Cat Valentine. Honestly, what could we say about the lamb? She's always been the kind of person that is so easy to insult, and yet so easy to love. There really is nothing under those cherry locks. She's no more complex than the creature she was named after, and that is perhaps what draws people to her. Cat's just as empty and sweet as the chocolate bunnies that she munches on until she vomits every Easter.
She was constantly in a state of wandering. Her eyes could never quite find what her brain was searching for. When she wasn't smiling and clapping at the world and its most trivial moments, rest assured that she had her eyebrows cocked up and head on a swivel as she continued her search for absolutely nothing.
"What's wrong kid?" Sam asked. Cat had stepped into the kitchen five minutes ago and had remained in the same spot.
Cat looked up from the floor and blinked a couple of times. Just by seeing the way her lips pursed and her ebony eyes suddenly focus, it was easy to say that the answer wouldn't be simple.
"I want to make a brownie pie" her tiny voice crooned casually.
Sam took the skin between her eyes and pinched it lightly. She then moved her slender fingers over the buttons on the TV remote until the noise ceased. She released a bit of steam from her nose and turned her head towards her friend.
"What… is a brownie pie?" she asked, praying that she wouldn't receive an answer.
Without missing a beat, Cat went into full detail.
"It's a pie tin filled with brownie mix. But it's not just brownies like brownies. I want to put pie crust over the brownie mix, and then bake it together. So then, we can have brownies and pie at the same time!" It only took moments for Cat's face to go from confused deer, elated beauty, back to confused deer.
Sam nodded. "That's actually a pretty good idea. What's wrong?"
"We're out of money," Cat sighed. "I didn't know what to do, so I was just going to pretend to bake. But then I realized that I'm an adult, so I just hung out in the kitchen like my mom always did."
"First off, you're hardly an adult," Sam explained. "Second of all, how are we out of money?"
"You spent all the money on chicken," Cat said in an irritated crescendo.
Sam stood up.
"I did not!"
"You have a shirt that says three hundred buck-buck-buckets of chicken. We only had three hundred dollars!"
Sam sat down in defeat.
"What even happened to all the buckets?" Cat asked.
"I… ate them," Sam said hesitantly.
Though not too abnormal, it was certainly an impressive number even for Sam. Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of life was how Sam stayed so thin. Her tiny stomach was always perfectly toned, and it was rare to see a pimple on her teenage skin.
Cat simply didn't have the energy to be annoyed, and just sat down on the couch next to her friend. Her entire body sagged. Sam stuck out her hand and put in on top of Cat's head.
"We can ask your Nona to lend us something," said Sam.
Cat shook her head.
"We've already asked her three times in these past two months. That's just rude," Cat answered.
Sam wanted to argue with Cat about how it would be fine, but she didn't want to burden her friend any more.
"Maybe… maybe Dice has some extra cash," Sam said with feigned enthusiasm.
Once again, Cat shook her head.
"I still owe him for letting me pet the dolphin."
"Oh yeah. I loved that dolphin. He ate Goomer's vest," Sam reminisced.
Cat released her lungs one last time.
"I think I'm going to have to ask my parents," she said.
That also seemed rude to her, but there really was no other way. They only had one surefire babysitting gig lined up this month, and it wasn't going to pay nearly enough for rent. Even with other jobs, they weren't going to make it this month.
"That's probably a good idea," answered Sam tenderly.
Cat's eyes once again glazed out, but this time, there was some thought behind them. There were gears turning in her little mind, and though Sam would never understand, she never removed her hand from the top of her head.
"It's fine. They've sent us stuff before. They won't mind 500 bucks, and we're going to pay them back," Sam tried to comfort.
"I know," said Cat. "I just don't like to bother them. They spend so much to keep my brother locked up." She looked down. "I just don't want to disappoint them. I want to be the good kid."
Cat was one of those people that had horrible leaks in her eyes. She was a constant bundle of tears, smiles, laughs, screams, and questions. Suffice to say, it didn't take much to make her cry. That being said, what was worse than her crying was when she was defeated. It was an emotion that Cat herself didn't understand. When she was defeated, she basically didn't know that she was sad or bothered. Sam couldn't ever stand it.
"You are a good kid," Sam answered. She gave one final rub to Cat's hair and got up from the couch. She reached under the table and pulled out her motorcycle helmet.
"Before you call them, do you want to go to the park?"
Cat began to emotionally glow "will the homeless guy with the parrot be there?"
"We can only hope," said Sam.
With that, Cat took off out the door. Sam put the helmet over her sandy hair she looked back at the kitchen and bit her lip. She took just a moment to revel in the absolute silence before spreading the corners of her lips upwards and heading outside.
It was typical California weather. In a lot of ways, Sam kind of missed the instability of Seattle's weather. There was something comforting to her about the rain. Though she had to admit that the sun felt pretty good, even if she would sweat in her helmet. Cat had another helmet specially made in pink and she placed it over her skull as well. Sam straddled around the leather seat the made the engine purr. They took off towards the park.
