"Oh, Samantha! You're back. Come in and tell me all about it."
Despite the cheerful greeting her mother offered from the kitchen, Samantha Carter blinked back tears as she slammed the front door and stomped to the stairs. "I hate it. I hate them all. Why can't we just go home?"
Unfortunately, anger didn't keep the tears at bay. Rather, it accelerated them, and Sam ran the last few steps up to the bedroom. Then, after tossing her backpack to the floor, slammed that door, too. For good measure.
She kicked one of the posts on her bed. Then sank to her knees, pressed her face to her arms, and cried.
There was a polite knock at the door before it opened. "Sounds like you had a rough first day."
Mom set a plate of cookies on the floor in front of Sam, then sat beside her. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"
Sam almost trembled with anger. "The new school is terrible, Mom! Someone called me a geek today because I like space. Then, I got a note passed to me in English. It said girls can't be astronauts. And the teacher yelled at me even though I didn't write the note. It was just passed to me. If I'd known who passed me the note, I would have shown then that I'm just as strong as any of the boys."
Her mother put a hand on her back. "Anything else?"
Sam's bottom lip quivered as she remembered the biggest betrayal of all. How Mark already had friends. How as he'd walked past her, he'd laughed with his new friends without even a nod in her direction. Just pretended she didn't exist.
She shook her head. Her life would just get more miserable if she told Mom and Mark was forced to say hello to her in the hallways at school, or worse, if he really had been telling the guys a joke about her as they walked past.
Sam shifted, putting her head in her mother's lap like she was a small child again. "I hate that we had to move. That Dad made us move. He could retire, couldn't he? He could work for someone else now, right?"
Mom just stroked her hair. "Samantha, avoiding first days isn't going to fix this problem. I miss our old house and our friends, too, but asking Dad to be someone he's not is just going to make us all miserable in a different way."
Sam heaved a sigh. "Well, I'm not going back to that school."
Mom's voice was gentle but firm. "Yes, Samantha, you are."
Sam's head snapped up, the unfairness of it all getting too big to handle. "But Mom, they hate me! I'm smart enough. We could homeschool!"
Her mother caressed her cheek. "You'd be bored in two days, sweetheart. And you're brave enough to face your problems."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Brave. That's all you want me to be. Brave, brave, brave, brave, brave. Well, I'm sick of it. I'm not going to school tomorrow, and you can't make me."
Sam's mom studied her for a moment before she kissed the top of Sam's head. "Get some rest, Samantha. We'll talk more later."
Mom stood and walked to the door, blowing another kiss from the doorway before the door closed again.
Sam looked at the plate of cookies in front of her. She kicked at it, only moderately pleased with the way the four cookies scattered in several directions away from her foot.
It was a couple hours later before Sam got a rough shake to her shoulders. "Get up, nerd. It's time for dinner."
She ripped her arm out of Mark's grasp. "I'm not hungry."
"It wasn't a suggestion."
Sam didn't budge. "I'm not going."
Mark huffed and walked toward the door. "She says she's not coming!"
Dad's voice. A creak on the bottom step. "The hell she's not."
"Jacob, will you get some juice from the garage?"
Discussions between their mother and father were just loud enough that the kids could hear raised voices but not loud enough that what they said could be understood by either of the Carter kids.
Mark rolled his eyes at Sam. "Look what you're doing. Mom and Dad are fighting. Happy now?"
Sam just glared at her brother. "Yeah, like that's my fault."
"Grow up, Samantha. Dad's job is more important than our happiness, okay?"
Sam sat up abruptly, staring at her brother. Surprised he'd dared to say such a thing. "You take that back!"
"Why? It's not my fault you're freakishly smart and none of the kids at school want to be your friend."
Instead of bursting into tears like she had when she'd first gotten home from school, she lunged at Mark, fists swinging.
She tumbled with Mark onto the floor, his arms going protectively to his face.
"Samantha!"
Two hands grabbed her roughly around the shoulders and pulled her off Mark.
"What on Earth are you doing?"
She looked up into her dad's disapproving face. She just shrugged off his hold and sat on the floor with her arms folded across her chest.
"I go out and defend this country, this family, against war, and you two bring it into my own house?"
Sam's breathing was heavy as she chewed on the inside of her cheek and tried to avoid looking at either of her parents.
"Jacob, don't make this about you. It's about Mark and Samantha." Her mother's voice was quiet and calm from where she studied Mark's face after the skirmish. "Samantha, why did you hit your brother?"
The ten-year-old didn't speak. Every ounce of her control was focused on trying to keep from bursting into tears again at her father's disapproval, at her mother's rebuke, at Mark's harsh words.
Dad's voice again. "Sam, your mother asked you a question."
Her voice was flat, knowing that to disobey her father at this point would be tantamount to disregarding a direct order. In this house, that was not tolerated. Even by her mother. "Mark said your job is more important than our happiness."
Dad's brow furrowed. "And what does my job have to do with any of this?"
"Jacob..." Mom's gentle intervention.
"No, Sharon, I want to know. What does my job have to do with our kids thinking it's okay to beat each other up?"
Mark wiped at his nose, a trickle of blood trailing on the back of his hand. "Sam wants to go home. The kids at school think she's a nerd because she likes science."
Sam glared at his smirk.
Mom looked down at Mark, not looking any more pleased with him than she was with Sam at the moment. "And how do you know that?"
