March, 1975
“Michael, honey, do you mind going to the park for awhile?” Michael’s mother asked.
Michael looked up from the television, and saw that Jeff had come over. He hated Jeff. Michael stood up, and nodded. He was ten years old and wearing a white button up shirt with a bow tie and a pair of black slacks. Michael walked towards the front door as his mother bent down and combed his hair to the side.
“Thank you, sweetie, be back in an hour okay?” his mother said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.
Michael nodded once more, and he left, making sure to give Jeff a dirty look as he walked past him. He walked down the street, the sun reflecting off the windows of cars parked on the side of his street.
Stupid Jeff, Michael thought, he never lets me have any fun.
Michael kicked a rock down the street, and headed towards the playground just a block away from his house. When he arrived, there were some kids that Michael knew from school playing on the jungle gym. One of the boys looked up, tapped his friend on the shoulder, and pointed towards Michael. They began laughing as Michael walked up to them smiling.
“Hey buddies!” Michael said, waving to them.
“Hey, Scott,” said a tall boy, “we saw you on Fundle Bundle yesterday. You’re famous!”
“Am I?”
“Yeah, you were on TV!” the boy said, climbing down from the top of the jungle gym. “That’s so cool!”
“Thanks…so what are you guys playing?” Michael asked, blushing.
“We’re about to play Cops and Robbers.”
“Can I play?”
“No. I’m sorry, but we’re not your kids, so we can say no to being your friend,” they boy said. The other boys began to laugh.
“Yeah, why don’t you look for someone to get married to? You guys can have a hundred babies together!” another boy called.
“You’re such a loser, Scott. No wonder you don’t have any friends,” said the first kid, stepping up closer to Michael.
Michael felt tears burning in his eyes, but fought hard to keep them in. The other boys were all laughing harder now.
“Look! He’s going to cry!”
“Shut up!” Michael screamed, but this made the boys laugh harder.
“Shut up!” they all mocked back to him.
Michael now felt the tears streaming down his face. The first boy began to shove him back.
“Leave him alone!” cried a voice.
The boy who was shoving Michael turned around, and Michael looked over the boy’s shoulder. The voice belonged to a short, blonde girl, who appeared to be slightly younger than the rest of the boys.
“What are you? Scott’s girlfriend?” asked the boy who was shoving Michael.
“Just leave him alone, you guys,” said the girl.
“And why should we?” the boy retorted.
“Because he wasn’t doing anything to you,” replied the girl, stepping closer to them. The other boys began to laugh.
“Fine, you’re lucky you’re a girl, or we’d all beat you up,” said the boy. He turned back to Michael, “Get out of here, Scott. Go play with your new girlfriend.”
Michael didn’t say anything. He just turned around, wiping tears from his face, and walked away as fast as he could. He didn’t know where to go now. As he got to the edge of the park, he could hear the other boys wooting and whistling. Michael turned around to see what the commotion was, and he saw the blonde girl running towards him. He turned again, and began to quicken his pace. Michael didn’t want to give the other boys more ammo to tease him at school.
“Are you okay?” Michael heard the girl asking, slightly breathless from running.
“Leave me alone! I hate you!” Michael cried, as he began to run away.
“Wait! What’s wrong? I was just trying to help!”
“You made things worse!” Michael screamed, still running.
“They’re leaving you alone now, aren’t they? Come on, stop running!” the girl cried, running faster to catch up with Michael.
Michael stopped, and turned around. He was breathing hard. The girl caught up with him, and she was breathing hard as well.
“I’m sorry for running,” Michael said with his head down.
“It’s okay,” said the girl softly. “I’m Holly.”
“Okay,” Michael said, walking away once more.
“Wait! Where are you going?”
“I don’t know…”
“Come on, let’s play on the swings,” Holly said, grabbing Michael’s wrist.
“Okay…”
The two of them walked over to a swing set that was far away from the jungle gym. Michael could still see the boys over there, laughing and pointing at him. He looked away, and he saw Holly sitting on a swing next to him.
“So what’s your name?” she asked him, pushing off the ground.
“Michael,” he replied, not swinging.
Holly smiled over at Michael, and began humming the theme to Happy Days. Michael hummed along, and then Holly started to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” Michael asked feeling slightly offended.
“You watch Happy Days too?”
“Duh…doesn’t everyone?”
“Well, in my neighborhood, everyone watches The Brady Bunch, so the kids at my school make fun of me for watching Happy Days,” Holly replied, shrugging.
“Your neighborhood sounds stupid,” Michael said, kicking the sand at his feet.
“Yeah, the people there are mean…”
“Same here,” said Michael, still kicking at the sand.
“I hope not…my family might move here,” Holly said, stopping her swing.
“Why?”
“My daddy might get a job over there,” Holly said, pointing to a pharmacy across the street. “He sells people medicine. What does your dad do?”
“I think he’s a hunter…” Michael replied. “Every time I see him, he takes me hunting with him.”
“Oh…That’s cool,” said Holly, scrunching up her eyebrows. “Are your parents divorced too?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“You said ‘every time I see him.’ So I figured your dad doesn’t live with you,” Holly said, looking over at Michael.
“Oh…yeah, I live with my mom,” said Michael.
“I live with my daddy…”
“Cool.”
They sat in silence again. A few minutes later, Holly broke the silence.
“Can I ask you a question?” she asked.
“Okay,” replied Michael.
“How come those guys were making fun of you about having a hundred kids?”
Michael sat in silence again, feeling humiliated.
“I was on Fundle Bundle, and—“
“What’s Fundle Bundle?” Holly interrupted.
“It’s a TV show…”
“Oh, okay, and?”
“Edward R. Meow asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I said that I wanted to get married and have a hundred kids so that no one can say no to being my friend,” Michael said, feeling tears burning in his eyes.
“Me too!” Holly exclaimed, “That would be so cool!”
Michael smiled, “Yeah, it would be fun. We can have sleepovers, and eat candy, and tell jokes…”
“And watch Happy Days!”
“Yeah!”
Just then, a man walked out of the pharmacy.
“Holly!”
“Yeah, daddy!” Holly yelled, waving to her dad. The man jogged across the street towards the two children.
“Let’s go home, sweetie,” he said, taking Holly’s hand.
“Are we moving here, daddy?” Holly asked, jumping of her swing. Michael followed.
“No, it looks like we’re not,” her father replied, looking over at Michael, “Say bye to your friend, Holly. We have to beat traffic.”
“Bye, Michael,” Holly said sadly.
“Bye, Holly,” Michael said. Holly and her father were walking towards their car. For some reason, Michael started to cry again.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter End Notes:
Next up, Jim's first day at Dunder Mifflin Scranton. I hope you guys are enjoying these stories so far!