People always complained about Sam's motorcycle being too loud. She did not agree. What was truly loud was Cat's unending laughter and cries of "wheee" during each ride. Sometimes it was so loud that Sam had to yell at her. They had ridden it a million times, and yet it was always new to Cat.
Sam stopped her bike by a curb and put a couple of fake quarters into the meter. She had recently learned how to make counterfeit money, and although it was a federal offense, she used a meter that was rather generous with its time anyways. A lot of people tried to fool the ones next to the park because they were so undeniably broken. One time someone even left a tooth and it took it.
Cat's scrawny legs propelled her towards the beige sand. Sam took after her and called out to her like a dog that didn't know how to use a leash.
"Cat. Cat. Cat! Slow down! Cat!"
Cat was only a little younger than Sam, but she really was a twelve year old in a teenager's body. Sam could never fathom how someone could remain so ignorant for so long. Then again, Sam could hardly say that she was any more mature. Both of them were happily climbing on playground equipment with the little kids who had just gotten out of the school. Fundamentally, the only difference was that Cat would admit her elation. Sam still tried to play it cool. But a stupid smile always ended up coming out of both of them.
Cat sat on a tire swing and Sam gripped onto the chains. The muscles on her arms tightened and she pushed her legs forward. At first, the spinning was easy, but Sam's pure strength propelled it pretty fast. The tire was no longer orbiting in a path, rather it was wobbling as the cycle steepened. Even though Cat was basically hanging on for dear life, her teeth were still shimmering brightly and her laughing never ceased. Even after the chain broke and she was soaring, she didn't lose her smile until she was surrounded by a cloud of sand. The tire was still chained even if Cat no longer was, and the sheer recoil from the snap of the chain sent it barreling into Sam's chest, knocking her and her lungs to the ground. Sam was on her back in the dirty sand, while Cat was on her side.
The wind was knocked out of Sam, and she was still stunned. It didn't take much for Cat to recover. After dusting herself off and cracking her shoulder which would certainly hurt in the morning, she spun around with her arms out in the air and yelled, "that was sooo cool!" Sam remained in the sand. Cat spun over to Sam like a helicopter and hovered over her.
"Sam, we should do that again," she pleaded.
Sam wanted to glare at her, but her face was frozen.
"C'mon Sam, let's go again," Cat crooned.
Sam still didn't say anything. A tiny part of her face twitched, but that still didn't quite get the memo across.
"Saaaam," Cat whined.
With all of her might, Sam found her voice somewhere deep in her chest.
"Cat," she said in a rasp.
Cat stopped and her face became a little more serious, "What?"
"Shut up," Sam whispered.
Though a bit hurt, it hardly affected the red head. She reached down to her friend and hoisted her up. Sam was still a bit weary on her feet, but she soon found her balance. The tire swing looked crippled as it hung on two measly chains. It actually looked like another one was going to break as well. A bunch of little kids ran up to them to see the commotion.
"Hey, you broke the tire swing," said a chubby little kid with a lime green shirt.
"I'm really sorry," answered Cat sincerely.
"Well, are you going to fix it?" asked a red headed boy.
Cat got down on one knee and looked at the boy straight in the eye. "I don't know how to fix it. But I can go get the park guy."
The red headed kid rolled his eyes "You should fix it. You should buy another one."
Sam stepped in and made no effort to seem smaller, "We don't have the money. We said, 'we're sorry'. We're going to go get the park ranger."
"Well I'm going to go tell him that you did it on purpose," he taunted.
This time, Sam did get on her knees and got as close to his face as she could. Her smile was so pleasant with her giant blue eyes and golden hair. That's why it was so surprising when she hissed right into the kid's face and pushed him over.
"Run," Sam instructed as they took off. They hopped on her motorcycle and drove far away from the park. After a couple of blocks, they stopped by a snow cone shack with a rusty and faded sign and a very large man crammed inside. They only had four flavors: cherry, lemon, vanilla, and salt. Cat ordered cherry while Sam settled on lemon.
While they sat at the moldy picnic table, they didn't speak much. Their misplaced hair and pink cheeks implied wrong doing. However, it was Cat that eventually broke the silence.
"We didn't get to see the homeless guy," she uttered in a way that implied she wasn't sure.
"Yeah… sorry. About that." Sam answered tepidly.
They took a couple more bites of their cones. They tasted bitter like cough drops. Perhaps they used the same flavoring.
"Are you mad?" asked Sam.
Cat smiled at her, "No. That was a lot of fun. I even liked it when you hissed at the kid. But I feel bad about breaking the swing."
Sam smiled back at her, "But we didn't break the swing."
Cat cocked her head.
"That red headed kid went so fast that he hit his head. He broke the swing."
Cat scowled, "I don't understand why we don't have more babysitting jobs, you are so good with children," she droned.
Sam responded by taking a bite of her friend's snow cone.
"Hey!"
"Aw, yours is worse," Sam said as she spit it onto the asphalt.
