Anthony.
"Anthony, where do you think you are going?"
"Outside to play G.I Joe with Abby." he said excitingly.
"You are punished for what you did today. One week."
"Awww man!" both children said as they walked back toward the living room.
"Abby, we need to start unpacking. Once it's ok with Anthony's mom, you two can play G.I Joe all you want." her mother said to her while patting her back lightly.
"Alright, Mommy. See ya later, Anthony." Abby said while walking toward the front door with her mother.
"See ya!"
One Week Later
Abby was outside riding her bike on the sidewalk when she heard her name called. She stopped and turned to see who it was. It was Anthony trying to catch up.
"Hey Abby, whats up?"
"Just riding my bike up and down the street. Want to ride with me?"
"sure."
As they rode their bikes up and down the street they began talking about things they liked and things they didn't like. One common interest made Anthony very happy.
"You like "Magnum P.I", too?!" he shouted while breaking.
"Yeah. I think it's awesome." Abby said while turning her bike around to face him.
"how about "Mighty Mouse"?"
"I…LOVE MIGHTY MOUSE!" she yelled.
Tony laughed at held up his hand. "high five!"
They high five each other then began riding their bikes again.
"Want to come over my house and listen to some records?" Abby said while putting the kickstand on her bike in front of her house.
"What kind of records?"
"The Beatles."
"I never listened to them. My mom and dad listen to Frank Sinatra, a lot."
Abby opened her mouth widely then fell on the grass pretending to pass out.
"You have never listened to The Beatles?!"
"nope…" he said while feeling embarrassed.
"Come on!" she said while pulling him into her house.
While they sat down in Abby's room eating "Pop Rocks" ,they listened to The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour" record.
"Wow, I like The Beatles! They're cool!" Anthony said while eating more "Pop Rocks".
" I know! My mom loves The Beatles. She says that when I was in her tummy she would play this record and I would dance a lot."
"That's so awesome!" he said in amazement.
"Wanna be my best friend?" she said while getting up to get more candy.
"yeah!"
"ok, well now that you're my best friend I'm calling you, Tony. I like it better than Anthony."
"Alright. I like that… Tony DiNozzo…" he said while sitting against her bed thinking about it.
She sat down next to him and handed him another pack of the rock candy while continuing to listen to the album.
After that day they were inseparable. They always ate lunch together, played at recess together and since they had all their classes together they always sat next to each other. Nothing or no one could ever tear them apart. For nine years they were as close as best friends could get. They were always there for one another no matter what the situation and they always seemed to know the other one better than the back of their own hand.
That all changed once Tony made the basketball and the football team. Abby was always a strange yet friendly girl who had many friends, but Tony was her best friend. Now that Tony was a jock he only hung out with them and rarely saw or hung out with Abby.
1995- High school cafeteria
One day at lunch, Abby was sitting with her punk friend, Ashley. As they were discussing their chemistry homework, a few Sloppy Joe's flew threw the air and landed all over Abby, Ashley and their books.
"What the fuck is your problem!" Ashley yelled while getting up quickly to get the meat sauce off of her.
The jock table immediately started laughing. When Abby looked over at the table she noticed that Tony wasn't there.
"You think you're so fucking cute. You losers haven't won a fucking game since '93 so flake off!"
That's when the team became quiet and grew angry.
"Come on, Ash. Let's go clean up before the bell rings." Abby said while grabbing her books and began walking to the bathroom.
As the girls grabbed their books and walked toward the bathroom, they heard one of the jocks yell at them.
"That's right! Take a hike you fucking freaks!" he said as the rest of the table joined him in laughter.
"What's everyone laughing at?" Tony said while walking up to his jock table.
"Those fucking goth freaks. We nailed them with Sloppy Joe's, dude." The buff blonde jock said while taking a big bite into his sandwich.
"oh really?" Tony said while trying to sound enthusiastic.
"Yeah, man. You should have seen it. One of them just jumped up and freaked out then they left."
"Aw, man. It sucks I missed it." he said while trying to sound disappointed..
"It's alright, T-man. We'll get them another time." Bill the quarterback said while biting into his burger.
Later at Abby's House
Her house became very quiet since her mother passed of breast cancer. She has been trying to stay positive for her father, but he's been very depressed since his wife's death. Abby not only loved her mother because it was her mother, but she became Abby's best friend.
(Dad, what would you like to eat for dinner tonight?) she signed to her father.
(nothing, sweetheart. I'm not hungry.)
She sighed.
(Daddy, you have to eat something. It's not healthy for you to skip meals)
(I'm fine, Abigail. I will get something when I am hungry)
She walked over to her father and kissed him on the cheek then hugged him tightly.
"I miss mom, too, Dad." she said to her father so that he could read her lips.
He sighed.
(Go eat then finish up your schoolwork) he signed followed by kissing her head.
Later on that night Ashley called.
"Hey, did you manage to get the rest of the meat sauce out of your hair?"
"Yeah, I did. After washing it about four times." Abby giggled while writing down an answer to her chemistry homework.
"I still have yet to get it all out! It's so annoying!…so are you doing advanced chem or advanced algebra right now?"
"Chem."
"How long have you been doing it for?"
"About two hours now."
"I just finished, I worked on that for three hours tonight. So ridiculous."
"Tell me about it." Abby laughed while skimming through her book looking for another answer to a question.
They continued talking for a while on the phone before Abby had to put her on hold for a second.
"Could you hold on? Macho Macho men are being extremely noisy outside right now." she said annoyingly.
"Dropping off Tony I assume?"
"You bet. Hold on."
Abby got up to close her window. As she closed it half way she heard one of the jocks in the car yell out something to her.
"Hey, Goth freak! We making too much noise? Not like daddy can hear us anyway!" he laughed followed by the others.
Before she closed her window all the way, she looked at all the jocks in the Suzuki Samurai, she noticed that Tony was sitting in the front seat about to get out and he didn't even say a word to defend her.
"Can I call you back? I've had it with those fucking jocks and Tony not standing up for me." she said angrily.
"of course! Call me back and tell me everything!"
She hung up her phone, grabbed her sweater, grabbed a picture from her desk and walked outside.
The jocks were about to drive off when they noticed Abby walking up toward Tony.
She slapped him across the face.
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Tony!" she screamed at him.
He stayed silent.
"We've been or at least we were best friends since we were seven years old. We knew one another better than we knew our own selves! We were inseparable! I told you everything! I was there for you when your parents went through that nasty divorce!" she began to cry.
" I was there when your dog died when we were eleven and you cried for hours on my shoulder! I was there when Michelle Johnson broke your fucking heart and you were a fucking wreck! I was there! You weren't there for me when my mom died! You weren't there when I got my heart broken by Chris Franklin six months ago! You don't even defend me when these fucking meat heads offend me!" she put a picture of her and him ,when they were about ten, in his face then ripped it in half. "This means shit now! Fuck you, Tony! Have a nice fucking life, ass hole!"
She walked back into her house to leave Tony and his jock friends there stunned at what just happened.
"Dude, that was not fucking cool…" the buff blonde jock said angrily. "she jus fucking disrespected you like that, man. Fuck that. She has another thing coming to her."
"Just leave it alone. Just leave her alone. I'll see you guys tomorrow…" Tony said while picking up the ripped picture and putting it in his pocket then walked into his house.
"We have to do something, man." the buff blonde jock said frustratingly.
"Don't worry, she'll get what's coming to her. Just leave it up to me." Bill the quarterback said while smirking maliciously then drove away.