It was a warm and sunny day in Santa Carla. A perfect day to go outside and play in the park with the other children. In fact, from eleven year old Veronica's bedroom you could hear the joyful shrieks and giggles from them as they ran around chasing each other and enjoying life. But, little Veronica had her blinds shut tight with all of her lights turned off except for the flashlight that was illuminating the large book she had propped on her lap.
"Oh Edward, why can't you see Bella loves Jacob and not you? Besides, you would match up much better with me." She mumbled to herself.
She slammed the book closed, pushed up her thick framed glasses, and looked toward her door as it creaked open. Her mother's face peeked in to check on her only child.
"Honey, it's Saturday afternoon and you're in here reading in the dark. I'm all for reading books, but you've read that one at least ten times."
"I know," came Veronica's quick reply.
Her mother held her gaze for a few seconds before looking around her daughter's room. Pasted all over her pink walls were posters of vampires. There were ones featuring the original Barnabas Collins to Count Dracula himself. She even had cut out a few Halloween costume pictures and posted them to her collage. All her mother could do was shake her head and sigh. There was no arguing with a stubborn girl that was in love with anything that had fangs. As soon as her mother left, Veronica went back into her book.
Every night Veronica had the same schedule. When nine o' clock rolled around she got into her nightgown, took her pigtails out, brushed her teeth, said good night to her mom, and then went upstairs and said goodnight to her father's picture. She had never got the chance to meet him; he had been in a motorcycle accident when her mother was only five months pregnant. One would think that Veronica would be deathly afraid of motorcycles, but that comes nowhere near to the truth. Veronica had a deep passionate love for them. She loved them almost as much as she loved her vampires.
Finishing off her nighttime ritual, she crawled into bed and said the Lord's Prayer. At the end she always snuck in a little hint to the Big Guy himself.
"And Lord, if you'd like, you don't have to I'm just saying, can you- pretty pretty please- send me a vampire on a motorcycle for my birthday? Or even Christmas would work. Or Easter. Whatever is your best holiday. Amen!" Giving off a blessed sigh she dove into her dreams of chrome, leather, and fangs.
The next day her mother barged into her room at nine a.m. "Veronica Sasha McCovern, get your butt out of bed. I just made you a play date!"
Veronica's eyes looked like dark slits as she scowled at her. "Go away. I'm too old for playdates."
"No way. I have a date today and I can't find a babysitter, so I called up Max and he said he'd be ecstatic to have you come over and play with Sam. You know Sam right? Max said he was in your class." Her mother's smile looked like it was going to split her head right in two.
"I don't know why you still go on dates, you always dump the poor guy because he's 'not like daddy'." This made her mother's smile twitch. "And yes I know Sam, I don't like him. He throws spit balls at me."
"Oh honey, it's probably just because he likes you. Boys are silly at that age. They do things like that to get your attention. Now hurry up!" She flung open the curtains and Veronica shrunk into her covers.
"I'm eleven years old, I can watch myself." Her muffled response seemed to pass by her mother as she began setting out clothes for her.
"You look so pretty in this shirt!"
"Mom."
"It goes so nicely with this skirt, too!"
"Mom!"
"Now where are your nice black dress shoes?"
"Mother!"
"Get dressed, there's a bowl of cereal waiting downstairs for you." Her mother spun out of the room just as quickly as she had come in.
Veronica sat up and sighed. Her mother had pulled out her ugly pink flowered top and ankle length jean skirt. Dragging herself out of bed she opened her dresser and picked out a black and blue camouflage t-shirt and her black jeans. If her mother was going to force her to go on this "play-date" then there was no way she was going looking like a preschooler.
It was almost noon by the time Veronica's mother got her out of the house. When they showed up on Max's doorstep Veronica noticed a red motorcycle sitting in the driveway.
"Don't worry about that, that's just Michael's bike. He's down in the basement taking a nap with Star and Laddie right now. So you're stuck with Sam and I." A cheery man's voice came from the open doorway. Veronica looked up into the face of one of the dorkiest looking men she had seen in a long time. The living room behind him was shadowed in darkness.
"Hi Max, sorry for the sudden plans." Her mom's voice broke Veronica out of her trance.
