Samantha Harper wasn't fond of academic courses. She was an art major and couldn't wait to share her graphic color strokes with the world. She'd have to get better first, and science and math classes weren't going to cut it, according to her. Struggling to receive her college degree to fulfill her lifelong dream, she dreaded English composition. Her father, Mark Grayson, was the writer in the family.

"Now then," Mr. Kahoun announced, "research paper is due after spring break."

The students groaned.

"That gives you a couple of weeks. You may pick any subject that isn't news related."

"Whaaaaaaat?" Josh Goodman shouted out. "What are we supposed to do then? If it's not news related, does that mean it's not true?"

Laughter erupted, but Sam kept a straight face. Josh was her best friend, and he had taken the words right out of her mouth.

"Joshua, please. It can mean researching a certain TV show or music group."

"Oh, biography related?" Josh asked. "That's news, sort of."

Mr. Kahoun glared at Josh before complimenting his example. "Biography related is a good way to explain it, but you can also research a breed of dog, how a certain business got off the ground, or your family tree."

Samantha's face lit up. She had been working on her tree for a few months and was becoming obsessed with it. She already knew many things about her mother's childhood and was working on more. She was suddenly interested in this assignment.

"What I don't want is politics, murder, crap that we see every night on the news."

A couple of people giggled.

"Do you understand now?" "Yes, sir," Josh said.

"I do want everyone to run their idea by me first, though."

Students started rambling to each other on what they wanted to write about.

"I'm doing how the show Breaking Bad started out. That show is badass!" Stan Bradford called out to Mr. Kahoun.

"Can we research how pizza originated? I wanna do that!" Melissa Williams asked.

"Sure you can," Mr. Kahoun approved. "But do this quietly, people!" He clapped his hands. "You may come up and let me know privately what you are interested in researching if you wish. I will say this, though: the more in depth your paper is, the better the grade." He went on to explain the word count and what all had to be instructed.

Samantha was so excited. Her father hadn't been able to help her much, since he didn't know her mother that well, but maybe now he would put more effort into it. Her mother, Rebecca, had had a one-night stand with her father and had never seen him again. When Rebecca had died in a car accident after Sam turned sixteen, Sam had had to live with her father. She had known who he was, and her mother had answered all the questions that she could about Mark Grayson, but he had been a stranger to Samantha. She hadn't even talked to him on the phone, let alone live with him. It had either been that or go into child protective services, though, and she had begged her father not to make her resort to that kind of life.

She was more like her father, and he could tell when they met. They had the same dark, naturally curly hair, and they shared the same interests. He loved art, but she was the one who had pursued it since freshman year in high school. He went on to write for the local newspaper and had his own column. He loved museums as did she, and he had taken to her right away. He lived miles away from where Sam grew up, so she had had to leave her friends behind. It hadn't been too bad, since she was more of a loner. She wasn't part of the in crowd, so she never got invited to parties or school dances. Growing up, she had spent most of her time inside, drawing or painting by numbers.

Rebecca had worked two jobs and had done her best to provide Samantha with necessities. Rebecca had also helped save up for Sam's college education. Sam had basically been on her own until her mother was off of work on the weekends. Saturday had been their night for dinner out or a movie.

Her mother had basically been her best friend, and Samantha had been devastated when she was killed. A semi truck driver had fallen asleep and went over the median, killing Rebecca instantly. Sam had been experimenting with pink hair dye the night she found out. When she met her father at the small gravesite service, she could tell he was shocked at her appearance. Seeing her dressed in black like a goth with pink hair had made him cringe, but once he had gotten to know her, he had seen more. In fact he had felt that he was looking into a mirror.

"So what are you going to do?" Josh asked Samantha after class.

"Duh, what do you think?"

"Oh, your family tree, I take it?" he said, jokingly. "Nice! You will be even more obsessed now!"

Samantha had spent time at the library, looking up old records of her mother's past, but she had found out that her mom's side was so much harder to find than her father's side. Last names changed so much with females, but her mother had kept her maiden name, Harper, which led Samantha to find information on her grandmother Rita Ann, who was married to an Anthony Harper for a short time. Rita's mother was Beth Adelman, and that was the furthest Sam had gotten. She found some information on the Adelman side but none on Beth's family. On her father's side, on the other hand, Sam had found ancestors dating back to the 1700s.

"Yeah, and now I'll have more time to do it! I've been wanting to look into my mother's old neighborhood. You know, where she started school?"

"You mentioned that," Josh said.

"I want to get the feel of her old house and where she went to kindergarten. She never told me anything about her childhood when she started Lotus school, but I have the phone number."

"That's out of the way. You'll need a weekend at least to arrange it. Didn't that school close anyway?"

"Yes, a few years ago, but I want to see if I can take a tour of it. I also wanna see if I can stay up there. Maybe at a hotel or something. Dad will help me. He said he would do all he could for my family-tree search."

"A hotel? Why not just drive back and forth?"

"My Festiva isn't the best vehicle, not to mention it's forty miles away."

Josh stopped walking and looked into Sam's deep-blue eyes. "Well, be careful. And I had plans to get you drunk and stupid for spring break." He laughed, showing that he was joking.

"You wanna come with me?" She hoped he'd say yes. She had been developing a crush on Josh since they graduated high school. He had been a nerd with a bowl haircut who made her laugh and then later transformed into a nice-looking guy with sandy-colored hair and broad shoulders. He had changed but not on the inside.

"Like a spring break trip? In a hotel? Just the two of us?" he asked.

Sam stood there in the hall with students chattering all around them, speechless.

"I can't, Sam. I gotta research the origin of the basset hound."

She giggled, continuing to walk toward the door. On their way out, he said good-bye, and she went on her way home to let her father know she would be taking a small trip to do some digging.

* * *

"Are you sure you're up to this?" her father asked when she broke the news to him later that day.

"Of course!" She had all of her family-tree printouts from Ancestry.com. "This is a dream of mine, and I wanna do it."

"Okay, that's fine with me, but just be careful up there for a week or two. Nobody's going with you?"

Sam...