Chapter Two

From the looks of the outside of Natsume's house, you would think that he'd be just as depressed as she was. You could certainly tell that his family wasn't rich, and yet, here he was as happy as a bee, inviting her to have delicious cookies.

So Samantha followed behind him, as they walked up the walkway towards his front door. Taking a deeper inspection at the front of his house, she decided she really liked his front porch. It was really homey and yet, you could tell it was meant to be outdoors. His family had a porch swing to the right, with some roof that covered up until the first step to the porch. On each sides of the sidewalk by the stairs, were two white pillars that had intricate detail of flower's and leaves going up from the base and stopping midway.

It was beautiful and Samantha commented that fact to Natsume.

"Yeah, my family has owned this house for quite some time. But my uncle is the one who had been living here for the last few years. He just got married again though, and decided he wanted to live closer to his wife's family. So my parents decided that since we lived in my last house for a very long time, it'd be a nice change of scenery to come and live here. So they did."

He held the door open for Samantha as they walked in, and then closed the door behind him. Samantha stood to the side, feeling a little awkward but incredibly warm. The surroundings in the home were not too much different than the outside. At least the feel of them weren't different.

It was a warm, cozy feeling. And the warmth it provided was very encouraging. She now had a better understanding as to why Natsume was able to be so happy all the time (as he said), and a bit of sadness filled her chest at her own loss.

He walked in front of her, and started slowly down the hallway. Samantha noticed that to the left a few feet upon entering the home, was what looked to be a living room. It held a piano at the end of it, very beautifully colored. A mahogany color which she could imagine would shine beautifully when the sun came through the window to the left. The color was a very soft white, with shaggy, brown carpeting. Very beautiful in its own way. There were also a few pictures hanging up on the walls. Some were of his family, she guessed, and another was one that was a little odd to her.

So she stopped rather quickly, staring at it. Natsume noticed a few seconds later and turned around, watching her.

"C'mon, don't you want cookies? They're really good!" he gestured her to come further.

"Well… I was just wondering. Who is that a picture of? The one that isn't a picture of your family?"

Natsume walked back to where she was standing, looking the same direction that she was, confusion set upon his features for a moment and then recognition lit up his face.

"Oh! You mean the picture of Jesse Hatsuharu, A famous artisan in Japan."

"Who?"

"Have you never heard of him?"

"Well… no."

Natsume gave a look of surprise and then he smiled. She wasn't sure what that meant but she was sure it wasn't anything good.

"What?"

"This is great news!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, you see—"

"Natsume!" his mother interrupted,

"Yes?" he called,

"You might want to hurry up and eat these cookies! Your sister's keep comin' back for more,"

Natsume chuckled then he and Samantha began to walk further into the hallway towards the kitchen at the end of it. Samantha laughed as she realized that the hallway was covered with red carpet over a wooden floor. She felt like she was a celebrity and laughed quietly to herself.

Natsume looked behind at her, grinning,

"What you laughin' at?"

Sticking out her tongue, she answered,

"I am a celebrity!"

That confused him,

"A celebrity? What do you mean?"

All Samantha did was point her finger down and that was when Natsume realized what she had been talking about. Then he started chuckling to himself as they both walked into the kitchen filled strongly with the sent of cookies in the oven, as well as a whole bunch displayed on ocean blue plates over the island table.

"Mmm these smell so good mom!" Natsume commented as he sat down on one of the stools by the island. His mother turned around to say something to him when she noticed Samantha hanging around behind him, unsure of whether she could sit down or not.

"Well, who's your friend here Natsume?" she asked with a frown on her face. That was when Samantha remembered about the bruise on her cheek and instantly became nervous. What if she asked about it? But nothing of the sort happened. Natsume made a movement and then turned towards her and patted the stool next to him for her to sit down by him.

"Oh right. Mom this is Samantha. I met her today at school. Turns out she doesn't live too far from here. I saw her at the park today on my way home from Mitch's,"

"Hey, I thought you didn't have any friends!" Samantha accused, and Natsume looked just a little sheepish,

"Right. About that. I do have a friend besides you. But I've known him my entire life. Meaning he's my cousin."

"Oh,"

"Yeah, exactly."

His mom laughed and turned to take the cookies out of the oven which had just beeped ready.

Natsume grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and began stuffing bites into his mouth. He also began speaking to Samantha at the same time, making flicks of cookie come out,

"Go ahead, eat a cookie or two!"

