A/N: Alternate timeline, in which Sam and Cat ended up going to the same elementary school. This fic was inspired by the song "First Love - [music box version] Utada Hikaru"
Let me know if you want more! (WARNING: If this fic is continued for more chapters, it will not be fluff!)
Rating susceptible to change if later chapters are added. I do not own these characters.
Enjoy and review!
Sam gripped the handle with the strength, of a girl her size, shouldn't possibly possess. Muffled, but audible and cheerful noises were emitting from the room just behind the barrier of the large wooden door, the only thing separating her and the beast that lie within. The young girl swallowed, and somehow tightened her grip on the handle of the door.
~ "But mom, look see, other mommies are bringing their kids in. The kids aren't by themselves." Sam attempted to plead with her mother. The mother and daughter were still sitting in the beat up Hyundai Accent parked on the side of the dilapidated elementary school. Sam pushed her long, wavy blonde locks out of her face. Her mommy hadn't helped her with her hair this morning. Pam scoffed, seeing another one of those couples. "Nuh-uh, Sammy. You're a big girl. You gotta do this by yourself." Pam reached over across her daughter to clumsily shove open the passenger door.
Sam scrunched up her face at the smell of alcohol on her mommy's breath.
"Go on, kid. Give 'em hell." Pam grinned at her daughter then hiccupped, tuning back to the steering wheel and shoving the key into the ignition.
The little blonde sighed, grabbing hold of her grey transformer's backpack, and dragged it along with her as she slid out of the car. She swung it onto on one shoulder, grasping on of the plush straps for dear life as she stomped into the school. Her eyes were stinging, but she refused to let the tears fall. No matter how she scared she was. Because Sam Puckett doesn't cry.
She cringed as the rowdy cheers became harsher. Whatever lay ahead, she would need to face on her own, as she always did. She took the deepest breath her little lungs could hold, before swinging the heavy door open.
She was immediately greeted with a rush of annoyingly bright color. All along the walls, rainbows and stick figures of every size and race. Numbers and letters framed the lining of the walls, and there were a number of small chairs in one corner of the room, overrun by the large mat laid out in the middle of the room.
Sam observed all the parents being dragged along the colorful room by their enthusiastic kids, and others weeping for the children. She huffed. Adults weren't supposed to cry. That was dumb.
Sam continued ranting to herself until someone had tapped her on her shoulder, so gently that she wasn't even sure she felt it. She turned, her tiny fists curled and obviously annoyed. She was planning to tell whoever was messing with her to go away, but instead she just stared. Facing her was a girl about the same size as her, the girl's deep chocolate eyes nervous as she looked down, long eyelashes nearly covering them. Her light brunette locks fell past her shoulders down to her elbows with loose curls at the ends, contrasting her flowery pink dress. Sam's eyebrows raised, the girl's rosy cheeks just adding to her overly-sweet exterior. Sam scowled, feeling a pang in her chest she didn't understand, and thus didn't enjoy.
"What?" Sam snapped, making the girl fall back a step and flutter her eyelashes in fear.
"Uh…" the brunette began to mumble, and pointed down at the blonde's shoes, navy blue converse which were heavily worn.
Sam's eyes followed the girl's finger, realizing that something was plush and purple under her shoe. She stepped off it, figuring the girl wanted it. Sam's shoe revealed that she had been stepping on the neck of some kind of giraffe. The brunette bent down, scooping up the plush animal into her arms and hugged it to her. She smiled as she gave the purple animal a squeeze, a single dimple showing on her left cheek. Sam felt another pang in her chest.
"Mr. Purple says thank you for not killing him." The brunette said in a voice as light as air.
Sam swallowed, looking away and crossing her arms. "Take better care of him next time." As soon as she turned back, the girl was gone. She opened her mouth to call out to her, not really knowing why. But she was stopped when a new, much older face appeared in front of her.
"Hi there, sweetie." The woman cheered. "What's your name?"
"Sam." She said shortly, recognizing the woman as the teacher.
"Alrighty then! Just have your mommy or daddy sign what's on that sheet over there, ok?" The lady pointed to a corner of the classroom in which parents were lining up to scribble on a paper atop a desk.
Sam looked away pointedly, crossing her arms again. "They couldn't come. They had stuff." Sam said as casually as she could, but knew her voice wavered a bit.
