Oh gosh this chapter hopefully speaks for itself...

Disclaimer: Nope still not saying it

Chapter 3

Sam was lost in thought for the millionth time that day. She had rested her chin on her hand for support and when her hand slipped so did her head. She was snapped back into reality and checked the clock in her sixth period classroom. It read one minute before the end of the school day. She realized she had totally forgotten to plan an escape route. Danny and Tucker were between her and the door. They were surely going to stand in her way of the exit and she was doomed. The bell rang and everyone gathered their things. Sam thought frantically for some other way out but came up with nothing. She looked up from her back pack and locked gazes with Danny. She was desperate, she made her eyes beg and plead with him to leave her be. He must have seen something in her eyes because a pained expression overtook his features. He was fighting whether to finally get to talk to her or obey her pleading amethyst eyes. He knew she wanted him to leave and not to stop her but he needed to talk to her. In the end he sent her one last look that asked without words, 'Are you sure?' She picked up on it right away and made her eyes convey her conviction in her choice. For the last time that day Danny's face contorted in pain and then relaxed as he turned to Tucker and pulled him from the room.

Sam was relieved. She hated doing this to Danny but she knew that if they forced her to talk to them she would explode and do something she would very much regret. So she gave the two boys a good two minute head start and then left the classroom herself. For the second time she walked the length between her home and Casper High School dreading what awaited her.

Elsewhere, "Danny! Why the heck did you pull me out of there, man? We finally had Sam cornered!" Tucker raved waving his hands in the air like a lunatic.

"I know, Tucker, I know," Danny retorted, "but it was the way Sam looked at me. I mean it was like she was begging me to leave. Gosh, this stinks," Danny kicked a nearby rock.

"Who cares what her eyes where magically saying? We should've talked to her," Tucker reasoned, "Something serious is going on, man, and we're her best friends,"

Danny groaned in frustration, "You're right, Tuck. Sam is so hard to figure out sometimes,"

"She's a girl, dude," Tucker said, "What did you expect?"

"I know but she's not just a girl. She's our best friend and a goth and stuff. She isn't the same as other girls. She fights ghosts with us and hates popularity and pink. She shouldn't be as hard to figure out!" Danny rambled angrily.

"D? Sam is all that stuff but she's still just a girl," Tucker was sounding wise, "Actually Sam's a real girl not a shallow one so I'm really thinking she should be harder to figure out,"

Wait, Tucker is sounding wise? I've got to be losing it, Danny thought.

"Yeah, man, you're right," Danny agreed. It was true; Danny forgot sometimes that aside from all her unique qualities and differences, Sam is a girl just like all other girls. Okay maybe not just like all other girls.

"Dude, don't sweat it," Tucker added slinging his arm over Danny's shoulder, "When she needs us, she'll call," Tucker was cool, calm, and sure of himself. At least, on the outside he was, but inside he wasn't so positive. He cared about Sam just as much as Danny did, differently but just as much, and he was worried about her too. But Tucker also had faith that Sam could hold her own, take care of herself, and ask for help when she needed it.

"Thanks, Tuck. Somehow you sound really smart," Danny laughed at Tuckers stricken expression.

"Dude, I'm always smart you've just got to listen better. Later man, I've gotta head home before my mom freaks," Tucker waved as he walked away.

"Bye, Tuck," Danny returned, "and boy do I hope you're right," he whispered.

As Danny and Tucker exchanged goodbyes Sam walked up to her house and hesitated in front of the doorway. She was torn between running in there to finally put her frantic mind to rest or running away so she didn't have to face whatever was awaiting her on the other side of that door. This was it fight or flight. Sam Manson never backed down from a fight.

"Here goes nothing," Sam took a deep breath and opened the door, "I'm home!" Sam called from the empty living room.

"Oh, Sammy," her mother wailed upon seeing her. Pamela ran over to Sam and gave her a bone-crunching hug.

Hugs? This is serious… Sam was now plain old scared, confusion and anger forgotten. Pamela never hugged her daughter so there had to be a reason to start now.

Sam surveyed the rest of the room and saw that it had filled with a cluster of people. Mostly Sam recognized people from parties her mother held and from her father's office. Those she didn't recognize were few and she couldn't care less at the moment about who they were.

At least the hug makes sense now, Sam thought bitterly, it's another performance mom is giving and I'm once again an unsuspecting actress thrown on the stage without so much as a line.

"Samantha," Jeremy spoke over Pamela and the whispers of the people in the room, "Join me in the kitchen,"

Sam didn't bother to correct him she just followed her father away from the crowd and into the small and cozy kitchen.

