S.C.A.T. College Bk. 01 Ch. 15 & 16

As she rubbed the lather down to her the tips of her locks, she felt her heart soar thinking about hearing Sam's voice when she had been in the deepest, darkest corner of her mind. Anna had desperately wanted to shout and scream and hug and let her know she was helping. Sam had stayed... She hadn't shunned her or sighed and stomped off. She hadn't even tried to shuck the responsibility of getting her cleaned up.

She could see it in her memory, the punky girl sacrificing getting totally clean herself to make sure that every last bit of shit and puke had been washed away. The gentleness of the cloth across her skin. The way that she wrapped her arms around her body to hold her up, while Laura had washed out her hair. The whispers in her ear of I got you, babe.

Anna looked up at the ceiling, smiling...

All of a sudden, she remembered the lyrics to one of her favorite songs from a year or so ago. It was one that was on an album she had listened to in those days when she had been applying for scholarships... when she had been compartmentalizing the final vestiges of her darkness and building up the fortifications around the fortress that had been her mind up until yesterday.

With a wider smile, she came to the realization that the lyrics applied to how she was feeling perfectly. She felt herself basking in the feelings that were now flowing through her mind, without even a tinge of evil or darkness to them.

Taking in a deep breath, she felt her chest swell with acceptance and love. She began humming the music, and then felt something in her chest open up. With a light gasp, she felt her mind rebuild a connection to her throat and lungs in a way she hadn't felt in almost 6 years.

It was something that she had forgotten about, buried it under the weight of her trauma. The smile widened more as she noticed that she was humming perfectly in tune with the music she was remembering. It meant she had found her perfect pitch again. She also felt her synesthesia, the ability to see sounds as colors, start to rebuild itself inside her mind, now that there was no darkness to drown out the rainbow.

Her vision filled with red, blue, and green hues as she hummed. She almost jerked when the final connection between her mind and her body settled back into place, long lost and dearly missed. It made her smile so wide that her face threatened to tear apart.

She took a deeper breath, and for the first time in a very, very long time, knowing that she was finally able to do it again...

She started to absolutely sing her heart out.

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Sam was watching a video on her laptop, a guide to Atlanta's greatest and favorite dating spots. She was writing down some notes on paper when something caught her attention. Right there, at the edge of her hearing, behind the narrator's voice... it sounded like... singing?

Pausing the video, she waited to hear it again, and a moment later, she heard a gorgeous, perfectly on pitch voice singing. It was powerful and filled with emotion, feeling natural and melodic. She pulled out the other earbud, craning her head, trying to figure out where it was coming from... because whoever it was, they were fucking good!

She walked out of her room, determined to listen down the hallway to find out who to compliment with a note slipped under their door. That was when the voice amplified into a strong end of a verse, and it took her all of a quarter second to realize that it was coming from the bathroom... where Anna was taking a shower...

"No. Fucking. Way!" she breathed, an astonished smile crossing her face.

"They riiise..."

Sam's jaw nearly hit the floor at the sheer power behind the words as her love swung into what must be a chorus.

"Memories through noiiise...."

She wasn't stuttering at all, she wasn't even wavering a single bit. She was rock steady. Sam's jaw dropped further open at the purity of her singing voice. She carefully walked over to the bathroom door.

"The souuund of a voiiice....."

"Holy shit," Sam whispered, then opened the door as quietly as she could.

"That left me with no choiiice..."

Now without the buffer of the door, Anna's voice wasn't just melodic, it was loud and clear, even vibrant. Not screaming, not stretching, but fully developed and amazingly on pitch, the air coming through her chest with weight behind it. It was the kind of voice that any band would hire to be their frontwoman in an instant, and it flowed like pure silk from her girlfriend's throat.

"Blood swell and pulse in / Waves crash in / I give in / Forever..."

Sam felt her heart skip a beat at the amount of sheer emotion in her voice.

"I'm Youuurs!"

"Anna?"

"EEEP!" came the surprised yelp. A moment later, the shower curtain pulled back a little and Anna stuck her head out, hair lathered up, with a bashfully shy grin on her face. She was blushing a lovely shade of red, looking ridiculously cute. "Um... was I t-too loud?"

