Warning: Lengthy author's note ahead!
Okay, THIS story is the FIRST story I ever wrote in my lifetime that wasn't a fill in the blank for school. I was thirteen years old, so that was 1993, and I had no concept of fan fiction. At that age I was three to four years older than all the other kids in my neighborhood. They just stopped being fun to play with because I was starting to turn more inward. I was very much into Star Fox, which just came out that year. Fox McCloud was my first true fictional character crush thanks to issue forty-seven of Nintendo Power magazine. That cover picture of him...wow! I still have that magazine, and I still feel that pitter-patter when I look at it.
Back then, it was pretty hard to pretend Arwings and that stuff without playing the game(plus I was at that age where you just don't want to be seen pretending anymore), so I turned to writing. This is the first "me pretending" story I ever wrote. I used to write and then read it into a tape recorder, making all kinds of sound effects and changing my voice for dialog, just like those "read along adventures" that were big back then. This is the only piece of that time in my life I could uncover, the rest is probably lost or recycled into somebody's science test.
This story is just over seventeen years old and childishly unrealistic, but it was the beginning of my imagination coming alive. This was written only for me, and no other eyes have seen it until now. Writing this is what later led me to write everything else that's come from my head since then. If you look real close at some of my fics, you'll see elements of this one in them. My ideals of romance really haven't changed a whole lot, they just grew up like my writing did.
I haven't changed a word of this, so while I was a good speller, I hadn't completely figured out grammar yet and used a lot of the "right sounding word with the wrong spelling." The only change I made was translating it into paragraphs. Again, I was thirteen, about to enter eighth grade(Junior High School) and wrote this just a short time before I learned how to paragraph a story. On paper, each scene was one block of confusing text. My English teacher straightened that out and I've known how to use paragraphs ever since. Yay!
I'm sharing this to show you how far I've come. I would not be a ficcer if this never made it out of my head. Godzilla might be my oldest fandom, but Star Fox made me write first.
Btw, for my High School prom, I found and wore sparkly silver shoes. You'll see why I said that after you read this. Some parts of me never grew up, and I am not ashamed!
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Birthday Wish
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It's my birthday. I turned 13 at 8:08 a.m. on July 29. I made a wish with my heart and I blew out my candles. The cake was lemon and tasted pretty good. I said good night to my parents because I was tired. My stairs creaked when I walked on them. The hall was dark and I ran because it scared me a little. I banged my head on something and fell on the ground hard.
I woke up again 21 years old and don't know how it happened. I was not in my house. The sky was blue and bright over the silver buildings. I was flying! What happened? I looked down and saw where I woke up. I sat in a plane with the control stick in my hand. I knew this kind of aircraft. It looked like a dragster but without wheels and with wings coming out the back. It had two blue diagonal shields on the wings that protected it from some damage. I was in an Arwing! I had a white flight jacket and jumper uniform on me like the other pilots. Mine was dark pink like the shorts I wore at my birthday party.
I'm really glad I knew how to fly an Arwing. The controls looked like the game controller joystick. B shot the lasers and A shot Nova bombs. Not that hard to fly.
I saw yellow boxy things flying in the sky. I was flying at a building oh no! I pulled the stick back hard. The Arwing zoomed up high. Straight up like an air show! I felt kind of dizzy like I do on roller coasters. The building blew up when I passed. Yellow lasers hit my windshield and I screamed and pushed the button to shoot and the boxy thing crashed.
"Who is the idiot that tried to hit a building?" Yelled the low voice of Falco Lombardi.
"A new pilot. Leave her alone." Said Fox McCloud and my face got red. Oh my God it was Fox! I have the hugest crush on him!
"I am not new at this! I do this all the time see?" I yelled back and almost crashed into another building.
"AAAHHH! Help help! Mayday mayday! I'm hit I'm hit! C-C-Can anybody help me?" Slippy Toad cried.
"Peppy! Go help Slippy now!" Fox said.
Fox pulled his Arwing above mine and flew it upside down. Like in the Top Gun movie kinda. I could see him inside my reflection. He looked like the Nintendo Power magazine cover by my bed.
"Why are you naked?" He said.
"I'm not naked! I'm human!" I said back.
"Oh. Okay. Earth right?" He said.
"You went to Earth?" I yelled all surprised.
"I heard your wish." He said back and winked. He like totally smiled at me!
I didn't get to say more. Fox zoomed ahead of the others. We ended up dodging a ton more cube ships and lasers from the ground. I'm so glad I don't get airsick! There was a giant arch ahead. Fox flew through it like nothing. I spun under it too because I always did that in the game except here it didn't give me any energy rings. That was for the game and this was real! We soon passed the city. I recognized the field we were flying over and the really big silver vessel coming at us shone in the Cornerian sun just like the Arwings.
