Mummy's

Sam wore pink today. She swore not to last night on the phone.

I told her I was going to wear my pink dress today, my only pink dress, because my boyfriend gave it to me. Typical Sam, always trying to steal the limelight.

Me and Sam,we've been best friends since third grade. We're such good friends that I can't ever stay angey with her. I do believe she doesn't do these things on purpose to anger me, perhaps she just wants more attention. Growing up with her, she'd always been my shadow.

People stare at me, people glance at her. If I got fifteen second stares, she got two second looks.

It wasn't that she's ugly or that I'm prettier. I never thought that way. Till present I haven't quite figured out why.

My name is Ariel, I'm seventeen and I'm on the debate team. Sam's a cheerleader.

I remember once when we were twelve, my parents brought us out to the carnival together, she was wearing a bright, very beautiful, yellow dress and I was wearing only shorts and a T-shirt which said "I heart Mommy". There was something about that day I'll never forget.

She had all the attention anyone would desire, and she was loving it. She skipped around and she was the happiest person on Earth, that very day I never thought much of it, I mean, I was twelve, what would I know? But I never forget that day, for some reason.

Thinking back now, I finally understood.

It wasn't the attention, not then, not now. It was, and still is, something else. It took me five years to finally realize this. This simple, innocent desire of her's.

You see, Sam lost her Mom when she was really young, and her Dad is barely home. She spends most of her days with her maid, who barely speaks English.

Everything that she did, although seemingly because she wanted more looks than me or anyone else, was only because she wanted something she was never able to get.

Not more looks. Just one.

She got more than she bargained for, that day at the carnival, when people looked at her with their heads tilted saying "aww.." I call it the-mom-look. The look that said, "That's my daughter, I love her" with a big smile on top