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SAMANTHA LUZ FLORES was born on October 31st, 1967 in Hawkins Indiana. Her parents, Leo and Gianna Flores were driving through the town on the way to Leo's work conference when her water broke.
From there, a young woman named Joyce helped them to the hospital, where Gianna decided she now wanted to live in Hawkins.
Leo hesitated, not wanting to leave their comfortable home in California, but after some convincing (and a realization that it was much cheaper here), he agreed.
The family moved to the house at the end of the cul-de-sac on Maple Street, where Sam would grow up.
Growing up, Samantha was very arts-oriented, often doing crafts in her free time or dancing to music. She was described as the life of the party, often dancing with her cousins at all the family parties, and introducing herself to all the kids in the neighborhood.
However, upon entering her school age, Samantha began to retreat into her shell as a result of severe bullying. As cliche as it was, Samantha was an easy target, with glasses that were too big for her face and braces meant to close the gap between her front teeth.
They didn't work, by the way, Sam simply learned to embrace the slight gap.
Sometimes kids broke her glasses, threw out her homework, pushed her around, or simply called her names. Those stung the most. Thus came the birth of "Luz the Loser," a name given to her by Carol Perkins, someone she would later become friends with.
This all came to a head in the sixth grade, where Steve Harrington told off the rest of the kids about bullying her, becoming friends with her as a result.
From there, Sam began to change, soon getting her braces off and begging her dad for contacts, to which he obliged. She then joined the local dance team in the seventh grade, where she became a standout performer, racking in solo after solo.
This stopped once Nancy Wheeler joined, soon taking the spotlight for a town parade, on the basis that she looked more like what the town represents. Sam was dejected after this, quitting the team and growing a strong resentment to the girl to last years.
To fill this void, she returned to her art, finding a new passion for designing clothes. This passion is how she became fast friends with newcomer Dawn Henderson. She still painted, though, and had dance parties with her younger sister, Bianca, and Dawn.
Dawn, sadly, had to move all the way to Chicago due to her parents' divorce by the end of Sam's eighth grade, making Sam lose what she felt was her only completely genuine friend.
By the ninth grade, Sam had become two things: Hawkins' favorite babysitter and Hawkins High's most wanted.
She'd become a cheerleader mostly out of convenience, as Steve dragged her to every one of his games anyway, but soon grew to love the sport. It helped that it made everyone else love her too.
