UNEXPECTED CHANGE

CHAPTER TWO

The day of the funeral came around and Samantha, feeling weak as ever, decides to pick herself up, take care of her sister and get ready for the funeral. The day she thought would be at least 30 years away was today and she broke down. She cried so much she could barely see her sister saw her crying and began crying too and this broke Samantha's heart. After about 10 minutes, Sophia, their cousin, came into the room to tell them they had to go, but when she saw them cuddled up in tears on the floor. She couldn't help but step back a little, she decided to wait a little more and after about 2 more minutes she told them calmly "we have to go now". Samantha nodded, wiped her tears and picked herself up. She felt so weak and drained that her sister had to hold her up. They got to the car and all the memories of her parents telling her that they would tell her children about her childhood came flooding. She fought back the tears and struggled to stay quiet, which she succeeded in.

They got to the venue and got out of the car and Samantha, being the egotistical lady she was, decided to put on her brave face and avoid the "sorry"s of people who do not even know her or care about her family or wellbeing she walked like she hadn't just cried that. morning and sat where family members were supposed to sit determined to not break down in front of the people,

But despite her actions, Sophia knew she was hurting. Sophia was a bubbly, nice, emotional, adorable, shy, emotional 16-year-old who always looked out for others, so she didn't understand why someone would pretend not to feel pain, especially one that pushed them to cry. So she walked up to Samantha and sat beside her and Samantha, who did not like this gesture, kindly asked her to move, but she didn't listen, so Samantha decided to move herself to about 3 seats away, but Sophia followed and whispered, "it's okay to cry, you know", and those words hit so close to home but Samantha wouldn't do that not today not ever, so she rolled her eyes and looked forward till the end, avoiding eye contact with Sophia throughout.

After the funeral, she went home and was informed by her father's siblings that she would stay with her uncle Stanley and aunt Remi to continue her education and they considered this a good idea as the couple had a daughter (Sophia) who was close to their age, Samantha. She was not in the mood to speak, simply showed compliance by nodding her head and before dawn she was at her uncle's house with a room assigned to her, Samantha and her sister, as much as she hated the idea of sharing a room with someone she considered an airhead, she also considered the effect it would have on her sister's mental health if she doesn't get to see a happy person... so she settled in and tried to have a good time which was so awful because she was not a clean freak but she valued a decently cleaned household and Sophia on that note gave her a horrible experience, it made her start to despise Sophia, but she was also an introvert who didn't value bickering so she minded her business and kept to her space. As bad as things were, her anger towards Sophia distracted her from her loss, so she was understandably grateful after all her sister enjoyed it.

2 weeks had passed since the funeral and Samantha was tired of being sad. She had come to the realization that she couldn't cry every day, so she decided to distract herself. She decided that she would first go out for some fresh air, so she did. She stepped out of the house for the first time in weeks and she was feeling bittersweet about it. She took one deep breath and changed her mind. She went to her room and thought deeply about what she loved doing and she remembered how much she loved art, be it drawing or painting. After thinking for a while, she decided to check Sophia's room for a painting kit or art supplies which she had found. After going through them, she realized she felt no motivation, so she decided to draw how she felt and, eventually, she concluded on drawing a dessert with two trees in the middle to represent her and her sister's loneliness in this world and when she was done she tore off the page she'd drawn on and she pocketed it to gift her sister when she gets back because she had gone out with Sophia.

Three hours later... Sarah and Sophia are back now and Sarah feels a lot better. They greet Samantha and go to the kitchen for food... After eating, Samantha calls Sarah to give her the gift and it makes Sarah emotional, which leads her to give Samantha a very big long hug, which brightens Samantha's mood.

After a while, Sophia comes into the room, smiles at them, and sits on the bed... Then she sites the paint brushes and drawing kit, she notices they look like hers so she asks "Are those mine?" which makes Samantha look up and say "Oh yeah, sorry I just missed drawing and you weren't home so I couldn't have asked you for them" with a smile which makes Sophia ask to see her art which Sarah shows and Sophia being an artist immediately understood it and being an emotional person, she had tears in her eyes soon enough which made sam hug her and ask her not to cry which she eventually did and that incident changed a lot of things for them and brought them a lot closer... They became best friends mostly because they were almost total opposites... They talked about everything together, even their pasts and hopes for the future, and they went out a lot, which helped Samantha in her journey to finding

happiness.