KIM (12 years earlier)
"But Momma, Grace and Kelsey both have daddys!" She sighed. "I know sweetie, everybody has a daddy. Even you," she declared while tapping my nose. I thought about this for a second. "Momma, where's my daddy?" A sad smile played across her face. "I'm not sure, Kim. I'm really not sure." "But Momma-" She cut me off. "Kim, no more questions tonight baby. Okay?" I frowned. "I guess." She pulled my bed covers up to my shoulders and kissed my forehead as she turned off the lamp on my nightstand. "Goodnight, baby." "Night, Momma," I replied as I continued to ponder all of my remaining questions. Where was my daddy? I didn't even know that I had one. Grace and Kelsey both had tall daddys who picked them up from school and gave them piggyback rides. I wondered if my daddy was like that. I hoped so.
After a while, I learned to drop the whole "daddy" subject. It got to be too much for Momma, because every night I would ask her and she would give me the same "I don't know" or "I'm not sure, baby." Eventually she started to cry, so I stopped asking. I thought my daddy might be lost, so one time I tried to go look for him. He wasn't at the park, though. Before I could continue my quest to find him I was picked up by a few men in blue shirts. I asked them if they had seen my daddy, but they just put me in their car and drove me home. They did give me a shiny gold badge sticker, though. At least I got something out of it. Momma had been so happy when I got out of the car. She ran and lifted me into a big hug, and she rocked me in her chair for the rest of the night. The next morning she told me that I could never go and try to find Daddy. She told me that one day he would come and find me instead.
This thought settled my curiosity for a few years, but it eventually returned. When it did, it came back stronger. A burning passion. An obsession. I was 13 years old and unfortunately, stuck in middle school. Momma tried to distract me with karate (which I actually did enjoy) and gymnastics, but it didn't stop me from wondering. My mind contemplated different theories about where he could be. Momma never cracked, and instead filled me with the hopes that someday he might return for me. Someday he would come and make up for all of the piggyback rides I was deprived of. He would make up for the movies we didn't see together, and for all the times I never learned to play softball in the park. We would ride around in the pickup truck I was convinced he had, and everything would be okay. No, everything would be better than okay. It would be perfect.
Except he never came for me. As much as my mom had comforted me with the thought of him someday returning I was beginning to give up as I started my freshman year of highschool. I didn't have anyone to be overprotective when some boy would come up and ask me for my number. I continuously recited incorrect phone numbers. When that didn't work I had my karate. I could take care of myself. The second week of school a new kid moved to town, and it went something like this:
I was sitting in the highschool cafeteria. My friend Grace was going on about how much she despised Jerry Martinez, because he wouldn't stop bothering her. I sighed and took a bite of my apple, not really listening to the conversation. Instead my mind was replaying the scene that happened ten minutes ago. I grabbed an apple from the lunch line and proceeded to toss it to myself. Being the star softball player that I am (sarcasm) it slipped through my fingers, but before it could hit the ground it was rescued by Jack, the new kid. He laughed at my lame joke and from that point on, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to forget about him.
"Kim...KIM!"
"Huh?"
"You're zoning out on me!"
"Psh, what? No, I was just... thinking."
She smirked. "Okay, who are you thinking about?"
"Who says he's a person?...I-I mean I could be thinking about yesteray's cheer practice."
"You just said it's a he," she squealed with excitement.
"Crap."
"Who is it?"
"No one."
"Kim."
"Grace."
"If you don't tell me I shall break into song," she threatened.
I knew enough from past experiance that I couldn't let this go on. I gave up.
"It's Jack, the new kid," I admitted.
"Oooooh the one with the brown hair?!"
"Yep."
"Kim! He's cute!"
"Well duh," I said with a smile.
"Ohmigosh tell me everything!"
After repeating my apple story I may or may not have accidentally gotten a little overenthusiastic and mentioned his smile that just made me melt, and his eyes, and-
"Kim," Grace interrupted.
"Sorry."
"Don't be, just be careful. You barely know him. You're only 15, don't lose your heart yet," she joked.
