A/N: So, I wrote this story about 5 years ago, so it's not exactly my best work. Although, I have done some extensive editing since then. I'm really happy with how part two turned out though, as well. So, you just have to bear with me, haha. Without further ado, I introduce you to my very first OC: Abby!
I ran up to my front door, my feet pounding against the cement. The only thing on my mind was food. Delicious food. I struggled with the door knob in my haste, getting a tad aggravated. It quickly evaporated, though, as I got it open in seconds, “Dad! I’m home!”
I bolted into the living room and ripped off my light blue book bag, tossing it onto the couch. I turned to the kitchen. I could feel my mouth starting to water as I thought of what I could eat. I glanced at my dad, noticing him sitting at our small island countertop. I almost didn’t think anything of it, but then I noticed his face. His eyes were drooped downward and had a slight tinge of red to them. His face was a bit puffy. It looked like he’d been crying.
I could feel my heart begin to race as my brain started to run through all the possible reasons he could be crying. I stepped forward cautiously, “Dad?” I said softly. I hope it’s not about my mom.
He lifted his gaze to me, as if just seeing me for the first time. He cleared his throat, “Oh, hey, baby. Uh....remember when I told you about my old basketball team and,” His voice cracked, “Coach Buzzer?”
I was a tad confused for a second, but then I realized something must have happened. “Yeah.” I answered.
He nodded, looking away. “I just got word today that Coach Buzzer died. The, uh, funeral is this Thursday.” He looked down.
I stood there, not sure what to do. “Oh.” The thing is, my dad and I aren’t very close. Don’t get me wrong, we love each other. A lot. But he didn’t even know I existed until I was 7 and a couple years later, he got sole custody of me. “I’m sorry, dad.”
My mom, Rose, had dated my dad when they were younger. They split and when she found out she was pregnant with me, she was too stubborn to tell him. Until she got too annoyed with me asking about him all the time. Still, my dad and I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with each other because I was always going from home to home with my mom. She had a drug problem. She overdosed when I was six, nine, and again when I was ten. That’s when I went to live with him. So, I’ve been here.
When I saw him crying, I was so scared because I thought it was about my mom. I hadn’t heard from her in over three months. I was honestly relieved when it wasn’t her but now, as I slowly walked to my room, leaving my father to sit at the counter, I felt guilty for thinking something so horrible.
¤ ¤ ¤ ¤
Thursday morning was a long one.
We had to get up early. We got dressed, showered, and drove to the Church all in silence. It wasn’t really a sad silence. I guess we just didn’t know what to say to each other. There were a lot of cars already sitting in the parking lot and some, even, on the side of the road. My dad had begun to smile as we walked up to a group of people standing around each other.
I saw one man with short, dark hair yell, “No cell phones!” To who I’m assuming is his son, who had the same dark hair as his father, but it was slightly longer and more curly.
I was somewhat startled when my father spoke up in a loud voice from next to me, “Wait, no cell phones? Then I’m outta here!” The group turned to look at us as we reached them. I stopped slightly behind my father.
"Higgy!” The dark haired man shouted with his arms extended.
My dad smiled and began dancing while pointing to himself, “Who’s ready to get their funeral on?” He spoke in a sing song voice. I instantly started to feel embarrassed while my cheeks began to warm. My dad must have felt embarrassed, too, because he amended, “I’m sorry death makes me weird.” He walked closer to the group. I stayed in my spot.
He walked up to a tall dark man with large eyes and a wide smile. “What’s up McKenzie?!” He yelled as he hugged the man, “Hey, you got those soft hands. Still using Palmolive?”
Next he approached the man with dark hair. “Hey, what’s up, Lenny?” He gives him a small hug and says, “Buddy, I thought you were supposed to start working out?” I felt my cheeks heat up again. That’s not very nice. He’s not even big.
The man, Lenny, laughs though, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
My dad deadpans, “Um, you’re fat.” My eyes widened. Noooo! Oh, God, this is so humiliating. I’m being raised by a toddler.
Lenny’s eyes crinkle as he smiles, “No. No. Hey, guys, this is good news. I always wanted to represent you.” He tells my dad, “You’re the third Olsen twin, right?” Ha! Karma.
