Stealing Second: Sam's Story: Book 4 in the Clarksonville Series (27 page)

“Yeah, it is good to know, because I plan to be with you for a long, long time.” Sam smiled inside and out.

“Same.”

They were quiet for a moment until Lisa said, “I have news.”

“News?”

“Remember how I emailed Coach Greer about maybe applying to Rockville College to play softball?”

“Yeah.”

”She emailed me back this morning.”

“What did she say?”

“She hoped I’d be back at camp next summer—“

“Without a broken hand this time.”

“Exactly.” Lisa chuckled. “She said she was counting on me applying to Rockville and playing ball for her.”

“Really? That’s so cool.”

“That’s not all she said.”

“What else?”

“Full-ride.”

“Scholarship?”

“Yeah.”

“No freakin’ way!” Sam squealed. “Lisa, that‘s amazing. I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks. It kind of takes the pressure off my family. She said it was too soon to bank on the scholarship, but she hoped to keep a spot open for me when the time comes.”

“That is so awesome. We have to celebrate.” Sam was quiet for a moment before adding, “My parents want me to go to Wellesley College in Massachusetts. It’s a women’s college.”

“They still have those?”

“Mm hmm. Mother—“ Sam choked on the word. “Um, she went to Wellesley and wants me to go there, too. I’d be a legacy or something.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you’re the child of someone who went to that school.”

“Do you want to go to Wellesley? You’ll be so far away.”

“I know,” Sam said.

“If you don’t go there, where would you want to go?”

“Why does everybody keep asking me that?”

“Duh?”

“Because it’s my life?” Sam sighed and picked up the pile of pamphlets. She tucked the STD pamphlet in the middle of the stack and shoved them toward the back of the drawer.

“You know they have a music department at Rockville,” Lisa said. “Supposedly a good one.”

“Yeah, I know. I went there for the All State Orchestra Festival last year. It’s an award-winning department, according to them, anyway.”

“Mm hmm,” Lisa said. “They have a pre-med program, too.”

“Pre-med?” Sam sat straight up in her desk chair. “No way! You’re seriously thinking about becoming a doctor?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. You were the one who said I’d be good at it.”

“And you totally would be.”

“Sam, if you went to Rockville with me, we could play softball on the same team, for three years anyway. We could live in the same dorm, too.”

“Whoa, that would be totally awesome.” Sam chuckled. “Oh, my God. I just said, ‘totally awesome.’ The debutante has morphed into a surfer dudette.”

Lisa laughed, and Sam loved the sound of it. She also loved that Lisa was planning their future together.

“Ah, it’s a nice dream, baby,” Sam said, “but I don’t think my parents will let me go to Rockville.”

“I know.” Lisa sighed into the phone. “So, has there been any fallout from those stupid reporters yet?”

“Nah, not yet.”

“They were so aggressive.”

“No kidding, but I think we handled them okay. Don’t you?”

“By running away?” Lisa laughed.

“Yeah, good thing we could run faster than they could. They never did find us in the dark film festival.”

“It took a while for Susie and Marlee to find us, too.”

“But they did after you texted them twelve times,” Sam said.

“You know, I can’t believe you forgot your phone at home like that. You must have been nervous yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Sam said.
Something like that
. “It’s nerve wracking waiting for your parents to explode.”

“Are your parents really gonna freak out?” Lisa’s voice softened.

“Probably. And if they do, I want to say happy fifth anniversary to you now.”

“Thanks, baby, but it’s not until Friday.”

“I may not be here.” Sam seriously wouldn’t put it past her parents to box her up and send her to a Swiss boarding school.

“Don’t say stuff like that.”

“I’m sorry. I guess it’s just that I’m not too hopeful about their reaction.”

“Sam?”

“Hmm?”

“Remember that no matter what happens, you’re made of tougher stuff than you think. Coach Gellar told you that.”

“If you say so.”

As if on cue, the intercom on her desk sprang to life. “Samantha Rose!” her father bellowed. “Get down here right now!”

Sam lunged for the talk button on the intercom. “Yes, sir. Be right down.” She released the button and tried to dislodge her heart that had jumped into her throat. She held the phone away from the intercom as if her father could still hear her and whispered to Lisa, “The proverbial shit is hitting the fan as we speak. I have to go. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck,” Lisa whispered back. “I love you, baby.”