Mark looked up at her, his ears turning pink. "Uh... I just overheard it, I guess. When Sam came home from school."
Mom just shook her head. "I don't think so. Sam said that to me in the privacy of her room. With the door closed. Try again."
Dad put his hands on his hips and looked at Mark. "Were you torturing your little sister at school?"
"No!"
Sam was indignant. "Yes!"
Sam won a warning look from her mother, and Sam silenced herself.
"Mark..."
Mark's jaw set in a hard line. "Fine. I told them she liked science. They were all talking about how stupid it was that we're all in the same school with our younger siblings. That we're not in junior high."
Mom's expression was difficult to read. "I see. Well, we're going to talk about this more later, Mark, but for now, I'd like a few words with your sister."
Mark took his time standing, like he wanted to watch to see how Sam would be punished.
Mom's eyes narrowed. "The longer you take to leave the room, the worse it's going to be when it's your turn."
Mark slumped but moved a bit faster to get out the door.
"And close the door behind you," Dad ordered.
Mark growled as he closed the door.
Mom waited until she could hear footsteps going downstairs. Then, she turned to Sam with a serious look in her blue eyes. "What happened at school today was not fair."
Sam's heart lifted. "No, Mom, it wasn't. Mark—"
Mom put a hand up to stop her from incriminating her brother any further. "But Samantha, life's not fair."
Sam frowned.
"There are people in this world who don't have a chance to get an education. Certainly not the private schooling your father and I have worked hard to get you."
Sam's cheeks pinked.
"And there are people out there who don't have enough food to eat or a nice house to sleep in at night."
Guilt surged in her young heart.
"I'm not saying that anything you had to endure was right, but the truth is that if you want to be a woman in the Air Force or a female astronaut, you're going to have to learn how to deal with the unfairness in another way."
Sam looked up at her dad, now in administration on the base. Second in command only to the general responsible for the division.
His eyes were downcast as he nodded. "I'm afraid your mother has a point, Sam. The Air Force has had women in their ranks for a long time, but it doesn't mean that they've always been given the dignity and respect they deserve."
"So, I should just give up?"
Mom just shook her head. "Nobody's saying that, Samantha. Frankly, if you change your mind and become a teacher, there will be ways that life will be unfair there, too. As you just saw today, family relationships don't always protect you from unfair treatment."
Sam wasn't sure if Mom was talking about how Mark had treated her or how she had treated him.
"But being brave isn't about being the first person willing to throw a punch."
Sam flinched.
"Sometimes, it's about bearing unfair treatment and proving your naysayers wrong."
Mom looked at Dad. "And sometimes, it's about being strong enough to embrace a new chapter, no matter how much you'd rather not."
The way Dad hung his head in acquiescence seemed to show he now understood why his job was part of the argument.
Then, Mom looked at Sam with compassion in her eyes. "And we don't always get the chance to prepare for those big changes like we did when the Air Force transferred your dad out here. Sometimes, they're sudden. Sometimes, they sneak up on you before you even know what happened. I'm both those cases, life's different. And you can't just go back to the way it was. No matter how much you might want to."
Sam hesitated before she looked up from her hands, now a little sore from her fisticuffs. "You're saying I have to apologize to Mark."
Mom stood and kissed her forehead. "I'm saying that today was a bad day, but you could have responded better to the stress. We all have those days. We'll try again tomorrow."
As her parents walked out the door, Sam weighed the pros and cons of asking her next question. "So, I'm not grounded?"
Mom and Dad stopped, looked at each other, then back at her.
Dad cleared his throat. "You gave your brother a bloody nose, Sam. That's kind of a big deal."
Sam's heart sank. Her gamble hadn't paid off after all.
"Since you and Mark have so much energy, you two will help me unpack the boxes in the basement this weekend."
Sam's heart sank. "But Dad was going to reach me pool this weekend."
Dad sighed. "And that's gonna have to wait until you and your brother can find a better way to solve your problems."
Mom reached for the door handle. "Dinner is ready downstairs. Once we're through talking to your brother, we'd appreciate it if you'd join us."
"I'm not hungry." The statement was more true now than it had been only a few minutes earlier when this whole thing started.
Mom didn't bat an eye. "You don't have to eat if you don't want to, but we'd like your company, at least. You're not the only one in a new place these days."
Sam watched as her parents closed the door and walked out into the hallway.
Somehow, she had a feeling that sitting across from Mark when he was recovering from the bloody nose she'd inflicted on him would fall under Mom's definition of brave, too.
Inspiration: Loosely inspired by the way Carter took Cadet Hailey under her wing on her visit to the Academy in Prodigy 4x19, Stargate SG-1.
Carter: Do you think you're better than we are? Do you think you're too good for the Air Force?
Hailey: No, ma'am.
Carter: Oh, come on, all those little rules and regulations, they don't really apply to you right? I mean let's face it, what's the point of a chain of command if none of your superiors are as smart as you are?
Hailey: I don't feel that way, ma'am.
Carter: Oh, I think you do. And I think deep down, you want to leave. Let me do you a favor. The door's open. Why don't you just quit and go home?
Hailey: No, ma'am. I won't quit.
Carter: I'm just giving you the chance to walk out before General Kerrigan throws you out.
Hailey: I won't quit.
Carter: Good.