“Who’s this?” I was too busy trying to stifle my laughter I didn’t notice the groups gaze on me or Lenny’s pointing.
My dad was busy recovering from the blow to his ego, too, because it took him a second to respond. “Oh, that’s my daughter, Abigail.” He turned to me, waving me over. “Come over here, Abby!”
I make my way over and my dad introduces us. “This is Kurt McKenzie,” He points to the dark skinned man, “and Lenny Feder.” Then, he points to the dark haired man.
Mr. Feder turned to my dad, “I didn’t know you had a daughter, man.”
My dad smiled, dismissing the conversation for now. I knew it’d come back up between them again soon, though. “Eh, it’s a long story.”
Mr. McKenzie then turned to me, “How old are you?”
“Thirteen.” I answered simply with a kind smile. My hands twiddled with each other as I stood trying not to feel awkward.
”Ah, well, I’m sorry you’re being raised by a man baby.” Mr. Feder smiled. He rested his hand on my shoulder and turned to point back at a group of kids, his I assume. “Well, my kids are right over there if you want to say hi.” The eldest boy, the one I think he yelled at when I first got here, looked around my age. There was a younger boy who looked a lot like his father and brother with a lot of freckles on his face, and a small, adorable little girl. There also appeared to be a women who was coddling them. She looked Asian. Combining her age and race I don’t think that’s one of his kids. And taking into account she seemed to be taking care of the kids, she might be a nanny.
I looked up to Mr. Feder. “Is that a nanny?” I asked, genuinely curious.
”What? No!” He laughed off, then shoved me toward the group of kids my age. I vaguely heard him say, “Go play with my kids.”
I felt my heart starting to race again at the aspect of approaching these new people. I didn’t usually do good at these things. I approached them slowly, starting to peel at the light blue fingernail polish I was wearing. When I was standing before them no one seemed to notice.
I sucked in a big breath and put a smile on my face, hoping it didn’t come off as a grimace. “Hi, I’m Abby.”
The little girl smiled real big, her brown eyes sparkling, “I’m Becky!” She jumped a little when she said it. My smile grew genuine.
The older boy barely glanced up at me. As he went back to his phone he said, “I’m Greg.” He motioned to the younger boy, “That’s Keithy.” Keithy didn’t even show a sign that he knew I was there, or that his name had been said at all. My smile dropped, I felt a little rejected for some reason.
After that there was just silence. They stood there, completely unaware of my ever growing anxiety. I didn’t have a phone yet. So, I couldn’t just pull it out and forget about my surroundings. I looked around, trying to shake this feeling until I finally had enough. I had spotted a couple of girls that just looked a little younger than me. Probably about Keithy’s age. I just walked away, approaching the girls. “Okay, then.” I sighed, making my way from the Feder’s and their nanny.
I tried my subtle approach again, “Hi, I’m Abby.” I smiled.
They smiled back. The dark skinned girl introduced herself as Charlotte. She had big pretty brown eyes. The other girl had dirty blond hair and cute chubby cheeks. Her name was Donna. They were fun, but they talked about things that didn’t really interest me. Like My Little Pony. I enjoyed talking to them about Twilight, though.
At one point in the conversation I had looked over to the grownups and overheard their conversation: “Of course, the kid who didn’t hit puberty ‘till he was nineteen, right?” Well, that’s embarrassing.
Finally, I had politely left the conversation with Charlotte and Donna to sit on the steps and wait to go inside. I didn’t have to wait long.
I sat next to my father behind the Feders.
My dad was already talking when I sat next to him. “Yeah, it’s your money, it’s his money, it’s my money. Let’s put all our cash in a pile and split it. That’s a nice hat, it brings out the death in the room.” He said about Mrs. Feder’s hat. I nudged his side, completely done with him embarrassing me, “Sorry, I’m nervous.” I rolled my eyes at him.
He sat back in his seat, crossing his arms like a child.
“You’re so weird.” I said.
”Yeah, well guess what.” He pouted.
I stuck my nose up at him, “What.”
”It runs in the family. So get used to it.”
I was silent after that, but I made sure to stick my tongue out at him every chance I got.
I was looking around the room, completely zoned out, when Mr. Feder got up and started to walk to the front. I guess he’s going to talk. I tried to shake myself out of my daze.
