It's A Small World, After All
"Sammy," Bailey said, "Can we please go play something? We've been doing nothing for forever!"
Sammy crossed her eyes and tried her best not to roll them and run away from Bailey. Why did she even bother playing with her, anyway?
Bailey stomped her foot and sighed, "You're no fun. Why am I waiting for you? Goodbye." Bailey huffed and stormed away.
Sammy sat cross-legged on the grass of the park, watching people silently. Her bright green eyes landed on a girl with blonde hair and a pink dress. She looked nine years old. Sammy's age. The girl had pigtails and she was laughing with an older boy who looked about fourteen. Probably her brother. Sammy wished she had a brother. Or a sister, it didn't matter. She wished she had someone who understood and appreciated her. She had her mother and she loved her mother, but she wanted a kid. A sibling. Her mom was the closest thing she had to a best friend.
Right now, at least.
Sammy felt a tickle on her leg. She looked down at her legs. A ladybug was crawling up her bare leg.
Sammy let the ladybug crawl onto her finger then she went nose-to-bug with the spotted little red insect.
"Well, well, well." she said, trying to sound smart. But inside she felt sick. She wasn't smart. Everyone said she was smarter than most kids her age, but really? She was talking to a bug. A little bug. A BUG.
She was pathetic.
Sammy let the ladybug back down in the grass when she looked back down at her legs and saw four more ladybugs crawling on her legs.
She jumped up, trying to brush them off, and then she realized there were more! Where were they coming from! Sammy was secretly worried if any of them had gone into her shorts but she couldn't check right now. Not in public. She had to wait for her mother to pick her up after work. Her mom would be so mad if she knew that Sammy wasn't with Bailey. They usually stuck together after school until Sammy's mom came to pick her up. Bailey was two years older than Sammy, she was in fifth grade. Bailey still played with Barbie dolls and she didn't mind "babysitting" and playing with Sammy until her mother came. The only bad thing about Bailey was that she was very impatient. And so she had taken off today. You could consider Bailey as one of Sammy's "friends" but Sammy didn't necessarily like Bailey. Bailey was just another bossy girl in her opinion. An older person who treated her like a baby.
I am not a baby, Sammy thought.
Sammy felt another tickle on her legs and she kept on brushing off the psychotic ladybugs from her legs.
She was getting very annoyed now.
"Hi."
Sammy looked up to see a boy with brown eyes and brown hair.
"Hello." he said, barely acknowledging him. She went right back to flicking the ladybugs off her legs with her index finger.
The boy tried again, "Why are ladybugs all over you?"
Sammy sighed and looked up at him. He was a little older than her. Maybe a year or two? She couldn't tell. He looked about 10 or 11, but it was hard to tell. All she knew what that someone like him shouldn't be talking to someone as pathetic and weird as her. She felt like such a little kid next to him. He was kind of cute, in a kid sort of way.
Wait, what am I thinking? Sammy thought. I don't even know him!
"I don't know." she mumbled, answering his question.
"Do you need any help?" he asked. "I have nothing else to do, so... I could help. I'm just watching my sister here, but she's on the swings with her friends. She's your age, I think. Do you know her?" the boy pointed to a girl with penny-and-brick colored hair at a swing. She did look Sammy's age, but Sammy didn't know her.
"I don't know her. I don't know you." Sammy said, as she spotted another ladybug behind her knee.
The boy laughed, "How do you think you meet new people, dummy?"
Sammy blushed. She was so stupid sometimes!
The boy smiled at her. "Sorry if I'm bothering you. My stupid sister is just really weird. I just noticed you and thought I'd say hi. You look pretty busy exterminating bugs from your legs, though. Well, it was nice meeting you... What's your name?"
"Sammy." Sammy couldn't help admiring how smart and nice he was. 'Exterminating'? What a big word! She only ever heard older kids and adults use it before.
He laughed when she told him her name, "But that's a boy's name."
Sammy scowled. "Shut up! It's short for Samantha but don't you dare call me Samantha, okay?"
Casey gave a playful grin and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Okay, I'll call you Sammy. And I'm Casey."
Sammy stuck her tongue out, "Why are you making fun of me? Casey could be a girl name."
Casey laughed again, "You're really funny, you know that?"
"I am?"
All of a sudden the girl Casey had claimed to be his sister ran up to him, "CASEEEY! Let's go home! I want lemonade!"
Casey waved at Sammy, "Bye, Sammy-who-has-a-boy's-name!"
"Bye, Casey-who-has-a-girl's-name." Sammy blinked. Her first real friend was leaving. She'd probably never see him again, either.
Casey's sister looked at Sammy a moment. Sammy stared back. It was strange. His sister's blue eyes and Sammy's green eyes. Staring. At each other.
Then the girl looked at Sammy's shoes and back at her, "You're weird." she said, right before she and Casey took off. Casey turned back around a moment to draw circles in the air around his ear to indicate that his sister was "crazy'. Then he gave Sammy a wink and turned back around as he walked off with Heather.
Sammy got back to brushing ladybugs off her. They were now making their way up her arms.
