A/N: This is a complete retelling of the first book through Sam's eyes with a plot twist. To those who are familiar with my previous stories, you should know what I mean. As of now, my other stories are on complete HIATUS - it has just been too long. This one's completed though and I will be posting one chapter per week - every Friday. Happy reading! Note: Tweaked timeline - Four is in his 3rd year of HS instead of 2nd, starts late 2010-2011. Sam meanwhile… you'll see by Chapter 6. Also, the chapters are going to get longer later on so please bear with me now; the first six will be giving you some background information. Take note as well that though this is in the book section, there will be some features in it from the movie.

Disclaimer: I don't own Lorien Legacies. The Lorien Legacies Series is the property of Pittacus Lore, and is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

What I own: My imaginings of what I wanted to happen that created this fanfic as well the the cover page for it XP - was experimenting with Mac's paint..

*I wanna thank my sister for helping edit this - she's a fan fiction author herself but just won't tell me her pen name. Oh well.*

HAPPY R&R!

Chapter 1: Tragic Childhood

Today is my 11th birthday, 4 years after my dad was abducted by aliens. No one has ever believed me about that though, so I just stop talking. No more talk about the extraterrestrial, or the stars; no more talk about any sort of life outside of Earth. I just, stopped.

"What would you like my dear?" Chef Martha asks. She is the only store owning pastry chef here in Paradise Ohio.

I look at the varieties of cakes she has on display. They're too big, I think - too much for one person. Ever since my dad vanished, my mom became a cloud in space, just surviving, and remarried a drunkard. She doesn't even bother with me anymore, but I still love her. She is my only mom after all. So I silently take my uncle's blows whenever she isn't looking. All the punches behind her back from him, that bastard of a step father, I receive them without a single utterance. I give him no satisfaction; not once had I given him any signs of pain. Then there are the excuses: I tell my mom that I either tripped on the way to school, or that I try to fight back those bullies, which is a partial truth; after all, they do the fighting, not me. Again, I see myself as a loser; abused by my stepfather; unloved by my mother; bullied in school. I am a nobody; a speck of dirt in this vast planet we call Earth.

"Well? Should I prepare the usual for you?"

I look up at Chef Martha with a small smile; just a curl of the lips really. She is the only one in Paradise who notices me. The first birthday after my father's supposed death, I went to her store just to browse for a cake. However, she noticed my long hard stare at cake in one of the racks; it was as she calls it, the Devil's Food Cake. I think about it: frosted in pure white, but inside it contains pure dark chocolate. Tricky I say; deceptive. But it soon became my favorite. It is after all a subtle representation of me.

I nod and Martha leaves to get a box for a slice of Devil's Food. I take it from her and leave with gratitude. "You have grown up too fast and too early Sam, but still remains a good boy," she says. "Don't ever change." It was then I knew what to wish for.

I enter the house hiding the cake under my sweater. I pass the living room, seeing from the corner of my eye my dad who has passed out on the couch with a bottle on one hand. My mom is in the kitchen, sitting on one of the chairs with a dazed look on her face. She is staring at the wall again: unflinching, uncaring, stoic. I approach her slowly, then with mustered strength, give her a kiss on the forehead. I hear a glass shatter, and my stepfather swears. Immediately backtracking, I grab all that I needed and run to my room.

I place the cake, candle, match, and fork on the ledge by the window. I scan the night sky; the magnitude of stars always amaze me. They are so tempting to reach, impossible I know, but I can just imagine the vast amount of research that is waiting for me to acknowledge. Planets, the extraterrestrial, the unknown - I know they truly exist out there. I just know it. I take the match and light the candle - I don't even bother putting it on my cake as I don't want any chocolate to go to waste. I then wish for myself, for Sam Goode, to have a better life while staying the same; for Sam to be finally accepted; for Sam to have friends to ease his loneliness; for Sam to not drown in the darkness inside him; for Sam to be free.

"I wish to find Dad."

Little did I know, all my wishes but one will be fulfilled that night.