When Ava shared the first few posts about Samantha’s parents, they spread like wildfire. Many students gave positive affirmations of Ava’s posting and more of them got to know about Samantha’s parents which Samantha was grateful to Ava for.
A good amount of detail, yet not too much, was shared about her family. The comments on the post were very gratifying for Samantha to read.
So many people got to know about her parents’ journey to this country as immigrants. They were industrious people and they were great parents. The first few of Ava’s posts were about Samantha’s parents, but it didn’t just end there.
Ava also shared links to charitable organizations that provided awareness about distracted driving, drunk driving, road safety, and other similar charities. Samantha wasn’t able to tell how much was actually donated just from the posts alone, but she was grateful for Ava’s sentiment.
After Ava spread her story, Samantha also started to feel a lot more warmth coming from her classmates at school. She had honestly thought at one point in her life that whatever was said online wasn’t a big deal or worth a whole lot. Yet, after seeing her classmates’ outpouring of sympathy, she knew that wasn’t close to the truth.
She was glad people knew of her parents, her beloved family…
She felt… Honestly, she didn't know what she felt about her increased popularity among the students that came with the deaths of her parents. She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel. Any good thing that happened to her after they died could not be looked at favorably, could it?
The attention to Samantha felt… a bit intimidating, and sometimes disconcerting. She didn’t appreciate the pitying looks some of classmates gave her either, though she didn’t fault Ava for those reactions. Even Ava’s group of friends started to look at her with even more feigned sympathy.
Yet, there were also several of her classmates who would go out of their way to ask her personally about the details that Ava had posted about her parents. She felt a lot of happiness knowing that they appreciated her family, especially those few students who grew up in similar immigrant households.
Prior to Ava’s posts, she knew her classmates had been speaking about the tragedy of her recent life, but it was all behind her back. Honest and open sympathy was much more preferable to that.
Still, the pity was clear in some of their gazes.
Why is it bothering me so much? They keep looking at me as if I’m not a person. As if I’m so much weaker because of all this, weaker than they are… It’s… really starting to eat away at me.
Those condescending gazes didn’t see her as a person who was capable of moving past her loss. They seemed to think of her as someone who would be permanently broken, someone who might even quietly fall off the face of the world after all the sympathy dried up.
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Some of those pitying people were legitimately surprised to hear that Samantha was still quite dedicated to her studies and still doing well in school, even better than they were. She hopes that those people mean well towards her, but some of them truly seem to believe themselves above her now.
Some of it might have been jealousy too, the fact that even though Samantha had lost her parents, she was still a top class student and someone who was friends with the most popular girls in school.
Maybe I’m just imagining it. It’s not like they think they’re better than me now because their parents are still alive, right? I… hope so… Mom always says that it’s difficult to get anywhere if you secretly expect the worst in people, but…
Samantha had noticed a disturbing trend specifically among the girls in Ava’s inner circle. Though she had truly come to like them based on their lives on social media and their in-person attitudes towards her, their pitying looks towards her only increased.
There is this perpetual distance that is constantly being maintained between her and them recently. For now, she actually prefers the distance.
The longer she hung around them, the more she realized that they truly seemed to think of her as a pitiable little broken doll. She didn’t know if they were doing this on purpose but they really started to tiptoe around her and her circumstances. They stopped being able to talk to her normally. It was as if they were constantly watching her through the lens of her dead parents.
It was unsettling. She really didn’t like it. She eventually started to view Ava’s friends as extremely self-righteous and condescending. Just yesterday, one of them asked Samantha if she was “fine. Like, really fine?”
They each made a point to ask her that exact same question privately and, every time they did that, they really made it look like they were looking out for her wellbeing.
She didn’t know how to handle attention like that. Maybe the first couple times they approached her this way, she would feel comforted but the repeated sympathy is just…
This morning, Ava’s best friend, a beautiful blonde girl named Madison Carter, actually told her, “I’ve been so impressed and proud of how well you’re handling this tragedy… Sigh, if it were me, I would be completely broken… Ava is such a sweetheart for taking you under her wing, while you weather this storm.”
“Yeah… I’m lucky to have her.”
Are all of Ava’s friends just not capable of having independent thoughts!? What the hell is with that tired cliche at the end there? ‘Weather this storm’!?
Samantha took a deep breath as she saw Ava approaching her and the rest of her friends. They probably would remain her friends and not Samantha’s. She just couldn’t get over their attitudes. Meanwhile, Ava had a bright smile on her face as she saw Samantha.
“How do you think you’ll do on today’s English test? I think I’m well and truly fucked but I would like to hear what the group’s genius feels her chances are… Sam, you alright?”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m great.” Samantha said, her smile beaming.
At least Ava isn’t like the rest of them… Honestly, it’s like she’s the only person I’ve talked to since my parents died who treats me like a real human being.
However, this was the problem. This was what Samantha would not see until it became too late. Ava was not someone who treated Samantha as a human being. She was the worst one of them all.