The attack carrier opened its hatches and shot a million lasers. I jerked the joystick right and tapped the button beside it and did a barrel roll. The lasers bounced off the wings and didn't hurt my Arwing.
"Shoot at the hatches!" Fox yelled on the radio.
"Look out for the lasers!" Said Peppy Hare.
"I got it!" I shouted.
I skimmed my Arwing over the ground and shot madly at the bottom hatch. I always shot that in the game and now I shot it for real.
"Who the hell is that?" Falco asked and he didn't sound happy.
"She's human." Fox answered him.
"Who c-c-cares, she c-c-can fly!" The voice of Slippy broke in.
The first hatch fell off the attack carrier. Fox zoomed past me to go after the top hatch and I covered Falco so he could join in the fight. Peppy picked off missiles when they started being launched and Slippy got busy covering Fox. I saw the second hatch explode and fall off. The launch bay flew open and Slippy almost got clobbered by lasers!
"Go up Slippy! Up up up!" I yelled at him.
"Everybody else fall back! I got this!" Fox called.
"I know how to fight this thing!" I yelled back.
Fox flew in just like I do when I play the game. He rolled to the left. He rolled to the right. He let out a Nova Bomb when the launch bay opened. The launch bay exploded with a huge boom. I saw pieces of it bounce off the grass!
"Damn! I can't see anything in all the smoke!" Peppy cussed.
"It's not done yet!" I said.
Sure enough the attack carrier came out of the smoke. It let sparks off where it was hurt by its parts blowing up.
"This guy's nothing!" Fox said on the radio.
"I know he's easy. Come on let me help!" I said back to him.
"Cyndi, right?" He asked.
"Hey, who told you?" I answered. I can't believe he said my name.
"Your info is on my screen. Okay you go low and I'll go high and finish this." Fox said to me. His voice is more boyish than the blabbity-blab noise he made on the game. It was cute.
"Roger." I said and took the controls in my hands.
The sun was very bright and starting to set. It looked a lot like Earth and I could barely believe it wasn't. I looked down at the little screen above my control stick. There were specs on the attack carrier scrolling up and down. The weak point came up red on the green polygon wire frame.
"Aim at the butt!" I said and Fox laughed.
"Never heard anybody call it that before!" He kept laughing.
Something exploded and we both got serious. I flew lower by the ground. Fox stayed high and I started shooting when he started to shoot. The picture on my dashboard flashed whenever I hit the weak spot. We were winning! Suddenly the attack carrier fell on its side and blew up into millions of pieces. I heard Fox yee-haw over his radio and the others chattered excitedly. I got really shy all of a sudden. I knew them but they didn't know me. I knew that might scare them. What was I supposed to do?
"We're done here. Let's go back to base." Fox said over the radio. I had no idea where the base was because it wasn't part of the game. I just followed the others to a military hanger far outside the main city. Autopilot took over once we got to the giant hangar. It was almost night time. It was dark inside the metal hangar. Lights blinked on things on the wall. I saw the rest of the Star Fox team getting out of their Arwings. I got all hung up trying to make my hair look nice and there was a knock on my cockpit window. I looked up. Fox was right THERE.
"We don't bite." He said and smiled.
I figured out what opened the cockpit. I flipped the lever and looked up at Fox. He gave me his gloved hand like a gentleman. I took it and he helped me hop down. I guess being older didn't make me bigger. Fox was taller than me by a whole head and his eyes were a very intense.
"Nice flying out there." He said.
"Thanks. How did you hear my wish?" I asked. I didn't want it to be obvious that I liked him like THAT.
Fox tapped the comlink on his head and said to me, "I took a hit and it caused interference. The rest I don't know. Come on."
I forgot I had his hand until he gave me a little tug. He totally smiled at me again and I wanted so bad to tell him he was cute. Awkward much? I was glad just to hold his hand. The others chattered about the mission behind us and we stepped down a long dim lit corridor. We had to sit through a long and boring meeting. I was too shy to look at anybody. Fox kept looking at me and that made me more shy. All of a sudden I heard my name mentioned. Fox was telling General Pepper about how I helped him. I really thought everybody would be freaked out at me for being human and an alien on their planet. I guess they had weirder folks pass through.
"Nice work out there." General Pepper said and patted my shoulder. I almost jumped off my chair.
"Thank you." I mumbled to him.
"Yeah she just waltzes into our airspace." Falco said to Peppy.
"I kind of did." I told him and I felt a little bit angry.
"Come on guys. Let's go on to Norm's and snack before the ball." Peppy said to Falco and Slippy and they agreed. They left and I was now alone with Fox. Oh my God. Oh my God. I wasn't used to people liking me. I was used to being laughed at. Guys never looked at me twice like Fox was and it made me nervous. I don't know how to talk to boys! Not at all!
