Their Story

(Chapter 3: Childhood Memories – Part 2)

Year 2030

Abby walked up to her parents' house, it was a beautiful Sunday evening, shame she had to fly off to LA the next morning – she would have loved to spend more time with her parents, she doesn't get to see them much these days. Abby was never in one place for long, but that was going to have to change because of Jason – he had proposed to her, it was quite a surprise, but she loved him and after years of doubting herself she had finally found a man who loves her for the way she is and she loves him back. The problem was that he wasn't American, he was Australian and lived down under but they both agreed to compromise and go somewhere they would be both happy. It helps that he was a freelance photographer so he could work anywhere and Abby was having a career change from fiction writer to auto-biographer, which is why she was flying out to LA Monday morning. She had an interview to write Christina Ricci's biography. Christina had died 6 months ago from an overdose; she couldn't live without her husband who died a year and a half before. But Christina was an amazing actress and had come a long way from Wednesday Addams in the film The Addams Family in the early '90's before Abby was even born, but she made it her job to find out as much information as possible – she really wanted this contract.

She knocked on their front door, they were expecting her, they already knew about Jason's proposal and her acceptance but her Mum had insisted that she come and see them. Monica opened the door, her once black hair was lined with silver but it didn't make her look old, it made her look elegant. "Abby! Come in." She did so and immediately got crushed by her Dad, who had been hovering behind the door, then her Mum joined the hug – they held her so tight that she couldn't breathe. "Mum, Dad, can't, breathe, please…" They laughed and let go. "Oh my God, my little baby is getting married – I knew you'd accept." Chandler said beaming with pride. Abby was a little confused, 'knew you'd accept' what did that mean? "Dad what do you mean?"

"Abby sweetie, Jason called me and asked for your hand in marriage; he said that over the years you had told him about how you wished for the fairy tale life and marriage, the one where the man asks the woman's father for her hand in marriage and how you were worried that you had too high expectations…" He got cut off.

"OH MY GOD! He took that seriously!?!?! I meant it when I was younger, a silly little girl with dreams, I didn't mean it as a hint." Monica joined in, "he knew that honey, but he wanted to make your dreams come true." Then Abby cried, which made her parents cry, they all cried and hugged again.

A little later Monica and Abby were sitting at the kitchen table, Monica with a coffee, Abby with a glass of juice. "So was the only reason you wanted to see me was to congratulate me? Because I get the feeling there's something more." Monica took a sip of her coffee, "ahhh, never try to fool your brain, you are way too intelligent for your own good. And where you get your intelligence from is a mystery. Probably your Uncle Ross."

"No way, I get it from my Dad!" Abby stated proudly, then as an after thought, "and of course you, Mother dearest."

"Cheeky cow." Monica replied playfully. "Anyway, you're right as usual, I wanted to give you something that I made when I was younger, way younger and used when your father and I got married." Monica went to the kitchen worktop and picked up her wedding book that she had put there earlier, she then placed it in front of Abby. "Is this what I think it is?" She didn't wait for a reply, "the famous wedding book?"

"Yes, although I never knew it was famous, I only thought I had mentioned it a few times…"

"Aunt Rachel." She stated.

"Ahhh, one of Rachel's famous lets-embarrass-your-parents stories. I should have known better." Abby laughed.

"So tell me the correct story then."

"Okay, well I was really young…"

Then Monica told Abby the story which touched her so much that she passed the story onto her children, and wrote about it in the last autobiography she ever wrote – her parents.

Year 2041

She missed them, she didn't agree with what they did, but she forgave them because she understood. If they loved each other as much as she and Jason loved each other then she understood – and hoped that they are happy and content wherever they are. This was becoming painful to write – it had been 6 weeks since they had left this world together and sitting here, in their house, with all the memories was hard. She had sat frozen with tears streaming down her face for hours, it's the memories that are hard, and they wouldn't let her rest. She just thought of a quote that fitted how she felt perfectly – the years go by so fast…

And they did, she was 41 now, it only seemed like yesterday she was 31, and the day before 21… and then as she continues to type as she wonders how she made it through life so quickly…

Often the younger sibling of a family is the spoilt one while all the pressures are passed to the older sibling. However this wasn't the case for the Geller family. Monica's elder brother Ross was apparently the 'miracle child'. Jack and Judy thought that they couldn't have children so when Judy became pregnant it seemed like Ross was a gift from God. So I'm not exaggerating when I say that Monica was born in Ross's shadow.

A 6 year old Monica sat in her bedroom playing with her brand new tea set that she got for Christmas. She laid her dollies around in a circle and poured them all a cup of invisible tea; she then gave them all a magic biscuit and sat down herself. After polite conversation and finishing the tea and biscuits Monica, being the host, got up and cleared up all the cups, saucers and plates. She carried them to the bathroom and filled the sink with warm water. Then Monica dropped all the cups, saucers and plates in the sink and then methodically cleaned and dried each item. She emptied the water and before she turned and left the bathroom she looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror – she checked her face all the time, she needed to know when she was going to start looking like Ross, because for some reason her Mum and Dad loved Ross more than her. Her blue eyes tortured her, she had the same black hair and similar features but her eyes were blue – Ross's were brown! Was that why? She hated her eyes, she hated being a girl, in fact she hated anything that made her different to Ross, and thus making her parents dislike her. Well that was the only reason the 6 year old Monica could find. As she was leaving the bathroom she could hear Ross telling Mum and Dad about his day at school for the 4th time, and demonstrating his science project and showing off his first prize. Last week Monica had won the reading prize at school – she had read a story out to the class and didn't make one mistake! She told Ross on the way home from school and he laughed at her, saying that he had won the reading prize when he was 5 and she was 6 and so was a dummy and stupid! Monica cried, she said that her teacher, Mr Jenkins, had said that she was a good reader, better than some children in the year above. Ross didn't care though, but Monica knew her parents would be proud, it was her first school prize – they would be proud! Wouldn't' they? Monica ran in the door before Ross when they got home and she ran to her Mum and showed her the prize, her Mum said 'well done dear, now what did my little Rossy-boy win today?' Monica ran upstairs crying.

