Chapter Text
The constant pacing on the floor above him is what initially woke Sam up that early March morning. He groaned before putting a pillow over his face. He tried to ignore it but every time it stopped and he turned over to sleep, it started right back up again. He knew it was an important day for his sister but he just wished she would sit down and let him go back to bed. But it was also his fault that he moved into the house's basement after he started his first year of college in order to "have more room" than his old room upstairs. Now instead of having to study on his bed, he had to hear every single footstep that was made on the floor above him. Normally, he wore headphones but that was not an option when he was trying to sleep.
After his fourth time being disturbed from his sleep, he decided it was time to make an attempt at quelling his sister. He threw the sheet off of him, got out of bed and walked halfway up the basement stairs before calling out, "It's 6 AM do you HAVE to be up this early?? I'm trying to sleep!"
A clearly agitated and anxious Sarah shouted back, "Yes I want my letter the MOMENT it arrives. If you want to sleep I can KNOCK you to sleep!"
At this point, Sam immediately gave up all hope because even though he was taller than his sister, that girl did more pushups in a day than he ever had in his life and he knew from experience she was serious about putting him to sleep the hard way.
Sighing in defeat, he decided that he might as well start breakfast since half of the household was already up. He threw on one of his robes (he loved how airy they made his legs feel!) that were hanging on the back of his door and walked out right into the kitchen. He walked past a framed picture of a man in a preacher's robe and whispered a "Morning pops. Miss you," under his breath. He stood by the sink and looked out the window, noting that the sun had barely risen but the dawn was a beautiful sight to see regardless. He quickly splashed some water on one of the potted plants sitting on the window sill and then turned out to look into the house. Sure enough there his sister was, continuing her pacing, her hair wrapped tight and secured under her bonnet, and wearing an oversized shirt stolen from their dad's closet.
Sam turned back around and mumbled under his breath. "Glad we could sort that out," while he washed his hands and face in the sink.
Sarah whipped her head around and glared at him. "What was that?"
"Nothing! Mornin'! Love you! You want some eggs?" Sam quickly gulped out with a wide grin on his face hoping to hide any trace of snark and sarcasm. That girl was terrifying.
"Sunnyside thanks. What else you making?"
Sam was reaching into cupboards and drawers to pull out everything he needed as he thought about it. "Um... I think I'll do pancakes," beginning a mental list of everything he needed starting with a big bowl, butter, flour, sugar, and a wooden spoon, "Also maybe some bacon," noting the bacon in the fridge and the pans in the cupboard, "and everyone needs fruits," he finally finished off, adding apples and oranges to his list.
Sarah finally stopped pacing and sat down at the kitchen island in the meantime, "Sounds good to me!"
With that, Sam picked up his phone and started up his music app. The song he was listening to last night was still queued up to be played. Marvin Gaye, What's Going On. "Nice," he mumbled to himself before pressing play and getting to work, greasing pans, mixing ingredients, and turning on the stove. Sam was definitely a singer at heart and he might not have been the best but he bobbed and weaved to the tune and he made sure to attempt to hit every note. Before long Sarah joined him and the two were cutting it up in the middle of the kitchen.
"Smells and sounds like a musical in here!"
Sam looked up from the stove to the doorway towards the new voice, paused the music, and cracked open a smile. "Mornin' ma," Sam said, leaning into her open arms and accepting her kiss on the cheek.
"Mornin' baby," she answered, moving around him in order to reach Sarah and give her the same greeting. "You excited Sarah? The mail's supposed to be here any minute now."
"Yeah and she's been pacing around non-stop for the past 50 minutes. Woke me right up."
"Well, obviously it was for the best because now we all have breakfast," Sarah gloated sticking out her tongue at him. Sam returned one right back as well as some mocking sounds for extra effect.
"Aw come on can't my two loves get along?" Darlene pondered before leaving the kitchen to go tidy up the living room.
"Never!" Sam and Sarah said in tandem before bursting out into laughter. Sam began the playlist again and the two continued their mini-performance.
That was when the sound of the opening and closing of the mail slot hit their ears and everyone stopped moving.
"Is it?" Sam questioned.
"I think so..." Sarah replied.
"Well.... go get it!"
With that Sarah all but teleported to the door and snatched up the letter. She traced her hand over the gold lettering of the school's official stationary. Stark University, the Marvell, Arizona campus. It wasn't an Ivy League but it was definitely up there. Getting in was difficult and the tuition itself was nothing to scoff at. Their family definitely was not made of money but luckily for them, Morgan Stark funded the school directly and paid for every student that attended. Sarah held her breath for a second before tearing the envelope open.
She sped read through the paper before letting out a scream and jumping up and down, "I GOT IN, I GOT IN, HOLY FUCKING SHIT I GOT IN!"
Darlene ran from the living room to scream and shout with her daughter and waved Sam over to join them, who was already on his way. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy for his sister but he quickly suppressed it as he enveloped the two of them into a big hug and spun them all around. Ironically enough I Got You came on next and the three broke into another dance.
"Sam mind the stove baby," Darlene gently reminded him while pointing towards the black smoke coming from the kitchen.
Sam immediately sprinted to rescue his meal before it was completely ruined. A loud "Shit!" left in his wake as he tried to fan the smoke out the window.
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Sam was back in his room, the dishes from breakfast, lunch, and dinner all washed and put away. His mom already had told everyone goodnight and went to bed and he left Sarah watching some weird Netflix show on the couch. It was only once he closed his door, put his robe back on its designated hook, and sat on his bed did he finally realize the depth of his situation.
