Family is Forever (Sequel to Running on Insulin)

Chapter 23

Despite the rough evening, Samantha slept alright. Jenna said she didn't seem to have any nightmares, at least nothing that woke Jenna up. Samantha still needed someone in the room with her to sleep. But Jenna said she wasn't as, attached. She sometimes fell asleep on the floor, Jenna did.

"How's the book?" I asked her. She gave me a thumbs up.

I saw she had schoolwork in front of her while she was eating cereal.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and leaned on the counter.

"You wont believe what I got this morning," Jenna whispered to me.

"Where? You can't have been out already," I said.

"No, from Samantha."

"A gut punch?" I winked.

"Kind of," Jenna smiled. "She smiled at me. A genuine smile."

"No way!" I whispered.

"Yep. I said good morning, asked how she slept and she smiled."

"Amazing. That's great!"

"Don't make a big deal about it though,"

"Obviously," I said. I turned to Sam.

"Is your tutor coming today?"

She paused before answering. Something was going on in her head, like she was trying to find the words. She sighed and then nodded.

"Do you like her?" I asked.

She shrugged and then nodded.

"Do you like the tree?" I asked. She turned around and looked at it then turned back and shrugged.

"Sam?" I asked. She looked up at me. "Did you celebrate Christmas ... before?"

She looked at me with sadness in her eyes and shook her head.

"What about when your mom was still alive?"

She looked at me, shrugged, and looked like she wanted to speak. Then with her hand made a side to side motion. Sort of.

"Hmm," I said. Thinking. We had to find a way to really make this special for her this year.

Just then, Brendon and Sarah came downstairs.

"Good morning Josephs," they said.

"Sam, your tutor comes at eleven, right?" Sarah asked. She nodded.

"B and I were going to pop out to Starbucks to get coffee. Want to come with us?"

Samantha got a panicked look on her face and shook her head violently 'no'.

"Okay, okay sweet girl. Just thought we'd offer. Want us to bring you something back?"

Samantha shrugged.

"How does a sugar free cinnamon dolce latte sound?" Sarah asked.

Samantha looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language.

"Have you never had one?"

Sam shook her head no.

"Okay. You're in for a treat. We'll get you one. Anyone else?"

Jenna and I both declined, having just had coffee. They left and Josh came down.

"How's my favourite niece?" He asked. Sam looked at him confused.

"Well," he said. "Tyler and I are like brothers and you're his kid, so that makes you my niece and me your uncle."

Samantha did something I hadn't seen in three weeks. She smiled. Just like Jenna had said. A real smile. And a little bit of a blush, too.

"Samantha Deitz-soon-to-be-Joseph," Josh said coming over to her and hugging her. "Did I just see a smile on that beautiful face of yours?!"

Samantha looked up at me as Josh hugged her from behind. She smiled at me. I smiled back.

"It's so nice to see that beautiful smile again, baby girl," I said. Samantha frowned and shook her head.

"What?" I said. "You don't want me to call you baby girl?"

She shook her head.

"Did... did he call you that? When he had you?"

Tears formed in her eyes and she nodded.

"Oh. I'm sorry sweetheart. I didn't know. I'll try not to call you that, okay?"

Samantha nodded and wiped away her tears. She sighed and went back to her homework.

Brendon and Sarah came back around ten and Samantha looked up the nutritional information on my phone. We didn't know where hers was and had put a pause on her account until we found out from Jake if it was with her school bag.

She tested her sugar, since she'd had breakfast, and then dosed for the latte.

"You're getting a lot better at that," I said. She smiled at me again. It was so nice to see. I gave her a kiss on the forehead and she smiled up at me again.

"I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing that beautiful smile on that beautiful face," I said. She rolled her eyes.

At 11 the doorbell rang and Sam stiffened for a second. Then relaxed.

"Just Miss Heron," Jenna reminded her. The tutor came into the kitchen and said good morning to everyone.

"Sam, don't forget Jill is coming by to bring you the homework for the past couple of days, okay?  After school," Jenna reminded her.

Sam nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"You have quite a full house!" Ms Heron said. "And I love your tree. Samantha, did you help decorate it?"

Sam shook her head.

"Not true," Brendon said. "You put the star on top."

Samantha shrugged and pointed to the star and nodded.

"The most important part," Ms. Heron smiled.  "So,  I don't expect you've gotten too far in Anne's diary, but where have you gotten?"

Sam handed her the completed work pages and the book.

"You can't be done already," Ms. Heron said. 

Samantha smiled and nodded.

"Oh! You have a beautiful smile, Samantha," she said. "Okay, let me go over this while you do page 57 and 58 in your math text, okay?  If you have any problems, I'll be right here."

Samantha pulled out the math book and some note paper and got to work.

She was done before Ms. Heron finished with the English book.

"Oh. Well, okay. Umm.... Why don't you take a quick break for a snack or a drink while I finish going through this?"

Samantha nodded, got up, went to the bathroom, came back and drank the rest of her coffee.

"Did you like that?" I asked her. She smiled and nodded.

Samantha and Ms. Heron worked for another couple of hours and then we had lunch once Ms. Heron had left. She'd given Samantha some homework - a paper to write on Anne Frank, and Samantha worked on that after lunch.

"Sam," I said. "Why don't you use your computer?"

She looked upstairs and smacked herself in the head.

"Did you forget you have a computer?" I asked.

She looked at me sheepishly and grinned and then nodded.

"You silly goof!" I said. "Go get your computer."

She hopped down from her stool and ran upstairs.

Jenna and I laughed. Suddenly we heard a scream from Sam's room. I bolted up the stairs with Brendon and Josh, Sarah and Jenna right behind me.