Just some Hazel and Sammy, because I think they're cute. I haven't decided about Frank and Hazel or Hazel and Leo and all that yet. But this is before Frank, when all Hazel had that was good and decent was Sammy. Go Sammy! (Even if I have no idea where you're going in the series and if you're really dead or not!)

Disclaimer: I borrowed Rick Riordan's characters Taylor Swift's lyric at the end because it fit and it was cute and I just realised that 'Ours' describes Hazel's life pretty well.

Enjoy!

Unnatural

The Nazis, the people who killed themselves to escape them (or more like why those people looked for an escape route so violently), the atomic bombs they made everywhere now, people turning against people, and the way some of them just went with the flow of German cruelty. Those things were unnatural. Those things weren't supposed to exist or happen. Those things were against humanity and ethics and nature and a million other things.

Yet it was across the ocean, in the schoolyard of St Agnes Academy for Coloured Children and Indians, that someone was being called unnatural.

A girl flipped her long cornrows over her shoulder. She had everything she needed -whether she knew that she did or not. Plus she was pretty, with her long hair that her mother did up nicely every day, her light brown eyes, her tall and graceful frame... She didn't have to pick on anyone. But she did. And she chose her victims wisely.

"My Mama bought one of your jewels, you know. To replace the one she lost on her marriage ring, since my parents are married. She cut her finger with a knife while she was making supper, and she threw it out the window before anything else could happen to her." Linda Leduc told Hazel.

Hazel didn't say anything even if Linda had managed to fit two insults in that one diss, she just brought her sketch pad closer to her (the kind of thing St Agnes gave out at Christmas and that Hazel made last because who knew when the next one would come), and continued drawing. Horses were hard to draw; their legs were just so tight with muscles.

"My Mama didn't even buy any. She said the world was already cursed and evil enough as it was." Carol Chevalier said. Finally Hazel couldn't take it because if they just went and threw the word 'curse' and 'evil' around, they had no idea.

"What, did she have a look at you?" She snapped. Hazel immediately knew she shouldn't have done that.

"So you are as stupid and thick as you look," Linda growled. "What, even your brain got replaced with handfuls of your rotten pearls or other stones?"

"Pearls aren't gems from the earth, they're from oysters." Hazel snapped. "And you have the nerve to call me stupid."

"Yes, yes I do." Linda said.

"Never paying attention in lessons, you can't make out a word from a splotch on the page, and every time Sister Hattie says that the test was mostly successful, we know you're the one who failed." Carol said. It really wasn't fair. Two of them to back each other up, while Hazel was all alone and struggling to come up with the words to come to her so she could be strong and fight back.

"Even your mother thinks you're poisoned," Linda said. "My brother works in the bakery near your fortune-telling voodoo place, and he heard her yell it out."

Hazel's stomach retreated on itself and whimpered like a dog. A look of triumph came on Linda's face when she saw that she'd just scored a major point.

"See? You are unnatural." Linda said, cocking her hip, and flicking her cornrows over her shoulder again.

"Hey, Linda, Carol, leave her alone." Sammy said, walking up to them. They spun around from Hazel to him. His smile was the one thing people told each other to recognise Sammy Valdez by, but right then, he wasn't smiling. He looked at them seriously. Even his dark brown eyes were serious.

"Hey Sammy, how are you?" Linda said immediately trying to flirt. Hazel wanted to kick her in the shins when she did that. And then run in the opposite direction away from them. Maybe she could achieve speeds like a horse and shake everything off. Linda and Carol, her curse, her mother… She just really couldn't stop raining on Hazel's miniature parade, could she?

"I'm fine. Leave Hazel alone." He said.

"Oh, come on Sammy, it was just play," Linda said.

"Of course," Carol said. "You know we didn't mean it."

"Well it sounded pretty meaningful." Sammy said, swatting Carol's hand off his arm. Carol frowned and looked at him with her mouth parted.

"Some things just can't be denied, Sammy dear, even by you." Linda said, before tugging at Carol's arm and dragging her away.

"You okay?" Sammy asked turning back towards her. Hazel nodded but she wasn't. Her tiny sketchpad and school crayons hugged to her chest; she felt miserable. Now even her classmates knew about her mom hating her guts. And the curse just kept spreading and spreading like wildfire, and Hazel doubted they would ever die down.

"You need a hug?" Sammy asked. Hazel nodded again and burrowed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Don't listen to them, they just need someone to pick on, and people throw rocks at things that shine." Sammy said. "No pun intended about the gems."

Hazel laughed anyways.

And there, standing in the schoolyard with Sammy reassuring her and making her not-okay-life okay… It was the most natural thing Hazel had felt in a long time.