Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading another one of my stories! It really does mean a lot to me! Also, this is one of my first stories so it needs a lot of editing, I'm aware of that. But I am so busy at the moment that I can't find the time to edit, but I will get around to it eventually.
I don't really have anything insight for the story like I usually do, so I hope you enjoy the book and please feel free to vote and comment as well! Thank you!
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Summer 1993
"My dolls' name is going to be Carrie, and she is the most popular girl in school," a little girl with dark brown hair told me when I picked up my Barbie doll too, and began to brush her long blonde hair with the pink brush that was in the box to the right. I smoothed down her hair and I tried thinking of a name to give my doll, thinking of the life to give her too.
"Ok. My dolls' name is Leah, and she is best friends with Carrie. She is a cheerleader too," I told the little girl with the short brown hair, and she smiled back at me when I shared my plan. The girl I was playing with was Carly Hall, my best friend. I had known her since we were in grade two, and that was our first year in the same class together. It seemed we became friends almost automatically, and we hadn't separated since. We were going into grade four in the next few days and we surely did hope that we would be placed once again in the same class. In our school—which was named St. Terri's Elementary school—for each grade we had two classes. Two kindergarten classes, two grade one classes, two grade two classes, and so on. Even though it wouldn't have been a huge deal if we weren't paired in the same class, we still rather of been together. Fair enough, there was three periods of recess in the school days, so we would just work out to hang out and play around that time if we weren't in the same class. And there was always after school we could play as well.
"Hey Leah, I heard there are cheerleading tryouts after school, do you want to try out with me?" Carly spoke in a higher pitched voice, one that wasn't her own as she pretended to be her doll. And I nodded, as if I was my doll myself.
"Sure! I am the captain, so I'm going to be running the tryouts! So don't worry, I'll make sure you get a spot on the team! Maybe even assistant captain!" I spoke in a high pitched voice as well, as we then made our dolls jump up and down in excitement as they hopped along to their next imaginary class. Carly and I mostly played with our Barbie dolls when we played and hung out, as I would bring a couple of my favourite ones from home, and she would use hers. We usually hung out at her house, for she had an actual play room, which was stacked with boxes of Barbie dolls and clothes for them, accessories and even a new Barbie house. I had to admit, I was a tad bit jealous because of that, but that was more reason why I went over to her place, so I could play with all the cool toys.
Carly lived right across the street from my house, and on most days we would run back and forth between both houses, grabbing toys and bringing that back to each other's places. Always pretending we were some type of stars, and had the paparazzi following us, like super stars always had. That was another game we liked to play: superstars. We would pretend for hours that we were world famous and had so many fans. Pretending we had our own albums and concerts, and would hang out in her backyard and walk amongst the stepping stones that lined her garden and yard, as if we were on a stage. Using our flashlights as microphones, and singing our little hearts out to Gwen Stefani all day. Those were the times, when we would love playing games like that, and hanging out with each other. I loved those times the most.
"Leah! Isn't that your boyfriend over there!" Carly spoke up in a higher voice than earlier, as we continued to play with our dolls. And I made my doll turn her head in that direction, as Carly grabbed one of her Ken dolls, and placed him a few inches away from our dolls.
"Yeah! That's Austin! I'm so excited for his football game tonight! I'm going to be cheering for him the loudest!" I made my Barbie speak, as my voice went pitchier as well, and gained height. When Carly and I would play Barbies, and mostly any game we played, we always wanted those certain things to happen. Like for instance the game we played then. With both our dolls being popular cheerleaders in high school, with good looking boyfriends on the football team. That was our ideal life we wanted to achieve once we grew older, and when we would eventually enter high school. I for one definitely wanted to become a popular cheerleader with a boyfriend, and I hoped at the time that day would one day show up. At least one of us had achieved one of those goals, and that was being popular. That was Carly. Many people at school liked her, adored her more like. Myself being one of those people. It was as if she could do no wrong, at school, or at home. Her parents adored her as well, which seemed to be the opposite of my parents. My parents didn't care too much for me it seemed, and I felt that, you could bet. Carly was an only child, like I was, however her parents spoiled her much more. It was clear as to why my parents only had one child, for they couldn't even handle the one. Most days they would just let me be, not really caring what I did or where I went. Hence why I spent the time at Carly's more often.
"Ok, so let's pretend that school is already done, and now it's cheerleading tryouts," I spoke up after I made the Ken doll stalk off, and Carly nodded her head in agreement. "Ok everyone! Gather around! Welcome to this years cheerleading tryouts! Now, I'm going to get you all to go into a straight line, and we'll begin!" I shrieked my voice once more, indicating I had turned back into my Barbie dolls character, and Carly did what I said as she lined up her doll and a few others as well.
