A/N: Hehehe see what I meant when I said it would get 'dark' fairly quickly? Ha, puns.
But seriously, this will eventually turn into angst. But, do not fret. I have everything sorted out already. Kinda. Meh.
Enjoy!
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"Sammy! I'll be back in the morning, ok? Call the pizza man if you want some dinner or somethin'!
A slam echoed downstairs, signaling the departure of the little girl's mother from their small apartment.
It seemed nothing else was bothering to make noise in the entire apartment building at the moment- the little blonde could hear her own breathing as if she were the only person alive. The thought scared her a bit…but not that much of course. Sam Puckett didn't get scared. Not even when she secretly watched that scary movie that her mommy put on when she had a boyfriend over.
Sam had to admit, she did have to check her closet for a week after that, but that passed when she realized that scary monsters evidently, were scared of the dark. At least, that's what her Auntie told her. And it appeared to be true for the most part; whenever Sam peeked into the dark closet to check for any monsters, there weren't any.
That being said, she still closed her closet door every night before going to bed.
Sam glanced at the small digital clock on her bedside counter; it read 8…um… she didn't quite know the other number. She couldn't count that high just yet. As an alternative, she stood, dropping her G.I. Joe action figure, (not a doll) in the process and leaped over to her window. It took her two entire jumps to reach quite close to the closed window- a new record for her. Sam nodded in satisfaction. This meant that her legs were getting longer, (her previous record was three) and that she would be taller soon.
With a change in confidence, she strut the rest of the way towards the window and then tugged on the shutters' string to open them. It took her a few times, as she wasn't very practiced with shutters; her mommy had recently removed her curtains, saying that shutters cost less and didn't catch as much dust. Sam didn't understand how an immovable object could 'catch' dust. She could move, but she still couldn't catch dust.
"They must have been pretty smart curtains, then." She mumbled with a small nod, suddenly missing her old curtains.
She pressed against the glass, small hands cupping around her eyes as she leaned in closer to better see though the window glare. It was quite dark outside, obviously, which meant that her mommy wouldn't come back until the sun rose again. Sam had once asked where her mommy went during nighttime, who then told her that she shouldn't ask adults 'stupid questions'. And that was all the response Sam had received from her apparently stupid question.
The little blonde sighed, stepping away from the window and scratching the back of her head. She was bored; extremely in fact, and a bored Samantha Puckett meant a troublemaking Samantha Puckett. Or so her uncle had once said.
She ran over to her door, and grabbed her same navy blue Converse that were on the carpet beside it. She plopped down onto the ground and began tugging her shoes on. After fiddling with the laces for a moment, she decided against tying her shoes. If she tied them wrong again, they would end up in a jumble of cotton knots that her mommy wouldn't be too ecstatic to untangle for her.
The little blonde stood with a small hop, then pulled her door open before heading downstairs.
Sam liked nighttime. Contrast to the sky, the city was always lit with different colored lights, and even though it was dark, the people still liked to walk around the streets to drink coffee or to go to "clubs".
Whatever that meant.
Sam tucked her hands into her jeans as she exited her apartment complex, feeling for a few dollars she had brought with her to buy something at the convenience store. She knew exactly what she wanted, because it was the newest craze, so naturally everyone wanted one. A FatCake.
Once she had seen a program on TV, with a very boring-looking spokesperson who was talking about FatCakes. Naturally she was interested as soon as she had caught wind of the pink fatty goodness, but the spokesperson was using really big words like, "Unsaturated" fats, or, extreme risk for "diabetes". She didn't understand quite well about that they were saying, but she was pretty sure that they were talking bad about FatCakes. And that made her very mad.
Sam huffed, stepping off the curb with all the other people as they crossed the street. She felt a gentle pat on her shoulder as she was walking, and soon a woman with small glasses and her dark brown hair in a bun was leaning down next to her while walking.
Sam raised an eyebrow at the woman, who looked quite concerned.
