“OH! WOW! Mummy looks at this!!!” A little girl with a stubby auburn ponytail and big brown eyes tugged on her mother’s pants. “It’s got a laze-or beam AND a cool-guy hat!!”
Her mother looked down her, her long brown hair falling over her shoulders and her piercing brown eyes smiling at her daughter. “That’s really nice Bippy…” She started and grabbed the toy from her. “But why can’t you like the little girl toys like the other girls?” She looked at the other end of the toy aisle at a group of little girls gawking at all the Barbie’s, toy horses, and accessories. Her mother grabbed a toy make-up kit. “Don’t you like this??” She handed it to her. The little girl made a face and stuck her tongue out. “Thass gross! I don’t like this stuff! It’s too pink!” She set it down and grabbed a G.I. Joe. “These are cooler cause these dudes gots guns and stuffs.” She smiled and handed it to her mother. Her mother sighed. “Okay, okay, fine, We’ll get these.” She dropped them into the basket and walked towards the cloths. “Were gunna get you a new outfit, okay?” Her mother asked and looked at the girls baggy blue jean shorts that went to her shins and her red skater shirt. Her shoes weren’t much better, red and black little boy’s skate shoes. She dresses too much like a boy for her age. Her mother thought to herself. A four year old little girl should dress like a four year old little girl…but of course her father always let her do what she wanted…he never cared what she looked like… She sighed. “Okies!” She smiled up at her mother and hugged her miniature skateboard. They walked into the racks of cloths and looked around a bit. After a few hours of trying on cloths and bickering about boys and girls cloths she finally had an outfit picked out. She had picked it out from the girl’s section too. But only from her mothers protesting. The little girl walked out of the changing room. She was wearing a pair of white tall shoes and long baggy blue jeans with holes cut in the knees. She had let her hair down for her mother to see and it barley reached the tip of her shoulders that were covered by a light blue mid drift stretchy tank top. She pulled down on the shirt. “Mummy!!!” She whined. “It’s too smalls!!!!” “Her mom chuckled. “Well Bippy, it’s either that or…”She took out a frilly pink dress from behind her back. “This pretty dress.” She smirked. “NO!!” She screamed! “Ima gets this!!” She stormed into the changing room and put her other outfit back on. Her mother giggled.“OH! OH! And looks at this!!” The little girl pulled out her two action figures and brought them over to a man with light brown hair that stuck up in random places and blue eyes. “Amand lookies! It’s really neats!” She handed him the G.I. Joe’s
“Hmm. That’s really nice Brittney.” He said smiling down at the little girl. “Yea! And looks! This one has a laze-or!!” She pointed at one of the packages. “Yes, yes, I see that.” He chuckled at the child’s excitement. “Bippy, why don’t you show him your new cloths?” Her mother asked as she walked into the living room. ”But Mummy!” She protested. “I don’t wanna wear it!” “I’m sure Armand would love to see it though.” “Yes, I would love to Brittney.” Brittney grabbed the bag on the way to her room. Her mother giggled. “Thank you.” She smiled and sat down next to him. “Maybe she’ll actually wear it now.” “I doubt it.” He snickered “You know just as well as I do Cheryl. It’s almost impossible to change that little girls mind.” “I know but I just once want her to act like a little girl!” Cheryl sighed. Brittney slowly walked out of her room wearing her new cloths and into the living room where her mother and Armand were. “You look cute Bippy!” Brittney glared at her. “I’m only gunna wear the pants!” She blew a raspberry at her mother. Cheryl just stared at her and sighed. She’ll grow outta this…She told herself “Well what if your mother buys you a shirt like that only bigger?” Armand asked. “Would you wear it?” Brittney nodded. “That’s the biggest size they had….”Cheryl sighed. “There stretchy I could fit in them. ”She looked at Brittney. “Brittney Lyn.” She said sternly. “You listen to me. I spent too much money on those cloths for you to just wear those pants. You’re lucky I bought you those Jeans anyways! I bought you a lot of those shirts because you told me you would wear them. So you’re going to wear them!” “But mummy!!” She whined. “ I want my other cloths!!” “No! You’re going to be a little girl from now on. No more skateboards, baggy cloths, little boy’s action figures, NOTHING! Understand?” She asked. Brittney started crying and stormed into her room. Cheryl bit her bottom lip and held back her tears. “Is it so much to ask for a normal little girl?” She sighedAbout a year went by and Brittney, now five, was still wearing her boy’s cloths and would occasionally dress up for her mother and not give her a hard time about it. Brittney was in the living room watching cartoons slowly dozing off while waiting for Armand and her mother to come home from another night out. All the sudden she heard the front door slam and she jumped up and saw Armand alone walking into the house. “Amand? Where’s Mummy?” She asked.
