Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.
(Prologue – iCompare)
Samantha Puckett is convinced that people are like good ham. They're not all tender rosy flesh. If you take the time to dig a little bit, you'll find a bone in the middle. And no matter how tasty the meat is, the bone is what really matters. That is what gives the meat its rich flavor and that is why grand-mothers use the bones make delicious soups. Hams also have a tough leathery skin. If the ham is handled carefully and gently cooked, the skin stays supple, but if its baked too long or in a really hot oven, then it gets really hard and chewy.
In people, it easily translates as this. People have skin to protect their flesh. If they had a relatively easy life, their skin is easy to get through. So, to those around them, it's easy to get to know them, they let you in without much of a fight. If they've been roughed up a little – or a lot – then their skin gets tough, and you almost have to fight them and persevere for them to let you through their inner layer.
The meat is all the stuff you get to learn about someone once you passed the first barrier. There's usually plenty to go through. Some parts of the meat are a bit harder than others. If you really like ham, you won't stop eating after a few bites, you'll want to eat the whole ham, you'll never feel full or tire of that particular ham. Eventually, with time and effort, you might even reach the bone, the true core, what almost no one else will ever see.
The bone is what really matter, once again. It's what's really important to you, what you tell no one, what you truly really think and believe, when you don't have to be afraid of what other people will think of your ideas. In your whole life time, you will be able to count on one hand the number of people who will have reached your bone. Sometimes, a single finger will be enough to do the tally.
Everybody knew that Sam liked ham, even Lewbert, who cared about nothing and no one except his precious lobby floor. In the Shay's kitchen, while tearing pieces of ham with her bare hands, Sam started to compare her two closest friends to the meat she was eating.
As she chewed, she mused that she was probably close to Carly's bone by now. Her skin had been baby soft, so easy to go through. Her meat was girly pink, with a nice bounce when you chewed and a slight sweet taste. She probably had been a honey glazed ham. But even though she had gotten near her bone, there had been nothing really surprising to be found there. Carly was nice and sweet straight through. She didn't have any deep dark secrets, or at least Sam hadn't uncovered any up to now, and she didn't think she would later on.
Freddie's ham skin had been ridiculously easy to breach. He was eager to please and get in Carly's good graces so he let people in readily enough. Surprisingly, though, his meat was a bit tougher. There was also more meat to go through before you could even see the bone. Sam realized that while Freddie's ham may not actually be her favorite style of ham, she couldn't help but think there was more buried in that flesh than what she new. There had to be more. She didn't know if he would ever let her closer to his bone, but she sure was going to poke around with her fork to try to at least get a feel of it. And because of the way his mother treated him, Sam decided that Freddie was one of those hormone-free, organic, grain fed ham.
As she took her plate of ham in her hand to go sit on the couch, Sam resolved to find more about the tech geek, and as far as she knew, there was only a few ways go get info on someone; blackmail and intimidation were reliable methods, but she always kept a few tricks up her sleeve, just in case…
A/N; The rest of the story will be told in the normal way (with dialog and everything). The prologue is just to set things in motion.