Everlasting Love

everlasting love [2]

When my mom was 21 years old, her parents retired out to Wisconsin where my grandfather could enjoy fishing on a daily basis and try to relax away all of those years from stress he had from his job so he some how randomly chose the small town of Pewaukee, Wisconsin. When my mother had to break the news to them that she was pregnant with an illegitament child, they tried to convince her that there was no way she would be able to raise a baby, by herself, in New York City. But, she thought she would be able to do it no problem, well I'll give you one guess how great that worked out for her. So, when I was 2 and she finally decided she had to give up her dreams of becoming one of Broadway's biggest stars, she headed out to Pewaukee where my grandparents had already bought her a house in town. My grandfather may have a rough exterior, but he was a big softie when it came to me when I was a baby. He would've done anything for my mother and I. That was where it all began, my mom had noticed there was another young mom next door with a little boy who looked to be only about a year or two older than I was so she became friends with her to get some more mothering tips. Sure, she was my mother and my best friend, but she was far from being mom of the year. Who was the woman she became with you ask? None other than Connie Watt. My mother refused to live off of her parents again so she began teaching music at the local elementary school and coaching a few private students on the side. That means, she was never home to take care of me. Even though my grandparents were technically retired, they never wanted to babysit me...that's where my close relationship with the Watt family comes in. My mother had asked Connie if she would be willing to watch me for a couple hours each day while she was working or serial dating. Just like that, JJ and I became fast friends; how could we not when we were together all day every day. Connie has pictures of the two of us together in the bath, our first day of preschool, us in the backyard playing together...everything. We were attached at the hip. From a young age, everyone noticed my love for singing and acting out plays. I would often dress JJ and his baby brother Derek up as my other characters for my impromptu skits. How could I not be musical? I was practically bred to come out singing. My mother took me on a trip to New York City when I was 5 to audition for a couple of different plays and sure enough, I would spend 6 weeks out of the year performing in New York. I was even casted as the youngest actress to ever play Annie on Broadway when I was 7, I had a natural talent for this stuff. However, at the same time I was able to live a normal childhood in Wisconsin since I would split my time in New York and mostly perform in the summer. JJ was still my best friend and biggest fan...him and his mom would come out at least twice a year to see my plays. I still have all of our photos of us standing together with him giving me flowers after my shows.

When we went to elementary school together, we were inseparable...no one knew us as "JJ" or "Samantha" but as "JJ AND Samantha". Things became a little complicated when we were about 9 years old....boys and girls couldn't be friends with each other without them having cooties. We kind of drifted apart for a couple of years, but would still hang out at home in our tree house. I had grown extremely close with Connie and my mother didn't seem to mind at all that I was spending all of my time over at the Watt's house learning everything from Connie that I should've been learning from her. Connie didn't seem to mind either since she was given 3 boys and not 1 daughter, she would always tell me how God had sent me to her to compensate for the boys, I would always smile up at her when she would say that, but then when I was 12 and my mother passed away in a car accident with her newest boyfriend at the time, is when I realized that God had sent her to me; to be my mother whenever I needed her the most.

I had continued with my Broadway career through the years and had even won my first Tony award at the age of 14. I knew my mom would have been proud and was looking down at me watching. When I had reached high school however, I decided I needed to be a normal teenager and take a hiatus through those years. I realized that I had fallen in love with JJ when I was 11 years old. When we were waiting at the bus stop on the morning of my birthday, I was wearing this awesome outfit; a blue valor jumpsuit. I loved that outfit. However, since we had a 2 hour delay all the kids in the neighborhood were hanging out before the bus came and the bully of the street, John Vance, had thought I had thrown a piece of ice at him. Which is when he proceeded to shove me to the sandy driveway and get my beautiful valor jumpsuit all dirty for school. Well, when I looked up from the ground and wiped away my tears, that's when I noticed JJ had shoved him into the snowbank and given him a black eye for laying a hand on me. He then proceeded to drag John over to me and make him apologize to me. That's when I felt the butterflies in my stomach looking at JJ. I didn't see him as just my friend anymore, he seemed older, more handsome, my knight in shining armor. Although JJ and I were still friends, we would rarely hang out together or really talk to each other as we got older. He was too busy with football and had lots of friends in high school. I however was a bit on the loner side my freshman year, but I didn't mind at all. I loved sitting back and watching JJ laugh in the lunchroom with all of his football buddies. Well little did I know that in one week, my whole world would be turned upside down. Forever.