The teacher's eyes widened slightly, never having heard of a student's parent not coming to see the child off for their first day. Heck, some parents stayed to see their child off for the first week! She looked unsure of what to say as the little blonde stared up at her. "Well," she sighed. "That's ok. They can sign next time."
Sam knew the slip would never be signed.
After quite a bit of grieving from parents, and some even insisting to stay, the children were appointed to pick a spot on the mat for a temporary seating assignment.
Sam looked around at all the kids surrounding her, swarming to claim a pretty color on the mat or to sit as close as possible to new friends. Sam shrugged, a picked a nice spot in the back corner of the mat, nearest to the door unless she needed to make a quick escape. No other students sat particularly close to her, to which she was grateful for, then scowled then the teacher beckoned the class to come closer together. She grudgingly scooted forward, bumping into a dark brown-haired boy who wasn't paying attention. He turned to face the bumper and was greeted by a glare of hatred from Sam. He immediately moved. Sam scoffed, ending up sitting next to a curly ginger and a small blonde boy.
"Ooo, you got a pretty color!"
"Yeah but you got green. That color is cool!"
Sam listened to the other kids discuss the color they were seated on. Sam looked down, noticing she was on 'brown'. She shrugged. She liked brown. It was the color of mud pies and her favorite kind of chocolate. And pretty eyes…she shook her head. 'Where did that come from?'
She dismissed the thought, picking at her small callused hands as the teacher rambled on, something about a rabbit and a turtle...
A light tug on her hair brought her back to attention. She turned her torso around aggressively, swatting away at whatever was touching her hair. She was greeted by a nervous giggle and familiar big dark chocolate eyes…
"Sorry." The girl answered, pulling back her small hands from the blonde's hair. "Your hair is so pretty…"
Sam could feel herself growing hot, and she furiously clutched at a lock of her own blonde waves. "Cut it out." She whispered roughly, not wanting to alert the teacher.
"I'm really sorry." The girl's eyes widened and flashed a hint of sadness before she began fiddling with her own hair. Sam looked down at the purple mass tucked underneath the girl's arm.
'She still has that dumb giraffe? She probably brought it to school.' She thought, then rolled her eyes. 'What was its name? Mr. something?' she must have said the last bit out loud because the girl answered her.
"It's Mr. Purple, silly. Not Mr. Something." She smiled again, the dimple showing up.
Sam opened her mouth to say something but a parental tone cut off her words.
"Caterina. It's not polite to talk when others are talking." The teacher snapped at the brunette. Sam hadn't even turned to face the teacher yet, when she saw the girl's large brown eyes widen even further, tears brimming them and glare out her usual light.
Sam wasn't sure why she felt anger towards the teacher bubble up inside of her. The girl had been talking. She watched the girl in front of her repeatedly open and close her mouth, unsure of what to say.
"Go and change your green card to yellow, Catarina." The teacher commanded, pointing to a large board on the back of the room, with every kid's name printed below a green card. If the child misbehaved, they received a yellow warning. If the action is repeated, the card is changed to red. Most of the cards had remained green, save for a few children who were acting rowdy before the class had even begun.
Catarina nodded softly, head down in an effort to hide the tears threatening to spill. She was just beginning to rise when Sam shot up.
"I was talking, Miss Hatter. Not..ah-…" she stumbled, at a loss for the pronunciation of the girl's name. "Cat." It was all she could remember.
Miss Hatter looked unsure for a moment before nodding. She pointed at the board on the wall again. "Alright then. Green to Yellow for your card."
Sam nodded, walking over to the board and placed a yellow card over her green one. She looked over her shoulder, assuring that the teacher wasn't looking before making sure that a few other kids' cards got changed too. She returned to her spot on the mat, flicking her bangs out of her face before turning her smirk at the teacher for the rest of class.
Cat stayed silent behind her.
~
The children were let out for a brief recess. They were given small snacks to enjoy on the playground, so long as they returned all trash to the bins outside of the classroom. Sam was all too happy to indulge in the perks to school, and soon began to ask other kids for their share of snacks after she had finished her own. If they failed to oblige, she would have to 'talk' to them about sharing.
Sam climbed atop a large metal playground dome in the middle of the playground and sat on the top portion, scaring off anyone who tried to play with her. She scanned the playground from atop her castle, spotting a dot of pink from across the sand. Cat was singing, (well, more like sitting) on the swings, Mr. Purple lying in the sand a few feet away from her. The brunette felt eyes on her and looked up, chocolate meeting ice for the third time that day.