"Eww, gross Natsume! I don't know, I may have just lost my appetite." Samantha pretend to throw up, making Natsume laugh and begin to choke,

"Whoa there buddy, don't kill yourself now ya hear?" Samantha asked, talking with a slight accent; which didn't help his case any.

Natsume began to laugh even harder and eventually had to run to the garbage can and spit what was in his mouth out.

"Geez Samantha. Were you trying to kill me?" he sputtered out, wiping his mouth on his shirt sleeve,

"Uh, well, no… it was just sorta happening." Samantha tried to hide her grin, but failed miserably,

"Oh gee, thank you very much for that,"

"You're welcome!" she said enthusiastically while munching on a cookie herself, laughing as she watched Natsume walk back over to his seat next to her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah just keep grinning," he muttered, rolling his eyes. But Samantha could tell that he was trying to hide his own grin.

Suddenly, as Natsume's mom left the kitchen, two girls entered the room. One looked to be about ten and the other about six. They both sauntered their small frames into the kitchen, each taking another three cookies.

"Hey! You two, save some for the rest of us!" Natsume laughed, watching as his sister's both grinned.

"You wish!" The older one answered, amused. Then she noticed Samantha and her smile fell just a fraction.
"What happened to your face?" She asked curiously,

"Asako!" Natsume growled, "What kind of question is that? You don't go asking people something like that!"

Samantha put her hand on Natsume's shoulder,

"It's ok, Natsume. Asako…" she looked over at Natsume as she said the name and he nodded his head, "I just hit my cheek on the doorknob when I fell down the stairs earlier today."

"Oh!" Asako dragged out, her expression looking better than before. The younger girl walked over and stood right next to Samantha. As she looked up at Samantha she blurted,

"Yur pretty,"

Samantha froze, staring at the girl in shock. Was she just saying that? But that couldn't be right. The girl was what, six?

"Uh, thank you," Samantha answered politely. The little Asian girl gave her a big toothy smile and thumbs up, then scurried out of the kitchen; once again going to the destination of her room.

"They are so cute," Samantha commented to Natsume, to get her mind off of the recent event. Natsume smiled,

"Yeah but they can be pills sometimes,"

"But they love ya, I can tell."

Natsume nodded his head, chomping on yet another cookie, watching curiously as Samantha looked out the kitchen where the two girls left a minute earlier.

"You know… You don't look hardly anything like them. They both have black hair, whereas you have very dark brown hair. What's up with that?"

"Ah, yeah. You see, my mom is American and my father is Japanese. As you can see, I got my hair and eyes from my mother. Asako and Amaya both got their looks from my dad. He's full Japanese, hence our names. The only one with an American name is my mom. Hers is Caitilyn."
"Oh I see, that makes sense,"

"Yup, indeed it does," he winked.

An hour and a dozen cookies later, Samantha and Natsume were sitting in his living room, on the couch, acting as if they could never eat again.

"Ugh, my stomach hurts! I think I'm going to be sick," Natsume groaned, faking throwing up on the couch. Samantha smacked him,

"Ew, don't do that. You're gonna make me want to throw up too!"

They both began to make fun of each other for a minute or so before they finally sobered up.
"Hey, Natsume, what time is it?"

Natsume looked down at his wristwatch,
"It's about half an hour past nine o'clock,"

Samantha sat up straight, fear in her eyes,

"What?"

"About nine-thirty, why? Do you need to go home?" he asked concerned,

"Yes, I do. Otherwise I'll be in big trouble," Samantha sat up straight, unconsciously feeling her bruised cheek,

"Samantha, will you be ok going home? I know we only just met today at school but—"

"Yes I'm sure I'll be fine."

"But—"

"I'm serious, Natsume. It's ok. I just need to get home before I get grounded,"

A little uncertain, Natsume nodded his head and offered her a ride home. With his mother's permission, Natsume drove Samantha home in his mother's car, and she quickly gave him a thanks before practically running to her front door.

Waving distractedly as Natsume drove off; she closed the door quietly, hoping beyond any hope that her father wasn't awake; praying that luck was on her side and he was still out drinking himself dead.

Unfortunately, it was worse than she had imagined. When she was tiptoeing towards the stairs, she heard a growl coming from the dark living room to her right. She froze on the spot.

