One day, many years ago, a young girl by the name of Samantha Raine lived in California. Long blonde hair, stunning blue eyes and a personality to match it, she seemed to be the perfect girl. She had a problem, though – her life was falling apart. Alcohol had crept up on her, drugs had made their way to her life and nothing was looking good for her. It had all started the first day of her eighth grade year, two years earlier. Still innocent – a studious, sweet girl – Samantha had trotted confidently through the school doors and adjusted her glasses to examine what her new school would look like. Samantha had just transferred schools and she was alright with it. Her old school had been horrible; Samantha had been made fun of constantly by almost everybody. Not a single person at that school had accepted how she looked and talked. She was titled as a nerd. If anybody talked to her, they were automatically marked just as low as she was… Therefore, nobody talked to her. When she finally transferred schools, she made some serious changes to herself. New clothes, new hair, and new personality – everything that had been unique about Samantha changed in a mere period of a few weeks. At her new school, she was accepted immediately. Her popularity shot up the moment she stepped in. She felt amazing – she was accepted and wanted by almost everybody. She loved it.

That’s when everything started to crumble. She was introduced to drugs, invited to parties, and many other things. Everything was for the popularity. It didn’t matter to Samantha anymore – if that was what it took to be accepted, she wouldn’t hesitate. Two years later, her life had hardly changed when a horrible tragedy struck. Her father was killed in a car accident. Tears fell, hearts were broken, and Samantha was confused now more than ever. She came to school the day after the news with puffy red eyes, no makeup on, wearing her old clothes. “Where’s Samantha today?” She heard somebody’s conversation from a distance. Samantha hardly knew the answer to that question herself – who was Samantha anyways? She certainly wasn’t. She wasn’t worth anybody’s time – she was useless and certainly not the beautiful Samantha that was spoken of. Still walking through the halls, somebody tapped on her shoulder and caused her to turn. She looked up into a pair of welcoming green eyes and a tan smiling face greeted her. “Hi” A kind voice said to her, “I’m Veronica. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out some time?” and those words brought tears to Samantha’s eyes once again.

She had come to school in nothing but her old, ugly clothes… And somebody was accepting her? Suddenly, everything seemed to fall into piece. The last two years completely washed away and she felt different… She felt renewed. She no longer felt the need to wear a mask over her true self. A new-found confidence was what she discovered upon the meeting of this girl “I’m Samantha” She smiled wryly “and I’d like that”