A Leap of Faith

Chapter One

March 28th, 1991

Samantha O'Connor chewed on the end of her pen as her thoughts ran in circles over the short story she had to write for one of her college courses. She had written so many within the past year that she was beginning to worry about unconsciously reusing old ideas.

"Girl, come on! Are you seriously gonna sit on this stoop all day writing?" one of her roommates, Vicky, asked as her and their other roommate, Alyssa, exited the apartment building.

"This story is due by Sunday. I only have six more days to write it then I have to edit it and make sure it's perfect," Samantha replied after removing the pen from between her teeth and running her hand threw her long red hair; a nervous habit she had developed over the past year. She tapped her pen against her notebook on her lap before sighing heavily and tilting her head back. She hated when her train of thought was interrupted. When it came to her schoolwork, she was a perfectionist. She never accepted anything less than an A and worked hard to obtain her grades. Her two roommates, Vicky and Alyssa, had been her friends in high school but once they had reached college, she had realized just how dedicated she was to her studies and just how dedicated her two friends were to attending parties at different fraternities or houses. Samantha had drifted from them when it came to their friendship over the past year after too many nights of waking in the middle of the night from their front door slamming shut as they arrived home drunk after partying with their fake ID's. She still didn't understand how they even kept their grades up enough to stay in college. They were all twenty-one now and Samantha had thought for sure they would grow out of their 'partying' stage but unfortunately, she was wrong.

"Need some inspiration?" Vicky asked with a laugh as she set down her large boombox at the bottom of the concrete steps. Samantha rolled her eyes.

"No thanks, Vick. I'm pretty sure my story ideas are not the problem," Samantha mumbled but her words fell on deaf ears as Vicky turned the electronic device on. Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" started blasting from the speakers and Samantha huffed with frustration as her train of thought was once again thrown off track. She shoved her hand back into her hair and shook her head as she glanced up at both girls as they jumped off the steps to dance.

"God, you guys! I'm never gonna get this done!" Samantha shouted over the music only to toss her pen over shoulder with a roll of her eyes as Vicky and Alyssa began acting out the music video to the song; one of them being Michael while the other was the girl he was chasing around. Samantha knew the song and knew it well. She had been a Michael Jackson fan her entire life but there was a time for dancing and fun and there was a time for getting her schoolwork done. She didn't have time for fun and games. She had her sights set on becoming a published author and she wasn't going to make it there dancing on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. One thing she was always driven by was Michael's tenacity for perfection. She had heard him talk in interviews and learned that he was an extreme perfectionist and believed that you had to believe in yourself because if you didn't then no one else had a reason to believe in you either. She admired his work ethic and knew that if she wanted her dreams to come true then she was going to have to work hard to reach them. Nothing had ever been handed to her in her life and she was certain that wasn't going to start now. Michael was the kind of man who worked hard every single day. She didn't see him screwing around and wasting time and she certainly wasn't going to either.

"Okay, now seriously! I have to work on this," Samantha stated as the song ended and the girls sat down on the steps to catch their breath.

"You need a short story idea? Why don't you write about lover boy? Hell, there's plenty to write about. What about the fact that he has a monkey as his best friend?" Vicky asked with a laugh as she took a seat on the bottom step.

"What about all of the surgery that he's done to his nose?" Alyssa followed.

"No, even better! You should write about how the hell he is bleaching his skin. I swear it gets lighter and lighter with every album he comes out with," Vicky replied, sending herself and Alyssa into fits of laughter. It took them only a moment to realize that Samantha was not laughing with them.

"That's not funny, none of that crap is true," Samantha stated firmly, her irritation evident as she dropped her eyes to her notebook and started letting her pen take control of her work.

"Oh come on! Sam, he's like thirty years old and his house is a carnival, zoo, and Disney shrine all rolled into one," Vicky stated as she tucked her unruly black curls out of her face.

"So what? The man has sacrificed his whole life to entertain people and has made enough money doing it. Why can't he spend it on whatever he wants?" Samantha asked defensively.

"Like what? That hyperbaric chamber thing that he sleeps in? Whatever happened to just sleeping in a bed?" Alyssa chimed in.

"You know, what if someone walked up to you, Vicky, and said that they heard that you weren't really black but you were actually a white girl who somehow tanned so much that you just look African American?" Samantha asked with raised eyebrows before turning to look at Alyssa before Vicky could voice a response. "And Alyssa, what if someone walked up to you and said that you were bleaching your skin just like Michael Jackson supposedly is since you're way too ghetto to be white?"

And with that, Samantha stood up and headed up the rest of the steps to the front door of the building.

"Hey, where are you going?" Vicky asked as she tried to look hurt from Samantha's words.

"I need to get my school work done. If I need advice on what to write about that's complete and utter garbage, then I promise I will come to you two. I hope what I said hurt so you can feel a sliver of the pain Michael Jackson feels on an everyday basis," Samantha snapped before shutting the door behind her.

"Did we insult her boy toy too much? We like his music just as much as she does but, I'm sorry. She's gotta open her eyes and accept the fact that he's just weird," Alyssa laughed, trying to shake off the awkward silence.

Vicky opened her mouth to reply but immediately stopped when she heard Kevin and Bean come over the radio station.

"And that was Michael Jackson's 'The Way You Make Me Feel' and for all of you Jackson fans out there, don't forget to call in and enter this summer's hottest contest that will land the lucky winner right into Neverland and I don't mean Peter Pan. That's right, the lucky winner will spend an entire day with Michael Jackson right in his Neverland home in Los Olivos. So call in and cross your fingers. Submission's end tonight at 8 o'clock and Bean and I will be back in your living rooms tomorrow afternoon to announce the lucky winner."

Vicky and Alyssa slowly looked up until their gazes met before devious smiles crossed their faces.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Alyssa asked as she wiggled her eyebrows in Vicky's direction.

"Let's hurry up and use the phone while Sam does homework. I have to get ahold of my Dad before he goes into his next business meeting," Vicky exclaimed excitedly before they grabbed the boombox and hurried inside the apartment building. Vicky's father was an executive for a real estate company and had many friends in high places and not only that, Vicky was positive that he had friends at the radio station that owed him a few favors. She intended to cash in on one of those favors immediately.