"Hi there, sweetie. Did you lose your mommy?" the lady asked the little blonde.
Sam scowled at the lady, shrugging off her hand that was still on her shoulder. She responded with a short "No.", before hurrying her pace slightly to get to the other side of the street before the lady could follow her.
The little blonde let out a long breath when she reached the convenience store. Whenever she went out by herself, people were always asking her if she was lost or someone had left her alone. She knew she stood out, or she didn't, rather because of her shortness, but there were lots of concerned eyes out for a little girl in the middle of Los Angeles.
Technically, of course, Sam wasn't allowed to leave the apartment without her mom or another adult. But the little blonde had always been left alone at night for as long as she could remember. And she couldn't stand the silence of the apartment. It was too quiet, and it made her think about things … that she didn't want to think about.
So, she had taken to leaving for one of the main centers of the city, L.A LIVE, because it was quite a short walk from her home and vice versa. Hey, it was better than sitting in the dark by herself. At least now, she was in the dark with everyone else.
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"Sammmmmmyyy! I'm homeee…!"
A distant slam.
Sam woke with a start, sitting up in her bed and panting. Once she calmed, she let out a heavy sigh, mopping at her forehead with her sleeve. Her bad dream had turned so vivid that she had begun sweating whilst asleep. She made to get out of bed, and heard a soft crinkle sounding vaguely of plastic. She tossed her sheets aside, revealing three FatCake rappers scattered on her bed.
They had probably induced the nightmare.
She really needed to stop eating FatCakes…but that wasn't going to happen.
The blonde scooted over to the edge of her bed and hopped down, not bothering to use the small stepping stool just beside her. She was feeling just that daring today.
Today would be her second day of school. And that means more recess snacks. For her and Cat.
Sam shook her head when she felt a small flutter in her tummy. She was only exited because of the snacks. Yes, that was it.
She went into the bathroom and stood on the stepping stool in front of the sink, (ok, so maybe she wasn't that daring today) and turned the tap to run before cupping a small amount of water in her hands and splashing it on her face. She coughed as the water went up her nose.
Those dumb commercial girls with the water made it look so easy.
"Sammy! You ready? Come on, I don't have all day, I gotta' go get some stuff done!" Pam yelled to her daughter who was still upstairs.
Sam was just pulling a green dinosaur t-shirt onto her head when she heard her mom calling. The little blonde winced. Her mommy sounded angry. That was not good.
Whenever Sam's mother went out for the night, she would always come back quite intoxicated. This only meant one of two things-she was either a happy-drunk or an angry-drunk.
Sam didn't want to think about what happened last time when her mommy was angry-drunk.
She pulled on her shoes, and to save time, tucked the laces into the sides of the shoes before grabbing her backpack and running downstairs.
Sam sat in the car, taking extra care to be quiet as her mommy drove. She stared out of the window. Tiny droplets of rain had begun spattering across the window, and she traced the streaks with the tips of her fingers.
"God dammit. I just washed the fuckin' car.", Sam heard her mommy mumbled angrily. Sam could understand-she didn't like the rain much either. It was sad, and it made the pretty daytime sky almost like nighttime. She then scowled at the drops on the window.
The car was quiet for a while after that. That is, until her mom spoke again.
"Hey Sammy. What took ya' so long today, hm?" her mother asked.
Sam shrugged. She really didn't take that long, but she knew it was only the alcohol talking for her mommy now. Sam felt her mom glance over at her.
"You brushed your hair today." There was venom in the woman's tone as she turned to her daughter. "You tryin' to impress someone?" Pure venom now.
Sam swallowed, but shook her head firmly.
Pam scoffed. "Don't even try, Sammy. No one's ever gonna like you back. You're tough, not soft and sweet. Men don't want tough girls 'cause they can't handle them. No one is ever going to like you."
The little blonde shrunk in her seat, wanting nothing more to than to cover her ears at her mother's words. They were just words, but they hurt.
Because…they were probably the truth.
