His Guardian Demon

Sam Squared: A Tale of Two Sams

Samuel Starr: Age 7

"Okay, class! Welcome to our first day of first grade. I want you all to go around and introduce yourselves. Say your name and your favorite food. I'll start. My name is Ms. Betty, and I like peanut butter," a woman said as she gestured to herself. She pointed to another child and gestured for her to speak. All the kids took turns introducing themselves. 

The girl sitting next to me with blonde hair and pigtails folded her hands in her lap. "Um, hi. My name is Sam Goodall, and I like cupcakes."

I blinked and turned to her. "You can't be called Sam! That's my name!" I said in outrage. 

This 'Sam' imposter turned her nose up at me. "Not anymore, it's not. I said my name was Sam first, so you have to pick a different name! You can go by Sammy!"

I puffed air into my cheeks. "No way! I was in the classroom first! You be Sammy!" I said, repulsed by the nickname.

'Sam' gasped loudly and shook her head. "No! Sammy's not a nice name! You have it!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"Children, please! Both of you, stop it now! You can both go by Sam, it's not a big deal," Ms. Betty said in an effort to calm us down.

With one last glare in Sam's direction, I turned around and faced the front of the classroom.

***

Samuel Starr: Age 17

I sighed as I ran my hands through my hair. "Jason, you don't get it, do you? We both can't be called Sam!"

Jason groaned. "Why not?! Why can't you let this go? It's been almost ten years, man! We're juniors now!"

"Because I don't want to share a name with a weirdo like her!"

Jason glared at me. "She's not weird, Sammy."

I glared at him. "Don't call me that."

Jason sighed. "Alright, just hear me out. She's not as bad as you think. She just sees stuff no one else can."

I snorted. "Is that another one of your metaphors or something?"

"Or something," Jason muttered under his breath. 

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Jason. "Look, I'll try to be civilized, but I'm not making any promises, okay?"

Jason sighed. "Yeah, okay."

***

"No! You're doing it wrong!" Sammy said as she yanked the pencil out of my hand. 

I glared at her. "Then get a different partner for this stupid science project!"

She glared back at me. "You think I wanted you to be my partner?! Mr. Dun is out of his damn mind if he thought we could work together!" Sammy said in exasperation. 

I ran my hands over my face as my previous conversation with Jason surfaced in my mind. I sighed. "Look, I just want to get a decent grade on this thing. Let's just put our differences aside this one time and just work, okay?"

Sammy blew out a breath of air. "Okay."

We sat in silence as we each worked on our part of the project, Sammy with writing the speech we would give explaining our aliens, and me with the drawing and coloring of the aliens.

Suddenly, very timidly, Sammy asked, "Hey, Sammy?"

I groaned at the nickname but decided not to say anything. "Yes, Sammy?"