Sam lied on the ground, dizzy. He felt light-headed and his arm and head were bruised. His neck was aching and tears were streaming down his face as he breathed heavily.

He would have gotten up already, but the weight of humiliation had somehow kept him down. How could he have allowed Brenda to hurt him so easily? He's stronger than she is and he's gone through much worse than getting slammed into a wall.

Sighing, Sam slowly got to his feet, making an effort to ignore the pain in his head. Wiping the tears from his face, he pulled the door to the Barrets house open and limped inside.

"Oh, you're back-" Felix started until he saw Sam's bruised arm and neck. "What happened to you?" He asked.

"I, uh, well I…" Sam mumbled, thinking up an excuse. He didn't want to admit that Brenda had been responsible, so he eventually said, "I tripped and fell on the pavement."

"Really?" Felix asked. "That must have been one real fall then."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, I took a real hard…fall."

"Well, there's still that test I wanted you to do," Felix said, but Sam took off upstairs, covering his face in embarrassment. "Well, that was awkward," Felix said.

Sam swung the door open to David's room and crept inside, slamming the door shut. The moment he did so, a crack formed in the wall and door. Sam glanced up at the cracked wall and cringed before looking down at his hands, then back at the wall.

Walking backwards, he bumped into a bookshelf lightly. Instantly, the bookshelf toppled over and smashed into pieces, with several books flying all over the room.

Sam gasped and covered his face to shield himself from the splinters and books flying in his directions. Eventually, he just collapsed into a corner of the room.

He rubbed the bruise on his arm tenderly, then put a finger on his neck and then touched the bump on his head. And then, finally, he pulled up the sleeve of his arm to reveal an injury he had not received from Brenda.

It was a dim blue bruise on his shoulder. Sam stared at the old wound sadly, then pulled himself into a fetal position and let the tears stream down his cheeks.

…..

"Mom, are you sure I can't go to school?" Janet asked from the backseat of Agatha's care.

Agatha shook her head. "No way," She said. "You may have survived that dog attack thanks to Sam, but you are nowhere near in the right shape to go back to school due to your broken arm."

Janet sighed. "But I feel great!" She protested. "My arm may be in a cast but I can manage."

"No," Agatha refused. "Besides, that mirror child is at home, so you can play with him and spend the time studying his powers."

"Sam, his name is Sam," Janet corrected. "Whatever," Agatha said. "And besides, we're home, sweet home."

They parked into the driveway and instantly, Janet burst through the door with her left arm and skipped towards the door of the house, followed by Agatha.

"Dad, I'm finally home!" Janet shouted as he kicked open the door.

"Janet!" Felix said joyfully and embraced Janet. Agatha joined in with the group hug. "Where's David?" She asked.

"Still at school," Felix said. "It's 10:36 A.M."

"Oh, I lost track of time," Janet mumbled, a little embarrassed. "Well, where's Sam?"

"He fell on the pavement and is upstairs by now," Felix said. "You'd think he'd be more resilient to pain, though, since he is a mirror person."

"Dad, he's an eight year old boy," Janet reminded. "And I'm going to go see him." She released her parents and walked up the stairs.

"Um, Janet, are you sure you want to see him?" Felix asked. "He seemed to be in a bad mood when I saw him."

"If there's something I've seen in movies, it's that everyone has a good side to them," Janet said before sprinting upstairs.

"Um, Sam?" She asked. She couldn't hear anything. It was surprisingly quiet for a mirror person to be upstairs.

Janet took a guess as to which house he was in and opened the door to David's room. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw the huge mess and the giant bookshelf smashed into pieces.

"Sam, what did you do?" She asked. She couldn't see him. It was like he had vanished. However, he could hear breathing coming from the ceiling. Glancing upwards, Janet saw Sam, floating in a corner of the ceiling and pulled into a fetal position.

"Sam!" Janet said cheerfully. Sam opened his eyes and lifted his head a bit from over his knees, but upon seeing Janet, he turned his head away.

"I'm back from the hospital now," Janet said, hoping to get a response. Sam didn't bother to say a thing and instead floated towards another corner of the room.

"Sam, please talk to me," Janet said and ran over to Sam. Instantly, Sam's eyes popped open in surprise when he saw Janet race towards him and he quickly zipped to the left in an effort to avoid her.

"Wait, Sam, wait!" Janet shouted as she continued following him around the room. "I don't want to hurt you!"

She grabbed Sam's arm, causing him to stop. Slowly, she pulled him down onto the bed. Janet stared into Sam's eyes as he held his hand.

"I don't want to hurt you," She whispered. Sam narrowed his eyes and pulled his hand away. "Like someone without powers could actually hurt me," He said, trying to sound stoic. However, he covered his bruised arm.

"You sure seemed scared," Janet said. Sam sighed a bit. "What are you doing here?" He asked. "Are you here to study me because of my powers like your parents?"

"I guess they're intriguing," Janet admitted. Sam stood up on the bed. "Yeah, nothing I've heard before!" He shouted. "That's the only thing people think of me except for my siblings!"

"Sam, what are you talking about?" Janet asked.

"My sister tells me of people like you!" Sam exclaimed angrily. "How whenever someone is different, everyone hates them."

"That's not always true," Janet said. "But a lot of the time, they are!" Sam shouted. "My sister picks up movies and shows me them, and they have that premise. ParaNorman, boy and girl speak to the dead, the boy is hated by even his family, and the girl is murdered!"

"But didn't it say some people are good in the long run?" Janet said.

"Beauty and the Beast, some villagers follow some bozo and tries to kill the big furry dude, who at the end turns all handsome, proving that you can only have a happy ending if you're handsome!"

"I didn't find him that handsome…"

"Garbage Pail Kids, there's a freaking State Home For The Ugly!"

"That was a stupid movie, anyways," Janet said.

"And-"

"Sam, slow down," Janet ordered. Sam reluctantly quieted down.

"Those are movies," Janet explained. "That are based on real human reactions," Sam countered. "Well, Sam, they are based on real human reactions, and do you know what every movie you mentioned had in it?" Janet asked.

"A villain that the movie says is good-looking but really isn't?" Sam guessed.

"Well, yeah, but something else," Janet said. "In all of those movies, it that a person who befriended those odd-people-out despite their appearance or their gifts."

Sam stared at Janet, but then shuffled away. "And what should that mean?" He asked. "The bad people in all those movies always outnumbered the good."

"Well, maybe that's one error they had," Janet said, and then she noticed the bruise on his arm. "What happened there?"

"Br-somebody pushed me into a wall," Sam admitted. He didn't want to give the identity to avoid a confrontation between Janet and Brenda.

"Oh, well I know how to fix that," Janet said. She left the room briefly, and quickly returned with a band-aid.

"What's that supposed to be?" Sam asked.

"This is a band-aid," Janet explained. "It will protect the bruise."

"Thank you, but I don't think I need it," Sam said. Nevertheless, Janet placed the band-aid on Sam's bruised arm. Sam rubbed it a bit.

"Well, what do you think?" Janet asked.

"It, uh, it feels great," Sam admitted, smiling. He then noticed the several signatures on Janet's arm cast and got an idea.

Taking a blue marker from David's shelf, he wrote his own signature on the arm cast.

Samson Crystal.

Janet stared down at the signature on her cast. "Samson Crystal," She read. "I actually think that's a very nice name."

She smiled, and Sam did as well.