What's Normal?

Chapter 1

As many teenagers do, they take any opportunity to take a nap or fall asleep, no matter the time or place but not Sam – she's different. Deprived of sleep, Sam lay wide-awake in her single bed staring at her plain, white ceiling waiting for her alarm clock to scream at her. It was coming up to the early morning, roughly 05:45, the silence was deafening but Sam continued to stay still and patiently wait for her alarm to influence her to get out of her bed and start her day, as-per-usual.

*, BEEP BOOP BEEP BOOP* Sam's alarm screeches.

A huge stretch and a couple of groans came from Sam's body as she prepares herself to get ready for the day. She walks over to her wardrobe and picks out her go-to outfit: plaid grey trousers, a tight white t-shirt just cropped of the stomach, and her white AF1 trainers. After putting her outfit on she heads to her 'hair and makeup' desk to cover some pimples with concealer and straighten her gorgeous chocolate-brown hair. She heads over to the bathroom to spray her favourite Paco Rabanne Lady Million Eau De Parfum and brush her teeth. Hovering upstairs before she mentally prepares herself to deal with her toxic mother, one of her mom's many hook-ups walked out of her mom's bedroom. Drinking and shagging multiple men a week was a release of Claire's emotion. She was a maneater.

"Haha this is awkward," he says, acting like a child.

"Dan?" Sam asks, uncertain of his name, she's seen him here before.

"Yes, Dan the man, as many say..." he replied.

It was silent.

Dan squeezed past Sam to get downstairs and kiss Claire (Sam's mom) goodbye so he could get to work. Incredibly uncomfortable and unprepared for what her mother will say, Sam headed downstairs, grabbed her bag, her keys and opened the door to leave...

"I'm surprised you weren't jumping all over him, seen as though you did that with your father..." she says with a wine bottle in one hand and a glass in the other. Claire became a heavy drinker after the divorce.

Crying hysterically, Sam stormed out of the house and sat in her car to clear herself up as going back in would only cause more mental abuse. Now, this may seem very weird as you didn't have any context on why Claire said that. When Sam was younger, her father was – as some may say – 'too loving' towards her. From Sam's age of seven years to ten years old, her father sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. He would take her to secret locations where nobody could find them, he would start touching her inappropriately and make her do things to him in return. Leon (Sam's dad) had to leave the state for a week to do some work, Sam used this time to tell her mum about what he was doing to her. Claire couldn't believe it. Demanding Leon to come home, he came home in an instant. Sam was sent to her room to play with her toys whilst her parents had this discussion. Leon stuttered and stammered when he was being confronted, he admitted to it and Claire ordered a divorce. Claire sounds pretty supportive right now huh? Well, as you saw earlier, it all changes. Their divorce date was October 9th, 2015. Claire gained custody and she told everybody that, 'he had an affair' because she couldn't possibly let people know the real man she married – a child molester. Soon after the divorce, Claire became an alcoholic, she found it stressful raising a child alone. The constant drinking made her believe that Sam was 'asking for it.' She was a child, he was her dad, how could she ask for it? He was in the wrong. Sam goes to see the school councillor whenever she can.

Arriving at school and walking through the gates was always a struggle for Sam, she always felt as if everybody was staring at her. They never were of course, but she was terrified that somehow her story was going around the school even though there is no possible way of that happening. Sam doesn't have any friends at school, she's quite an introvert and a 'study freak' as some say. First period was Maths, a previous test paper had been marked and given back, she scored an A*, 98% on her paper. Fairly pleased, her teacher 'Mrs Williams' was incredibly pleased with her result and announced it to the class that everybody should aspire to reach Sam's score if not better. Whispers from the popular people and the goths were stating the obvious – Sam being a study freak – but one person from the class patted Sam on the back and smiled at her, Sam twitched but realised she was being congratulated physically. The bell rang for second period, it was English – Sam's favourite lesson. She was naturally good at it. A previous test paper came back today too, it must be results day, she scored 100% an A**. Immensely proud of herself she couldn't stop smiling. People in her English class were all as nerdy as Sam, so they were all super proud of Sam for getting full marks in her assessment. Sam left class to go to break, she could leave a couple of minutes earlier to avoid tight spaces and touching of everyone in the halls.