The next day, Connie's father had to go handle some business for their new house so she and mommy had gone to the beach alone that day.
Connie wore her one piece blue bathing suit, it had a frilly skirt around her waist that sparkled when she twirled. It matched her tiny sandals and the ribbon her mother had wrapped around her head.
They had arrived at the beach while the sun was still tepid and the sky a perfect blue. Connie helped with the towel and brought her toys to the perfect spot. She waited patiently while her mother set up the umbrella.
"Okay, well what do you want t-…wait a second. Connie, the hospital is calling me, don't go swimming without me, that's dangerous." Prinyanka said grabbing her phone. "Hello? This is Doctor Priyanka Maheswaran."
Connie sighed. Her parents were always busy and she had come to except this as normality. It was hard moving from job to job and house to house. Dad's job required that they often moved during the middle of a school year-which might have been fine if Connie hadn't been enrolled in kindergarten two years earlier than expected. Her mother had been calling the school, scheduling meetings to ensure her little girl would be comfortable in this new environment. And on top of the school, her mother worked at a hospital; a job that sometimes took up to twelve hours each day. It had been mostly okay when Connie hadn't been enrolled, because she had practically lived in the hospital with her mother in the hospital nursery. But now that she was in school, her mother worked twice as hard to make sure there was still family time.
So Connie was okay that sometimes there wasn't time to play together. There would be time later surely. She snapped the elastic band holding her glasses firm to her head and nodded obediently. She waddled with her bucket and shovel and found a nice place to make a sandcastle – not too close to her mommy, but not too far either (the ocean was dangerous without adult supervision).
Connie had found a book about legendary sand castles in one of the drawers of the dresser of the hotel and had done her best to memorize her favorite one. She knew she didn't have the man power or the height to produce the nine foot replica of the British castle, but she would do her best. She had begun with the base, her tongue sticking out as she began.
"Steven! No running!" Someone shouted and before Connie could look to see who had yelled, she was barreled into by a tiny force. She tumbled face first into the beginning of her castle and something warm and heavy settled onto her back.
"Woah, dude - I think you hit someone." Another voice chuckled, relieving the weight from her back easily.
"Oh, goodness. Poor baby." Someone cooed, thin hands wrapping around her waist and sitting her up. Connie wiped the sand from her face clumsily and something soft wiped at her cheeks.
"Pearl, how many baby wipes did you bring?"
"You can never have enough baby wipes."
"Steven, say you're sorry." A deep, accented voice instructed.
"I sowwy!" The warm person who had tackled her before, tackled her once again, this time in what she assumed was a hug. They both fell to the ground…again.
"Gitoffme!" Connie yelled, wrestling from his pudgy grip and speeding towards her mother as fast as she could. She didn't even realize that her glasses had slipped off until she tripped over her mother's legs and into her lap.
"Connie?" Her mother lifted her to her feet, phone warm against her chest. "What's the matter?"
Connie didn't get to answer when the four people who had assaulted her suddenly arrived. She hadn't gotten the best look at them before and she could barely see them now, but she knew it was them. Mostly because the tiny one had her glasses in his little hands.
"Hey, those are mine!" Connie squeaked, clinging fiercely to her mother, shielding her mommy with her tiny body. She wouldn't let these people hurt her mother too – usually that was her father's job but she would have to do it for him today.
"Connie, please no yelling." Her mother scolded, but hugged Connie closer to her legs anyway. "May I ask who you are and what you've done to my daughter?"
"We're so sorry. I told Steven not to run, but he wasn't listening." The pale one admonished. "Steven, would you please give the young lady her glasses?"
The Steven, was a little shorter than her. He waddled up to her slowly with his head bent down in shame. He handed her the glasses and quickly waddled back to hide behind the biggest one. Connie put them one and finally got a good look at them.
The one who was pale, was tall and thin with a strange shiny thing on her forehead. The second one was shorter than all of them and…purple. The tall one who Steven had gone to hide behind had the biggest afro Connie had ever seen. She could barely see Steven as his entire being was hidden behind one of the biggest lady's legs.
"He was running and he kind of ran into her." The purple one shrugged. "He tried to say sorry with a hug but he's not very coordinated yet. They fell down."
"He's very sorry though." The thin one promised. "If you want, we have extra juice boxes and sandwiches - she can have some."
"Yeah, we gotta get rid of all the organic stuff you bought before Greg comes back." The short one giggled and dodged a swipe.
"My name is Garnet." The tallest one said, her voice easily overcoming the other two's bickering, and took Connie's mother's hand with a firm grip. "This is our Steven, he's two and a half. This is Pearl and she's Amethyst. We live over there. You seem busy, if you like she can play with Steven while you handle your business."
Connie shook her head immediately. She didn't want to play with someone who tackled people all willy-nilly and robbed her of her glasses. No thank you. Not today, not ever.
"Her name is Connie and she's three and a half." Her mother said, seeming not in the least suspicious or upset (which was quite confusing to Connie). "Connie sweetie, Mommy has to talk with the supervisor of the hospital in ten minutes and maybe you can make a new friend."
"But Mommy…"
"Honey, I'm not going to be able to play as much as you wanted. You don't really want to play alone, now do you?" Priyanka muttered while gathering some of Connie's toys. "You're only playing where again?"
"That's our umbrella over there." Garnet said, picking Steven up and pointing toward a worn pink umbrella. "We'll be eating there as well."
"See Connie, you'll be able to see Mommy and you can have fun."