"I'm sorry, I'm not prepared at all.” Mr. Feder said. I guess he didn’t know he would have to talk. ”I feel very honored that-that coach asked me to do this, but uh....I also feel terrible because I haven't seen the coach in so long. And, uh, he always wanted me to come to town and see him and, I got caught up in what I've been doing and I regret it."
Almost every one I saw sitting around was smiling. "I understand that the St. Mark's team of 1978 was the only championship team that the coach ever had and, uh, that's-that's very impressive. I gotta say, judging from the talent we had to offer, I mean, believe it or not Robbie and Marcus were actually shorter back in 1978." I laughed at that extra loud to bug my dad, I even added a few shoulder nudges in there. He threw me a death glare.
"Yeah,” Mr. Lamonsoff spoke up. “but those guys had a skill you never mastered. They knew how to pass the ball."
"Looks like somebody has to learn how to pass the Kentucky Fried Chicken." That earned a loud laugh. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. We're saying goodbye to a big part of our lives. All of us. You affected everybody in this room. And I hope we get to live our lives like you. Have no regrets when lifes final buzzer sounds. So, uh, lets all bow our heads in silence.” I bowed my head, my hands folded in my lap while my blond hair dangled in my face. I closed my eyes.
I found it hard to focus too much on what was happening. At one point Puberty Guy started singing some song. I think it might have been in a different language. Maybe opera? It was weird. He had picked up the big picture of Coach Buzzer and started swaying it and stuff. Then he started looking at a statue of Mary real weird. For some reason my dad and his friends wouldn’t stop laughing. I was totally confused and I don’t think I’ll ever understand what was happening, but I do know Puberty Guy....is real strange. He ended down on one knee and my dad made a buzzer noise which scared the crap outta me.
When it was over everyone went outside. I was sitting on some white benches with my dad, his friends around us.
A little blond boy with spiked hair walked up to Mrs. Lamonsoff, “Mommy, I want some milk.”
”Oh, sure, Angel.” She responded sweetly. “You come here. I’ll give you a little something.” At first I thought she was gonna whip out a sippy cup of some milk, but then I realized she was about to whip out something else. I took that as my cue to leave.
I got up and kinda just stood around in awkward silence for a while until I saw Greg and Keithy standing by themselves on their phones. I decided I would try to talk to them again. I walked up slowly, “Hi.” I greeted with a smile.
Keithy seemed unaware of my existence still, but Greg answered dully, “Hey.”
I glanced around, “Watcha doing?” I shifted on my feet, picking at my fingernail polish again.
”Playing my game.”
”Oh, that’s interesting.” Greg hummed and we were left in silence again. I glanced around, trying to find something to say to start a conversation. Since he seemed so interested in his game I knew what I’d say, “What’s it about?”
That seemed to spark his interest because he looked up at me and smiled. I was a little surprised it worked, but happy nonetheless.
”It’s a Walking Dead game. You have to fight zombies and start a civilization. You get characters and can build their strength and pick weapons. You even get to build the town.“ He showed me everything he was talking about on his phone. It actually did seem interesting. “Have you ever seen The Walking Dead?”
”Um, only like two or three seasons. My dad really likes it. I remember when he binged it.” I looked to the ground, remembering. “It actually got pretty annoying.” Then I realized what I said. “Him. Not the show.” I amended quickly with an awkward laugh.
He laughed, too. “I get that. My dad binged Lost last month. It was the most annoyed I think I’d ever been with him.”
When I finished laughing I grasped at more conversation. “Well, I really like Supernatural. Sam is my favorite.”
”Oh! I like that show. I never got too interested in it, but maybe I could give it another shot?”
I jumped at that. “You should!” I laughed, “It’s really good.”
He smiled. “Great.” His eyebrows furrowed. “How old are you?”
I was confused by his change in subject. “Oh, uh, thirteen. You?”
”I’m Fourteen.”
After that we started talking about random stuff. Things we liked, school, our friends. I brought up I had skipped a grade before so we were in the same grade. He told me about some famous people he’d met. Then, my dad called for me, “Hey, Abby. It’s time to go to the lake house. Let’s go!” He waved me over.
”Um, well I’ll see you at the house.” I smiled, walking backwards
He smiled and waved, his curls falling onto his face. “See ya.”