They pulled up to the front of the elementary, and Sam nearly jumped out of the car. She couldn't stand being in that small space with her mommy anymore. She slammed the door behind her and stomped off into the school, a big scowl on her face. She knew what she was doing, of course, but she couldn't stop herself.
She was trying to turn her sadness into anger.
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Cat wasn't at school.
The fact made Sam's heart drop like a rock. It wasn't like she was looking forward to seeing the brunette or anything, though. So she didn't care. Not at all.
…she grit her teeth as tears formed in her eyes.
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Finally, it was recess, the only possible thing that could get Sam's head back into place was there. Food.
She strode up to the snack table and snatched her own portion, before sitting down at one of the small tables by herself. A few girls came up to her with big, smiling faces and a jump rope, and Sam snarled at them. They went away. A boy came up to her with a basketball who offered her a game. She yelled in his face.
It seemed like the entire world didn't want her. Thankfully, the rain had thinned out enough that the teachers let all the kids play on the playground again. As soon as the announcement had been made, Sam took off to the one place that she could control, the one place that was hers; the castle.
She began climbing the metal dome, so deep in her thoughts that she nearly lost her footing on the way up. Thankfully she was quick enough to catch herself before falling all the way down, but she slammed her shin onto one of the bars. She grimaced, looking down but not able to see the hit beneath her jeans, so she continued up.
The little blonde sat at the very top of her castle, feeling quite alone. She pulled her knees up to her chest, and pressed her forehead against her upraised knees.
Stupid apartment, stupid mom, stupid school, stupid rain; stupid stupid stupid! Sam sniffled, though she refused to cry. She would not cry. Because Sam P-Puckett d-doesn't… she sniffled again.
"What are you doing by yourself, silly?"
Sam's head shot up, just before a tear nearly spilled. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision. Her heart thumped quite loudly in her chest at the sight.
Cat was standing at the bottom of the dome, her hand shielding her eyes from the rain as she smiled up at the blonde at the top of the dome.
Sam's eyes widened. Cat. She mouthed the word, but no sound came out. She quickly climbed down the dome then jumped the last few feet down, landing in front of the brunette, who looked just as pretty as she did yesterday…
"Why weren't you here in the morning?" Sam nearly yelled, but the question was more out of relief than anger.
Cat smiled shyly. "My daddy's car broke down 'cause of the rain. So we got here a little late." Cat's voice was just as soft and airy as it always was. Cat tilted her head, noticing that Sam's pretty blue eyes were kind of shiny, like she was going to cry or something. Well, that simply wouldn't do.
Cat rushed forward, wrapping her arms around the blonde and squeezing tight. She didn't let go as she spoke. "I'm sorry I wasn't here. You must have been all lonely."
Sam felt her tummy flutter again as Cat hugged her. But outwardly, she scoffed. "There you are, kid. For a second there I thought you left me to defend the kingdom by myself."
Cat laughed and let go of Sam, shaking her head and making the chocolate curls bounce. "I wouldn't leave you, Sam! Never ever." She made a crossing sign over her heart to seal her words.
"Ok, got it. But we gotta' talk about the whole hugging thing." Sam huffed, smoothening out the dinosaur on her t-shirt then looked up at Cat.
The brunette was staring at her with her full attention, and then she gave a small nod for Sam to continue.
Sam opened her mouth to speak for a moment, before it closed and formed a small smile. She sighed. "I guess we can talk about it later."
Cat nodded, and then giggled.
Sam grabbed Cat's hand and pulled her up, though it was without much struggle. They stood at the top of the castle, Cat grabbing onto Sam's forearm to keep from falling. They tilted their heads back with closed eyes, letting the tiny droplets fall into their mouths and giggled when others fell on their faces. Maybe today would turn around after all.
Now the rain didn't make Sam feel so sad anymore.
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A/N: Shall I continue? ;)
Please review!
(P.S. Sorry about the angsty-ness, but I tried to make up for it with the bit of hurt/comfort at the end:3)