Connie couldn't believe her mom right now. Go play with her assaulter? Was she insane? Connie wanted to protest further, but her mother strapped on her little knapsack and gently nudged her towards them.
"Go have fun, sweetie." Priyanka kissed Connie's forehead then whispered. "Making friends isn't always easy, but I know you can do it."
Connie sighed heavily but followed Pearl rather reluctantly. She wasn't scared of these people, they didn't seem very scary (except maybe Garnet), but she was less than eager to make friends with this Steven.
Steven, who was peering curiously at her from Garnet's shoulder looked pretty little for someone who was only several months younger than her. He still had all his baby fat, something Connie had lost the second she had turned three. Already she was almost as tall as the four and five year olds she went to school with. He had curly brown hair and big dark eyes that seemed to sparkle when their eyes met. She knew it was rude, but she crossed her arms and looked away with a pout.
"Well, Connie," Pearl said kindly, "I'm sorry about your sand castle. Here's your pail and shovel back."
Connie nodded shyly and avoiding the kind women's gaze.
"Steven, why don't you and Connie build a sand castle together?" Pearl suggested. Garnet bent down and placed Steven on the ground and Connie watched as two gems on her palms glittered briefly before she crossed her arms.
"Uh..may-maybe?" Steven stuttered softly, clinging to Garnet's long legs with a blush. He caught Connie's eyes again and tried to climb up Garnet's legs.
"Come on buddy. Why you all nervous?" Amethyst asked, prying him from Garnet's legs and pushing him towards Connie. Connie noticed that like these strange ladies he too had a gem, but his was on his tummy. "You like people remember?"
"How come you don't have a belly button?" Connie asked, peering at it closer. Steven blushed and tried pulling his swimming shorts up over it. "It's pretty though."
Steven blushed even harder. "S'p-p-pretty?"
"Yes." Connie said, handing him the shovel. "It's pretty, but that doesn't mean I accept your apology or anything. It was very rude to tackle me."
"Dang, girl got words." Amethyst hooted, falling onto the sand with a laugh.
"She's well spoken. There's nothing wrong with that." Pearl said with a small smile. "And she's right. It is very pretty."
"Smart girl." Garnet said quietly, patting both Steven's and Connie's heads.
"Yo…y-y-yo skir's vewy pwetty." Steven stuttered shyly, his chubby cheeks shining a perfect shade of pink.
"Compliments will get you nowhere." Connie huffed. "Now come on, you're going to help me rebuild what you ruined."
Steven nodded shyly and waddled after her. Connie began to dig with her hands furiously, more angry with herself for liking his compliment than giving him one unintentionally. Steven did as he was asked with a happy smile, more than often looking up at her while he shoveled and grinning. Connie wouldn't fall for his charm though.
He was a boy after all. Boy were all the same in all the towns she had lived in. Sometimes they acted nice, but then they pestered her and made fun of her. They were pretty gross too. Steven might be all smiley and maybe…maybe a little adorable but he would prove to be the same.
She began to pack the pail with sand, making turret after turret. She began to decorate one with tiny shells and pebbles. She didn't think Steven knew enough about sandcastle architecture to replicate her original design, so she had downgraded the plans significantly. A normal sandcastle would have to do.
"Whoa!" Steven gasped, suddenly right next to her. "How?"
"How?" Connie asked. "How what?"
Steven grabbed a tiny broken seashell from his feet and tried putting it on the side of the turret closest to him. It fell off.
"You have to press it in." Connie sighed, "Like this."
Steven copied her exactly and his eyes lit up as his added decoration stayed put. He flapped his arms excitedly and watched her decorate with bright eyes, oohing and aahing with every decoration.
This kid…was weird; sweet but weird. She could see the white wrinkles of a diaper peeking from under his trunks. Connie had been out of diapers since eight months and had found it easy to identify kids who were younger than her if they wore diapers. He wasn't really a boy then she guessed…he was really still a little baby.
"So which one's your mom?" Connie asked, looking back towards the three people. Garnet and Pearl were watching them and waved when she looked back at them.
"Um…all?" Steven shrugged, sitting up.
"All of them?" Connie asked. "I don't think that's possible."
Connie had been practically living in the hospital since her birth. She had been raised partially at home but also in the hospital nursery. Medical facts had been a constant stream in her background. It had been a joke among the nurses at their last hospital, that Connie had learned the names of all her organs before she had learned her ABCs.
"Tven's Mommy go bye-bye." Steven explained simply. "Pel, Gawnet, Ametys mine."
Connie nodded. His mother had gone away and now Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst were watching him. That kind of sounded like the plot of one of those drama shows her father watched.
"Well, where did she go?" Connie asked, sitting up and putting her hands on her hips.
Steven shrugged and squatted again, rummaging through the sand for more shells. Connie didn't really like that answer. Mostly because it wasn't really an answer. Her Mother provided those all the time, half answers that didn't really answer her questions. As a curious girl, she really hated when people wouldn't answer her questions or at least point her in the direction of someone who knew the answer.
"Well, have you looked for her?" Connie asked.
"N-no." Steven stuttered.
"Well, then." Connie brushed the grains of sand from her hands. "Then we'll just have to go look for her. I'm looking for a lady too, we can go look for your mom while I'm doing my detective work."
A/N: Connie and Steven are about to get in a whole lot of mischief together. I was supposed to update yesterday (but I got caught up painting my room) so I'll be rummaging through the old Word document and trying to get something done before the 19th rolls around. Thanks for all the favorites, follows and wonderful reviews.