So a quick author's note for this first draft: I am very much a work only gets done under pressure type of person, and consequently am writing this on October the 13th. Assuming no technical errors happen, it will be up before midnight. Good luck to everyone else in the challenge.
This is the story of a girl. A girl who had the misfortune of meeting a magical boy. In the beginning she thought everything about her new situation was wonderful, but by the end of their friendship all she wished for was that the truth about magic and monsters had remained hidden to her.
He approached her one day on the beach.
"Oh hello", she said meekly to the boy, and they began to chat for a while. Then suddenly, the whole beach shook like a leaf in the wind. A great rumbling was heard overhead and as she looked up she saw her doom about to fall upon her, however, the boy threw himself on her. In a great flash of pink light a bubble encased the boy and girl. The rocks bounced off the barrier keeping them both safe.
She was dumbfounded by what she saw and the boy had no clear answers for her. He told her he was magic, and that whatever it was that was happening was just as new to him. Safe from the debris she expected he would open up the bubble and allow them to continue on the day as normal, but he didn't. He wasn't sure how to but he knew who could help them.
"We need to go see the gems!", he exclaimed. He seemed satisfied with his plan of action, but the girl wasn't so sure. What are these gems, she thought, and how can they help us? She had always had an inquisitive mind, and while her thought process was sound, she was asking the wrong question. It was not what that the boy had been reffering to, but whom. He explained along the way that the Crystal Gems are the guardians of earth and that if anyone knew how to fix this perdicament it would be them. Alas gravity threw a wrench into his sensible plan. The hill leading up to his home was made of sand and far too steep to be climbed in a bubble. They slipped and slid every time they tried.
Most of their day was spent looking for a way out of the bubble. She enjoyed the quirky boy's company, but he was far too reckless for her liking. He had tried to get his small friend to pop the bubble with a harpoon gun without even thinking of the safety risk such a thing would impose. Not to mention the fact that said failed attempt sank a perfectly good troller that day. He actually made a remark about her boat knowledge at the pier. "That's what happens when you spend time at the beach and have no friends, and don't know how to swim", she replied awkwardly, "...you learn about boats". Nothing had worked so far but the boy was far from done trying, in fact he had another dangerous plan he was trying to set in motion.
"The amusement park?", she asked the boy, confused as to how anything there could help them. "Yea!", he exclaimed, "horrible accidents happen here all the time". She gulped and took note of his words, internally thanking her mother for never allowing her to go to the park. Despite her protests he threw them both at a head on rollar coaster. After being knocked around a bit from rolling along the track, the cart that was pushing them stopped suddenly, and they went flying deep into the ocean.
Scared of their current predicament she decided it would be best if they both tried to head to shore. So they rolled and rolled until a giant monster went swimming by. She was terrified of the serpent at first, but the boy pointed out to her that it was not interested in them. It was a herbavore that he observed eating the glowing algae nearby. This calmed her momentarily, but the bad day wasn't done getting worse. Before she could register what was happening, the worm drilled deep into the sea floor, breaking open a large ravine into which they fell.
She averted her gaze upward and saw that she could no longer even see the surface. The kind boy tried to assure her that everything would be alright, but this only upset her further. "Steven, this is not okay!", she shouted, on the verge of breaking down. With trembling lips she said, "You keep saying everything will be alright but you dont know what you're doing, and now we're going to die down here and no one will notice except my parents", the tears began to fall as she continued. "No one will even notice I'm gone except them because I will have died without having ever made a single friend", she finished as the tears kept flowing.
"Well, Connie", Steven said, "I'll be your friend". There is no way he could have ever known how much such a small act of kindness meant to her. He then fished a glowing bracelet out of his pocket and slipped it onto her wrist, making her face glow brighter than it. They spoke for a moment about when they had truly first seen one another. The fond memories of the day in question warmed their hearts and made them laugh, but then the bubble popped. He grabbed her hand and as they swam up to the surface it was the first time she had ever had someone make her heart beat so fast.
A few months later
They had been on many adventures together. She had helped him save the ocean and had gotten to know him very well after all the time they spent together. Her parents were very strict which made her hesitant to talk much about her new friend. They would press her for details every time she returned home from a day with him, but she was clever. She knew how to dodge questions and lie to make them stop. It was not behaviour she enjoyed, but she felt it neccessary to keep her only friend.
Steven and Connie had been seeing each other just a little too often however, and her parents knew they needed to know more. Their baby girl was growing up, and was just about old enough to develop her first serious crush which scared them, so her mother took action one day. She called her daughter and demanded that she speak to Steven's mother. Unable to deny her mother, Connie was unsure what they could do. The lies were about to unravel right in her ears but Steven was quick with response.
