InsaneJournal

zombiephile

Both Robert Campbell and Pamela Wright grew up in Bon Chance, Louisiana. They were high school sweethearts, and they went to college together. After graduating from college in 1990, they got engaged. Just under a year later, on Valentine's Day 1991, they were married. That December, their first child, a daughter they named Samantha Nicole, was born. She was followed shortly by another daughter, Rachel, and two sons, Andrew and Tyler. Robert and Pamela were devout Catholics, and all four children were baptized in the Catholic church as infants. They wanted more children, but Pamela suffered a series of miscarriages from 1997 through 1999, and her doctor cautioned her against further pregnancies.

As the oldest, Samantha (who started going by Sami from a young age, because she couldn't pronounce her full name, and it just stuck) was given more responsibility to help Pamela with her sister and brothers. When Pamela got a job as a bank teller in 2002 after Tyler started kindergarten, ten-year-old Sami helped the babysitter around the house, entertaining her siblings, lending a hand in the tidying up of the house, and even helping out with the preparation of dinner. She was always sweet and charming about it, not minding that she was helping take care of her sister and brothers instead of spending time with her friends. After all, she saw her friends at school, and she still got to play with them some after school and on the weekends, too. And, of course, she had friends at church, and she was already volunteering there, even at ten.

From the time she could talk, Sami was like a budding lawyer. She managed to work out larger allowances and later bedtimes for herself and her siblings, and assisted the others in their admissions to their parents whenever they broke the rules or anything. She never counseled any of them to lie, but instead to be straight-forward and honest. A family friend was the first to suggest that she would make a great lawyer, and Sami took to the idea immediately. It sounded like the best idea in the world. She had always liked to have a plan, so she immediately started doing the research (at eight years old) on what she would need to do to become a lawyer. At twelve, she was researching what colleges were the best for what she wanted to do. She didn't want to be a criminal lawyer, that seemed like it bred dishonesty. Instead, she wanted to do something with environmental law.

Once she reached high school, she immediately gravitated toward both Mock Trial and the Debate Team. They were exactly what she needed, to help hone her skills as a budding lawyer-to-be. But at the same time, she didn't want her grades to slide (Yale, which she had decided was The College For Her, wouldn't want someone with sub-par grades), so she worked hard and, in her first two years of high school, never got anything less than an A- on anything. She had to sacrifice some of her social life in order to make time for everything, but her closest friends were also involved in some of the things she was -- her best friend Ted was on the Debate Team with her, and her friend and neighbor Ben went to her church -- so she still got to see her friends, and she made new friends through Mock Trial and Debate, as well as through the volunteer work that she did through the church.

In the summer of 2008, Sami got a job as a waitress at Danny's Steak Shack, to help save up money for college and buy the occasional things that her parents didn't consider to be "necessities." She is positive that she'll find some way to balance her job, classes, Mock Trial, Debate, and volunteer work, without her grades or performance anywhere else studying. The one thing (other than classes and volunteer work, of course) that she certainly wouldn't give up, no matter what, is Mock Trial. Through the extracurricular, she has learned to put aside the "just say the complete and honest truth," or at least tempered it with a bit of lawyer-ese, learning how to phrase things such that they're not lies (and, in fact, still more honest than most other budding lawyers in Mock Trial), but that will more bend the truth. She is one of the best lawyers in the group, and as such was rewarded with being chosen as President of the club for her Junior year. She also has an impeccable record not just in the Mock Trial court, but also outside of it.

Most people only know Sami through one (or both) of two things: the budding lawyer who has advertisements for her services during the morning announcements, and the quiet girl who's often found actually studying during study hall. Well, around school, anyway. She certainly does seem to be spending most of her time either studying or working on a "case" for one of her classmates, either as part of Mock Trial or as a "freelance" lawyer (or even relationship counselor, which she finds herself doing at times, as well). Through it all, she remains a sweet, charming young woman who is diplomatic and always fair: she only takes sides if it is necessary, as it often is during Debate and Mock Trial, but even then she'll fairly listen to the other side's point of view and arguments before launching into why the side that she is representing is the better one.

Thanks to her deep-rooted faith, Sami is quite an uncomplicated girl. Although she does her best to help her "clients," ultimately she knows that judgement is left up to God (or the Judge, in the cases of, well, trials), and whatever is meant to happen will happen. She has her own deep-seated worries, but she tempers them with constant reminders that whatever happens, it was probably meant to have happened.

Sami is one of the nicest girls around. She has a very long fuse, it takes a lot to really get her angry. She is, however, a rather stereotypical girl: she has a tendency to be very emotional, and she sometimes cries (or at least tears up) over little things. It's something that she knows she has to work on, since crying in the courtroom is a pretty big no-no. But sappy commercials, TV shows, and movies are pretty much guaranteed to make her cry. On the flip side, it's very easy to coax a smile or a laugh out of her, since she's a very friendly girl who prefers smiles to frowns. She doesn't get frustrated easily, but when she is, she'll be a bit short with anyone around, though she does try to stay polite. Sometimes, she doesn't really understand why some people just don't care about grades, or think that the rules or laws just plain don't apply to them.

1. Although all of her career plans require her to leave Bon Chance, she is actually terrified of leaving. She's never been outside of Louisiana [possible change to this, if Debate or Mock Trial ever took her somewhere], and she's afraid of what would happen if she failed. She has told nobody this, not even her closest friends.
   
2. She dreads the day that she will have to choose between her morals and her career. She hopes it will never happen, but she is realistic enough to know that law isn't exactly the most moralistic of career paths.
   
3. She sometimes wonders what it would be like to just be a "regular" high schooler, if she just skipped class or blew off her homework or smoked pot behind the cafeteria (she's just assuming that that's where the "bad kids" smoke pot). But anytime she even entertains the slightest notion of doing any of those things, her stomach ties up in knots and she starts blushing, and (positive that she would get caught and punished and her perfect record would be ruined) she chickens out.

1. I'd love to put her into an awkward situation where she's forced to keep some kind of dark secret for someone else, and she has to debate with herself as to whether to break the friend's confidence and tell someone else, or to keep the secret and try to help them out herself.
   
2. Especially because of her "she'll have time to date when she's a successful lawyer" thing, I'd love to have her develop a crush, requited or not, and maybe even try to fit in dating among studying and stuff.
   
3. I would love it if she could strike up a completely unconventional friendship with someone who seems to be her complete opposite, someone who might just be able to get her a smidge closer to thinking about cutting class one time.

counsellor

I really like this SchoolLink idea! It's certainly a great way to really get to know everyone else. Of course, I can just imagine how quickly gossip will spread on it.

Of course, it does provide an additional venue for me to advertise my services. If you ever find yourself in need of an unofficial lawyer to help you with any troubles you might be having with the administration or the law, or any relationship woes, Samantha Campbell is here at your service, and I am happy to help any of my fellow students. No case is too small or too large. You can reach me through e-mail at samantha.c@gmail.com, or via phone at 985-562-3849.

I am so excited for the new school year to start. How about you?