Sam tore her eyes away, scoffing and letting herself fall through one of the gaps in the structure, her legs hooking onto one of the horizontal bars as she hung upside down. She closed her eyes, letting the blood rush to her head. She sighed, swinging gently. A moment later and she could hear light footsteps approaching her; a she chose to ignore them. But a moment later, and she felt something extremely soft and warm pressed against her lips.
Her eyes snapped open, getting a flash of long eyelashes and rosy cheeks before her legs slipped from the position on the metal and she cam toppling down. "Ow!" she exclaimed after landing in the sand below her, rubbing her head furiously. Her crystal blue eyes looked up at none other than Cat from her position on the ground.
For once, Sam Puckett was at a loss for words. "Wha-?! Why- you, Why would you-?"
The brunette above her looked a bit surprised at the blonde's reaction. "Are you ok, Samantha?" Her eyes widened a tad. "Is your noggin ok?" she asked innocently, not masked by any ulterior motive.
That pissed Sam off. She balled her fists and stood, brushing off a bit of dirt from her jeans as she did so. "Why-…Why would you heckin' kiss me?!" She raged, but cooled down a tad when the saw Cat cringe.
Cat shrugged innocently. "I wanted to thank you for saving my card this morning…" she blushed a bit and smiled, the happiness touching her eyes. "And whenever my mommy wants to thank my daddy, she gives him a special kiss." Cat nodded matter-o- factly, then tilted her head curiously. "But, daddy never has your reaction. He always kisses mommy right back." Suddenly, her expression turned worrisome.
'Was this girl bipolar?' Sam thought inwardly.
"Did I not do a good job? Sh-should I try again?" Cat blinked rapidly.
Sam's blue orbs widened, feeling her pale face grow hot. "N-no! It's not that, it's just…" she glanced at the brunette staring at her intently. "…that's only for mommies and daddies. We're too small. And…" she felt herself swallow.
"It's only for mommies and daddies." She repeated a bit quieter this time. "Not mommies and mommies."
Cat tilted her head again, a lock of her hair falling into her face.
Sam had to fight her hand from reaching up to tuck it behind Cat's ear. 'Bad hand.'
Cat blinked slowly, grasping at her dress during her thought process. "Oh…but, we aren't mommies." Cat grinned. "So that makes it ok, right?"
Sam opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Cat did have a point. Sam nodded. "Yeah, I think so." She sighed, brushing off another bit of dirt from her ripped jeans. She looked up, realizing they were both inside the dome and other kids had begun to climb onto it. Without their permission. Sam realized that she had to act fast, so she turned to Cat, reaching out to grip her small forearms. "Cat, listen. This is my castle, cause I'm the King, which means those kids aren't supposed to be on it." She pointed to the kids above them. Sam sighed again. "But I can't defend it all by myself, so…" Sam managed a small smile at the girl. "Wanna be my Queen?"
Cat blinked, registering the question.
Suddenly, Cat threw herself at Sam, wrapping her small arms around the blonde's waist and laughing. "Yep!" she giggled again, snuggling into Sam's chest. "But we can both be Queens."
Sam blushed as soon as the girl had rushed at her. Cat was hugging her! Nobody was allowed to hug Sam Puckett, but...Cat smelled like candy. And candy was nice, so it was ok this time. Sam grinned at the brunette's answer, and she nodded when Cat let go of her. "Ok, cool." It had been a while since Sam had truly smiled. She hadn't smiled since her mommy began giving her 'punishments' again… But here she was, grinning at this girly-girl brunette like she was the light in her little life.
Sam glanced up at the kids who were climbing further up the dome, and balled her fists to place them on her hips. "Now." She held out her right hand towards Cat, who took it with a smile. "Let's get these kids off our castle!"
And with that, the two little Queens took off, hand in hand, ready for battle to protect their kingdom.
~A/N: Let me know if you want to continue this fic. I know it seemed like major sugar-gargling fluff, but trust me, (knowing me), this will get very dark very fast. Anyone catch the subtle hints of angst in here? :D If I do continue and you don't enjoy Dark!Fics, then you can conclude that this chapter is the ending to the fic. Your choice, my lovelies. Please review!
(Oh, and about the whole 'card' thing, I remembered that in my kindergarten we did the same thing. This girl got me in trouble when I did nothing wrong, and I remember feeling super upset about changing my card to yellow. It seemed so important then, haha!)