“Same.”

Sam hung up with Lisa and tucked her cell phone into her jeans pocket. She tried to breathe to calm her nerves, but it didn’t help. She was on the verge of hyperventilating. She didn’t run down the stairs to the main floor, but she didn’t exactly stroll either. It was best not to keep Gerald Payton waiting. Once on the main floor, she followed the sound of her father’s pacing and stopped in the doorway of his study. As expected, her mother was sitting in one of the two tufted-back leather chairs. Sam was surprised to see that she’d been crying. The sight disarmed Sam enough that she jumped when her father spoke.

“What is the meaning of this young lady?” Her father held up the local section of the Sunday Clarksonville Courier.

Sam swallowed hard. At least Lisa wasn’t in the half-page photo. Sam, on the other hand, had been caught red handed. Rainbow flags and gay-sloganed t-shirts surrounded her in the photo. She couldn’t claim someone had photoshopped them in. She thought about saying she was only there to support a friend, but that would be selling out, and she was tired of hiding who she was.

“Samantha Rose?” Her father’s face was turning bright red. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

Before Sam could answer, her mother blurted, “Why are you associating with those kind of people?”
Those kind of people
? Sam was so stunned by the question she couldn’t formulate a response. Sam’s mother must have taken her silence as some kind of answer because she put shaking hands over her face and cried again.

Her father slapped the newspaper on his desk. “Sit,” he commanded and pointed to the empty leather chair. Sam did as she was told. “Are you like those people?”

He can’t say the word either. The word is gay, Daddy! Gay!
she shouted in her mind.
And, yes I am. See?
Her life was already changing because she’d gotten out of her damned car and gone to the pride festival.

“I’m waiting.”

Sam wanted to say she was more than like those people, she was one of those people. She couldn’t figure out a way to say the words, so she simply nodded.

“This is the last thing I expected from you. What in God’s name makes you believe you’re this way?”

This way? “I just am.” Her voice sounded weak and mousy to her own ears, but at least she’d had the courage to say the words.

“This can’t be true,” Sam’s mother said. “It’s not like you to defy us like this.”

“Defy you?” Sam was confused.

“It’s those softball friends of yours,” Sam’s mother continued. “They did this to you. They brainwashed you.”

Sam burst out laughing. She couldn’t help it.

“That’s it, young lady,” her father said. “You’re grounded. No car. No friends. Rolando will drive you to school and back. You can stay for those blasted play rehearsals, but then he will drive you straight home.”

“Straight,” Sam murmured to herself with a chuckle.

“Give me your phone.” Her father held out his hand.

Sam reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Are you sure you want to take this?”
You won’t be able to track my movements if you do.
She held the phone just out of reach. Her heart was pounding. She had never ever defied her father like that. She waved her phone from side to side, taunting him.

His eyes flamed in anger at her defiance. “Phone. Now.”

“Whatever.” Sam dropped the phone into her father’s outstretched hand.

”What made you this way?” Sam’s mother asked. She dabbed at the corner of her eyes with a tissue.

“It’s not a disease, you know,” Sam said calmly. She took a breath to find her resolve. “Maybe you should ask what it’s been like for me all these years. Growing up different. Hiding who I am. Some people even say it’s genetic.”

“Well, you didn’t get it from me.”

A month before, Sam would’ve thought the statement was uttered out of sheer arrogance, but she knew better. She knew the family secret. If it truly was a genetic thing, then Sam’s mother was right. Sam couldn’t have “gotten it” from her.

“I don’t know how to make you understand this, understand me,” Sam said, her nerves jangling underneath her calm exterior. “I’m sorry if I’m a disappointment to you, but this is who I am.” An odd sort of peace was taking over her as she spoke. Maybe it was that ‘tougher stuff’ Lisa insisted she had. She decided to go for broke. “I’ve never been attracted to boys. Ever.” She paused for a moment taking in her parents who looked both confused and angry. She decided to go for broke. “Perhaps if either of you had been present during my childhood, you would have realized that.”

“Don’t speak to your mother that way,” her father roared.

