Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a rare moment that Sam was able to get a whole day to himself with his dad. Robert Colt was usually just as busy as his wife, always having to go to meeting and going through papers. Lawyers were busy people, Sam knew that but he was more than happy when his father promised to take him back to school shopping. Despite Delia Colt’s desires, Sam was growing up and already at an age where shopping with his mother was little embarrassing. Being out with his dad though? Amazing! They could be manly men, together, doing manly things, like buying pencils and getting hamburgers and whatever else manly men do when bonding.

The pair of Colt men had already done some of Sam’s back to school clothes shopping. That consisted of just picking out a few new t shirts and lots of socks. Now Sam and Rob Colt were looking at school supplies. Currently they were trying to decide which pens and pencils were cooler.

“Ninjas like black. I think plain black ones will do Sammo.” Robert Colt was a practical person, and in his head, plain pens were better than fancy ones because Sam was bound to loose a few pens over the semester. "Look, they come in a box! You can get 20 for the same cost of those ones."

“But! Robots! Come on, these ones have robots on them!”

They were completely self absorbed in their conversation to notice anyone around them.

In the middle of his conversation with his dad , robots are always best, Sam’s train of thought was interrupted. First he saw the flash of pink, and the familiar forms of the Disney princesses. Not that Sam was really a big fan of Disney Princesses, but he knew who they were and saw their faces all over. Of course, he had seen most of the Disney movies by now, but he would never call himself a huge fan of Ariel or Aurora.

What really caught his attention was the familiar shape and color of the bracelet he had made for Ainsley. It was attached to the wrist of its intended weared. Awesome! She got it and was wearing it! Sam grinned wide at seeing that; she must have liked it. But before Sam could say anything about that, or even about the princesses, his dad cut in.

“Oh, hello. Sam who’s this?” Robert Colt had never met Ainsley before, he had heard about her from Sam’s mother, but rather than make an assumption he asked.

“Huh. Oh. Dad, this is Ainsley. “ Sam figured that was enough of an explanation.

“Well, nice to meet you little lady. I think Princesses are better for you, maybe not Sam.” Rather than argue about it, Robert simply picked up the robot pens that Sam was holding and tossed them into the basket. “Say, where’s your mom?” The grown up was oblivious to the fact that Ainsley’s guardian was her sister. Likely he had been told this before, but had forgotten.

Sam made a face at his father, silently telling him that wasn’t the best question to ask.

“Oh. … oh.” Robert repeated, taking in the full meaning of what the little girl said. If he was half as soft of as his wife, the man would have an epic sad face. Instead he turned to his son with a ‘I don’t know what to say, so I won’t say anything’ look.

Sam looped an arm around Ainsley’s shoulder, pushing her into his own shoulder in a fairly chummy half-hug. “Sokay, Dad. Cause Ainsley gets to hang around with me. And her sister I guess.”

“Sister? Oh, is she shopping with you? Getting ready for school?” Sam’s dad looked around , keeping an eye out for a distraught older clone of the blonde. But he didn’t see anyone in sight.

When Ainsley latched onto Sam, he stiffened up and stood rigid like a board with still on arm looped around the girl. He hadn’t expected a whole hug. One hand just lightly patted her shoulder while a slight pink tinge showed on his cheeks. Sam let go when Ainsley turned, but didn’t bother to step back really. Being close was, oddly nice.

Sam’s father just smiled, trying not to laugh at the pair of kids. So that’s what his wife was going on about when she mentioned their son’s cute little friend. When Ainsley gestured towards the women’s clothing area and the tall, fully grown Colt man saw a few displays of underwear and other womanly items his face fell a little flat. He was definitely not going to go over there to introduce himself. It was like a forbidden zone, and not one he really wanted to bring Sam into at his age. “Well… uh… Do you want to shop with us for a little while? Still need to get some other school supplies. “

Sam smiled back, and loosely linked arms with the girl-who-was-his-friend. He didn’t really say anything, just patiently waited for some kind of direction.

Directions were provided by Sam’s father, who pulled out a shopping list from his pocket. Robert scanned the list and double checked the contents of the basket he was holding. Pens, pencils, paper; all those things were present. “Ah, a binder. Guess it might be time for a new backpack as well. Anything you might be needing Ainsley?”

The tall man gently ushered the two kids out of the aisle. Sam peered around the corner into the next and spotted the binders. Pulling Ainsley along with him he wandered up to the binders and pulled out a plain boring old black fabric zip-up binder. “Whatcha think?”

Sam’s face made an equally sour expression at the binder that Ainsley had pulled out. Not that there was anything really wrong with it. The stripes were nice, and Sam appreciated the colors of it. It was those flowers that put the boy off. They just screamed Hawaiian surfer boy or girl. That just wasn’t really Sam. He was the type to appreciate more somber designs, geometric shapes and patterns rather than floral patterns. Oh and flames, but what young male didn’t romanticize fire? Sam put the binder that he had picked up and put back on the shelf from where it came.

“ Stripes are okay but I don’t know about that one. It’d pretty… flowery.” But that the point wasn’t it? Sam picked up another plain looking binder, this time in a earthy brown tone and a deep wine colored band running across it. “What about this one?”

Robert Colt just stood back, watching the two kid, simply amused by their actions.

Brown eyes watched curiously as Ainsley dug around. Sam was looking pretty smug that Ainsley had accepted his second choice, like it needed the seal of approval. He quickly turned back and tossed the binder at his dad and the shopping basket. When he turned back around he was met with Ainsley and her binder of choice in his face. It was the same style as the one he picked, just a different style. Sam gave a little smile at that and nodded his approval of the choice. “Cool.”

Robert Colt on the other hand, found the his and her binders absolutely hilarious. It was just so cute! They were like an old married couple, in miniature format. The man literally laughed out loud, enough so to gain the attention of a few random shoppers. Sam had to turn around and glare at his father before the man stifled his amusement.

“Time for backpacks!” Sam announced. He lead the way again, glancing over his shoulder occasionally to make sure that his dad was behaving himself. Rather than face the same mistake as last time, Sam found a nice deep red backpack. It was also pretty plain, and unlike a lot of the once around it, it didn’t feature any princesses or Transformers. “This okay, right?”

The fact that Ainsley didn’t frown and later said that red suited him, pleased Sam. That was all he needed to confirm that his choice was a good one, whether Ainsley really agreed or not. “Red’s nice. Blue is nice too though.” Sam reaffirmed that Ainsley’s own choices were still valid.

Though Sam pulled a bit of a face when she fished out a princess bag. Sam was all too familiar with the one that she already had. “Yeah, I think you only need one of those.” Two Disney princess bags would be more pink then he thought he could handle sanely.