AN: So this is just a pre-canon one-shot, very fluffy, from Sam's perspective. It was a plot bunny that I just couldn't get out of my head. Feel free to review, and enjoy!
Would you believe me if I told you that I used to hang out with other girls?
That's right. Though it greatly pains me to admit it, I, Sam Manson, used to be best friends with Paulina Sanchez.
Granted, that was back in a time when I wore pink dresses and ate meat, and she was whole lot less of a snob, but the point still stands.
Paulina and I met in kindergarten at Crane Elementary, the largest of the four primary schools in Amity Park. I distinctly remember the day she approached me, a timid little five year old, and asked me if I would be her friend. Of course, I was a lot less jaded back in the day, and I agreed on the spot. We became instant best friends, sharing everything from crackers and juice at snack time to the names of boys in our class that we secretly thought were cute. Ours was the sort of friendship that needed no time or effort to thrive, as most kindergarten friendships are.
The day we graduated fifth grade is another day that I will never forget. I'd seen Paulina cry twice before that, one time in first grade when she'd gotten a nasty scrape on her knee from a fall on the playground, and then in third grade when her mother had died of cancer and I'd been there to comfort her at the funeral. On the day of our fifth grade graduation, I tearfully broke the news to her that I would be attending a different middle school than she would be, and she began to sob.
This meant no more sharing desserts at lunch, no more passing notes in class. It meant we'd both be starting the cesspit known as middle school by ourselves. The look of anguish on her face as we said goodbye for the last time is still imprinted in my mind, as fresh as if it had happened yesterday.
In hindsight, that day was one of the reasons I became a goth. I realized after that day that nothing in life can ever last, that as soon as anything good begins, it's on it's way to ending in a ceaseless downward spiral of entropy. When I started middle school, I quickly learned to see the world for what it was: a cruel, dark place where every person is left to fend for themself.
Don't get me wrong, though, it was a given that I'd find new friends in middle school, even if I wasn't exactly the little ray of sunshine I'd been in my younger years. Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley had always been the male equivalent of Paulina and I, and though I'd noticed them from time to time in the hallways of Crane Elementary, I'd never really spoken to them before. They'd only been in my class for first grade, but that was back when most boys were still gross, and if I'd even gotten within three feet of them I would have risked contracting the fatal childhood disease known as cooties.
I'd done a lot of growing up since first grade, however, so when both of them just so happened to be seated near me for World History, the three of us struck up a conversation that would pave the way for a friendship that would last for years.
This isn't about Danny and Tucker, though, however integral to my life they may be. By the time I'd graduated eighth grade, I was a full-blown goth, and an ultra-recyclo vegetarian if you wanted to get label-happy. I'd figured out who I was, a luxury most girls my age wouldn't get until their college years, and people tried to mask their jealousy behind an impenetrable layer of rudeness. I'd grown more than accustomed to being picked on because of how I'd choose to wear my hair, or how I'd never even touch a piece of steak. Yes, it was safe to say I'd changed a fair amount in my three years at Clyde Middle School. I mean, I'd gone from a girly-girl who had long hair and answered to "Samantha" to a tomboy who knew exactly what she wanted out of life in the span of three short years.
Still, nothing could have prepared me to face Paulina's changes.
Oh, I knew she'd change too, but when I'd realized that both of our middle schools fed into Casper High, I figured that we could work through whatever differences we had accumulated in our time apart and still be pretty good friends. Heck, maybe she'd even hang out with Danny, Tucker and I.
Obviously, I'd never been more wrong in my life.
My first day at Casper arrived faster than Danny and Tucker to a clearance sale at GameStop. I can still smell the rancid mixture of adolescence, conformity and mystery meat that attacked my senses upon entering the building. The air, though extremely humid, was freezing, probably a failed attempt to force girls into wearing dress-code approved clothing.
The first time I saw Paulina, not a single fragment of recognition crossed my mind. Not until our first period teacher called role and the tall, confident girl sitting behind me answered to "Paulina Sanchez" did it even occur to me that she had been my closest friend up until three years ago. I could hardly believe my eyes; there was no trace of the shy little five year old who had asked me to be her friend some nine years before. This girl was beautiful and popular, and it showed in the way everybody looked at her when she talked, in how she could command full attention from an entire room of people. Still, although I'd acquired an utter disdain for anything remotely popular, I was willing to give rekindling our friendship a shot.
I guess I'd changed too much, too, because she never even acknowledged my presence. When I waved to her, she simply turned up her nose and, with a toss of her hair that reeked of drama, went back to gossiping with a blonde-haired girl whose name, if I'd heard right, was Star.
I recall feeling bitter over the fact that I'd been replaced, and being so incredibly hurt that Paulina didn't even remember who I was. Whether she was feigning ignorance or not, I couldn't tell, but either way I knew I would never be as important to her as I had been. Of course, as soon as Danny, Tucker, and pretty much every other male in the school caught a glimpse of her, they fell head over heels...into a pile of cow manure. She refused to speak to any boy-or girl, for that matter-that she deemed unworthy of her time. It infuriated me to see my best friends rejected and ignored time and again by a girl who used to take great pains to be kind to everyone, and eventually I developed a severe dislike for this new Paulina. Luckily, neither Danny nor Tucker remembered the connection between the two of us. If they had, I'd have been hounded without mercy on personal information pertaining to Paulina that was probably inaccurate anyways, seeing as I hadn't talked to her since the end of fifth grade.
What caused this radical change in Paulina, I'll never know, but what I do know is that no one can ever find out that we were friends. The hurt has somewhat subsided, but I know it will always be there, and I'll always have to bear it alone. If anyone ever found out, she'd be mortified and could lose her popularity.
On second thought, maybe telling people isn't such a bad idea after all.