The punk just stood there for a few seconds, an amazed smile on her face.

"You... can sing," she finally said, closing the few steps to the shower, taking Anna's face, slippery with shampoo suds, in her hands. "Holy fucking shit, you can sing sing! Like... just... Wow! Not only that... your voice was... is... beautiful."

Blushing harder, Anna glanced down shyly.

"I just... I came to the realization that I f-feel a lot b-better about everything n-now," she lifted her eyes to meet Sam's, then gently tugged up at the punk's shirt. "It made old t-things I liked to do settle b-back into place where they had been pushed aside b-by the pain b-before..."

Getting the hint from the repeated tugs, Sam pulled her shirt off, then dropped her pants and underwear. With a look of love and desire, Anna took a step back to give the punk room to hop into the shower with her. She slid around the brunette, letting the water soak into her hair and run down her face and chest, before turning to face her love.

"Y-you keep saying that you fucked up yesterday," Anna said, taking Sam's hand, "b-but... I've come to t-think that you didn't."

Sam gently turned her around, and started to stroke the suds of the shampoo deeper into her long hair, getting an appreciative sound from Anna. It had not escaped her that the stutter was far less prominent now, but she kept mum on that fact , wanting to see if it was the singing or that her geeky girl was genuinely feeling better about herself that caused it.

"How do you mean?" she asked, curiosity in her voice.

"You... by... w-when I broke down, I was f-forced to work through every memory, every repressed t-thought, every emotion, t-that I had locked away," the brunette said, her voice surprisingly happy and strong talking about such a dark subject. "I... wasn't equipped up here," she tapped her head, "b-back then to pro-process it all... but now? I... have accepted that it is part of me, b-but it's not who I am anymore."

She turned around, sliding her arms over Sam's shoulders and clasping her hands behind her neck.

"I don't have to be d-defined by the trauma, the pain, anymore. I've moved on from those times. I'm here now... with you...and I don't think I would w-want to be anywhere else or with anyone else. You s-s-stayed with me yesterday. You listened and supported this m-morning..." she then smiled with the single cutest look on her face the punk had ever seen. "I fucking love you, Sam."

She pulled Sam in for a deep and loving kiss, feeling the lithe arms wrap around her and hold her tight.

"I was singing because you... y-you helped me make t-that peace with myself, and I just suddenly re-remembered how to do it. I loved to sing a lot as a kid, it was just my way of having fun and staving off boredom. It was y-your support, your strength that I b-borrowed through your touch and your words yesterday and this morning that let me accept m-myself as who I am now. So... I s-sang a song that r-reminded me of... well, um, you."

"So," Sam said, smiling as they touched foreheads, staring deep into each others' eyes, "is this one of those emotionally dysregulated things where it's overwhelmingly happy? And... that song was... about me?"

Pulling the punk in for another kiss, Anna nuzzled herself in tight and whispered into her ear.

"Yes."

Author's Note: If you want to listen to the song referenced in this chapter, search for "Dynazty - Yours." It's a metal ballad that I use pretty much as Anna's "theme song," if my characters had theme songs :)

Chapter 16

Sam gently exhaled her lungful of smoke, leaning against the wall outside the dorm. She flicked her thumb across the butt to release the ash from the tip as her hand went down beside her hip, feeling the buzz crawl up into her brain and settle in. Unlike last Monday, there were a ton more students coming and going, with backpacks, laptop bags, or binders carried like they were hugging a teddy bear. She smiled at that thought, then shook her head as she couldn't imagine what doing a full semester's worth of work in one week would be like.

It was block week.

Finally.

She leaned her head back against the wall, taking another drag on the smoke, holding if for a few seconds in her lungs. Smirking, she exhaled, watching the blue and grey mist of happiness waft into the air and dissipate. She enjoyed the mild rush as it settled over her brain again, if just for a moment before it smoothed out.

Both she and Anna had received their course confirmations and schedules for the first semester earlier in the morning to their student emails. Sam was doing Business & Marketing as she wanted to start her own company, or get a good position at a marketing agency. She already had a decent grasp of the basics from advertising her services in the past. She still had no idea which of her hundreds of ideas she'd actually do as her business, but that's why the marketing part was also there as a backup.