"Where have you been," her father said so dangerously low Samantha wasn't sure she heard him correctly.

"I was just out. At the park," she had to lie, he'd be even angrier with her if she had told him the entire truth,

"How dare you lie to me!? I know you weren't at the park! Now tell me where in the crap you've been!" he threw in a few swear words as well, coming so close to Samantha that he had backed her up against the wall.

She didn't let the tears fall. That showed weakness which made him even more furious yet all the more satisfied. And she couldn't allow that. But Samantha couldn't look him in the face, no matter how much he tried to get her to do so (unless of course he forced her by grabbing her chin).

Taking a hold of her arm, he squeezed it as tight as he possibly could, causing her to cry out in pain, and seeing as how she didn't answer his first question he decided to ask a second one.

"Do you have any idea what tomorrow is?"

"Tue… Tuesday?" Samantha sputtered, gulping from the pain he was causing in her right arm directly over the bruise that was still quite painful.

"Wrong! It's a school day. And it is almost ten o'clock! You should have been in bed almost two hours ago!"

Samantha then had the guts to look at him, albeit incredulously,

"What are you talking about? I don't have a bed time,"

"Well you do now. And you're late! How dare you be late you little twit!"

"But—"

"Don't you dare talk back to me! You will go up to your room, with the lights out! And you will do it without complaint! Do you understand me?"

She nodded her head, now trying to pry his hand off her almost numb arm,

"Good! Now get up to bed you selfish girl!" he threw her in the direction of the stairs and stomped into the kitchen, no doubt going to grab a beer.

Samantha's arm throbbed with pain. The feeling was coming back and it felt like needles were being poked into her.

"Ouch," she mumbled, rubbing her arm as she made her way up to her room.

This was new. Her father had never set a bed time. Samantha supposed that it was about time that he did but even so, she was still a bit in shock.

Samantha made her way into her room (the first door on the left), and quietly closed the door. She practically stumbled over to her twin sized bed and fell on her back on the mattress. Pulling the blue covers over her body, she lay there thinking over the past day.

Natsume was a good guy. Samantha knew this, but she couldn't see herself staying friends with him. A guy she met just that morning and one who was already suspicious. No, she had to stay away from him. Avoid him as best as was possible.

Besides, if her father found out about her hanging around a boy, he would be positively furious. Her brother would be no help at all either for he was always gone. If only she had that opportunity. She wasn't even sure that when she turned eighteen that she'd be able to move out; he had that much control over her.

Samantha squeezed her eyes shut and hugged one of her extra blue pillows as hard and best as she could. It should be quite easy she said to herself, her thoughts going back to Natsume. Considering she'd only known Natsume for a day; their friendship wasn't all that close. Although, they did have quite the good time earlier (and she had enjoyed his company far more than she thought she should) but no. This wasn't a friendship she knew could last. Things would be found out and being hurt even more so than she was now was a big probability. She couldn't risk someone outside of her family to find out. If they did, she didn't know what would happen to her or more so them.

Her father was far more dangerous than she sometimes liked to believe and that scared her. If she lived with him her entire life she would prefer that then have her father kill someone because they found out about what he did to her.

This included ignoring Natsume.

Samantha cringed at the thought. A friend she thought that maybe she could count on and she couldn't even stay friends with him because her father could do so much to hurt him.

That night was one of the longest nights that Samantha had had to endure for a long time. She couldn't even imagine going to school the next day and it was only the second school day. And with those thoughts, the next thing Samantha knew, she woke up screaming. It was quite the nightmare, but it faded as soon as she tried to figure it out.

The only thing she remembered about it was the darkness of it. It was dark, and she was hurt, and nobody was there to save her. And there was something else that she couldn't quite place. Having no body there to help her scared her a lot but this something… she could remember the sound quite easily. It was so dark and angry, it almost reminded her of her father.

A shiver ran through her body at that thought. If it was her father, she wondered if maybe her dream was a prediction. She couldn't be certain but it sure scared her.

Looking at the clock to her left, she noticed that it was three in the morning. Groaning, she tried to fall asleep for half an hour and failed; so then decided to get a drink.

In the kitchen, she noticed that her brother, Adam, was sitting in one of the chairs with his head in his hands.

"Adam?" Samantha asked. He groaned in response,

"What are you doing?"