"Sit if you like," Jeremy said. Sam didn't make a move, "or don't sit, Sam, I really don't care,"

Still Sam didn't move. She stood stock still in the middle of the kitchen and stared at her father like a deer in the headlights of a speeding car.

Her father took off the spectacles he had adorned and pinched the bridge of his nose. This man was not Sam's father, not the one she knew. Jeremy Manson was a proud, well groomed, and wealthy man. This man before Sam was a wreck to put it kindly. He wore his clothes all ruffled, his hair was mussed and out of place, and his eyes had dark purple bags under them and seemed a bit red and puffy.

Sam finally found her voice, "Dad," she took one step, and one step only, towards him, "What's happened?"

Her father looked up at her and Sam was shocked to find tears in his eyes. She was simply numb now. She had gone through all the stages of fear. The first being confusion, the second plain fear, and the third numbness. Nothing was left but to hear what Jeremy had to say, what he couldn't bring himself to tell her.

"Please tell me what's going on," Sam begged. Her father had seated himself at the kitchen table and she went and sat down next to him, "Please,"

He looked up at her and Sam saw in his eyes the deepest sadness she would ever know, "Honey, I'm so sorry,"

Sam froze.

"Know that I love you and I'll be here for you always," Jeremy bit back sobs.

Sam began to think of a million possibilities as to why her father had said that. Where they sending her away? Where they getting a divorce? Who would she live with?

"Sam," he paused and took his daughters hand looking her straight in the eyes. She wanted so desperately to take her hand back, break the gaze, or run from that spot but she couldn't. Something kept her nailed to her spot. Jeremy continued slowly, "She wasn't in any pain. It was very fast and she was very old. These things happen,"

Sam's eyes welled with tears as her heart broke into millions of irrevocably damaged pieces. She knew what had happened. It all made sense now but it would never hurt less. Still, she needed to hear it, she needed to be sure.

"Say it," Sam whispered barely able to hold back the sob ripping at her chest.

"She had been sick for a long time and she's in a better place," Jeremy blurted quickly tears spilling over and down his face as he watched his daughter's heart get ripped out of its chest. He felt like he himself was committing murder. Jeremy felt as if he was killing his daughter and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Say it!" Sam shrieked at him.

So he did. Whether she was ready for it or not. No matter how much it hurt him. He also knew that when he said it he would lose a part of his daughter forever, that a part of the flame that was so bright inside of her would die down. He said it regardless, because she asked him to, "Grandma Ida is dead,"

Something in Sam broke. Completely and utterly ruined at those cruel harsh words. For a moment Sam was incapable of thought. The pain coursing through her very being was enough to end her. She wanted everything to stop, the world, the pain, and reality. She wanted her life to stop. She began muttering incoherently.

"Oh, Sam," her father whispered pitifully, "I'm so sorry," he rose from his seat and walked over to his distraught daughter. He wrapped both arms around her so tightly.

Sam vaguely realized at that point that she was standing and that the chair she had been sitting on was overturned on the floor. She didn't want to think. She couldn't think. Then she felt her father's arms come into contact with her skin. Sam couldn't hold anything in any longer. She was no longer Sam; she was a shell of her former self. She threw her arms around her father and gripped so hard as though if she let go she would float away into an abyss of nothingness. She sobbed and sobbed. Sam's small frame was wracked with her crying. She shook for all she was worth. She cried so much she detachedly wondered if she would ever run out of tears. Sam Manson stood in her father's arms and cried her heart, or what was left of it, right out of her chest. She went through every stage of grief while she sobbed with her father. Her thoughts led her from shock, by refusing to think, to denial, trying to convince her that it wasn't true, to anger, trying to blame it on anyone or anything that came to mind. Every stage except for acceptance. That stage was far from plausible at the moment. All Sam was sure of was that she was hurt and she felt like it would never stop hurting. She felt the hurt in her muscles, in her bones, and in her veins. Every part of her body burned with it. Sam was going to burn in her tears. Sam was changed and she would never be the same. She felt as if her life would end then and their but sadly time, the merciless bastard, goes on.

Don't be mad?

Okay so i see you guys have assembled into an angry mob and are coming after me.

E-cookie so you don't kill me?

how 'bout i do you one better and post really fast

man this story is taking forever guys... i'm sorry about that this isn't even really the meat of the story i have to do a heck of a lot of set-up for this plot idea

RREEVVIIEEWW!

Bye!