"Leave me alone." Sammy snapped at them, "Get off me!" She was absent-mindedly walking as she stared down at her arms and legs, trying her best to get the ladybugs off her body.
Then she bumped into someone.
"Whoa there, little girl."
Sammy felt a big hand on her head. She shook it off and looked up. She saw a boy with bright blue eyes and an undefined hair color. His hair was literally blonde and red and black all mixed in one.
"Who are you?" Sammy asked. He was old. Really old. Like thirteen years old. Why was he talking to her?
"I'm Brandon. This is Marissa-" he pointed to a girl the same age as Sammy. The girl had dark wavy hair and she looked nice.
"Hi." Sammy said. She stood there. Confused. Brandon treated her like a little girl. As usual.
Brandon smiled at Marissa, "See, Marissa? There are other nice girls here too. Why don't you guys play or something?" he looked over his shoulder at a boy his age with brown hair. He muttered, "I'll be back after I go talk with Karl..." and he hurried off.
Marissa stared at Sammy's legs, "You have ladybugs on you." she said.
Sammy scowled, "I know. I don't know why..."
Marissa laughed, "But they look cute."
"Do you want to hold one?" Sammy held a ladybug out on her finger.
Marissa looked horrified, "NO!" she cried out, "NEVER!"
Sammy laughed, "Are you scared?"
"No...! I'm... I just don't like bugs!"
"Well neither do I. But ladybugs are harmless. Even though, they tickle!"
Marissa pointed at the swings, "Let's go swing okay?"
So Sammy and Marissa sat on the swings and talked. It was fun. Real fun. Sammy liked Marissa. They weren't anything alike but Marissa also seemed to like Sammy.
Finally Sammy's mother came to pick her up.
"Where did Bailey go!" she asked, "She was in charge of you!"
"She got sick of me and left. But Marissa is here." Sammy introduced Marissa to her mom. And then
Marissa (with Brandon's permission) went over to Sammy's house for cookies.
The next day at school, Sammy saw Marissa.
"Marissa! You go to the same school as me? I never even noticed."
"This is so cool..." Marissa said, "Now we can talk at school, too!"
So Sammy and Marissa eventually became best friends.
One day, a boy named Billy invited the whole third grade (not a lot of people, actually) and some of the fourth graders to his birthday party.
Sammy was forced into wearing a dress.
She really, really didn't want to.
Marissa was quite okay with it, though.
At the birthday party, there was cake and games and all that stuff.
Then, as Sammy was talking to Marissa, someone threw cake in her hair.
Infuriated, she turned to see who it was. It was a boy with frosting on his hands, laughing. He was standing next to that boy she'd met at the park a month ago, what was it... Caley? Colby? She'd already forgotten his name. All she remembered, though, was that it was also a girl's name.
"Why did you do THAT?" she snapped at the boy who'd thrown cake in her hair.
The-boy-who's-name-she-forgot nudged the cake-thrower and said, "Hey, when a boy bothers a girl it means he likes her!" and then a whole group of kids around Sammy and the cake-thrower went,
"Ooooooooooooooohh! You liiiiiiike her, Taylor! You have a cruuuush on herrrrr!"
Keep in mind that these are all third and fourth graders. Who, apparently, can be very immature at times.
Taylor-the-cake-thrower turned bright red. "I do not! I just wanted to ruin her hair!"
"WHY?" Sammy demanded. Her mother had kept her hair open and put little bows on the side, which Sammy had ripped out the minute she stepped into Billy's house. Her mother didn't know, of course.
"Because..." Taylor began, "Because..."
The-boy-who's-name-she-forgot grinned evilly, "You think she's cute, don't you?"
"STOP!" Sammy yelled at The-boy-who's-name-she-forgot, "Stop giving people dumb ideas!"
Taylor was bright red now, "Shut up, Casey!"
Oh yeah! That's what his name was! Casey! She remembered now.
But people were now buzzing about "Oooh! Taylor likes Sammy!" and stuff like that.
Sammy got up and up smacked Taylor across the face like she had seen mothers do to their kids before. She put all the force she could in it.
Taylor clamped his hand over his burning red cheek. "WHAT WAS THAT FOR!"
"For throwing cake in my hair!" and then she stomped on his foot, "And THAT was for embarrassing me, ya big jerk!"
Then she gave a big glare to Casey for egging the kids on, and ran home with Marissa.
CASEY:
Casey felt sort of bad as he saw Sammy leave. He didn't mean to make her mad, he was just joking around! He wished Taylor hadn't thrown the cake. Oh well. What could he do now? He had only said that "you-think-she's-cute" thing because he, himself, had also thought she was cute. (As cute as a third-grade girl could be in a fourth grade boy's eyes, at least!) He wished he could tell her sorry, but there was no way of talking to her now...
He never heard of Sammy-the-girl-with-a-boy-name-and-cake-in-her-hair ever again.
That is, until he was in eighth grade.