Anna was the more peculiar choice, one that Sam had neglected to ask about the entire past week. She was focusing on Transportation & Logistics, pursuing a government career with disaster relief programs like FEMA. It was a noble goal, and a viable career too, but it also meant that they wouldn't even be on the same side of the campus during the day. They had this week off, and then next Monday, the actual start of regular classes.

She smiled wider as a familiar bespectacled face exited the girl's dorm, looked around for a moment, spotted her, then split into a smile. Anna walked over, sliding her arms around Sam and kissing her rather passionately on the lips.

"A public display of affection?" Sam joked, cupping one of her girlfriends' cheeks. "Who are you and where is my Anna?"

"I'm r-right here, silly," she replied, plucking the cigarette from Sam's fingers and taking a decent drag, exhaling off to the side politely as she handed it back. "Damn, that feels g-good. Better, even, than before the weekend..."

After sharing the shower yesterday, they had snuggled on the couch, just chatting about everything and anything.

They had gone over some of the spots that Sam had found from the video or that Laura had recommended, making date for Tuesday to go to one of the parks that she had suggested. Westside Park was apparently the largest park in Atlanta, so they'd have a lot of pathway to walk along. Anna had also found out that Sam had a mild interest in ornithology, and they were going to also try to take pictures of as many birds they saw as they could, making it a fun little field trip as well as a romantic walk.

They had talked about Anna's geeky hobbies, such as reading through multiple books of a series in science fiction and fantasy in one go, burying herself in the story, or her love for gaming. That was something that Sam had guessed her girlfriend would like to do, but she had no idea of how much she loved to game.

With a finger held up in a one second gesture, the brunette had rummaged around in one of her rubbermaid boxes that were in her closet. Moments later, she had come out of her room carrying her old PlayStation 4 with a stack of games piled on top. The massive grin and her eyes shining behind her glasses showed just how much she loved to play.

Anna had then proceeded to absolutely annihilate Sam in pretty much every game. Fighting games, racing games, co-op platformers, it didn't matter. Sam couldn't help but smile... she had never been good at fighting games, but she did enjoy the platforming games and action adventure games. She was fairly sure that there would be many nights in the coming semester where she and the geeky girl would snuggle on the couch, playing together or watching the other play.

They had also made their peace with the speed of their relationship and sexual appetites the week before. Sam had been feeling pretty shitty about how fast she had pushed Anna to try things, experience things, but the brunette had still immediately forgiven her. After taking both her hands, she had said that they could consider the week before as getting all the lust out of the way, and they could now experience the romantic side of things.

"You know, I know smoking is 'bad' for you," Anna continued, air quoting around the B word, "but I think I'm okay w-with being a bit more... regular with it."

"Because it stops your stutter? Or because it means you get to spend more time with me?" Sam asked with a smirk.

"How about both?" Anna replied, then kissed her girlfriend lightly on the lips. "Can't a girl be in love and also be a 'bad girl' at the same time, hmm?"

"Anna, remember," Sam chuckled, "sex talk is for the evenings."

"Oh, I'm not talking about sex... at least, not exclusively," the green eyes narrowed naughtily.

"Suuure," the punk laughed, then wrapped her arm around Anna's shoulders. "I already know that you, Little Miss Innocent, are a very, very bad girl. At least with a strapon or strapless between your legs... hoo boy, you are a weapon with one!"

"Yay! My plan is working," Anna laughed back, then nuzzled against Sam's shoulder. "It's going to suck being on opposite sides of campus during classes. But, I'm okay with it because it makes meeting back up in the evenings all the more..." she bounced her eyebrows up and down twice, heavily suggestive, "s-special."

Sam put a finger to Anna's lips with a smile.

"You keep up talking like that, I might actually call a pause on our little pact and show you just how many toys I have in my little chest of wonders in my closet," her eyes shone with mischief.

Anna blushed, then nodded, kissing the tip of Sam's finger. She then gave it a tiny little bite with a fierce but adorable expression on her face before laughing.

"You are so fucking cute," Sam giggled.