Armand walked over and sat next to Brittney. He bit his bottom lip. “Well,” He started and searched for the right words to use. “Your mother’s dead, Britt…” He looked down at her and her eyes began to water. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to his side. “She was shot while we were out and…she died.” Brittney cried hysterically and moped into her room. Armand sighed and got up off the couch and walked to his room. It was late and they both needed sleep.“PSST!!! Armand! HEY! Armand!” Brittney screamed into his ear.
“Hm? What? Where?” He mumbled and slowly opened his eyes. “What do you need Britt?” “Well a few of my friends wanted me to go surfing with them and…” She looked at him and made puppy dog eyes. “Can I go? Please? I’ll finish packing when I get home! I promise!” Armand wiped his eyes and looked up at her. She had her hair clipped up and had a dark blue bandana on top of her head. She had on a pair of black board shorts that were a little past her knees and a white baggy shirt with a black bikini top on under it. Her silver Oakley sunglasses were set on top of her bandana. “Yea, fine, I don’t care.” He rolled over and went back to sleep. “Thank you so much!” She squealed and bolted out of the house with her surfboard under her arm.“So Britt, visiting Canada with Armand again, huh?” A girl with bleach blonde hair to her mid back and sparkling hazel green eyes asked her. She was wearing lime green board shorts that came a little past her butt and a lime green bikini top.
“Yea. But were only gunna be gone for about a month.” She shrugged. “Dude, Britt that bites such mega balls!” “Yea I know, but like I said, I ‘m only gunna be gone for a month.” “Have fun adjusting to the climate change! It’s summer! It’s all warm and toasty here. And it’s all cold there.” The blonde laughed. “Sarah, shut up! Seriously dude. Stop givin her a hard time. It ain’t her fault!” A girl with brunette hair in a short ponytail to her shoulders and dark brown eyes snapped at Sarah. She was wearing a pink bikini with a white towel wrapped around her waist. “Yea I’m with Lauren on this one. Sorry Sarah.” Brittney smiled. “But anyways. There is a plus side to this.” “What’s that?” Lauren asked ”You’re bringing a portable heater?” Sarah laughed. “No,” Brittney rolled her eyes. “I get to meet one of Armand’s co-workers. Her name’s Cassius Metatara, I think...” “And this is a plus how?” Sarah asked. “Well she’s gunna decide if I work with them or not. And the fact that I’m so charming and love to talk!” She giggled. “Is gunna help me out and I’m SO gunna work with him! He’s even gunna pay me!” “okay but with every plus there’s a negative. Especially with Armand….no offence.” Lauren said. “Well yea.” Brittney started slowly. “If I do get to work. Were gunna move there permanently and sell the house here.” Brittney bit her lip. “NO! Britt you can’t do that! Get sick or something! California ain’t gunna be the same without you!” Sarah protested. “Yea and you said you never wanted to move.” Lauren added hoping to make it change Brittney’s mind. “Well it’s different now…” Brittney said slowly as they reached the beach and climbed the hot wooden stairs. “How?” Lauren and Sarah asked in usion. “Well…I really don’t care if I move as long as it’s not space. There’s so much going on up there. And I was so naïve when I was little hat I actually believed that if I moved I’d never get to see you guys again.” “Well then how is it different? You wont be able to see us anymore if you move to Bores Ville!” Lauren whined. “Ah, but this is where you are wrong for once.” Brittney laughed. “Armand will pay for plane tickets for you guys to visit