They ran down stairs to where Garnet, Steven's wisest guardian, was sitting on the couch. He quickly explained to her the situation and handed her the phone. "Yes this is...er..", she faltered for a second before replying, "this is Mom Universe". Connie's mother had asked her what the children were up to with which she replied by saying, "Uh the children? They're playing swords". It was a response that greatly displeased Connie's mother, but Garnet tried to correct herself by clarifying, "I mean playing with swords... oh no, there bleedingg..", she deadpanned before hangin up the phone. "Im sorry", she admitted to a distraught Steven and Connie, "I panicked".
Connie was certain their friendship would be over, but as her luck would have it she was wrong. Her parents were not pleased by Garnet's sense of humor, but they understood that Steven was her only friend, so they did not outright forbid her from ever seeing him again. They did, however, tell her that until they could meet with his parents she wouldn't be permitted to see him. It was the final nail in the coffin, she thought. Not only had she been lying to them all this time, she would finally be exposed for it and her first and only friend would be gone.
Once again her luck surprised her. Steven had agreed to the dinner and would bring a proper nuclear family to the table, or so she had thought. She had thought that until she felt large tremors approaching the restaurant. She had been so certain that he would pull through that she had never expected what would happen next. A giant woman with six arms came to dinner that night, with Steven and his father Greg riding on her shoulders.
The giant woman sat her passengers down in front of the astonished Mahaeshwarin family and sat down herself as if everything was normal. "Hi", the portly father with long, receding hair spoke, "I'm Greg Universe and this is my...er.. wife Alexandrite". "Hello", Alexabdrite said to them with a frown. Dinner that night was very awkward for everyone involved. Steven was making up answers for the Mahaeshwarins while Greg tried to back his sons fabrications with conversation, Alexandrite seemed to be highly displeased with the whole event and fighting with herself, and Connie was just quietly watching in horror as a terrible night unfolded.
"Steven", she called over a conversation that was turning very unpleasant very quickly, "Come help me find the restroom". They both went inside and she grilled him on what in the world was going on that night. He explained to her that he was uncomfortable with lying to her parents, so he got all three of his guardians to fuse into one being for the dinner. She was uninpressed and continued to berate him before he concluded, and said directly to her, that she was ashamed of him. Upset and very anxious, she brushed off his comment and they both returned to dinner outside.
Food was served and everybody ate except Alexandrite, who eyed her food with disgust. One of her arms reached down, however, and tried to drop a shrimp into her mouth. All of her internal components began to squabble about whether or not she would eat it, causing quite a spectacle for the outside observer. It was getting more hectic by the minute, with her even trying to hit herself before Steven put a stop to it by telling her she didn't have to eat it.
His three guardians diffused and began to bicker again. Amethyst, the shortest and most immature of his guardians was disgruntled that she wasn't able to try any food. Pearl on the other hand, despite being usually so composed and proper, was on the ground practically wretching at the thought. She hated the feeling of eating, and since their bodies could be sustained without it, she never partook of food. Garnet was furious with the both of them, giving them both knocks in the head for messing up what they were trying to do for Steven. Connie could see that her parents were confused, and that no amount of Steven's creativity or Greg's conversationalism would explain this, so she ran.
"Connie!", Steven called as he ran after her. He found her crying at a bus stop up a hill nearby. He tried to comfort her but deep in his stomach he worried that what she was saying to him was right: that there was no way to fix it. So being the ball of creativity Steven is, he proposed they take a bus and run away together. Normally Connie would have dismissed such a notion outright, as she was smarter than to believe such a plan would work, but she was not thinking clearly at the time. She agreed to his plan and they lept on a bus that left Beach City.
They had made it all the way to the Keystone State in fact before the Gems had tracked them down. Connie's stomach was in knots the whole way home. She couldn't help but to stare at Steven as rhey were transported back. She was memorizing every detail of his face, even though it was quite sadder now than she'd ever seen it before, and was storing the image of it in her mind. Once they were back in Beach City the Mahaeshwarins were thankful to the Gems for finding their little girl, but expressed that it would be best if Steven and Connie no longer saw one another.
Hearing her parents say that broke Connie's heart despite the fact that she had known it was coming. It still wounded her so deeply though, because she cared greatly for this boy, the kind and magical boy that was her first and best friend. She was broken inside, but she didn't cry at first because she didn't want tears to be the way he remembered her. She wasn't even allowed to hug him and say goodbye properly and that's what broke the dams in her eyes. Connie cried her whole way home. She cried for several more days after that as well, until she eventually ran out of tears to shed.
A couple of months went by and she fell into a deep depression over her loss. She had thought she would never cry again as she felt as if she had used every tear she had the first week after not seeing him, but she was wrong. Her father's job as a private security guard was having them move and the realization that she may never come back to beach city again threw her into hysterics one last time.
Years later
Connie had grown up far away from Beach City, the only place she had ever really felt at home. Due to her father's job she traveled a lot more growing up but she was finally old enough to leave her parents, and that's exactly what she did. On the morning of her 18th birthday she had left without hugging or saying goodbye to her parents. She left a note on the fridge that explained her want of independance as a legal adult and that was all her parents would know.