"Sitting, what does it look like?" he asked grumpily,

"Er… well, just that,"

"Oh goody," he answered sarcastically,

"Adam—"

"Don't talk to me Samantha, I'm not in the mood," he growled at her, so all Samantha could do was get a glass of water as she originally intended.

Water in hand, she sat down opposite of Adam, sipping her water. As tired as she was, she couldn't help but be worried for Adam. Something was obviously wrong and he needed to tell someone. If not her, she didn't know who he could turn to. Not that he ever actually did turn to her, but she always made sure that she was available.

And this night wasn't much different than any other night that she happened to see her brother. As usual, he ignored her and kept to himself. Not even glancing at her. It was sad really; weren't they supposed to help each other? She wasn't sure, but she could remember reading in a few books or so that siblings always helped and bailed each other out. Shouldn't he do that for her? He was older than her after all, but then again, he had a whole heck of a lot of problems that she couldn't even begin to understand. So Samantha sighed and decided she better get to bed and try to sleep again. Though trying didn't help her case much. It seemed her mind was occupied with many thoughts that didn't want to leave her head.

Sooner than she thought, she woke up to the sounds of birds chirping outside her window, and the sun rising in the east; lighting her room with great vibrancy. Groaning and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Samantha sat up and realized with fright what the time was. She was going to be late for school! And if she was late, her father would be mad, and she did not want to get into a fight with him this morning.

So Samantha scrambled about her room, quickly putting on anything that smelled decent and had no stains or anything on them. She quickly went to the bathroom to put on the small amount make-up Samantha usually when she noticed that the bruise on her face was a lot worse than she had anticipated. Grabbing anything that resembled the color of her skin, she stuffed them into her backpack and quickly ran down the stairs; barely pausing to grab a banana to eat for breakfast.

As she quickly ran towards the door, she heard a loud snoring on the couch and a peak through the corner of her eye told her it was Adam. She also recognized his snoring as well. Her father and brother's snoring were quite different sounding. Shuffling through the front door, Samantha practically ran to school.

Luckily for her, she was five minutes early and had time to spare to head to her locker and put things away or grab things. Being the second day of school, she didn't have any homework and realized that because of this issue, they wouldn't be doing much in her classes and so, therefore, brought her writing notepad to write or draw in.

Itching her cheek, Samantha grimaced and remembered that there was a bruise on it and she still needed to cover it up with the make-up she had hidden inside her backpack. So quickly, realizing there was only about two minutes left before class started; she ran into the nearest bathroom to her first class and looked at her face.

It was quite bad, the bruise. But it didn't help that she had circles under her eyes as well giving away the fact that she hadn't slept too well.

Samantha groaned and hurried with the make-up, barely scampering into her first class when the last bell rang. Sighing and slumping in her chair, she listened as the teacher was explaining a few more things to the class, then gave them all a paper to do in class that wouldn't need to be taken home. Samantha felt grateful in that regard. She didn't need to stay home with her father any more than necessary. Samantha also gave a sigh of relief. Nobody noticed her face.

Time for the next class came all too soon. And before she knew it, Samantha's heart began to pulse faster. What was she going to do? Samantha sat next to Natsume. How in the world was she supposed to ignore him? Maybe it wasn't going to be as easy as she had thought.

It wasn't too long before Natsume entered the class. Samantha had gotten there early and so was reading to entertain herself. But once Natsume sat next to her, he grinned (as she soon found out he did all the time) and began to speak.

"Hey friend! Whatcha up to?"

"Nothing," she responded almost dully.

"Uh huh, and the fact that you have a book in your hand gives away nothing. Is that right?"

"Yup,"

Natsume scrunched his eyebrows together,

"Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine. Now if you'd excuse me, I'm reading,"

"Ok…" Natsume answered, slightly puzzled, then pulled out a notebook and began drawing.

A minute later, the bell rang and the teacher walked in, clapping his hands to get the class's attention.

"Alright class, I know that this is only the second day of school, but we need to get started on this as soon as possible. Each of you will be doing a science project; a bit like the science fair but for class. Your partner is the one sitting next to you, and you will each do half of whatever it is that you decide to research about.

"I will pass around the sheets of paper for you to decide what you want to do and the questions and answer's that you'll need to put in with your research. You will have the entire class today as well as half an hour the first class of each week in order to do this. The assignment is due at the end of the quarter." Mr. Cameron started to pass out the papers with the information on them to each table and soon enough, they had started up with it.