"I'm so excited!" Carly's doll jumped up and down as well, as she manually lifted her up and began to jump.
"Ok, so first let's see your guys' back hand springs!" My doll spoke up once again, and Carly then moved her doll in a way, like she flipped backwards. And right after she lifted her hands in the air, I made my doll clap her hands in approval and in amazement. "Wow Carrie! That was great! Now let's see your gymnastics!" I applauded as Carly then moved her doll into a back hand spring, and then landed her into the splits. "Oh my! That was perfect! I think we found our new co-captain!"
"Really?! Yay!!!!!" Carly cheered for her doll, as we both had smiled plastered onto our faces, and laughter emerging from ourselves.
"Hey Carly!" A voice shouted from the kitchen down the hall, as I could already tell it was Carly's Mom. Footsteps could be heard making her way down the squeaky, carpeted hallway, as she turned the corner and stood right in the doorway of the play room. Carly's play room was located right beside her room, which made it easier access for her most days, instead of going downstairs like many of my bigger toys were.
"Yeah Mommy?" Carly asked as her Mom shuffled her way to the doorway, and stood there for a few minutes looking at the toys and Barbies we were playing with.
"I'm just about to make dinner, and I wanted to know if Mallory would like to stay over?" She asked as she looked over towards her daughter who looked very much like herself, and then peered over a few feet towards me, with questioning eyes present in her look. I could tell Carly looked over towards me as well, waiting for my answer, however before I could she jumped into the conversation first.
"What are we having?" She asked as she took her eyes off myself, and peered back up towards her Mother.
"We're having spaghetti," Carly's Mom—who was named Heather—told her daughter as Carly began to jump up with excitement.
"Yes! That's my favourite! Do you want to stay Mal? I know how much you like spaghetti too," Carly ask as her Mom and her were the only ones standing, and I still sat motionless on the floor, with my doll still in my hand.
"I would really like to, but my parents wanted me home for dinner tonight. Thank you anyways," I explained to them with disappointment in my voice, and I could see a hint of it in their expressions as well.
"Oh, ok," Carly spoke in almost a downward tone, as I could tell she was upset too. I wasn't sure why my parents wanted me home for dinner, most of the time they didn't really care. But, at least once in the week, they wanted me to come home for supper instead of always spending it at Carly's house with her parents. I almost felt like Carly's Mom and Dad were my parents instead of my own. They almost treated me more like their own child, with how sweet and kind they were to me, and how much they enjoyed speaking to me. They liked having me over, and I liked being over. I guess, they might have seen how my actual parents treated me, and perhaps they felt sorry for me. But I wasn't too sure, and I didn't have the need to ask either.
Eventually it was getting a bit later, and I realized I should probably head home soon for supper. And so I packed up my few dolls I brought over to Carly's, placed them in my purple backpack, and began to head for the door.
"Goodbye Mal!" Carly shouted at me as I started to head out the door, and I waved to her goodbye.
"Bye Carly! I'll see you tomorrow!" I shouted back as I began to leave and pushed the door open, and soon, I was walking down their sidewalk, onto our front street, and towards our pathway leading up to our house about thirty feet away.
I let the door slam shut like I always did then, and that indicated I was back home. No one said anything to me when I entered my house, as I could bet my parents were outside in the backyard. My Mother had recently started planting flowers and building a garden in the backyard, right along the large back fence. The garden lined the back of our yard, and she even sectioned off the left side for myself. We had one tall tree in our backyard, on the left side, near my side of the garden. Our backyard was pretty long and wide, making there plenty of room to garden and plant flowers, even vegetables. My side of the garden was pretty shady because of the large tree that hung over, which I hoped wouldn't kill my chances of growing flowers, since they needed the sun. But I guess I had to wait and see. I had always enjoyed planting flowers and making them grow by watering them everyday. That was the most fun. I was thrilled when my Mom gave me half the garden to plant my own flowers, considering that was a rather nice thing for my Mother to do for me, which was something she rarely did. Nice things for me.
Our house wasn't overly big. About the same size as Carly's. It was a bungalow, which meant there was only one floor, not including the basement. However we didn't need a big house, considering it was only my Mom, Dad and I. Our living room was located to the left of the front door, and the kitchen led right over towards it. Down the hall, there were three rooms; my parents room, the washroom and then my room. My parents room was the largest of course, however mine wasn't overly small. It was a pretty good size. I had enough room to fit some of my toys, however the large ones like my doll house—which my Mom bought me in a yard sale—and a few other Barbie toys that went along with it didn't fit in my room, which meant they all had to be stored in the basement. If I really wanted to play with those things, I would have to take my Barbies downstairs and play with them, however I wasn't a fan of the basement so I didn't go down there too often. Another reason I spent most of my time at Carly's.
