I mentioned that I would do a short story on Kim Sertori. As promised...here it is!
An AU fanfiction.
Disclaimer: I do not own the H2O characters mentioned.
Read and leave a review on what you think!
I never got what I wanted when I wanted it and even when I did get it, I was never satisfied for long. I was never happy until I had money to spend. It was only temporary, but I didn't really care.
Well...maybe I did care. I cared a lot. I just don't let on. Ugh...I hated being the younger sister. I felt so left out all of the time. I felt like I was on the outside looking in. I didn't really have close friends, like my sister Cleo. In all honesty, I was really jealous of her. My older sister was so pretty, and was so smart too. She had great friends and they were always hanging out. They were like sisters...sisters that I couldn't seem to have.
I would be totally fine when it was just Cleo and I together. I liked spending time with my sister when we did have those rare moments. I enjoyed it when it was just she and I, doing the things that blood sisters do. We talked about boys, we went shopping, we'd eat popcorn and watch chick flicks. But as soon as her friends were around, I was ignored.
When my mom was still home, it was even better. It would be the three of us doing these things. It was almost perfect. But then she and dad got in to fights and began ignoring me. Cleo made her friends around that time and would leave me to my own defenses. I was left alone all the time. I would hear mom and dad fight until the end of the day and on in to the night. It was maddening. I didn't know what to do with myself at first.
Then it finally came to me one day after school while I was at the mall. Having things made me feel happy. So, I spent my money, hoping to fill the hole that was in my heart. Loneliness, that was what I felt. As long as I could spend money, I wouldn't care about how I truly felt. But then, I craved it all of the time. I needed other ways to feel happy while battling these feelings. I took to annoying Cleo all of the time. I would snoop in to her room when she wasn't around, to look for money, to see what clothes I could borrow, and anything else I could think of. I began snooping because at least I could feel like I was part of something. Hearing the secrets that she and her friends had almost made me feel like I was one of them.
And then one day, those secrets stopped coming. I couldn't hear them anymore. Cleo gave up her chores to do the dishes and bribed me to do them. Because it was money, of course I would do it. As long as I had it, I was okay.
Then suddenly all together, Cleo stopped bothering with me all the time. We never had those moments anymore. She grew distant from me. She hung out more with her friends and the more she did, the more lonely I began to feel. I feel like we didn't really connect again until after she graduated and moved out of the house. Once she was gone, I really became better.
Maybe I just didn't realize it at first, but one day, Dad came up to my room and told me how proud he was of me. He said that he was proud of the woman that I was becoming. I had given up my addiction to spend money to become happy. Instead, I got a job after ninth grade and worked hard for my money. I began to save up for a future. I knew that I wouldn't be at home forever, and Cleo taught me that. I don't think she'll ever know how much of a role model she was to me when she prepared to graduate from High School.
My Step-mother, Sam, also noticed how much I had grown. She was proud of me as well. I never really bonded with my step-mom before, but when we finally did, it was after she noticed my changes. We went shopping and on that day, she told me that she knew that I was going through difficult times when she became part of the family. She did her best to make it easy for me. I never knew how much Sam cared in that moment and I accepted her as my mom, instead of 'step'.
So I guess, I really did grow up after being such a brat. I was a rotten kid, but it made me a better adult. There was something that my dad once said to me on the day of my graduation:
"As long as you are on the right path, it will always be uphill."
I never knew what he meant until a year later, when I began my first semester of College. I was nervous, but I pushed forward. I began to focus on my studies, I kept going to Sunday services and took up hobbies in my spare time. Eventually, I met the man that I would one day marry. On one night, after getting my baby to sleep, I sat in my rocker and reflected on my life.
Years ago, I had been a rotten kid. I had lied, manipulated, cheated and tried to be at the center of attention all of the time. But that was a time in my life where I felt like I was drowning. It was when I finally pulled up my socks and got my act together, that things got better. Had I not decided to change, I probably wouldn't be married right now, with four beautiful children.
To my dad, my mom, and my sister Cleo...
If it wasn't for any of you, I never would have gotten on to the right path.
Kimberly Anne Wilkins-Sertori
