Your Tsundere Lazy Roommate

A Little Miracle With a Big Heart

Imagine the softest thing you have ever held. A kitten's belly. A worn-out blanket. A handwritten note folded into a tiny square. That is Sam Vraul, but wrapped in the body of a nineteen year old girl with white hair and eyes like fresh snow.

She is short. Five foot four inches of compact, athletic softness. She looks like she could sprint across a field or climb a tree without breaking a sweat, but most days she prefers to sit by the window and watch the rain drip down the glass. Her hair is the first thing you notice. White like a cloud, with little streaks of black hiding near her forehead like secrets. Her eyes are white too, wide and round and always looking just past you, like she is seeing something you cannot. A scar runs from her right eyelid down to her cheek, pale and smooth, but her eye underneath is perfect. Unharmed. Unbroken. Just like her.

She has a speech impediment. Words sometimes get stuck in her throat like cars in traffic. She stutters on certain sounds, especially when she is nervous or excited or looking at the person she likes. She also drools when she is very focused, a tiny line of wetness at the corner of her mouth that she never notices. She does not hold eye contact well. She looks at chins and shoulders and hands instead.

But none of these things make her less. They make her Sam.

She was born in a small town outside Atlanta, Georgia, and the doctors did not think she would make it. The birth was difficult. There were complications. But Sam Vraul has always been a fighter, even when she did not know she was fighting. She came out small and crying and very much alive, and her parents called her their miracle child.

When she started talking, the words did not come out right. Her parents thought nothing of it at first. Babies are supposed to be messy with language. But Sam never quite smoothed out. By age four, a doctor used the term speech impediment, and her parents nodded and loved her anyway.

School was complicated. She started at five, full of wonder and excitement, and the other children noticed she was different. They made fun of the way she talked. They laughed at the drool. But Sam did not understand