~Chapter One~

Samantha Johnson clutched the porcelain bowl, holding on for dear life. She opened her mouth and her veggie burger, in a mushy liquid form from the night before, made a sploosh sound as it landed in the toilet. Sam had been like this for little over a week. Her parents were extremely worried about her, too worried. She stood up slowly, her arms wrapped around her stomach.

‘What’s wrong with me?’ Sam asked herself. Maybe it was that party three and a half weeks ago. No, it couldn’t be. That party was two months ago. There was no way that she could be affected by it now. It was too long ago.

Sam looked into the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. Her face looked pale and her short medium dark brown hair was in a mess. Not that it was never in a mess, but more so. Sam looked into her tired brown eyes. They were red and puffy from her puking episode.

Sam’s gaze moved down the rest of her body. Her breasts were medium sized so quite a few guys whistled at her in the halls at school. Her stomach was small and her legs thin and long. She pulled at a lock of her hair.

There was a knock on the door, “Honey, are you okay? Do you want to go to school today?” asked her mom in a worried voice.

Jean Johnson was forty-two, quite large, had grayish-brown flyaway hair, and menacing brown eyes. Sam half expected her to ask if Sam wanted her to pray for her.
“Samantha,” said her mom when she didn’t answer, “are you in there?”

“Yeah. I’m fine and I want to go to school,” responded Sam loudly. Her parents never called her “Sam,” always “Samantha.” Her parents would say, “We named you Samantha, not Sam.” They hated it when her friends called asking for Sam. It pissed her off when her parents would tell them, “I’m sorry. There is no one here by that name. Perhaps you have the wrong number. Good bye and God bless.”

Sam left the bathroom to find that her mom retreated downstairs. She could hear them talking. She walked across the long hallway towards her bedroom. All the while listening to her parent’s conversation.

“Yes, she’s going to school,” said Mrs. Johnson. “I don’t know why, I could hear her throwing up.”

“Well, she wants to get good grades. She made a very smart decision,” said John Johnson.

John Johnson was forty-seven with a beer belly and gray hair that was slowly receding. He also had uncaring brown eyes.

Sam always thought that she was born into the wrong family. Her parents were Christians to the extreme, and Sam was agnostic. She went to a Christian school until high school where she begged her parents to transfer her to a public school. They finally agreed after many arguments.

Sam closed the door to her bedroom. She picked up a couple of saltines off her desk and ate them while she slid out of her pajamas. Sam chose her ripped jeans and her favorite AeroSmith T-shirt. She put the rest of her saltines in her backpack, grabbed her CD’s and car keys, and left her bedroom.

She walked down the stairs to find the house empty and spotlessly clean. Her parents had already left for work. Sam took and apple from the fruit bowl. ‘Well, here’s my breakfast,’ she thought.

Sam locked the door and left the house. She got in her car and flipped through her CD’s. She chose the Just Push Play album by AeroSmith. She started her car and popped in the disk. Sam backed out of the driveway as the CD started to play. She hit the skip button to the cover song as she put the car in drive.

As she was stopped as a red light, Sam searched her pockets for her pack of cigarettes. ‘Damn,’ she thought. ‘I left them in my room.’ The light turned green and Sam hit the gas. The school was only ten minutes away so there was no need to hurry. Sam took a few saltines out of her bag. Her stomach was acting up again. She popped a few in her mouth.

‘Sweet salvation,’ Sam thought. Her stomach went back to normal. Sam approached the school and pulled into the parking lot. She parked near the front. It was still early when she arrived so not many students were here yet.

~Chapter Two~

Sam slapped her backpack around her shoulders and marched into the school. She walked through the doors at the same time her favorite teacher came out of the office.

“Hey, Mr. Strover,” said Sam. Austin Strover was Sam’s English teacher. He was a really cool guy and gave Sam the idea of being vegetarian. Sam couldn’t go veagan like Strover because she loved Cheese too much.

“Hello, Sam. How are you feeling today?” he asked. Strover is one of those kind and caring teachers who like to be more involved with his student’s lives.

