The story that went nowhere, help take it somewhere!!!

[dolphinologist]

I'm new to Gaia. I'm a friend of Vulpexia. So... I have a story that I started ages and ages ago, but it didn't get very far. So I'll be posting it on here in sections. PLEASE make comments and suggestions (especially plot-wise). I love constructive criticism, so let me have it!  

[dolphinologist]

Chapter 1
“Samantha!” her aunt called up the stairs, “Wake up!”
Sam rolled over, still groggy and frustrated with her aunt and her insistence on calling her Samantha.
This was how her days always began. She hated being called Samantha and as far as she was concerned her name was Sam.
Sam’s parents had died a couple of years ago in a fire that burned their cottage in the countryside to the ground. Now she lived with her aunt and her cousin on the outskirts of a village called Entana.
Sam rolled out of bed, got dressed, purposely not putting anything on her feet because she knew it annoyed her aunt, and walked down the cold stone spiral staircase and through the hall into the kitchen.
“Samantha, why didn’t you put on your shoes?” asked her aunt Liz in an annoyed voice as she saw Sam's bare feet.
“Cause I didn’t feel like it.” she replied, smiling to herself when her aunt looked away again.
She sat down at the empty seat at the table: which was unfortunately next to her cousin Veronica. If there was anything that Sam loved to hate more than her name it was her cousin. Veronica was always bragging about something, after a year or two it was enough to drive anyone nuts.
Veronica is your typical stereotype prep, blond hair, blue eyes, and of course very pretty. Sam is subjected to endless teasing from her cousin because of the way she looks. Sam doesn’t really care how she looks (or what people think of her); she just puts on whatever is clean and pulls her long brown hair onto a ponytail, which happens to be a crime of great magnitude as far as Veronica is concerned.
It was the usual light conversation over breakfast. The talk was, of course, centered around Veronica. Her cousin was going on and on about some boy that she was obsessed with, and what she wanted for her birthday next week.
The clock in the living room chimed ten o’clock. Sam realized that if she didn’t hurry up she would be late. Every Saturday morning Sam and her friends met in the square. Then they would wander off into the woods sparing with their swords and practicing their archery along the way to an abandoned fort where they hung out all day, coming back only just in time for supper.




Comments and suggestions please!!!  

[dolphinologist]

Sam ran down the hall and climbed the stairs two at a time. When she got to her room she pulled open the door and ran to her trunk. She unlocked it and threw open the lid. Inside was her sword, her bow and quiver, full of arrows, and her bag.
She grabbed her sword first and buckled it around her waist. Then she strapped her quiver on her back and slung her bag over her shoulder. She hastily put on her boots. Then she picked up her bow and ran down the stairs, almost tripping from the added weight, and into the kitchen. She threw her bag on the table and took a couple of sandwiches from the fridge. She hastily stuffed them into her bag and quickly shouldered it. She bolted through the door, slamming it behind her. She ran - she would have sprinted but it is very hard to sprint with so much stuff - down the path and into the village square where her friends where waiting for her by the fountain.