Chapter Text
Sam glanced between her mom, and the large white house they were standing outside of for what felt like the thousandth time. They had been standing on the cracked sidewalk for the better part of five minutes. Her mom just gazing at the admittedly, albeit surprisingly, nice house in front of them with a tentative, anxious expression on her face, and Sam waiting for her mom to do something.
Her mom let out a deep, steadying breath, and squared her shoulders before marching up the small path to the front door and giving it three firm knocks. Sam stood a little ways behind her mom, unsure exactly what she should be doing with herself.
When her mom had announced that they were going to stay with her aunt for the time being, Sam hadn't known how to react. She had met her Aunt Cindy maybe half a dozen times in her life. It was always at birthday parties or large family events- events where it was easy to get lost in the mess of other Goode relatives and miss out on the one lone Berman guest.
A moment later her Aunt Cindy opened the door and eyed her younger sister critically. The two women locked in some sort of silent standoff. Cindy’s eyes flicked past her sister to look over Sam before finally settling on the old SUV containing their belongings.
“That can't be all you're bringing,” Aunt Cindy noted in an almost condescending voice.
“I don't own a ton of shit,” Sam’s mom responded wryly.
Sam blinked in surprise, she couldn't remember a time where she had ever heard her mom swear. It was disconcerting to her hear usually demure mother say a curse word.
“Sam, it’s good to see you,” Aunt Cindy said, finally turning her attention to her niece, she pushed past her sister, and it was not lost on Sam that her aunt and mom had not hugged each other, to pull Sam into a tight embrace. “You’ve gotten so big, I don’t think I’ve seen you since you were ten.”
“Nine, I think,” Sam corrected with a tight smile.
A rueful look passed over her aunt’s face before she hid it with a welcoming smile. “Well, we’ll have plenty of time to catch up now. Come in, you can bring your things in later, I’ll show you both your rooms,” she said, ushering Sam and her mom into the house.
They entered into a narrow hall, a carpeted den was off to the left and a set of stairs leading to the second floor were immediately to the right. Sam could see that the kitchen was at the far end of the hall. They quickly ascended the stairs to the second floor.
“Sam, your room is at the end of the hall on the right and Ziggy, yours is to the left. The bathroom is here,” Cindy said, opening a door to reveal a small bathroom, “and my bedroom is just over there,” she said, pointing to a room on the other side of the bathroom.
Sam surprised to see that her aunt was sleeping in one of the regular rooms and not the master bedroom. She highly doubted that her aunt would be giving up the master suite for either of them, and it would be odd if the house didn't have one. Sam brushed off the strangeness of the houses sleeping situation and went to check her new bedroom. It was significantly smaller than her room back in Sunnyvale, but then again, the whole house was smaller than her home back in Sunnyvale.
The room was only large enough to fit a narrow twin bed, dresser and small desk. Sam also spied a small closet for extra storage. She toed off her shoes, feeling the worn carpet under her feet, and sat on the bed, the spring mattress creaking noisily as she surveyed the small room that would be hers for the foreseeable future. Sam wondered if perhaps she had made a mistake in choosing to go with her mom. This wasn't exactly the type of lifestyle that she was used to, one of small rooms and estranged family.
She shook those thoughts from her head, no, it had been the right choice, the weirdness of Shadyside and its residents would be worth the freedom she was getting in return. She would get to see her dad on most weekends and holidays, and she wouldn't get to see her boyfriend- ex-boyfriend ever again. That had been the driving reason why Sam had agreed to leave with her mom. In Shadyside there would be no expectations for her, she wouldn't need to have a boyfriend and fit in and gossip about who had the coolest car that month. She could just keep her head down and get through the rest of high school unencumbered.
“Sam! Dinner’s ready!” her mom’s voice floated up from downstairs. Sam tried her best to suppress a frown, her mom never raised her voice or yelled. Even in their old house, which was far larger than her Aunt Cindy’s, her mom had always made the trip to come find Sam instead of calling for her.
As Sam started down the stairs she caught sight of a boarded off door at the end of the hall. It was probably where the master suite was, it jutted out from the rest of the house and Sam guessed that the garage was below the room. Which raised the question, why was her Aunt sleeping in one of the regular rooms and not the master bedroom?
Sam quickly made her way down the stairs to find her mom and Aunt already sitting at the small kitchen table. There was a large bowl of macaroni and cheese waiting to be doled out with some sliced bread on the side. Sam gave her mom and aunt a quick smile and took the empty seat between them.
“Thank you for dinner, Aunt Cindy,” Sam said politely.
Cindy nodded and scooped out some of the mac and cheese onto her own plate. “It was no problem. Did you know mac n cheese was your mom’s favorite thing to eat growing up?”
Sam looked at her mom for confirmation, who rolled her eyes and nodded, “yeah, but that was a million years ago.”
Cindy chuckled and handed the large spoon to Sam. “She used to put peas and hot sauce on it, it was so disgusting, I don't know how you could handle it.”