whenever you want.” She squealed. The three girls climbed down the second set of stairs and they set up their towels and stuck their boards in the sand. “Thass so great!” Sarah cried. “Yea. So let’s make your last day in California one you’ll never forget.” Lauren smirked as a hot surfer guy walked past them and smiled at Brittney. “Oh la la!” Sarah cried. “A hot surfer guy! Can you handle him?” She chuckled. “Let’s find out…” Brittney smirked, grabbed her board, and walked up behind them. “WHOO! Go Britt!” Lauren cried behind her. “She’s so gunna embarrass herself!” Sarah laughed. “Hey Britt’s actually pulled off some pretty hot guys before that we didn’t think she could. She might surprise us. Besides, let her have some fun.” Lauren said as she reclined on her blanket. “Time to get some color!” “Yea, good idea.” Sarah said and laid at an angle so she could keep an eye on Brittney. Brittney walked up behind the surfer, dropped her Oakley’s over her eyes and tossed her bandana onto her towel. “Hey.” She said casually and he turned around. “Hey, hun, what’s up?” He had a buzzed head with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. His board shorts were almost identical to Brittney’s. “Oh not much.” She sighed. “Just trying to get over my boyfriend cheating on me then leaving me for her.” She lied and held back her fake tears. “I don’t know how he could do that to someone as sexy as you.” He grinned down at her. Brittney’s cheeks turned light pink. She was not expecting that so quickly. She lifted her Oakley’s onto the top of her head again. “I guess he couldn’t handle a girl as bad as me.” She said and tried hard and succeeded to hold back her laughter. “Really now?” The surfer asked as he raised an eyebrow. “Yea, guess I was too much for him…” She twirled a piece of her hair that was hanging from her clip. She gasped. “Oh my gosh!” She chuckled. “I forgot to tell you my name! My B! My B!” She giggled. “I’m Brittney.” She flashed him her best smile that she had always used while talking to guys. “I’m Rusty. Nice meeting you.” He smiled down at her. “Wanna go surf?” She asked him twirling her finger on her surfboard. “I’d rather spend time with you somewhere.” Brittney giggled. “Sure, where do you wanna go?” “My friend’s the lifeguard on duty now. I’m sure he’ll let us stay in the room on the tower for a while.” Brittney shrugged. “Sure, why not?” “OH! MY! GOD!” Sarah screamed. “They have been in the lifeguard tower for almost two hours!” “they went in the lifeguard tower!?!?” Lauren screamed and sat up. She was currently tanning her back. “When!?” “About two hours ago…” Sarah said slowly. “I JUST SAID THAT!” She screamed. “But you never told me when they went in there! I thought she would take him surfing or something!!” Lauren cried. “Were goin in!” Sarah said. “NO! NO! We can’t! Britt will soo kill us!!” Lauren screamed at Sarah. “Why?” She asked. “Cuz then she’ll get mad at us and not pay for us to go to Bores Ville to visit her!” “She’s not gunna hold a grudge on us that long! Were her best friends!” “No, were not going.” Lauren said. “And thass it! No more fighting. Britt won’t do nuttin too bad in there.”Brittney and Rusty lay on the floor cuddled up next to each other with all their clothing in a pile on the other side of the ‘room’. Brittney wasn’t planning on goin all the way, but she did. She regretted it but Lauren did tell her ‘make your last day in California one you’ll never forget’. So she did. “I have to go now. I kinda left my friends on the beach…”Brittney said slowly as she sat up and grabbed her cloths and quickly put them on. She began brushing her hair and Rusty put his board shorts on.