Sam was faced with a dilemma. He promised his dad when he died that he would look after his sister. He went as far as to promise him that he would go to the same university as her if she did go. The only issue was that he already only stayed in New Orleans because he wanted to stay close to his sister. He wasn't sure he was ready to start over in a new university, one with people far richer, and smarter, and more privileged than him, as well as to a whole new state much less a new town. He also didn't want his life to revolve around his sister, but he also didn't want to go back on the promise he made to his dad.
Suddenly it was him who was doing the pacing. He still had a few months to make his decision but time flew when you had important decisions to make. And this would be a big one.
His current school wasn't bad at all. It had a decent engineering program for him and he had a few classroom friends. Though no one he would really call close. All his friends from high school had left nearly immediately after graduation and he hadn't talked to them since so those new friends were all he had. Again the program wasn't bad, but the one at Stark University, especially the Arizona campus, greatly outclassed it.
"You do know you're coming with me right?"
The voice started Sam, who jumped up off his bed and whipped his head around to the sound. He met Sarah standing near the bottom of the staircase looking at him.
"I know it was your first choice, and I know the only reason you didn't go was because of me. So I took the liberty of applying and going myself. Now you can't feel guilty for leaving home."
"Huh? How did you know any of that??"
"I simply read your mail last year when you got your acceptance letter," Sarah shrugged, "also I was outside the room when daddy died. I remember your promise."
All Sam could do was hold his forehead in shock, "Well, damn my sis Sarah the sneak. It don't matter anyway because I declined the acceptance and didn't reapply for next year."
Sarah smirked and pulled a familiar folded envelope out of her pocket, Sam's original acceptance letter, "That's good because you didn't need to. I called the school myself and got your acceptance deferred for a year after I heard you were actually going to stay here."
Staring at the letter in disbelief Sam couldn't formulate everything he wanted to say at that moment to her. How could you go behind my back like that? How did you even find that? I thought I threw that thing away. How on earth did you get them to reaccept me after I declined? But all he could get out was, "W-why?"
Sighing and rolling her eyes she answered, "I saw how unhappy you were in high school and how much you hated being here. You can't hide anything from me! So when I remembered your promise to daddy I knew I couldn't be the reason you were miserable and trapped here so after you left the room I made a counter promise to him to get you the hell out of here. So that's exactly what I did. I could take a business degree anywhere so why not at THEE Stark Academy? Even if you didn't wanna go here first this still would've been a good choice."
Sam never told anyone how much he hated living in this city. He missed living in New York and the freedom he had to be himself, something he had to suppress when he moved down here. He wasn't bullied by his peers but he definitely saw people like him get done in one too many times to ever be his full self outside of his own private four walls. Again he had friends; he was the guy that hung out on the peripheral of the group and didn't get in anyone's way and that's how he liked it. Or so he told himself and everyone around him. Seems he couldn't fool his sister though.
After a very long and drawn out silence, "Did mom know?" He finally asked.
"Of course she did. Who do you think helped me get into this crazy school? I'm smart but definitely not as smart as you two. She helped me study and bring my grades up to get me in!"
Sam sat in his bed in amazement. All this for him and they did it without him even knowing. "Transcript?"
"Taken care of. All your credits are going to transfer over except Calculus. Not sure why but those are the only ones you're gonna have to take."
"How are we getting there?"
"We'll sort that all out in the Summer. It's only March!"
"And what about ma?"
"She said she'll be fine. And we'll come back to visit every break." Sarah sighed and walked over to hold Sam's hand, "Sam it's gonna be okay! We got this! I understand you wanting to keep your promise so I'm doing what's best for the both of us okay?"
"Yeah.... yeah okay."
His head was spinning with all this new information. An hour ago he didn't know how he was going to get out of this place, much less fulfill his promise but somehow and someway by his own family's intervention he was gonna do both.
"Sleep on it okay? But we're going to Marvell in August!"
With that Sarah squeezed his hand before resting the letter on his bed and going back upstairs. Sam reached for the letter hesitantly as if it would disappear if he so much as breathed on it. Finally working up the courage to pick it up and read it all over again, a wave of sadness washed over him as well as the memory of the day he first saw this paper.
He didn't even wait at the mail slot all day. He played video games in the living room instead. In fact, he tried to pretend that he was barely bothered by the mail coming at all. He had already applied and was accepted to the local university and only filled out an application to satisfy his guidance counsellor and his own confidence in his abilities to get in. He knew full well he couldn't go anywhere without his sister and had no plan to. He had a promise to keep. Then he heard the mail slot open and the gentle brush of a single envelope kissing the carpet. At first, he was going to ignore it and let someone else come pick it but his curiosity won in the end and he couldn't hold it any longer. In moments the game was on pause, he was up and standing, and the envelope was in his hand. Shaking with what was either excitement or anxiety, he wasn't sure, he used his thumb to slice open the envelope and reveal the package inside. The lettering was immaculate just like he knew it would be and as he read the words slowly and carefully his eyes widened at one word.
"Accepted"
He laughed and chastised himself on how foolish he was. He knew he had no chance of going yet he applied anyway, he opened the envelope anyway, he read the letter anyway, he disappointed himself anyway. Immediately resigning himself to his fate he folded the letter up, put it back in the envelope and threw it into the kitchen garbage before going back to the living room, unpausing his game, and pretending like nothing ever happened.
The memory played on repeat in Sam's mind until he became numb to it and the realization of what Sarah said fully hit him. He was leaving. He was getting out. He was fulfilling his promise to his dad. He rested his head down and fell into a dreamless sleep with tears running onto the pillow and a wide smile. The widest he ever smiled since his dad died.