The Adventures of Samantha Part 0 – The Talk

I guess there was no way to know that I wasn’t a normal girl.

You see, I didn’t have a ton of interaction with people outside my family growing up. My mom, little sister Kellie and twin brother and sister Andrew and Hannah lived in a small farming town in Iowa. I know it doesn’t sound like a hell of a lot of fun, but again, I didn’t know much better. We lived in Chicago for the first few years of my life. My dad was a CEO of a large company and worked long, stressful days. He died when I was 5, shortly after the twins were born, of a sudden heart attack. I remember being confused as to where he went, and Mom being really sad and a lot of friends and relatives coming over, but other than that, not much. Soon afterwards, my mom moved to Iowa and bought the farm.

She homeschooled all 4 of her kids, since the one decent primary school in town was a Christian school and required regular attendance at church. We never went to church, so it was never an option. I never really asked why. So we were home schooled. In the winter, Mom put us through 12-hour school days so that in the spring and summer, we could focus more on tending the crops and studying independently. I never minded the system, but once I got to be older, I found it monotonous. I didn’t remember much about Chicago but I remember there were a lot more people around.

It was a hot day in July when I was helping Mom harvest the corn crop, and she surprised me.

“Samantha, how would you like to go to a real school?”

This caught me off guard. I HAD been thinking about it, but I never considered it to be a real possibility.

“Where?” I asked. There weren’t any high schools within a 45 minute drive, and Mom had the farm to take care of, not to mention a 13-year-old daughter and two 12-year olds.

“There’s a boarding school in Chicago called Rogers Prep. Your father went there. It just went co-ed a few years ago, so I’d think there are quite a few girls that go there now.”

This idea scared me. Going to Rogers would mean leaving the one place that I really ever knew. I wanted to go to a real school, but this would be a big step. On the other hand, it would be great to be in a place with people my age. Despite being only a year or two older, I did a lot of the work taking care of my younger siblings to help out Mom, so a lot of the time I had to be the bad guy to them. A lot of the time, it felt like me and Mom vs. my siblings.

“What would you do, Mom? Don’t you need help taking care of things around here?”

“Don’t worry about that. They’re all old enough to take some responsibility for themselves. I imagine they’ll all be at Rogers in a year or two anyways, and once that happens I’ll probably sell the farm and get a smaller place I can handle by myself.”
So just before my 15th birthday, Mom and I were making the 5 hour drive to Chicago to meet the dean at Rogers, and if he accepted me, I’d start school the next week. Normally I’d have to take an entrance exam, but I guess the dean was an old friend of Dad’s, and agreed to let me in as long as I demonstrated the knowledge that was needed to succeed at Rogers.

We arrived on campus and it was beyond anything I imagined. The city was so lively; I saw more people in the first 10 seconds than I had my entire life in Iowa. The grass was green, the autumn flowers were blooming, and there were students everywhere. Walking from the car to the dean’s office, I couldn’t help but stare at some of them. Tall, muscular boys, short, skinny girls, some white, some black, some with dark hair, some with blonde hair, one or two with red hair.

We arrived at the dean’s office and were greeted by a 20-something, gorgeous woman. She gave me a toothy smile and her lips moved, but I wasn’t listening. My eyes moved from her hair to her full cheeks to her pouty lips, down to her blouse that showed just a small bit of cleavage. Her boobs weren’t huge, but they were significantly larger than mine, and just had some kind of life to them.

“Samantha?” I heard Mom say.

“Oh, um, sorry?”

“The receptionist smiled again. “I asked if you need anything before your interview? Dean Matthews will be ready for you in 10 minutes or so.”

“Oh, actually, could I just use the restroom? It’s been a long drive.”

“Sure thing, it’s down the hall on your left.”

I nodded and went down the hall to the bathroom.