This proved harder than I thought. Soon enough we had become best friends through karate, which he just happened to love as well. To Momma's delight, my obsession with my dad faded away. Well, at least that was what I convinced her of. I kept my thoughts on that subject to myself. If anyone asked, I would mutter something about my dad being on a buisness trip. Of course there were people who knew the truth, but most people didn't go around discussing my dad so I wasn't particularly worried about my lies. Basically, only the people who I was close with as a child knew the truth, and I'm sure the majority of them forgot. The rest surely didn't care. I lied to Jack when he asked one day. We were sitting in the Bobby Wasabi dojo with our friends and I wasn't about to spill my life story. They bought the buisness trip tale with very little effort on my part. Life went on.
Though I hid it, I was still curious about the mysterious existence of my so-called dad. This left me to research in the privacy of my bedroom at 2 in the morning. So far, from old photo albums left abandoned in the closet, I discovered that my father's name is Daryl Evan Crawford. That pretty much summed up my discoveries. There were no pictures of him when I was born, or from my time as an infant. The album didn't go back any further than my first day in the hospital. Besides my birth certificate, all traces of him were vacant. This lead me to google. For once, google didn't show many results. I didn't know what else to do besides move on, so that's exactly what I tried to do.
It worked pretty well up until Junior year.
"Hey Kim, can I ask you a question?" Jack whispered. We were sitting under the stars on the roof of his house, directly above his bedroom. "Shoot," I told him. I wasn't particularly concerned. Boy, I should've been though.
"How come you dad is on such a long buisness trip?"
"Umm, I don't know. His job's always been pretty demanding, I guess."
"But how come he never gets to come home and visit? I've never heard of a job that keeps someone away from his family for that long."
"I don't know, Jack."
"What does he do?"
"Oh, you know, just typical office stuff."
"Really? That's weird. Why doesn't he just get a job closer to home?"
"He-uh, couldn't find one."
"Oh, well my mom works in buisness. I bet she could help him find something."
"That's ok!"
"Come on, don't tell me you don't miss him."
"I don't."
"..."
"..."
"Kim?"
"What?"
"Come on."
"Jack, my mom and I are fine."
"Well yeah, but that still must be hard."
"It's not. We're good."
"Kim."
"Jack."
He sighed. "Fine, but I still wish I could help."
"It's ok, Jack. It really isn't your problem."
"Yeah, but you're my best friend."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"..."
"..."
"Will you tell me about him?"
"About who?"
"Your dad."
"No offense, but it really isn't your buisness. I don't get why you care."
"I care about you... and I know you care about him."
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Oh, come on! Why not?"
"Because."
"Well, I'll tell you about my family if you do," he offered.
"I already know everything about your family."
"Come on, Kimmy! Pleaseeee!"
I punched his shoulder. "No."
"Aww is Kimmy PMSing?"
"Shut up, Jack."
"Not until you tell me about your dad," he insisted.
"I can honestly tell you that I have nothing to say."
"Oh please, you always have something to say. Half the time I can't get you to shut up!"
I glared at him for a while.
"Wow, Kimmy. You've been starin' at me for a while now," he winked. "Like what you see?"
I rolled my eyes, secretly thankful he dropped the subject. "Oh, shut up."
"Make me," he taunted.
"How do I do that?"
"I have a few ideas," he smirked.
He scooted closer as his eyes drifted to my lips. Suddenly his hand was on my cheek. I literally couldn't move as he tilted his head and continued to get closer and closer to my face.
"Jackson Brewer! You get in here right now!" Mrs. Brewer's voice screeched through the silence and I jumped so badly I nearly fell off the roof. Thank god it was dark, because my cheeks burned with embarrassment and I was positive they were red. "Crap," he mumbled as he climbed down and slid through the window that lead to his bedroom. He left me sitting alone, staring at the empty space he previously filled with his dark eyes. What the heck just happened?
I could hear his mom yelling at him from directly below me. "It is the middle of the night and I wake up to Rudy calling to tell me that you left your cell phone at the dojo, again! I swear, you are the most irresponsible boy on the face of this planet and if I find out that you've lost your brand new phone one more time- let alone in the middle of the night- you're grounded for 2 weeks!" I smirked, Jack was famous for leaving his stuff everywhere. I heard a "yes, mom," being muttered and then she told him to go to bed. The sound of his door shutting echoed into the night.
"Kimmy?" Jack whispered out his window. I swung down into his bedroom and he smirked. "Now, where were we?" I let him get close enough so I could smell his faint traces of cologne. Then I punched him, hard. He doubled over and I held in a laugh. "Don't call me Kimmy," I said happily. He groaned and I left out the window, finally heading home for the night.