"If you say so," Anna winked. "I happen to t-think you're the cuter of us two... Buuut my opinion might be slightly skewed from the fact that you're my girlfriend."

"No, no bias there at all," Sam laughed, taking one last drag on the smoke before flicking it to the ground, crushing it out with the toe of her shoe. When she looked back up at Anna, she saw the smokey bedroom eyes that were looking back, the two emeralds shooting lasers at her, and felt her heart skip a beat.

"Hey now," Sam said, feeling a little color rise in her cheeks from the sheer sensuality that Anna was displaying. "I am getting 'I need to fuck you right now' vibes... not that I mind... but no talking about fucki-"

"We agreed no talking about it," Anna said, a smirk tugging up one side of her mouth, her eyes sparkling. "Nothing was agreed about facial expressions or acts of kink around each other."

"... Fair point," Sam had raised a finger to counter Anna's statement, until she realized that they had not agreed to anything else other than not talking about sexy things during the day. "You slippery little bitch..." she whispered, smiling wide. "Where the hell did this naughty as fuck part of you come from, hmm?"

She yanked Anna forward by her waist, getting a giggle from the brunette before planting a long kiss on her lips.

"I've always had it, it's just a bit more present now that I'm not so weighed down with... myself," Anna said, licking her lips to savor the kiss as she wrapped her arms around the punk's neck. "So, what's the plan for today?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Sam admitted. "We could go for a walk, we could stay in and watch a movie, or you could embarrass me again on the PS4... we could do any one of a hundred things."

She looked at Anna, looking her up and down. T-shirt, jeans, boots tucked under the flared boot-cut bottoms. She still had more than enough money from her camgirl shows and proDomming before she had come to Atlanta...

"Aha! I know exactly how to start this week off, especially with what's coming," Sam snapped her fingers with a smile. "Do you need anything from the room before we go?"

"Go?" Anna said, confused, but shook her head no. "Go where?"

---------

"You're kidding," was all Anna said.

Sam had a playful smile on her face, gesturing at the store they had just entered. It was the same footwear and leather store that they had visited last Tuesday, before all the shenanigans started. Hell, even the cute goth cashier, Lucy, beamed a smile at them as she recognized them. Taking Anna by the hand, she led her to the boots along the back wall.

Anna was about to stop at the knee high section, but the tugging on her hand made her follow Sam down a bit further to the over-the-knee section. Then to the thigh boot section. Then to the kinky thigh boot section, where the punk finally stopped, turned around, and gestured at the wall.

"Any pair you want, I'll buy for you," Sam smiled.

"This is... too much," Anna gawked at some of the price tags.

"Well, let's run down the checklist," Sam said, holding up her hand as if it was a notepad, mimed pencil in her other hand. "Looks awesome in leather: Check. Has learned how to produce a command voice: Check. Has done things from both ends: Check. Can sing like an angel: Check. Owns the heart of Samantha McCoy: Check. Loves boots: Check. Need I go on?"

She lowered her hand, then took hold of both of Anna's as the brunette giggled and shook her head no to Sam's question..

"Remember, you have your little meet up on Wednesday," Sam said softly, just for her. "Any Domina worth her salt needs a pair of thigh boots, otherwise what would your little boy toy have to lick and polish? After you stomp on his dick a few times and kick it for good measure, that is..."

Anna hung her head with a smile.

"No sexy talk, remember," she giggled, lifting her eyes to look at Sam from under her brows with a massive grin. "You're not going to give up on t-this easily, are you?"

"Nope," Sam grinned. "Besides, I have more than enough from my work before I came here to almost be able to buy this entire wall, so pick and choose which pairs you want to try on. Let's get this show on the road!"

Anna stepped back, looking up and down the types of boots in front of them. There were some that were obviously meant to be walked in daily, with suede uppers and chunky heels. There were a few high fashion names on the wall, including a ridiculously priced pair at almost $3,000. Then there were boots that were either meant to be worn for very special events or in the bedroom, as some of them had straps around the shaft, others had lace up backs or sides, and even a few PVC pairs were up on display.

"Um," she said, rubbing her thumbs and index fingers against each other, "I really... d-don't know what kind to g-guh-guh-guh-"

She winced and turned her head away.