"Oh it's not a problem. Sam always enjoys a little company."
"So does Veronica, right honey?" Her mother's voice tightened as she looked down at her daughter.
"Yeah," Veronica unenthusiastically responded.
"You mentioned it would just be you and Sam, where's Lucy?" Her mom asked.
"She's out with her dad spending a little quality time."
"Oh, that's so nice! I wish my dad were still around to do that with."
"Don't we all?" Max smiled at Veronica. She glanced at him, but said nothing.
"Well, would you like to come in for a drink or do you have to leave to get to your date?"
"I should probably go. I don't want to keep Will waiting too long."
"So his name's Will?" Veronica flatly questioned.
"Yes, and I'll be sure to mention you. Now I've got to be off sweetie. Be a good guest and don't make a fuss about anything."
"Sure thing Mom." Veronica flicked a fly off her shoulder and gave an icy stare as her mother backed out of the driveway.
"Sam's right in the kitchen...should I call you Veronica or do you have a nickname you prefer?"
"Just Veronica."
"Alrighty, just follow my lead then." Max smiled down at her again before turning around and heading toward the kitchen.
"Awfully giddy today, aren't we?" She mumbled under her breath while closing the door behind her. Walking into the kitchen she got a whiff of freshly cut grass from the open window and baked bread. The whole atmosphere had changed with light streaming in through the window and a bright color scheme that made the kitchen appear to gleam. Sitting at the table was a dark blonde boy with a popped collar and an ice cold soda in his hand. He locked eyes with Veronica and dropped his glass bottle creating a mess of sticky syrup and glass shards.
"Oh no, it's you!" He whined.
"Is there a problem?" Max asked. He had stayed within the shadows of the living room, making Veronica feel like he was dorky and weird.
"No sir, not at all." Veronica's face flushed and she looked down and her multi-colored Keds- the ones her mother bought to help make her popular and in return Veronica destroyed them with her new marker set.
"Oh, well then in that case I'm going to have to ask you two to go into the living room and watch some TV while I clean up Sam's mess up. Don't want anybody getting cut!" His smile returned. Sam stood up and shut the blinds before leaving the kitchen.
"Ugh, how long is she staying with us?" Sam mumbled as he headed towards the couch.
"Be nice Samuel, or else I will tell your mother how you're behaving. I'm almost positive you will not like the results."
Sam rolled his eyes and flopped down on the blue and white plaid cushions. Veronica sat as far away from him as she could while still being on the same couch. A few moments of silence went by until a commercial came on.
"Until my Mom gets back from her date." Veronica softly answered his question.
"What?" Sam turned his head away from the screen and looked at her.
"I'm here until my Mom gets back from her date."
"Well, that tells me a lot."
"Samuel!" Max's shout came from the kitchen.
"Sorry," Sam mumbled to Veronica. He went back to his TV program.
After an hour of pure silence, Max came into the living room holding two plates with sandwiches and chips on them. "Anyone up for a late lunch?"
Sam grunted an approval while Veronica timidly nodded.
"Well aren't we a bunch of Chatty Cathies." Max placed the plates down on the coffee table in front of them. "After you're done why don't you take Veronica and show her around the neighborhood? You just moved here not too long ago, right?"
Veronica looked up from her plate. "Um yeah, it's been about two years," she quietly said.
"Oh! Has it been that long already? It seems like only yesterday I met your Mom at the car wash. She's still the manager there, right?"
"I guess," she began picking at the bread. She slid her eyes over to watch Sam wolf down his sandwich. Max followed her gaze and flared his nose in distaste as the young boy chugged down his drink and packed the chips in his mouth like a hamster. He had cleaned his plate in a matter of minutes and was back to watching TV.
"You are so much like your brother when it comes to food," Max sighed.
"Which one?" Sam sneered. "None of them eat the same food I do."
Max's face muscles tightened and he quickly looked back to Veronica. "When you finish up here have Sam take you out. There's nothing much to do in this old place."
"Okay," she said before taking a small bite of her sandwich. Max disappeared upstairs and the silence between the two continued.
Veronica placed her empty plate down on the table the same time the next show of M*A*S*H started. The theme song filled the room as she glanced around, looking for the bathroom.