She had been preparing for a long time for this day. Reading books about self sufficiant living and studying maps religiously for years. She knew exactly where she was going, which states she would need to get through, and where to start her new life when she got there. Everything she needed to start her new life she had with her. With clothes, a couple of years of savings, and a vast collection of knowledge, she thought everything could only get better from here...but she was wrong.
At a bus stop two states from where she started she was robbed of her money. In another life she would have learned some form of martial arts, but in the life her parents gave her she never had the opprotunity. She was fortunate that she escaped the deranged thug that had cornered her, but the event left a lasting impact on her. Now wherever she went she would keep the pepper spray on a lanyard on her neck, fiddling with it whenever she got nervous.
Her hardships didn't end there. She had to hitchhike across the country to get to her destination. Most of the time everything went fine as she did. She would meet some nice person or people driving along to point B and catch a ride if it was going her way. However, sometimes things did not go well for her. One driver pulled a gun on her. She instinctively reached for her pepper spray but he threatened to kill her if she tried, so she dropped the spray and began to comply. Her body was acting naturally on her own to keep her alive. He drove them out to somewhere secluded in the woods and had his way with her.
She had grown up so beautifully and he made her pay for it as if it were a curse. After what would be probably one of the worst nights of her life, she was left cold and broken in those woods. She was in shock, scared and alone, yet she did not cry. Once her assualter had left she got up and began to navigate a way out of the woods. She flagged someone down on the side of the road and asked to borrow their cell phone.
The police arrived at her location shortly afterwards and escorted her to a rest stop. They tried night and day to get her to elaborate on what happened exactly and what she could remember, but she didn't care. She was on a mission, and she'd be dammned if she let this stop her. After a few days of rest and her first meal since she ate fast food with the man who would later defile her, she left the state and started on her journey again.
Within a few weeks of leaving home she had successfully made it to Beach City. It was a bit of a bumpy road, she thought, but I'm here now. She was out in the countryside at an old abandoned barn when she decided she should rest for the night. She slept among vintage aviation equipment and woke the next morning ready to begin her new life. She would buy a plot of land, much like the one she was on now, and start her own farm. A quick visit to the city was all she'd need as the raw country here was still technically considered a part of the mayor's jurisdiction due to weird zoning laws.
Of course her bigger thoughts in mind were not of the farm she would establish but of the friend she lost so many years ago. She hiked down to the city and was filled with a nostalgia that she had never known before. Everything looked the same but so different.
As she strolled through the streets she saw people and places she recognized, but none recognized her of course. Since she had been a loner growing up she hadn't made any connections with the townsfolk, but she had people-watched them long enough to recognize some of them. She walked familiar sidewalks, street corners, and eventually saw the boardwalk street right ahead of her. It really took her back in time, as many of the businesses she remembered as a kid were still there.
The youngest Fryman boy was now running the fry shop, Kiki and Jenny now owned Fish Stew Pizza, and even the Big Donut was still in business, although it was closed because it was Sunday. Tears fell from her eyes as many good memories flooded through her. It was the happiest she had felt in years, and it was overwhelming her, but her life has never been too kind. Everytime something good happens something horrible steps in to ruin it.
Normally that thought always permiates her mind in times like this, but she was so overwhelmed with happiness that she forgot to let it. That would change as she saw him round the corner of the Big Donut. He had grown up strong and handsome much like she had grown smart and beautiful.
His hair had grown longer into massive curls that formed loose dreads that fell to his shoulders, his baby fat had left him long ago, but he retained a burly physique. He had the body of a linebacker but his style suggested he was more into music than sports. He wore a black shirt with a gold star in the center and it was ripped sleeveless. He had on a pair of faded jeans, with some very worn out but comfortable looking flip-flops on.
Seeing him so handsome and grown made her heart feel like it was going to burst, and then it did. Her heart burst when she realized he wasn't alone, but actually had some girl on his arm. It was no one she recognized, but it didn't matter. Steven was holding this girl's hand and not her own, and made her fall to her knees. She had prepared for so long to return to him and make a new life with him by her side, but she had never taken into account if he even had the same feelings. She never considered that he would want anyone else.
She spent so much time thinking about him. So many hours of thought went into her plans and suddenly it never mattered. She saved money for their life together, dedicated large amounts of time and thought to it, and had even saved herself for him until... it all caught up with her all at once. All the depression she had lived with, all the dreams she would have of him, all the trauma she recieved in getting here, and none of it mattered anymore. Her self conciousness kicked in again, something she thought she had tamed long ago with her decision to return and dedication to that purpose. "It doesn't matter now...", she whispered in defeat, "he wouldn't want me anyways".
And with those words, she walked to the beach and straight into the ocean.