Her mom rolled her eyes again and threw a small piece of bread at her sister. Sam tried to suppress her laugh. She was honestly a bit surprised at how well dinner was going. Her mom rarely spoke of her aunt, as far as Sam was concerned she had thought their relationship was more of a formality. But now, seeing her mom with her Aunt, Sam was surprised to see that there was a closeness, that there was a bond between them that only sisters could have. She wondered why she had never gotten to see this side of her mom before?
“Aunt Cindy…” Sam started, unsure of exactly how to broach the subject, “I was wondering… why is there a boarded off door upstairs?”
“Oh that,” Cindy said dismissively, waving her hands, but Sam noticed that her mom had stiffened slightly at the mention of the room. “That's the master suite, it’s developed a bit of a case of rotworm that I haven't been able to shake no matter how much I fumigate it.”
Sam frowned in confusion, “how has it not spread to the rest of the house?”
Aunt Cindy shrugged and took a bite of her dinner, “I have an exterminator come out and check the house every six months or so, it just hasn't spread. He thinks that the master bedroom might have been built using different wood then the rest of the house.”
“That… doesn't sound like you believe him,” Sam noted.
“Of course not,” Cindy scoffed, sitting back in her chair with a roll of her eyes, “it’s because that half of the house is built on Shadyside.”
Sam laughed at her aunt's joke, and immediately quieted when she realised that neither her mom or aunt were laughing. Instead they seemed to be in some sort of silent stare off, both of them shooting daggers at each other.
“It seems that even when you get out of Shadyside, you can never really get out of Shadyside, isn't that right, Ziggy?”
Sam looked back and forth between her aunt and her mother, unsure of what the hell was going on.
“I- I thought we were in Shadyside?” Sam asked in an attempt to diffuse the tension between the two adults.
“We’re right on the border, sweetie,” her mom explained, finally pulling her glare from her sister. “The land- or at least most of it for this property, is on Sunnyvale, but the line between the two runs right through the property."
“Which is good for you since it means you can continue to go to school in Sunnyvale,” Cindy said with a genuine smile.
“Actually… I’m transferring to Shadyside,” Sam explained, “it’s closer.” That was technically true, the high school was only a twenty minute walk from her aunt's house while Sunnyvale was a forty minute drive.
Her aunt nodded in understanding, apparently not finding it odd that her niece was transferring schools in the middle of the spring semester when she could still technically continue to go to her old one. “And when will you be going to see that no good Nick?”
Sam snorted at the joke her aunt made, her father had never been anything but good. He was the town sheriff and had helped stop plenty of the murders that had gone on in Shadyside. He was a hero.
“Don't call him that,” her mom snapped, a frown crossing her face as she said the words, as if she was confused as to why she was even defending him.
“What?” Cindy shrugged, “you called me, you’re the one divorcing him, remember? You are going to divorce him, right?”
“Can we not do this right now?” her mom pleaded as her eyes flicked to Sam, apparently finding it inappropriate to have the conversation with her there.
Sam couldn't help but be curious. Her parents divorce was a bit out of nowhere. As far as she knew they had always gotten along, had always been happy. She knew that there had been some tension between her uncle and her dad over him marrying her mom since she was from Shadyside, but as far as Sam knew, her mother had more than fit in with the idealistic suburban lifestyle that Sunnyvale offered.
“Fine,” her aunt held up her hands in surrender and rolled her eyes as she let the subject drop.
Dinner was eaten in relative silence, her mom was in a contemplative mood, and Sam didn't really know her aunt well enough to be able to gauge her disposition. As soon as it was possible for her to leave without coming across as rude, Sam quickly cleared her dishes, rushed out to the car to grab her suitcases and lugged them up to her bedroom. She let them fall to the ground with a thunk and collapsed back in the bed with a sigh.
Down below her, she could hear the voices of her mom and aunt arguing in hushed voices, but she was too tired to even think about trying to listen in. With a sigh Sam got comfortable on her bed and tried to tamp down her ball of nerves. Tomorrow was Saturday, but soon enough it would be Monday, and then she would be beginning her first day of school in Shadyside.
She had never really interacted with any of the students from Shadyside. She had only seen them in passing at games when they played each other. Sam felt a pang as she remembered that it was probably too late in the year for her to join cheer, one of the few activities that had brought her joy when in Sunnyvale.
Maybe she could find something else, Shadyside was bound to have at least a few clubs or after school activities. She would need something to keep herself occupied during the week. Especially if the weird energy between her mom and aunt continued. Sam had no idea what their dynamic was, but it was clear that her aunt knew just the right buttons to push to bring out a new, more brash side of her mom.
With those thoughts buzzing through her mind, Sam dug her pajamas out of her suitcase, got changed and climbed into bed. She would deal with Shadyside and her mom’s weird attitude later, for now she just wanted to sleep.