"So, what shall we do our research on?" Natsume asked Samantha when they were aloud to talk.

"I have no idea," she responded, not looking at Natsume in the eyes, but rather staring at the book sitting on her side of the table.

"Ok, well, let's take a look at the sheet and see what all needs to be done." Natsume read the sheet of paper, seeing what all that they'd need to figure out for the project.

"Hmmm, well it says that whatever it is that we do our project on, that it needs to be scientific. Like we needed that reminder considering this is science class." Natsume rolled his eyes, though Samantha didn't see it but she heard the sarcasm in his voice. She finally had the courage to look at him and noticed the smirk on his face while he read over the paper.

If his smirk did anything for Samantha, it caused her to forget the fact that she had to ignore him as best as she possibly could for the moment.

"So, what exactly would you like to do?" She asked him. He set the paper down, put a hand on his chin, and appeared to be in deep thought. Sighing he finally answered,

"Not one wit of an idea; you?"

"Um, well… I do like music—"

"You're not wanting to do the project of putting ear phones on plants and figure out which type of music will keep the plants alive best or not; are you?"

Samantha raised an eyebrow,

"Why? Do you loathe the life of a plant that much?"

"Who said I hated plants?"

"Never thought you did; just was implying it." Samantha grinned, and Natsume laughed,

"So then… what was your idea if not for the plant thing?"

"Well, as I was saying, I like music and I figured if you did to we could do something along those lines."

Natsume sat there in thought,

"Hmmm, alright; sounds like a superb idea! Now, if we are doing it on music, what type of music were you thinking of, to be exact?"

"Well, I like the piano a lot. I was thinking maybe we could learn how pianos are made and look at the sound waves and distinguish the lines of the sound and soft peddle. So basically how a piano works."

Natsume, again sitting in thought, answered with a growing smile,

"I'm impressed. That's actually not a bad idea at all,"

Samantha huffed,

"And were you expecting it to be?"

Natsume laughed,

"I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was definitely not this!" Samantha whacked him, causing him to laugh a bit harder, causing Mr. Cameron to berate their noise; practically giving them both detentions for being so loud. That sobered up Samantha immediately. Having a detention would not bode well where her father was concerned. So she (as well as Natsume who had tried to suppress his grin after the teacher left, but failing) wrote out descriptions and drawings of their assignment. Of course, Natsume was the better artist, but according to him she was quite good at it herself.

Samantha's cheeks turned a crimson color, but she brushed off Natsume's comment. It wouldn't due to let him have that kind of affect on her. Let alone have him notice.

Needless to say, the rest of the school day went quite uneventfully. But when she went home, that was quite a different matter.

Her father wasn't home (to her relief) but her brother, Adam, was. And he had brought over two of his friends. They were in the dull living room when she walked into the house and as she walked towards the kitchen, setting her backpack on the small table, she heard a few catcalls and whistling.

It disgusted her.

Not only did they make the room smell horribly of smoke, but their clothing was so dirty, she was sure they had tracked all sorts of dirt and diseases. Not to mention the fact that they gave her the willies. The one who had done the whistling had looked at her greedily when she passed the room. His sparkling blue eyes doing nothing to her but shake fear into her bosom. His green spiked Mohawk hair didn't do much for him either, and his grin looked as if it was infested with something contagious. His teeth were so yellow and chipped.

The one who had done the catcalls also had a Mohawk but it was naturally colored. The only other difference it had was being greasy. He wore an ear gauge in each ear, extending his earlobe a little below his chin, and above them were two small sparkling stub earrings. He had a tattoo on his neck of a snake that flew below his black, Metallica shirt, while his pants didn't look like they were doing much good at keeping him clothed, for they hung so low beneath his butt. Samantha had to wonder what the point was of that belt he wore.

Both of them had given her creepy stares, ones that made her feel belittled and disgusted by the men population. Samantha didn't know their names, for Adam had never brought them to their house before, but she was grateful. Being out of sight in the kitchen, she was able to quickly grab some apple juice and head into her room. Deciding that writing a short story seemed to be a good idea at the time. And until she heard them leave (hearing her father come into the house half an hour before), she felt safe enough to enter the kitchen for another glass of juice before quickly hiding as far away as possible from her father, who was now passed out in his bedroom; only knowing this because of the loud snoring coming from his room.