"Go down the hallway and it'll be the second door on your left." Sam said without taking his eyes off the screen.
"The bathroom?"
"No the boiler room." He looked over at her and saw the hurt look on her face. "Of course the bathroom. Why else would you be looking across the room with an uncomfortable expression?"
"Thanks." She said before she sped off with her head down.
When she was finished with her business she sat down on the toilet, hoping to spend a few more moments away from that creep head without seeming suspicious. That's when she noticed there was no mirror anywhere in the room. Shrugging it off on the thought that maybe half bathrooms don't come with mirrors she heard the TV click off.
"Did you fall in the toilet or did you climb through the window and ditch me?" Sam's voice filtered through the door. Veronica quickly came out and almost ran into him when she turned the corner.
"There's no window in there."
"There isn't?" He shrugged, "Well I haven't been here long enough to memorize the layout of the place." He started heading for the front door.
"We're going out?"
"That's what Max told me to do. He's already pissed I split soda all over his kitchen floor, I don't think I want to make him any angrier."
"That was Max angry?"
"Yup, he's not a very angry guy to begin with. David likes to push his buttons, though. It's actually a little amusing. Max's face gets all red and there's this vein in his neck that pops out. I can understand why David does it."
Veronica felt awkward having an actual conversation with one of her tormentors, but afraid of going back to that even more awkward silence, she went with it. "Who's David?"
"His son." The silence was back and Veronica listened to their footsteps on the sidewalk.
She tried to restart the conversation. "So...back at the house you said you haven't been there very long?"
"Yeah. My mom, me, and my brother just moved in with Max. My mom and him are getting married sometime this summer."
"Congratulations?" She looked over at him. He just snorted and kicked a rock that fell loose from someone's lawn décor.
"It's not the best thing that's happened to my family."
"You don't like Max?" Veronica became less timid as she began to see into the window of Sam's real life.
"He's an okay guy, it's just that...never mind."
"Okay." They walked down an ally that led to the Boardwalk.
"Have you been here much?" Sam asked.
"The Boardwalk? I've only come here a few times with my mom. Usually only when she gets a bonus and wants to do a little shopping."
"Gotcha. Just a little hint though, never come here at night."
"Why?"
"That when the most murders happen. We are the murder capital of the world. It's not like you're my favorite person in the world, but I don't want to see you dead either." Sam slapped his mouth shut. "Oops, I didn't mean to say that."
"No, it's fine. I kind of got the hint that you didn't like me when you threw a piece of chewed bubble gum in my hair."
"That wasn't my idea, Tommy thought it would be funny-"
"Yeah yeah, save the lies for someone who cares." Veronica's face scrunched up as she tried to hold back tears.
"Sorry it's just that you're so..."
"Weird? Well I guess you would be a little weird too if your Dad died on a motorcycle before you were born and your Mom couldn't find a stable boyfriend." This time it was her turn to slap her mouth shut. She never ever played the "my daddy died and my mother's a whore" card. Sam's eyes bugged out and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
"Geez, I'm so sorry! I never knew that! Oh now don't I feel like a world class jerk?"
"No no, it's my fault. I should have never said anything."
"Yes, you should have; you should have told us a long time ago! Oh geez," he rung his hands together as he tried to figure out a better way to apologize. "Look, we don't pick on people who already have trouble in their life, we just pick on the weirdos. Crap! Here, I'll buy you some tape so you can shut my mouth for me."
Veronica's lip quivered with a smile. "It's okay, I know I'm a weirdo. What other label can I expect when I sit at home reading comic books all day long and watching old horror movies?"
"Old horror movies and comic books? You sound like me!" He let out a little laugh and Veronica's smile broke free. "Hey, maybe you're not so bad after all."
"And maybe you're not such a jerk after all."
☢ ♥‿♥ 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒇𝓸𝓻 𝓻𝒆𝓪𝓭𝓲𝓷𝓰! 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝒇𝓸𝓻𝓰𝒆𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓿𝓸𝓽𝒆 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝒇𝓸𝓵𝓵𝓸𝔀 𝓲𝒇 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝒆𝓷𝓳𝓸𝔂𝒆𝓭 𝓲𝓽 ♥‿♥ ☢