“I could be better. How are you?” responded Sam. She enjoyed talking with her teachers about everything. They helped her out where her parents couldn’t, which was most of the time.

“Pretty good today,” he stated. Strover’s and at ease-go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Sam could tell that he wanted to talk more about why she wasn’t feeling great, but Sam didn’t know why herself she was feeling like she was going to throw up and second.
Luckily, her best friend Joanne showed up and stole her away. “See you later, Mr. Strover,” Sam yelled over her shoulder.

“See you, Sam,” he responded with a sigh.

They would see each other during the last class. Sam had his senior speech class at the end of the day. She was really looking forward to his speech class. It was so fun and funny.

“Did you get the trig homework done?” Joanne asked. She never got her homework done. Joanne was always copying from one of her friends. This is one of the things that pisses Sam off. She was a straight ‘A’ student and Joanne was just scrapping by, with the help from her friends.

“No, sorry. I was way too tired to concentrate last night,” Sam lied. She was always on top of her homework.

“It’s alright. I’ll just copy from Jessie,” responded Joanne. Jessie was Joanne’s boyfriend. He did everything for her. Jessie was really stupid too. He had five classes and he was failing three and was close to failing his other two.

“What did you do this weekend?” Sam asked.


“Not much,” said Joanne. “Not as exciting as your weekend a couple months ago.”

“Shush. Keep it down,” whispered Sam. She could hardly remember anything. However, Sam does remember making out with that random guy.

“So, did you hook up with that guy?” she asked. Joanne had this knowing look in her eye.

“What guy?” asked Sam. ‘What was she talking about?’ thought Sam. ‘Does she know something that I don’t?’

“That guy you met at the party?” asked Joanne.

“Oh, him. No, I don’t think so. All we did was make out. As far as I remember,” responded Sam airily. She wanted to know every detail so she wouldn’t sound stupid when someone else asked her.

“Well,” started Joanne, “you drank a lot of alcohol. This guy took you upstairs and you didn’t come down for about two hours. I followed you after thirty minutes and I heard….um….I heard moaning.”

“No! No, no, no!” screamed Sam. “I didn’t! I wouldn’t!” Sam paused a bit to catch her breath. “I did, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, I think so,” responded Joanne. “But I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure you guys used protection.”

Sam wasn’t so sure, and she was worried. Therefore, she decided to go straight to Wal-Mart and buy a test. She just had to know.

“Sam, where are you going?” asked Joanne. Sam was walking back the way that they had come.

“I’m going to Wal-Mart,” stated Sam. She walked past the library while Joanne hurried after her.

“For what? And why now?” demanded Joanne.

“I have to get a pregnancy test,” responded Sam in a low whisper. “I have to know.”
“Let’s go after school,” Joanne whispered as the principal, Mr. Gram, waltzed by. “Besides, we don’t have any money. I’ll get some from Jessie.”

Sam stopped and breathed deeply. She knew that it would be stupid of her to skip school when it can wait till after classes get out. And it was true that they didn’t have any money. Sam turned around and walked to her locker at the far end of the school. Joanne followed.

Sam took her trig and history books out of the bottom of her bag and placed them on the tannish metal top shelf. She wouldn’t need them till after lunch. Sam placed her notebooks for her morning classes’ insider her almost empty, multi-colored backpack.

Squirrel walked by as Sam closed her locker. “Hey, Sam,” he said.

“Hi, Squirrel,” Sam responded. Squirrel was one of Sam’s very close friends. Squirrel’s real name is Jeremy Author, but everyone calls him Squirrel. He is built like an average body builder and he’s the rebel type. He rocks out on base guitar and loves to draw.

When Squirrel was out of sight, Joanne said, “I hate him. He is such a d***head. Why do you hang out with him?”

“He’s nice to me,” stated Sam. “And he’s a really good artist and bass player.”

“He’s still a d***head,” whispered Joanne. Sam sighed. She was always like this when Sam hung out with someone Joanne didn’t like.

“I’ll see you at lunch, Joanne,” said Sam as she walked up the stairs to her first class, Drawing.

“See you, Sam!” yelled Joanne over her shoulder. Joanne was on her way to Earth Science.