SAMMY:
When Sammy got home, she told her mother about Taylor and Casey and the kids and cake and everything. She didn't cry. Sammy wasn't usually a crier. She was more of a fighter. A self-defender.
She couldn't help thinking of Casey, though. How come he had been so nice to her a month ago at the park but he had teased her at the party? Then she blocked Casey out of her mind and focused on Marissa, because Marissa was her best friend. Marissa told her about her parents and money and how some parents wanted their kids to be friends with her only for her money. She was glad that Sammy didn't use her for her money. And then she invited Sammy over for the first time...
MARISSA:
Marissa was afraid. Would Sammy get greedy and like her only for her cool things once she saw her house? She sure hoped not. So when Lana dropped Sammy off at her doorstep and Sammy rang the doorbell, her stomach lurched. She hoped so much that Sammy would stay the same.
Of course, when Sammy saw her huge polished staircase and long, glittery chandelier and fancy painting and decorations and shining grand piano, her eyes bulged and her jaw dropped. The good thing about Sammy was, though, that she adapted to places really quick. She got used to Marissa's huge house and giant room in no time. And she and Marissa were even better friends now. Marissa was so glad that she had met Sammy. She really wasn't like any other girl she'd met before…
SAMMY:
Then in fifth grade, Sammy's mother moved and she had cried with Marissa for hours and hours. Marissa comforted her like a best friend would. Then Sammy moved into her grams' apartment illegally and things were different. Marissa couldn't go over to Sammy's house for cookies or to sleep over anymore. And Sammy had to skateboard all the way to Marissa's house by herself. She couldn't get rides from her mother anymore. Of course, in sixth grade her skateboard was stolen so then she rarely went to Marissa's house since it too far to walk by foot.
And in seventh grade she met Holly and Dot, her new friends. And she met Casey Acosta, whom she hadn't remembered or recognized at all from third grade. Casey hadn't remembered Sammy either.
Until...
Back to present-day in Santa Martina:
SAMMY'S POINT OF VIEW
We were at the mall just talking when Billy mentioned it.
"I once had a birthday party when I was in third grade, and Taylor threw cake in a girl's hair!" he laughed and said to Casey, "Don't you remember?"
I almost choked. "Wait, when was this, again?"
"When I was in third grade."
I just blinked. "Who was the girl?"
Billy shrugged, "I don't know but Casey didn't shut up about her for a month after. He had some little-kid crush on her." He snorted when he said the word "crush".
Casey punched Billy, "Shut up, I was a kid, okay?"
I couldn't breathe. Not because this was really important or anything, but because it was surprising... Shocking... Ironic...Weird.
"You did?"I asked Casey.
Casey's face flushed as he said, "No! I don't know! It was just a little kid crush, okay?" then he added, "I don't even remember her name." Aww! Casey thought I was getting jealous so he was trying to convince me that it was just a kid-crush! How sweet it that?
"You.. don't remember her name?" I asked.
He shook his head and put his hand around my waist and stepped closer. "Like I said, it was one of those little-kid-crushes. Don't let it bother you."
"It's not bothering me.." I said, "It's... Wait, who threw the cake, again?"
Billy grinned, "The one and only Taylor Briggs."
"You're kidding."
Then Casey and Billy both turned and stared at me with weird expressions. "Why do you care so much, Sammy?"
"Because... That girl was me."
They were both silent a moment and then Billy cracked up, "Classic!"
"Oh, shut up!" Casey backhanded Billy and turned back to me, "Wow." he said. "First girl to ever slap Taylor and it's you."
"So?"
He shrugged, "I don't know. This is just too weird."
"Yeah."
Silence.
Okay. Awkward.
So this really was weird.
It's strange how I "knew" my friends before I knew my friends. Isn't that weird? And it's strange how Casey, quote "had a little-kid-crush" on me, unquote.
So then the next day when I saw Marissa and she could not stop laughing, "I remember that day!"
Holly and Dot were completely lost and looked sort of left out so I changed the subject after glaring at Marissa for LAUGHING.
I still think it's weird, but what can I do? I can't exactly go back in time and change any of it. Marissa said that it was a story that Casey and I would be telling our grandkids when we were older. I had to punch her pretty good for that one. It just goes to show that you can meet anyone, anywhere, anytime, and you might not even know it.
"Hey!" Marissa said, when I'd told her that, "Does that mean I might have met Johnny Depp before?"
I smirked, "Yeah, in your dreams."
She smirked back. "Like Casey is in your's?"
That just earned her another well-deserved punch. "For your information, I do not dream about Casey."
"Yeah, but you drool on him." she gave me an evil grin. She knew all about the camping trip from last summer.
So I tried my best not to let this weird new thing I'd just learned bother me. It just made me realize how weird life can be…
It's a small world, isn't it?
A/N: Tell me if you liked it. I tried to use a different writing style. I made it more up-front and very… blunt and to-the-point. So sorry about the lack of details. But tell me what you thought anyhow! I just realized that there's barely any past-fics here and we really should make more. In fact, I think this is the first. I'm not sure, I haven't read some of the old ones in forever. So yeah. Thanks for reading!