The next day, Mat left his house as usual (he was wearing a red shirt with white stripes and blue pants). He went for a walk looking for something to do so he wouldn't get bored. He walked through the streets for a while, saying hello to one person or another.

image [https://i.imgur.com/gJMq8H5.png]

As he walked, he met a boy older than him. He had orange hair, and it was a little long on the left side (it reached his eyebrow... According to my drawing, it's like that on both sides). He was wearing a yellow T-shirt and a black long-sleeved polo shirt underneath, along with black pants. This one came up to him and said:

"So you're Mat, huh?"

"...Huh?" he replied in confusion.

That same day, Samantha also decided to go out. She went to look for Mat to talk to him about anything; she didn't care about the subject, but just chatting with him and having a good time was enough since he was, according to her, the first person who enjoyed her company and didn't ignore her.

As she was walking along, she came across something that surprised and frightened her. Andrew, her brother, was chatting with Mathias as they walked to a game center. She hid to see what they were going to do next.

*Wait, what is he doing with Mat? I-It can't be... Is he also wanting to take my only friend away from me? No...*

That's not how it works... I think.

"Ah!"

Samantha tripped over a stone. She didn't notice it because she was distracted in her thoughts. She didn't fall.

Let's see... What are they going to do?

"I'm going to follow them." She said, and so she did.

Samantha's thoughts a moment ago were due to something that happened in her short life. Samantha Reagan was the youngest of three siblings (whose names were Andrew and Christopher). Their father was the CEO of one of the largest and most successful oil companies in the country. This caused his children to feel an eagerness to be like him or surpass him. His siblings excelled at this, so to speak. They excelled academically and, in addition, were excellent athletes, but the one who stood out the most was Christopher, who demonstrated a physique and intelligence superior to the rest.

Samantha also looked like she was going to be better, so to speak, than the rest, but... When she went to school for the first time, her performance was equal to that of her classmates, although she, before going to class, proved to be capable. By capable, I mean that she seemed to be similar to her siblings in those areas: she learned to read at the age of four, she knew how to multiply and divide (up to two digits), and she could read long books (she read several classics).

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not be equal to her siblings, who surpassed her in everything. Sam became depressed because of that (and almost always withdrew from her classmates, which made it difficult for her to make friends), and her parents didn't notice because they paid more attention to their other two children.

The only people who paid attention to her were her maternal grandparents, whom she was currently visiting during summer vacation.

Her grandparents did love her, but she still felt that they did not appreciate her as they did her siblings.

One of those days, she asked her grandmother for permission to go out, who was surprised by the request but, after thinking about it for a while, agreed.

Already on the street, Sam started to wander around while looking for something interesting to do, and if she could, meet someone and be friends.... Well, she really just wanted to see how the other kids interacted with each other, to see if she could emulate the same to make friends.

At that, in an alley, she saw a group of kids surrounding another one and.... You know what happened.

That was also the first time Samantha felt happy, as she was finally able to make even one friend.

Back to our thing, after a long while....

"Wow." Andrew exclaimed in surprise.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"You're very good." he replied, smiling. They were playing Pong.

"Really? This is my first time playing it."

"Is that so? It doesn't look like it; you beat me very easily..." Andrew answered, surprised. "But never mind, let's go."

"Let's play some more."

"Ok."

After playing for half an hour more (while they talked about other things), they went out. Already outside...

"Brr..." Andrew shivered.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" asked Mathias, a bit scared.

"Err... I just felt a chill." he said to Mathias, and then, turning around, he said to himself. "That means... So there she was-.... Wait, you were following us?"

Andrew said this to Samantha, who was hiding behind a pole (he could see her).

"Yes, and what are you doing with Mat?"

"...Well, I wanted to talk to Mat, since I saw that you two went out yesterday. I thought it was weird that you wanted to go out alone two days in a row, so I did the same as you, I followed you. I wanted to meet him too, that's all."

"W-Why?" Samantha whined. "Why is it always like this?"

...What's going on? thought Mat.

"Why are you and Christopher always like this, always outdoing me in everything?" she was almost crying; she got down on her knees.

"Hey... They're looking at us... Don't do that. Hey." said Andrew.

"And now you want to take away my only friend!"

"What?" Andrew and Mat exclaimed in surprise.

They were silent for a few seconds while Samantha cried. At that, Mathias said out of the blue.

"But I don't think he's capable of doing that."

"Y-You too?"

"It's not that. He's a good person; he wouldn't do something like that. One of the things he told me is that he didn't like to be his older brother's shadow. He also told me that his sister always looked sad and he thought it was for that very reason, but he didn't know what to say to her and it frustrated him.... Phew..." Mathias said quickly.

"H-Hey, why are you telling her that? I didn't tell you so you can just tell it like that!" Andrew reproached him.

"She's my friend, and so are you, right? Why wouldn't I?"

"You are a...! Agh. It doesn't matter... Huh?" Andrew turned to look at Samantha, who was crying harder.

"I-I... I didn't know..." a lot of things went through Sam's mind, and she hugged her brother, crying. "Andrew... Did you really feel the same way I did? I'm sorry..."

"No... I'm sorry... For not doing anything despite seeing you sad. I'm so sorry..."

What, his name was Andrew, and he was Samantha's brother? ...What did I just see? Mat thought.

"I'm confused." He said to himself, with a goofy grin.

.

..

...

After that, the relationship between the two improved superlatively, thanks to the fact that our protagonist is dumb and doesn't know when to shut his mouth.

The two of them also tried to be closer with Christopher, but he... Well, let's just say he's not good at reading other people's emotions, since he ignored them.

But hey, at least Sam and Andrew are closer now.