Sam leaped to her feet and roared right back, “She’s not my mother, and you know it.”

There was a gasp behind her. Helene stood in the doorway, eyes wide, a hand over her mouth.

Sam held her ground and stared down her father. Denial flickered across his face for a moment, but then his shoulders slumped. He sighed in defeat. Sam remained rooted to the spot, hands balled into fists, mouth set firm.

Her father sat down hard in the leather chair that Sam had just vacated. He looked down at his hands, obviously unnerved. Sam’s mother pleaded with her eyes for him to do something, anything that would make the horrible situation go away.

The ticking of the antique grandfather clock grew as loud as the silence.

Sam broke the quiet first. ”You lied to me for eighteen years, and I lied to you about who I really am. I’m sick of the lies. I can’t live this way anymore.”

“Samantha Rose,” her father said softly. “C’mon, Kitten. You’re in shock.”

“No, I was in shock a month ago when I saw my birth certificate, but not now. I don’t know how to prove to you that, even though I’m in love with a girl, I’m still me. Just me. Same old me. Except—“ Sam looked at Helene in the doorway. “Except now I’m not sure who any of you are.” Sam bolted past Helene and ran up the stairs to her suite locking every door behind her as she went.

Mother and Daughter

MONDAYS NEVER HAD been one of Sam’s favorite days, but the Monday after the pride festival was turning out to be the worst Monday in the history of Mondays. Everyone at East Valley High School had apparently seen the picture in the Clarksonville Courier or had heard about it.

The bell rang ending her fourth period ethics class, and before she could stand up, Ryan Dunham was by her side trapping her in the desk. He was standing so close to her that the hem of his varsity letterman’s jacket touched her shoulder.

“Go out with me, Samantha Rose.” Ryan put both hands on his hips. “I can be a real man for you.” A group of his friends laughed behind him.

“Move,” Sam said quietly.

“C’mon, one date.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw Mrs. Sherman conspicuously ignoring what was going on at Sam’s desk. Apparently teachers didn’t always know how to stand up to bullies either.

“Back off, Ryan. You’re being an idiot.” Using all her pent up anger, Sam put both hands on his chest and shoved him out of the way. He stumbled backward into a desk in the adjacent row.

“Ooh,” Ryan’s friends taunted.

Sam bolted out of her chair grabbing her backpack as she went. She paused long enough to send her teacher a what-the-hell glare and then headed into the crowded hallway where she met up with more jeers and taunts from other classmates.

“Look! It’s the ‘gina diner!” some creep said with a laugh as he passed by.

“What a dyke!” a junior girl goaded. “At least my boyfriend’s safe from you.”

“She hasn’t even denied it,” another junior girl added. “Can you imagine?”

All morning, she heard words like dyke, lezzie, and rug-muncher thrown at her. Even classmates that had been friendly in the past took the opportunity to knock her down. Sam didn’t let any of them see that every single one of their arrows hit its mark. Where was that tougher stuff Lisa said she had?

She steeled herself in true Payton style and blazed a lonely trail to the cafeteria. She locked eyes with Susie, her lifeline, and ignored the rest of the world.

She wasn’t sure what to make of the crowd at her lunch table, but since they looked like friends, not foes, she forged on. Abby sat at the table next to her new boyfriend, Pete. Rachel was in her usual seat. Ronnie, Alivia, and Karl sat at the table, too. Sam wasn’t expecting them to be there, but she’d take it. She threw her backpack on the floor and fell into a chair exhausted.

“How are you holding up?” Susie asked.

“People suck,” Sam said. She rested her head on her fist. She was so tired. If she had her car at school, she would have been long gone.

“Welcome to my world,” Ronnie said. “It’s just like that speaker said on Saturday. The jerks around here are ignorant, you know? Hey world, we’re here. We’re queer. Get over it already.”

“I can’t believe how mean they are,” Sam said. She looked at Abby, Pete, and Rachel. “Thanks for the support you guys, but you don’t have to hang here if you don’t want to. I’m the new pariah, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“Hell to the no, Sam,” Abby said. “We’re your friends, and we’re your teammates. We’re not abandoning you at the first sign of trouble.”

“Here, here,” Karl said and the others at the table echoed. “Tell them to get lives.”