"I made a wish." I said in a whisper.
Fox smiled again and said. "Yeah. You don't have to be shy."
"Sorry! I'm not used to this is all." I said and my face went red.
"How about I make it easy on you, then. We won a great fight out there, and Pepper likes to celebrate successful missions. Be my date?" Fox said and set his hands flat on the table.
"A date?" I said when I looked up.
"Sure, why not? I haven't dusted off my tux in a couple years. The ball is a perfect excuse to wear it." Fox said back and winked.
"You probably look great in it." I said and covered my mouth. Me and my big mouth!
Fox just laughed. He had a nice laugh. "I like you! So, how about it?" He asked.
"I'd like to. I don't have a dress though." I said and felt as small and meek as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
Fox tapped on my arm and I saw his tail wag in the corner of my eye. "No dress? We can't have that now can we?" He said.
"Um..." I mumbled and looked down at my feet. I had silver boots just like his.
Fox whipped a phone out of his coat pocket and dialed it. A totally cordless phone that wasn't as big as Texas, wow! He started talking. "Sally? Fox here. Hey! I need a favor. Get the best dress you've got and send it to the base. Yeah. Bye."
A couple hours went by after that and Fox and me walked around the base talking. I didn't tell him I wasn't always as old as I was. I just told him about school and how other people were sometimes mean to me. He told me about his dad and how he died fighting Andross. It made him look a bit sad. I cheered him up by talking about music. I told him about how I totally love Michael Jackson. I found out they can beam radio signals from Earth on Corneria! Fox liked a lot of the same music I did. That was neat.
We got interrupted by a van pulling up. I saw a skunk lady and a parakeet man run into the base with a bag. They came back out without it. I looked at Fox. He just smiled a bit.
"I think that will fix your no dress problem." Fox said and grinned.
"Thank you so much." I said back shyly.
Fox gave me a one armed hug and said. "Don't worry about it. A limo will be by at six to pick you up."
"When does the ball start?" I asked.
"Six. I know girls like to be fashionably late though." He said and winked.
I laughed and waved. I ran inside where the bag was hung up on the door to the ladies restroom. My watch said 4:00 and I knew it would take me time to get ready. There was more than a dress in the bag. I took it all into the bathroom and locked the door for privacy. I hung the dress up on a stall. I pulled off the bag and almost died. This dress! It looked like Princess Diana's wedding dress except it was midnight blue without a train and with no poofy sleeves. It had diamonds sparkling in the poofy skirt. I had sparkly silver pumps in the bag and long silver elbow length gloves like Cinderella with a line of diamonds running up the outside seams. There was also a diamond choker necklace shaped like a V and a pretty tiara and a bag of makeup. Makeup was cool because I wasn't allowed to wear it at home yet. I was going to look like a princess!
I pulled off my uniform and hurried to make myself pretty. It almost took two whole hours. The dress rustled and I can't believe it fit me! Dresses this pretty never fit! Wow! I got my hair into a bun so the tiara would look nice. I put on dark blue eye shadow to match the dress, I used pink blush for my cheeks and bright red lipstick that I blotted on toilet paper like my Grandma taught me. The silver sparkle shoes fit perfect on my feet. I put the gloves on last and spun around to see the skirt fly around me. I looked like Cinderella! How did they know to pick a dress that matched my eyes?
There was a clock on the wall above the mirror. It was almost time to go. I held my skirt up a little and walked out of the bathroom feeling like a million zillion dollars. The long black stretch limo was drove by a tiger man named Skip. It said so on his nametag.
"Wow, where to?" He said and looked me up and down smiling.
"The ball." I said back and wow did I feel great. I got into the back seat and laughed at my skirt poofing all around me. It almost filled up the whole seat!
The drive wasn't too long like maybe a half an hour. The ball was in a grand mansion type place with a red carpet on the front steps. The building was big and gray and square with statues everywhere and people walking around. I saw a lot of pretty dresses like the one pink flamingo lady wearing red. I swung open my door and got out like I owned the joint and a lot of people stared at me. I was a human so I wasn't surprised. At least I was a GOOD looking one tonight! Nobody laughed at me. That felt really good! I looked down at my dress sparkling in the lights on the building. I smiled.
I walked up the steps and into the arch doorway. There were round tables on the sides and the dance floor in the middle with a stage up front where a DJ worked the music. The tables had candles little disco balls above them and a really big disco ball was hung over the middle of the dance floor. The walls looked dark red or black and the dance floor was white. A mist machine made everything dreamy. I stayed at the top of the stairs leading inside and searched the room. There was a fox in a white suit that wasn't Fox. Then the fog machine stopped and I saw Fox in that smashing black tux with coat tails. He looked so good in it I almost passed out. He just kind of stared at me when I walked down the stairs. He came up to me and took my hand so he could kiss it like a proper gentleman.
