The next few days were, interesting, to say the least. Tyler and Samantha navigated through building their relationship. Tyler made an appointment with his own therapist, who was helping him navigate his feelings and the challenges of a teenager with her own issues and Samantha had an appointment with Dr Freud where she told me after her appointment that she'd told him about what had happened the other night at home. She came out of that appointment smiling. I took that as a good sign.
At the end of the week, Samantha's social worker came by for a visit and Samantha was engaged and enthusiastic about showing Marie what we'd done with her room, and when we were asked about any issues, Samantha told her about the incident. Marie was impressed with her candour and asked her if, despite that, she felt safe with us. She hugged me and said she couldn't remember when she'd felt safer.
Marie told us that either we could take Samantha to her old house to get a few things, or she could give Marie a list and Marie would arrange to get the items to her.
Samantha looked a little wary and asked Marie to get her things for her.
"I don't want to go in there ever again," she said. "That's Stanley's house and I don't want anything to do with him."
"Okay. So, get a list to me by Monday, and I'll make arrangements and bring them by on my next visit next Saturday," Marie said.
"I really just want my hippo, a picture of my mom and maybe the t-shirts in my dresser?" Samantha said.
"How many?" Marie asked.
"All of them," Samantha said. "There are only about seven anyway."
"Why so few?" I asked her, thinking to the growing collection of t-shirts in her dresser now.
"Stanley only let me have one for every day. I had to rewear them until he'd let me do laundry," she said. I didn't want to ask how long she would have to go between washings.
Tyler and Josh both frowned. I probably did, too. Marie shook her head.
"I'm sorry it took so long to get you out of there, Samantha," she said. "I wish the system worked better for kids like you."
"It's okay," Samantha said quietly. "It's not your fault."
Marie smiled.
In the middle of our visit with Marie, Samantha's phone beeped. Marie raised an eyebrow when she pulled out her phone and read the text that had come in.
"Can Jill come over later?" She asked, looking as though she knew the answer would be no.
"Sure," I said. Tyler smiled and nodded.
"Who's Jill," Marie asked.
"My friend from school," Samantha said.
"And how is school going?" Marie asked.
Samantha shrugged.
"There's this boy, Adam who's kind of a jerk, and his friends. But everyone else seems okay."
"Besides Jill, are you making friends?"
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Running on Insulin
FanfictionSamantha's life had never been easy. Her abusive father was the only family she had left. Her mom had died when Sam was just a kid, and when she was eight, Sam had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The healthcare costs enraged her father and made...
