Family friends provide guardianship, home for Centennial Hills teen

Samantha 's uncles always had her back, but when she was in the spotlight, they were front and center .

"Here it was her school's Spring Spectacular and she's a freshman, and we're taking up the front row," uncle Tony Arias said. "The seniors' families were all somewhere behind us."

The 16-year-old Centennial Hills resident is set to celebrate Father's Day in triplicate Sunday. The men who were lifelong father figures and "uncles" - Lloyd Ziel and his housemates, couple Tony and Scott Arias - took in the teen, who wished to withhold her last name , when times became tough for her mother. The transition as a "modern family" has been one of love and laughter, Tony Arias said. The childless men said the adjustment was seemingly effortless for Samantha and less so for them.

"There was a lot of logistical talk before she moved in," Ziel said. "We had to talk furniture and where she would do homework and (make) a schedule to drive her to school and buy costumes for school."

There have been some bumps in the road. Tony Arias laughs retelling the story of singing in the church choir and surveying the crowd from his perch.

He looked to Scott and then Ziel and realized "Sammie" wasn't present, he said.

"We forgot her," he said. "It was easy to get going down those steps and out the door and forget there is another person in the house . And she doesn't drive yet."

Tony Arias and Samantha recently dotted the city, visiting about 20 stores to compile her required costumes for a school performance, he said. He also was present for a separate bra-shopping endeavor.

"It's a process," Tony Arias said. "But we're not having panic attacks about it."

"We think differently now," Scott Arias said.

The men, who are business partners and own a production company, are longtime friends with the teen's mother. Samantha calls them each Uncle.

"When I met her, she was in a (baby) basket," Scott Arias said.

Samantha grew up in a two-bedroom condo, she said, with her mom and brother. Her mom became financially incapable of supporting her daughter about a year ago, Tony Arias said. She asked about two months ago if the uncles would care for Samantha.

"Out of all our family, she trusts them the most," Samantha said. "She asked me and double-checked. I didn't have a problem with it. They make me feel comfortable here."

Samantha's 23-year-old brother Roger also lives in the spacious Centennial Hills duplex, dubbed Rhinestone Manor .

"I remember coming here for pool parties and falling asleep in one of the rooms," Samantha said. "I'd always hang by my brother. But it was fun."

Although Samantha keeps in weekly contact with her mother, steps have been taken to assign one of her uncles as a legal guardian.

"We made it clear this wasn't a layover," Scott Arias said.

"We wanted her to feel she was grounded," Tony Arias said.

Seven housemates share the space, and Samantha has her own room and bathroom, a first for the teen.

"She's never had a space to call her own," Ziel said. "We don't want to spoil her, but we want to give her things she may otherwise lack."

Samantha slept on a couch for much of her life and said she never felt comfortable hosting guests. At Rhinestone Manor , she has her own bed with a trundle bed underneath meant for future sleepovers, she said.

She painted her room two hues of gray and is looking for the perfect posters of her favorite Korean boy bands to cover the walls, she said.

The atmosphere around the house is light, she said.

"At my old place, it wasn't happy and fun," she said. "Being here, with how loving they are, it has been great. My uncles make me laugh."

Samantha, an incoming sophomore at a private school , is an honor roll student and a member of the show choir. For the choir's Spring Spectacular , Tony Arias got up early to snag front-row tickets to support "Sammie" and record the milestone on video, he said.

"Every time I looked at them, I would make a mistake," Samantha said. "So I tried to look at the back wall."

Ziel had Samantha jot down memories on the back of the playbill, he said.

"She wrote that she had fun and she was proud to have us there taking pictures ," Ziel said. "I don't think she's had a support like that."

Samantha is unsure how she'll mark Father's Day , but she said she treasures her uncles' kindness.

"It's nice coming home to a happy place," she said. "I don't know what I would do without them."

Contact Centennial and North Las Vegas View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.