Amateur Hours

Chapter 3

13 Years Ago

"A little to the left my love."

Giggling, the little girl straightens the projector where her daddy says to and turns to him for approval.

"Perfect! Now come, come, the movie is about to start!"

Shrieking in delight, she rushes over to his side on the couch and launch into his waiting arms. A little elephant with big ears appears on the screen. It's tiny like me, she thinks. Transfixed, she watches the whole movie, forgetting how much she hates sitting still as she stares at the wall, at the beautiful little elephant flying across the screen.

But eventually the movie ends and she pouts to herself. "I liked the little elephant", she whines to her daddy. "Why did he have to go away?"

Before he can reply though, the smell of pizza in the kitchen becomes impossible to ignore and she runs out of the room, momentarily forgetting about the movie. She loves her pizza. And afterwards, they laugh and play into the night, her daddy chasing her down the hall into her room, making her squeal.

But as she lays in bed that night, after mommy and daddy tucked her in, she begins to remember the sweet little elephant with big ears and cries. Wishing that she could see him, that he would come and play with her. Wishing for it so hard, that he does. And they spend the rest of the night giggling and laughing, the little girl transfixed once more as he flies across her room like he did on the screen.

The little girl is so distracted that she doesn't see her daddy standing in the doorway, watching them.

•••

10 Years Ago

Weirdo.

They'd called her a weirdo.

She'd been called that a lot lately, and she didn't mind it as much usually, but the way they said it was different then how her parents did. Like it was a bad thing.

And she didn't like it. Not one bit.

So that was why she was standing at the kitchen window, staring at them from across the yard, waiting.

One kid starts to do tricks on his skateboard, the others turning to watch.

Now.

The second they had their backs turned, a box of lollipops appeared. One that, when they turned back around to see it, made the kids shriek in surprise before running towards it in delight. But instead, their hands grasped at air.

She snickered.

"Savannah Collens, what do you think you're doing?"

The lollipops vanish, and protests ring out from the house across the street. But her eyes turn to her dads, an innocent smile plastered on her face.

"Nothing daddy, just watching the kids playing across the street."

But he wasn't buying her innocent act. Not when he'd been watching the whole ordeal play out from the moment she came back inside, crying about mean kids under her breath.

"We've been over this love. Doing stuff like that is too dangerous, especially out in the open. And especially when you're doing it for revenge...even if those kids did deserve it."

A small smile tugged on his lips and she grinned back, despite his feeble attempt at scolding her. He'd always been a softie when it came to her.