The day ended rather uneventfully, with nigh a jeer or taunt toward him from the group of students on the other side of the class. While he couldn't quite remember the things Jun and Daniel used to do, they did leave lasting impressions on him.
It was after the news about Samuel's mother's death was found out, that the taunts, which had been modified to accommodate for the new material the bullies had gained, had become intolerable and resulted in Samuel dropping out. His bleak outlook on life brought on by the feeling of numbness, hopelessness and confusion at the time had resulted in Samuel choosing to drop out. A poor choice upon reflection, given the fact that he had not made a plan for what he'd do after leaving.
Samuel hadn't realised that leaving the school had left a bullying void- a void in which his bullies found themselves lacking nobodies to abuse- which would come back to bite another of his family members in the butt later on. Something he had no clues about to this day.
Samuel briskly got back home to an empty house. The empty feeling was not foreign to the young man who lived alone for the better part of his life the last time around, but it was a lot more daunting when he was in a much larger place.
With nothing to do, Samuel brought out a few of his textbooks. While he was thinking about playing some games on his PC, from what he could remember, it was a very old model for which the funds had been just about scraped together for the family's use. But as far as Samuel was concerned, the computer wouldn't be able to handle the type of games he'd want to play. Nor would such games even be available at the current time.
'Just imagining the frame rate and latency of games played on that machine makes me feel nauseous. No, I'm sure there'll be some games I could tinker around with, but I don't know… I'd rather not. After experiencing the technology I have in my old life, the tech now is honestly beyond ancient.'
With nothing to do at home, Samuel was forced to bring out the textbooks and go through the first and second-year content of each of his 8 subjects. He sat at the dining table with the books sprawled across the place while he had his hands twirling around his long hair in exasperation. Unfortunately, he underestimated the level of difficulty of the content, and so he eventually got absorbed into one of the chapters of his math textbook.
Time flew by, and before Samuel knew it, the sun had begun to set signifying the coming of the evening. He had been studiously going through one of the harder topics and getting his head around how it worked again for the past few hours.
But he was finally brought out of his reverie when he heard the fumbling of keys at the front door. Glancing at the clock, Samuel noticed it read 7 pm.
'7 pm? Mum doesn't come home this early. Is that Bree? Why's she out so late? Haa… is this idiot going to start failing in her studies already.'
Samuel rejected the idea as soon as it entered his mind. Under his tutelage and example, his sister had been forged into one of the brightest kids he knew, and would almost always rank first in the year in her exams. Even if she forewent studying, she wouldn't fall too far in the ranks with her natural intelligence- a trait inherited by both of Grace's children.
Having arrived home, Faith walked down the corridor to get a drink before she would make her way to her bedroom. Today, however, proved to be unusual as she found herself stopping in her tracks as she noticed her brother's dull greyish-green pupils staring at her through the door. He was sat at the dining table with books spread around him as though he was actually studying and not cooped up in his room playing games or doing something indecent like he always was.
"Hey, sis." Samuel began, as he watched her face slowly contorting into a frown until her heart-shaped lips, glossy from the lip balm she used, opened to reply.
"What are you doing here?" She immediately questioned, wondering how she'd come across her brother after school had ended. Even though they lived in the same house, they seldom saw each other or interacted these past few months and years.
"Uh… studying? What else?" With a bit of sarcasm lacing his tone for having to state the obvious, Samuel replied. While he had missed her dearly, he didn't think this girl would take it too happily if he reacted the same way as he did with his mother, to her.
"Hmph. You? Studying? Impossible. You don't study." Her attempts at a snarky rebuttal did little to hide the incredulous tone in her voice. Samuel had to admit that in his previous life, he'd barely spent time working or revising, but that had come about from his arrogance and confidence in his ability to learn and pick up the concepts during the classes quite easily.
"Well, I'm studying now so who cares? But more importantly, why are you back home so late? School ended ages ago." Samuel asked, concerned, but not very worried about her. As far as he was concerned, and from what little he remembered about their relationship before he became a recluse, Faith had held herself to a high standard and wouldn't be getting beguiled into some random relationship or actions so easily.
"It's none of your business. Don't pretend you care, stupid."
'Wow, that bite-back was harsh. But I see… I'm sort of glad she said that. It feels like she still cares about my attention.'
Samuel's thoughts drifted back to the days when the pair of brother and sister were attached at the hip and would do everything together. He shared fond memories with his sister and had been the biggest influence on her nerdy lifestyle and good grades.
'But now, maybe as a way to get my attention, or for some other reason I haven't yet figured out, she's acting so different. Haa…my little sister is so complicated. Stupid old me.'
Samuel just sighed and got up from his seat and made his way over to the kitchen. No matter what he said right now, his sister wouldn't understand where it was coming from since he had replaced the old him. So he decided to change her view of him through his actions and decided to begin small before working his way up.
Forming back their old bond would take months or even years, and Samuel was prepared to give it his all… just once he had got rid of the bad influences around her.
"Would you like water or juice, Bree?" Having noticed her intention for making her way to the kitchen earlier, Samuel asked the girl whose eyes just followed him as she stood in the same spot.
"…Nothing." She replied after a while, before turning around to go to her room. Samuel sighed again for the nth time, before calling out to her.
"I'll be making dinner a little later. I'll leave it in front of your door."
What he'd said had made her pause for a second, but she continued back upstairs while Samuel just mulled over their stiff conversation.
— — —
"Hm? What's that smell?"
As Grace closed the front door behind her and dropped her bag and keys on a shelf by the door, she made her way to the kitchen where, to her shock, she found Samuel preparing some plates and bowls with potatoes, veggies and chicken- all seasoned to the T from the recipe he was following in a cookbook he found lying about.
Samuel looked up from what he was busily doing and noticed his mother. A glance at the clock displayed a time of 9 pm which made Samuel internally recoil while he put on as bright of a smile as he could.
"Hey, mum. I made din- Oof." This family may have had a thing for cutting off people's sentences with hugs, but Samuel wasn't perturbed as he half hugged his mother back, with a spatula in his other hand holding him back. He understood why she hugged him, and so she let him cling to her in silence.
Grace eventually drew back and gave Samuel the space he needed to continue what he was doing. Throughout the day, while she was excited to see Samuel again, she had been feeling extremely anxious that the events of the morning had been a one-time affair, and Samuel would revert to hating or avoiding his mother again.
Understanding that adolescents were more prone to feel embarrassed for their actions, she'd made some plans on the bus ride back to deal with such an embarrassed teen who had laid bare his feelings this morning. But she couldn't be happier by the sight that had greeted her.
Samuel quickly ushered her to sit down, and he served the food to either of their plates before taking a seat himself. He didn't know which kitchen tools to use when, so he found himself playing around with the wooden spoon while serving as his mother watched on fondly. Had he left dinner for when his mum made it back from work, it'd be ready quite late, so he took the burden off of his mother for the day and had it ready for when she got home.
"So, mum. How was your day?"