"You look beautiful." Fox said breathlessly.
I looked at his hand holding mine and smiled. He looked so handsome. Like Prince Charming but with orange fur. I could feel people looking at us. There was whispering and it was about my dress and how I was an alien. I didn't care. It was so neat being here with Fox. Fox took me to a table where we had great food. Mashed potatoes on Corneria are blue! I don't know what the meat was. It tasted good and I ate it all without smearing my lipstick. We drank purple champagne and ate chocolate cake for dessert. We talked a lot about "stuff" and what Fox planned to do after he beat Andross. That went on for so many hours. I kept staring at him in his amazing tuxedo. I always have a thing for guys when they're dressed up really nice.
I saw Falco in a gangster suit like those old movies with Tommy guns. He wore his hat tipped to the left. He danced around with the flamingo lady in the red halter dress. They were into each other. Peppy looked great in his seventies style brown tux while he chatted up an otter wearing a purple tutu type dress. Slippy wore a suit with tails similar to Fox's and he danced with a little plump frog lady in black. She looked classy! People say fat people are ugly but they look really nice dressed up if they find the right dress. General Pepper looked really good too in his dark blue suit with a yellow bow tie.
The DJ changed the music to some Earth songs and winked at me. How did he know? He started playing Crazy For You which is done by Madonna and a favorite of mine.
"Come on. Dance with me?" Fox said and stretched his hand out.
"I don't know how though." I said shyly as I took it.
"It's easy. I can show you." Fox said. He walked me onto the floor and arranged my hands the right way. He showed me where to put my feet and I was totally dancing with him before the first few lines of the song even started. He got really into it and we started to twirl a little just like a fairy tale couple and it was so amazing. I put my cheek on his shoulder to be closer to him. This was really real! We twirled again fast during the chorus line and just stepped in between so we matched the rhythm. The disco ball made my dress sparkle so much. I could feel Fox's heart beating hard or was it mine?
"Your heart is going fast." I whispered.
"Yours too." He whispered back.
We spun ourselves in and out of the mist made by the machine. The floor changed colors with the music. Red to purple to pink to blue. I kept looking into his eyes. The other dancers were invisible to me and I didn't care about anything except this magic moment with him. The song wound down to its ending. Fox dipped me and I almost fainted at seeing his face coming closer. I closed my eyes. He kissed me! It was magic! I thought my heart might explode! Fox helped me stand up straight again. He had to help me because my legs got all jelly like and not in a bad way.
"At the sound of the tone, it will be midnight. Keep on swaying out there you lovers." Said the smooth DJ.
"Midnight? Oh! We have to go!" Fox said and pulled my arm.
"What? Why?" I asked and barely kept up.
"Your birthday is over. You need to get home." Fox answered. He didn't look too happy about it.
I let go of his hand. I held up my skirt while we ran up the steps leading out and down the steps out front. I almost fell because of the heels and my skirt kept billowing when I ran. Thankfully my shoes had straps so they didn't fall off! We got into Fox's car and ended up laughing when my skirt hogged most of the front seats. Fox was a reckless driver and we went flying around corners to get back to the hangar.
"We have to share an Arwing." Fox said after we got there.
"That's no problem." I said back at him.
Fox climbed into his Arwing and helped me in. I bunched up the skirt of the dress so it wouldn't take up the cockpit and boy it sure wanted to. There was enough fabric to drown a dolphin. We flew up into the sky towards the Black Hole that somehow wasn't sucking everything in. Fox flew like the expert he is and we entered a tunnel of swirling blue and white walls.
"I had fun tonight." I told him. I looked up from where I had my head on his shoulder. I realized I was in his lap. He didn't look like he minded.
"Me too. You look beautiful." Fox answered.
I smiled at him. "So do you. I mean! You look handsome." I said back with a laugh that he echoed.
I put my head down again and closed my eyes. I didn't mean what I said. I mean I DID mean it but didn't mean to let it come out of my mouth like it did.
"I love you." I said.
Fox looked down at me and his eyes said it back. Boys are like that. They don't talk about their feelings much. I put my head back on his shoulder and closed my eyes. When I opened them again I was on the floor where I fell in the hall at home. I was dressed again in a white shirt and pink shorts with my hair in a ponytail. I felt sad. I got up in a hurry. I was going to get in a lot of trouble if I wasn't in bed and my parents saw me still up. I felt wrong when I got under the unicorn covers of my bed and I couldn't figure out why. I risked the light and looked down and saw I was wearing silver sparkly shoes on my feet. I looked at issue 47 of Nintendo Power that I had propped up on my nightstand and that kiss at the ball came back to me. I hid my pretty shoes under my bed and smiled. I went to sleep that night to the sound of an Arwing taking off.