I walked down the hall and into my room first, which I then unzipped my light purple bag and placed my dolls back in their case, and then put the box back up on my shelf. My room was painted a light pink colour, and most of my belongings in there were consisted of pinks an purples; my two favourite colours. But my dressers and shelves on the other hand were painted only white, which matched my room as well. Most of my toys all laid on my white shelves, and my clothes were located in my dresser and closet, which was right beside my door.
After I placed my Barbies back on the shelf, I walked over towards my bed with the purple and pink bedspread on top, and lied down with my head facing the smooth, tall ceiling. And I only lied there, getting lost in thoughts and my imagination, as I waited for the time that my parents would call me for supper.
"Mallory? You home?" My Dad called me from in the kitchen a little later, as I rolled my head towards my open door, and lifted my head to shout back.
"Yeah," I yelled as I then plopped my head back down on my soft mattress, and waited for my Dad to call me back again.
"Ok, dinner is ready!" He yelled back, as I lied there for only another moment, until I took I deep breath and started to roll off my bed, and onto my feet. I took a few steps until I entered the hallway, and then with another few steps I turned to my right, and I was directly in the kitchen with the white tiled floor and brown countertops. My Mom and Dad were already sitting at the table, as they both looked over towards me, and then back at their food as I went to grab a plate. We were having hamburgers for supper, which was what I assumed they were cooking in the backyard earlier. As I got my white plate from the cupboard, I put only half a bun on my plate, cut up half a patty and placed it on the bun after I put on my necessary condiments. I had never been a big eater, I usually only ate a bit. I got full fast.
My parents were already half done their plates the moment I sat down, as the room fell sort of quiet as I entered it. It seemed it was always like that. I wouldn't say my parents were mean to me, or didn't love me, they just didn't show as much affection as Carly's parents showed her. My parents didn't take a part in my life all that much. They didn't ask me how school was going, or how my day was, or asked what Carly and I did at her place. Nothing. It was mostly silence when I was around them, and that was pretty much it. If I was in my room for the whole day, they didn't come to check on me, didn't ask if I needed anything, didn't ask if I wanted to do something with them. Like I said, nothing. They just left me alone. And as much as that was better than them being mean to me, or hitting me or something, it still hurt when they didn't seem to acknowledge me. Didn't seem to care what I was doing. Or where I was going. They didn't seem to care about anything I did, and that hurt. Because I wanted to do things with them. I wanted to spend time with them. But every time I asked, they always seemed to have better things to do. And that hurt. So eventually, I just stopped asking, however that hurt, and disappointment, and sadness didn't go away. It seemed to get worse.
I was a complete mix of both my parents. I wouldn't say I looked more like one and not the other. I had some of their characteristics, but I didn't look much like either of them. I did look like them when I was a baby. As I had looked back at old baby pictures of them, I looked much more like my Mom when she was a little girl, and I was a baby. But now, I had grown out of that. I was just a complete mix of both. My Father had a dark shade of brown for hair, and dark eyes as well. I didn't really have either of those, but I did inherit the thickness of hair. I did receive some of his leanness as well, and the skinny part as well. He was pretty thin and tall. And I had also received the same narrow face as his, almost like it pointed down into a triangle almost, but not quite pointy.
My Mother had very light blonde hair, almost platinum. And that was her natural hair. It had darkened as she got older, but not very much. My parents looked good for their ages, which was thirty-four. They both looked as if in their twenties, and many people didn't think they were thirty. And I could tell them enjoyed that a lot. My Mom was as if the opposite of my Dad, with him having all the dark features, and she had all the light. With the light hair and light grey eyes. I inherited her nose though, for it was tiny, almost as if a button. And I received her almond shaped eyes as well, as they somewhat tilted down.
Like I said earlier, I was sort of a mix, as I had a hair colour and eye colour that seemed in between both of theirs. My hair was rather long and thick, and was the colour of a dirty blonde, darker than my Moms' hair, but much lighter than my Dads'. My eye colour was more on the grey side, however I did have the slightest hint of blue twinkling in them, as in some lights they reflected and brightened even more. At the age of nine, I didn't exactly care about how I looked most times, for I was still a kid and not many kids cared about looks at that age. However, once I did grow, I cared more about appearances, and tried to always look my best. But at that time then, at nine, I didn't care so much into how I looked, I only cared about my friends, and my life away from home. I only cared for Carly, and the friendship I had created. And I really did hope we would be friends for the longest time. Friends forever. But forever wasn't as long as I hoped.