“You look so much prettier with you hair down.” He smiled at her and cupped her face. “I don’t wear my hair down too often.” She admitted slowly. “Well you should. Guy’s will never get enough of you.” He pulled her into a kiss then rubbed her cheek. “I never wore my hair down when I was young and before my Mom died. So I don’t wear it down much now.” “How old were you when you mother died?” He asked her sympathetically. “I was only five. My Mom hated the way I dressed and acted but I was really close to her. I miss her so much. These past nine years have been the worst in my life.” “How so?” Rusty asked her. “What happened?” “Well my mom dying was horrible but meeting my biological father was the worse.” “So do you live by yourself?” he asked. “No, no, no, no, no.” She giggled. “I live with my mom’s last boyfriend Armand, he’s my ‘father figure’.” She giggled “So what was so horrible about meeting your biological Father?” He asked her. “Well meeting him was the icing on the cake.” She grunted.Brittney was eleven years old and was getting ready to go see her father. Armand had agreed to drive her over for a few hours. She was trying to find a good outfit to make herself presentable to her father. She didn’t want him to get mad for dressing like a guy like her mother did when she was young. She threw on the light blue tank top her mother bought her when she was four and grabbed a pair of old baggy blue jeans. Where are they? She dug through her back pack and pulled out a pair of scissors. She took the scissors to the jeans and cut the knees out so they looked like the one’s her mother had bought her then threw the pants on. If her mother had liked her dressed like this her father shouldn’t care either. She grabbed a pair of bigger white platform shoes identical to the ones her mother bought her and walked out to Armand’s car. After about an hour of driving Brittney climbed out of the car and climbed the old rickety wooden steps that led to the front door. She knocked and heard some yelling inside of the house. After a minute the door swung open and a boy a little older than her with messy short brown hair and water brown eyes stood in front of her. “Can I help you?” he asked her
“Um yea I’m looking for A Russell Hamilton? Am I at the right place?” She asked cautiously. “Yea, who are you?” He asked and stared at her. “I’m Brittney Hamilton but I go by Brittney Norris now…” The boy’s eyes widened. “Your Brittney?” He asked “Yea…” Brittney nodded slowly. “You’re my sister!” he cried. “What are you talking about? I’m an only child!” She yelled. “Well I’m your half brother. Same dad different Mom’s.” He explained. “Oh…okay…” Brittney blinked. “Come in, come in!” He said. “I’m Seth by the way.” “O...k…” Brittney said slowly as she walked past him into the house. The house was more disgusting on the inside than the outside. There was garbage and dirty cloths all over the floor and there was a horrible stench that singed her nose hairs. OHMYGOD! This HAS to be the wrong house! She screamed to herself. She walked around the cloths and accidentally kicked an old pizza box. About fifty cockroaches swarmed out of the box. Brittney’s heart raced. No matter how hard she tried she could not get over her fear of bugs. Especially cockroaches. She ran to an area that she thought was the living room there were two old torn up couches that were blue with a kinda yellow tint to them with food and bugs on them. She was too afraid to sit down. She looked over at an older man with Brown gray hair and dark piercing brown eyes. The same as her own. He was wearing dirty cloths and his eyes were glued to the television. Which was probably the only nice thing in the house. “Umm...dad?” She asked slowly. The man looked up. “Who the hell are you?” He snapped. “I-I-I’m Brittney. Cheryl’s daughter…you-you left me and my mom when I was three…” She stuttered. “Ah, Cheryl’s daughter, eh?” He asked and looked over at her. “I remember you. What happened? Your mother not like the way I let you grow up to be and made you a priss?” He asked as he looked at her wardrobe. Brittney looked down at her outfit. “No…Not exactly…” She looked at him. She couldn’t believe him. She wore that outfit so he would maybe appreciate her and he liked the old her better. Even though he didn’t even know her. “So how is Cheryl anyways? She been sleeping around like she should be?” “What do you mean by that?” Brittney snapped. “Well the only thing she was good at was being in bed. I figured she would get some spending