Cat let out a noise that could only be compared to an old bull. Cat went and threw it away. While walking back, a little blood was on Sam's shirt. She went up behind her and grabbed her arm.
"Sam, you're bleeding." Her motherly instincts kicked in.
Without missing a beat, Sam slapped her hands away like a nun.
"Don't touch that," she instructed with severity.
"Sorry," said Cat. "Should we take care of it?"
Sam was wiping off Cat's hands and tried to wipe away what was on her elbow onto her shirt.
"Yeah, let's go home," Sam muttered.
"No, let's do something else fun!" Cat protested.
"Like what? We got kicked out of the park, and we have no money," Sam moaned.
Cat pondered for a brief second.
"We could… take pictures of trees. And then we…" a light went off in her head. "We can give them to people less fortunate than us."
Sam's arms folded and her foot started tapping.
"Cat?"
"Yes pretty Sam?"
"Are you trying to get out of calling your parents?"
Cat attempted to act appalled
"What?! No! That is not a thing that I would try."
It only took a couple seconds of Sam's icy stare to collapse her little façade.
"Yes," she answered in defeat.
Sam wrapped her fingers around her friend's little wrist. "C'mon, let's go."
They hopped onto the back of Sam's bike, and they went back to their home. Cat sat on the couch as the clock seemed to loudly tick away. Her eyes were so focused on her phone that Sam was initially scared that she was broken. Even though Sam was loudly rummaging through the kitchen drawer, Sam still called out to her friend.
"You gotta do it," Sam taunted.
Cat didn't answer. Sam then slammed the drawer shut, and this made Cat jump a little.
"Cat!" she called out. "C'mon, I know that you don't want to. But we need money right now."
Sam's voice was very stern and had a bit of a growl to it. The redhead shrunk and put her head down as she dialed the number. She was way more afraid of Sam yelling at her than her parents being a little cross. As the dial tone rang into her ear, she scurried into her bedroom, leaving Sam alone in the kitchen.
Sam pulled a piece of paper from the drawer she was looking through. Her heart was beating fast like a fly trapped in a car and she kept wringing her available hand. The once sharp edges of the paper had been worn down to something too soft and weak to be considered paper anymore. Air filled Sam's lungs, only for her to release it from her nose in a large burst. It didn't feel like that long, but Cat's voice was the one thing that could break through any thought.
"Saaaaam!" she cried with a vibrato.
"Uh, what?" Sam asked as she transitioned from her thoughts to the thoughtless.
Cat's smile was stretched upwards with almost every tooth visible. It kind of looked like she was skipping rope. All her limbs were going in any entirely different direction.
"Sam. Sam. Sam. Sam."
"Calm down, did your parents win the lottery or something?"
"No, better!"
Sam had learned long ago that if Cat every said that something was "better" it was in fact always going to be worse.
"My parents are going to come visit this weekend. They're going to come on a flight tomorrow and be here by the evening. And they're going to bring the money. Sam, you me, and my family are going to have so much fun."
"Oh joy," Sam moaned without even an attempt to sound enthused. However, Cat was too happy to believe that anyone else could be miserable. She was still jumping in the air and waving her arms as she took off towards the bed room.
"This is going to be the best weekend EVAR!"
Sam grinded her teeth together and gripped the little piece of paper in her fist. Part of her wanted to cast it into the trash can, but it stayed magnetized in her hand. Instead, she just shoved it back into the little drawer. In anger, she washed the dishes.
"Hey," called a little voice followed by the distinct slam of a door. Sam turned around to see an afro on top of a tiny little head. The boy tossed his back pack onto the hard wooden floor. "Woah, you're doing dishes" he said with half sarcasm, half legitimate curiosity.
"If you don't shut up, I'm going to hit you with a dish. What do you want Dice?"
He put his hands up and backed away a few steps.
"What's up with you?" He asked.
Sam sighed. "Cat's parents are coming to visit this weekend."
"So?" asked Dice. "It's not like you have any babysitting gigs, and it's not like you're doing anything else right now."
Sam barked at him, "Hey! I do plenty around here!" She threw the dish that she had been washing for half an hour into the suds. "Besides, maybe I just don't want them to visit. I never make my family visit, why should Cat?"
When she heard her name, the red head rushed out of her room and almost slipped on the rug in the hallway, but caught herself on the wall. She spotted Dice and rushed over to him with open arms. She held his little body as far up to the ceiling as her bony arms could muster.
"Diiiiice! My mom and dad are going to visit. I'm going to invite Nona, and Goomer, and Sam, and we're all going to eat at Bots tomorrow so that they can see how cool my new friends are."
"Nona's your grand…." he wasn't able to finish his thought. He found himself being swung around in the air before being set down. Cat rushed back into her room with her giggling almost maniacal. Dice fixed his hair as he tried to find his footing again. He looked over in the direction of the room, and then back at Sam.
"She doesn't seem too broken up by it."
He was then met by a glob of spit in his thick locks. Even though he was disgusted, the look on Sam's face made his gaping mouth shut.