Chapter 4;
"Oh, Ms. Larson we've been expecting you." The head mistress said, leading them into Sammy's new home. Sure, you have. Sammy thought in the back of her mind, rolling her eyes, but then faking a smile. "Oh, I've been so ecstatic to be coming." She said half sarcastic, so that maybe the mistress wouldn't catch the tone. Her mother elbowed her. "Ow." Sammy mouthed. "You will live in dorm 666 with Heather Johnson." The head mistress informed Sammy. "Oh boy, the devil's number this girl better be good." Sammy mumbled, inaudibly. There was no way in the world Sam was going to even try to make the best of this. It was completely ridiculous. Of course, it was her mom. That washer, and that would never change. As they approached Sammy's new dorm, she felt like screaming. Screaming at her mom for leaving her like this. She already knew she wouldn't come back. Sammy would be stuck here for as long as she graduated and that was for 2 more years. Two years of complete agony. "Ms. Parker," the head mistress spoke, snapping Sammy out of her thoughts. "This is Ms. Johnson, she will be your room mate while you are with us." Sammy faked a smile. "Hi, I'm Heather." The young brown hair, blue-eyed girl gestured towards Sammy, and extending her arm to her. Instinctively, Sammy took Heather's hand and shook it. "Sammy." She replied, trying to be as friendly as possible. "Heather, would you mind taking Samantha on a little tour?" Why couldn't she just say Sammy? she thought. "Would you mind calling me Sammy?" Sammy asked, turning to the woman. "Oh, sure, Hon, I'm sorry." The headmistress turned back to Heather. "Would you?" She asked, still waiting on Heather's approval to give Sammy her own little tour. "Oh, sure, Mrs. Douglas." Heather answered in a to-polite-to-be-real tone. Heather guided her off, and Sammy was still putting on her fake smile.
"So where are you from?" Heather asked, once they were out of earshot from her mother and the head mistress. Sammy looked down at her feet as they walked. "Jersey City." Sammy replied. Her thoughts traveled back to the last day with her best friend before she came to Scranton, Pennsylvania to make her mom happy and come to the stupid boarding school. "Wow, that's what? 3 hours away from here?" Heather seemed surprised. Sammy let out a small laugh. "So what brings you here, to Oakwood Academy?" Heather asked, with wonder in her voice. "Mom." Sammy quickly answered. So maybe this girl wasn't so bad, after all. Of course, this was only the beginning. There was no telling how living with her would be. "She made you move here?" Heather continued questioning as the walked down the long hallway. It wasn't really much of a tour. She didn't show Sammy anything, just talked. Sammy chuckled at Heather's surprise in her voice. "Yep. Of course, if you knew my mom, it's not all that surprising." Heather stopped and looked toward Sammy. "Why? What's she like?" Sammy swallowed hard. She hated talking about her mom and her situation for how desperate for love she was. "Well, she runs off with guys all the time, and when they dump her, well, she's heartbroken for a couple of days, a week at the most. But then, she automatically finds someone new. It's not that hard for her considering, well, she's gorgeous and, heh, well, rich." She shrugged. "She falls "head over heels" for them, so she says. And this one is apparently, she's "completely unconditionally in love" with him, so she's moving off to France." Sammy sighed. She missed Chase. She missed him so much it was almost pathetic. "And so, you're here until she comes back." Heather finished off Sammy's own story. "That's the plan. I highly doubt she's coming back though. Which is why, the day I turn 18, I'm going back to Jersey City." As if on cue, her phone vibrated. Sammy held up a finger to the girl, telling her to hold on. "Hello?" Sammy asked into the receiver, after flipping up the cover to her flip phone. "Sammy!" Chase's voice rang through her ear. "Chase!" She didn't mean to sound so eager. "How are you?" She asked, trying to calm down her voice a little. "Question is, how are you?" Chase asked back. "Eh, I guess it's not so bad. But it's still not the same without you." Sammy frowned. She sounded cheesy. "Well it's not the same here either, you know. It's so boring. No one's bad mouthing the teacher." Sammy laughed. Leave it up to the Connors kid to save the day and make her smile. "Oh come on, I had to have taught you something while I was there." "But I'll never be good as you." He pointed out. Sammy sighed, "I miss you already." "I miss you, too. Wow, we're pathetic. We can't even spend three days away from each other. I was dying at one." Sammy giggled. "I was dying at an hour." "Hell, I was dying at three seconds." "Hey! I'm supposed to win at everything." "Things change, babe. As you can see." The two friends both sighed. He was right. Things did change, and sometimes a little too much. Out in the background she could hear Chase's music. He was playing their song. It surprised her. "Hey, you're playing our song." She commented, pointing out the obvious. "Yes, Sammy, thank you for pointing that out." Sammy could picture him in his car on the way home from school in his silver Volvo he had got for his birthday, rolling his eyes at her sentence. Sammy laughed at the vision. Heather coughed. She had totally forgotten of her existence since Chase had called. Sammy gave her an innocent smile and mouthed the word boyfriend to her. Sammy stopped. BOYFRIEND? Was she crazy? She couldn't call him that. That was nothing close to what he was. But Heather just nodded in understanding, while Sammy just screamed at herself in her head. "Well, we have to kind of finish up my personal tour over here. So I guess I can call you tonight." "Oh, sure. Just hurry, I might die before you call back." Sammy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'll hurry as best as I can. I love you, Chase." Sammy gulped silently. She'd said that a million times since they'd known each other, but never meant it in the way she did now. She really meant it. Not as best friends, but as something way more. She just couldn't point that out to him. "I love you, too." Chase said back, breaking Sammy out of her thoughts. "Bye." She breathed, swallowing hard. Saying bye now, was just as hard as it was the time she really had to say it. Sammy held back the tears that were coming back up and flipped her phone cover back in place, hanging up with her best friend. "So, where were we?" She asked, turning her attention back to her new roommate. "Oh, um." Heather answered, shaking her head as if trying to knock out a thought. "Why don't I just show you the classes tomorrow? All roommates have the same exact schedule, so you can just follow me." Sammy faked another smile and nodded. "Sounds good." Sammy replied, as they headed back to their dorm.