Marissa Benson

The first time Marissa Benson laid eyes on the blue-eyed, blonde haired demon that was Samantha Puckett, both the girl and Marissa's son, Fredward, were three years old.

Marissa had decided to take her son to the park for some fresh air while her husband was at work as the tech producer of News Channel 6. Freddie had been begging to go all day and there was very little Marissa could deny her son.

When they arrived at the park, Freddie tried to go into the sandbox and then onto the monkey bars, but Marissa deemed both unsafe. She almost denied him the swings as well, but quickly relented at the pleading look he sent her.

She chose the bench closest to the swing set and watched as her son climbed onto the swing and began kicking his legs to move it back and forth.

Marissa kept her eyes glued to her son for a few minutes, relishing his good mood and making sure he didn't fall off and hurt himself. Once she was satisfied that he would be okay, she allowed her eyes to take in the rest of the park.

There were children making castles and digging moats in the disgusting, germ filled sandbox, and children jumping off the top of the monkey bars, barely missing serious injury. There were children playing tag and she cringed when a little girl tripped and fell.

She looked at all the parents sitting in the park with her and wondered how they could just let their children run amok. Weren't they worried their children would hurt themselves?

Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a loud cry of pain come from her own son. She whipped her head back towards the swing set, only to find her son lying face first in the sand with a tiny girl standing behind him, clutching the chains of the swing.

The girl's hair was a wild mane of blonde curls and her blue eyes were bright with a mixture of annoyance and amusement.

Marissa was so shocked by the fact by what had obviously happened in the few moments her back had been turned that she didn't move at first. She just watched as the little girl drug herself into the swing as Freddie pushed himself off the ground, tears brimming in his eyes.

"I was using that swing first!" he cried indignantly.

The little girl just stared at him. "This is my swing. I always use it."

Freddie frowned. "Well, you could have asked me to get up. I woulda given you a turn. You didn't have to push me off."

The little girl's only response was to shrug and begin to swing.

Freddie stood watching her for a few moments before opening his mouth to say something else, only to have the little girl's feet connect with his face, knocking him back onto the ground.

She kept swinging.

Marissa jumped from her seat and rushed over to her now sobbing son. She scooped him into his arms and backed away from the swing, shooting daggers at the little girl who just gave a triumphant little smirk.

Needless to say, Marissa Benson never took her son to that park again.

XXX

Marissa didn't see the girl again for eight years, when she and her son were moving into Bushwell Plaza a year after her husband's death.

She had decided it would be a good idea for them to introduce themselves to their new neighbors, maybe find some friends for Freddie. Since his father's death, the boy had buried himself in schoolwork and learning all he could about technology, especially cameras and computers.

The first door they knocked on was 8C since it was directly across the hall from their new home.

She wasn't sure how, but as soon as the blonde answered the door, Fat Cake in hand, Marissa recognized her as the demonic little girl from the park. She still had a wild mane of curls for hair and piercing blue eyes.

From the polite way he greeted her, Marissa could tell Freddie didn't remember the girl.

"Hi! We're the Bensons. I'm Freddie and this is my mom. We just moved in across the hall."

The girl took a bite of her Fat Cake and chewed it slowly, staring at Freddie and Marissa with a mixture of indifference and boredom.

Just as things began to feel awkward, the girl swallowed her food and took a step back into the apartment, turning her head to shout into the empty space behind her.

"Carly, some nub's here with his mother," she paused to turn and fix them both with another cool glance before turning her head and again. "He says they just moved in across the hall!"

"I just got out the shower," a voice called from upstairs. "Ask them to come back later, or maybe I'll just stop by their room."

"Okay!" She once again turned towards Freddie and Marissa. "Sorry, nobody's home."

Then she slammed the door in their faces.

XXX

In the months and years after moving into Bushwell Plaza, Sam and Freddie began to see a lot of each other, which resulted in Freddie coming home with more bumps and bruises than he'd ever gotten.

The two were always arguing, and at first Marissa thought it was a good thing. After all, if they were always fighting then it would take a while for Freddie to notice just how beautiful Sam had become.

Freddie's so called undying love for Carly Shay had started fizzing out some time during their sophomore year, and by the time summer rolled around it seemed to be gone completely, only Freddie didn't seem to realize that.

Marissa's greatest fear was that one day Freddie would wake up to realize he had fallen out of love with Carly and into love with Sam. She herself already knew it.

When Sam walked into a room, Freddie's spine would straighten and his eyes would follow her discreetly across the room. If they were sitting beside each other, every now and then Freddie would play with a strand of her hair, curling and curling it from around his finger.

The changes in him were subtle and most people wouldn't notice since they still fought like cats and dogs, but Marissa was Freddie's mother. She noticed long before he did.

So, she wasn't too surprised to walk into her apartment one day, home earlier than planned, to find the two making out on her couch.

Freddie was sitting down with Sam straddling his lap with her hand playing with his hair and his gripped her waist.

Marissa slammed the door shut, announcing her entrance.

The two whipped their heads around to look at the door. Freddie's eyes widened in surprise and he looked from the girl straddling his lap to his mother and back again with a look of guilt and uneasiness on his face.

"M-Mom. You're home early."

Sam looked mildly surprised, but still managed a smug smile as she swung herself off Freddie's lap and into the seat beside him.

"Hey, Crazy. How's it shakin'?"

Marissa felt her eye twitch at the nickname Sam had given her, but other than that she didn't react. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, pushing down the need to grab her son and wash him in scalding hot water, while simultaneously washing his mouth out with soap.

When she opened her eyes again, the two were giving her looks of worry.

"Mom, are you okay?"

"You two aren't sleeping together, are you?"

The two looked at her in surprise, their faces turning ten different shades of red. Even Sam, who always had a smart comment ready, couldn't complete a sentence.

It was all the answer Marissa needed.

"Let's keep it that way. I don't want any grandchildren just yet." She walked past the stunned teenagers into the kitchen. "Samantha, are you staying for dinner? We're having tofu and lentils."

She didn't have to be looking at Sam to know a disgusted look had crossed the tiny blonde's face.

"Um...no thanks. Carly's having spaghetti tacos and I was planning on eating over there."

"What? It's spaghetti taco night already?" Freddie exclaimed. "Mom, please let me eat dinner at Carly's tonight."

Marissa sighed and agreed. These days she was used to eating alone anyway.

The two teenagers rushed out the apartment, the door slamming behind them as they went.

Marissa hesitated for about two seconds before grabbing a can of Lysol and spraying down the couch.

Freddie would be getting an extra-long tick bath when he got home tonight.