For years Monica didn't understand, she got everything she wanted food, clothes, presents at birthdays and Christmases but that wasn't enough. She could never be the centre of attention in her house so by the time she was 8 she was spending most of her time at her best friend's house, Rachel Green. Monica and Rachel met a year before, they were in the same class at school, and sat together in class. It wasn't long before they spent play and lunch times together, then after school at Rachel's house. Rachel often asked to go back to Monica's house, but she always made excuses, which suited Rachel fine because Daddy brought her everything so she never needed to borrow anything off friends. One afternoon Rachel was playing dress-up with her older sister's clothes with Monica, and Rachel was laughing so hard at a story that Monica was telling her about Ross and then Rachel said that she HAD to write this in her diary. Monica saw that Rachel's diary was filled with cuts outs from magazines, comments, stories, pictures – just loads of stuff that Rachel found interesting.

"Wow Rach, that's so cool. I wanna make one."

"Why don't ya?"

"I wouldn't know what to put in it."

"Well why don't you write down all the stupid things your brother does and then you can give it to him on his 21st birthday."

The girls roared with laughter.

"Here, I have a blank diary – Daddy got me a 3 pack for my birthday."

"Thanks Rachel."

And that was the revenge that Monica needed – she never actually showed Ross her dairy, over the years it wasn't just stupid Ross comments that she wrote in it, there was other things. Monica wrote in it when she was angry, sad, depressed and even if she was happy.

Over the years Monica had many diaries, she wrote in it nearly every night and took it everywhere with her, she even brought ones with locks because she was convinced Ross would peak. She had so many that she started organising them, she had personal diaries and dream diaries. Personal diaries were just Monica's thoughts and feelings while her dream diaries (no they weren't about her dreams) were about things she wanted. In her first dream diary there were cut outs from magazines of beautiful women (with Monica's face stuck over them) with handsome men on their arms. There were also drawings of things that Monica had always wanted, for example she drew (with the help of a kitchen magazine) and planned her dream kitchen.

One day Monica decided to walk home from school with Rachel and they passed a bridal school.

"Oh wow!!!! Monica look at this wedding dress!!!"

"That is beautiful – I can't wait to be a bride, and have the perfect husband, perfect children, perfect house."

"Monica that is boring! I wanna get married to wear the cool dress, you wanna get married for all the boring reasons, typical."

"Hey, not fair, I wanna wear the dress as well but I wanna have a picture perfect life as well."

"Monica you're 12 and you're thinking about getting married – you haven't kissed a boy yet, and trust me you don't want to. It's all wet and disgusting!"

"That's not the point, Rachel."

"Whatever, I'm going home, are you coming."

"Yeah."

But the next day Monica went back told the shopkeeper that her 'sister' was getting married and wondered if he had some pictures she could look at, he gave her their shop catalogue. Monica then spent that weekend cutting out pictures of wedding dresses and sticking them into her dream diary – or what would eventually be called the 'wedding book'.

Things started turning worse for Monica once she turned 13, her dream diary idea had started to backfire on her – she now was getting so depressed that she wasn't perfect in her own eyes that she begin to hate herself. Her parents, as usual, didn't notice, Ross being on the honour roll had taken up all their time – paying for extra tutors to tutor Ross in the evenings meant that Jack started to do over time at his work to raise the money and Monica's swimming classes, that she started when she was 10, had to go. Monica got more upset and bitter, and began to hate Ross more than ever. Without Monica's swimming she had no way to get rid off all her anger – so, sadly, Monica started eating and naturally starting putting on weight.

She hated Ross even more.

She had turned from a pretty, slim girl with friends to a fat teenager with 1 friend, Rachel Green was her 1 friend, and ironically Ross liked Rachel more than his own sister.

She then hated Ross even more.

Although Rachel was her only friend, Rachel was not the nicest friend to Monica. Rachel was the most popular girl at school, she was a cheerleader and very pretty so the boys loved Rachel.

They didn't love Monica.

Rachel had a reputation to keep up, so while Rachel still invited Monica around after school and weekends, Rachel told Monica she didn't have time to talk to Monica at school. She basically ignored her, or she let Monica hang around only to carry her books when there wasn't a cute guy to carry them for her.

Queen Rachel and Slave Monica they were called.

It became a craze at Lincoln High, like a charity – the unpopular kids were allowed to hang around the popular kids, in return they had to do their homework, carry books etc. But Monica never knew any of this – or rather she chose not to know.

The head cheerleader and the unpopular fat girl.

The sad fact was that Rachel actually liked Monica, but not enough to give up her popularity, and although Rachel 'tried' to help Monica stop eating, she just couldn't. Every time should make an effort her Mum, Dad or Ross would say something that would make Monica go back to the fridge and eat.

Maybe it was destiny, maybe it was just a cruel comment on his behalf, maybe it was because he was the first boy that she honestly liked, maybe it was none of the above – we can theorise all we want but what happened happened and he changed her life that day by one stupid comment, and although it hurt. Oh it hurt like hell for Monica, but it changed her for the better – and made her take control of her life and screw her parents and Ross.

He was Chandler Bing.