money by doing that and you would be the one with a job.” He laughed. Brittney couldn’t believe it. Was he serious? Did she hear what she thought she did? No wonder her mother hated her. “My mom’s dead than you very much! She died six years ago! She was shot! And she only had one boyfriend and didn’t sleep around!” She snapped. “And Armand is a better father than you’ll ever be! I can’t believe that!” She snapped. “And Armand is a better father than you’ll ever be! I can’t believe that YOU, of all people, are my father!” She screamed. “So Cheryl’s dead, eh? Good. I would have killed her myself if I had to stay with her any longer.” He spat and looked at the television again. Brittney couldn’t believe it. How could somebody want to kill her mother? She was one of the nicest people in the world! She wanted to go home right that minute but Armand wouldn’t be back for another twenty minutes. She decided to go and find her brother, Seth. Maybe he’s the nice one in the family. She thought to herself. She wondered around the house for a few minutes and ran into Seth. “Hey.” She said and smiled warmly. “What’s up?” “Nothing really.” He shrugged. “Well what are you doing?” She asked him “Writing a letter to my sister.” He said casually. “You mean there’s another one??” She asked. “Yup, me you and Denise. She’s the youngest, and hopefully the last of the kids from our dad.” Seth sighed. The two sat and talked outside in the front yard for a while about their father and what he did to their mothers until Armand came to pick up Brittney. “Well, I must be on my way.” Brittney sighed. “Nice meeting you. Maybe we’ll see each other again.” She smiled and got into Armand’s car and left hoping to never have to see her father again.“Sorry to hear that, hun.” Rusty said.
“Yea, it’s not much of a deal anymore. But it’s all good. I gotta get going I’ll talk to you Tomorrow?” She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper off the desk and scribbled on it. “Give me a call…”She trailed off and handed it to him. “Oh no…” “What’s wrong?” Rusty asked her. “I forgot. I’m going to Canada Tomorrow morning with Armand…Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” She stormed out and met up with Lauren and Sarah. After a long lecture from the two on their way home they all went their separate ways.“Well guys, I guess this is Good Bye?” Brittney said and whipped a tear away from her cheek. The flight her and Armand had planned to Canada had been postponed for a month since Cassius had been so busy lately.
“Don’t worry, We’ll come visit you!” Sarah said and hugged her tight. “I know. I know. I’ll see you guys in a few weeks.” Brittney pulled away from Sarah and hugged a sobbing Lauren tightly. “Don’t cry! You guys are coming over in two weeks! It’s not like I’ve never gone to Canada before! It’s just a trip” Brittney laughed. “I hope you get that Job Britt.” Lauren said as she wiped away her tears. “Yea, we’ll see you in Bores Ville!” Sarah snickered. Brittney looked over at Rusty and hugged him tightly. “I’m gunna miss you so much!” She started crying again. “Don’t worry, hun, I’ll come see you too. Now don’t date any snowboarders up there.” He laughed. “Okay?” Brittney smiled and nodded. “Don’t date any surfer chicks.” She smiled Rusty handed her a small box. “Here before I forget.” “What is it?” She asked and opened it. Inside was a silver necklace with a silver number ‘5’ charm on it. “Oh my god! Rusty, you didn’t have to…” “No, now you can remember both me and you mom while you in Canada. And I’ll have your board here for when you come to visit us.” He smiled. “I’m gunna miss you so much!” She cried harder and hugged him again. “I love you.” He smiled down at her and kissed her hard on the lips. “I love you too.” She smiled back at him. “Come on, Britt, we gotta get going.” Armand called from the ramp to the plane. “Coming!” She called and slowly pulled away from Rusty and climbed into the plane with Armand.A girl not much older than Brittney with silver spiral curls and mint green eyes sat next to Armand and Brittney sat across from them. “Well Cassius, time to make the decision.” Armand smiled at Brittney. Cassius and Armand began whispering to each other and looked up.
Cassius cleared her throat and stood up. “Brittney Lyn Norris…Welcome to the Neo Zion and The Metatara foundation.” Brittney’s face lit up and Armand and Cassius smiled at her. Looks like I’m staying in Canada after all. She didn’t care though. She was going to be happy right where she was.