I don't know anything about SMDL unless you meant Southwest Michigan Digital Library or SMDL Query Designer User Interface, but I highly doubt it[...] i also wonder what is SMDL ;( [...]
Anyway, let's put the jokes aside. Maybe you meant SDL or SFML ? Both are quiet useful and straightforward multimedia libraries commonly used by beginners and not only to make games/applications. Both of them work natively with C++ ( not sure about SFML though ) and both of them support popular programming languages. Though bare in mind they require some knowledge to be used.
As most of people advise - don't try to learn C++ as your first language unless you have lots of enthusiasm and lot of time that you can spend on learning and practicing. OpenGL which Karsten_ suggested is fairly low-level library same as DirectX and you SHOULD NOT try to approach it without solid fundamentals of programming and some CG terminology knowledge, but it's just my opinion.
Unity could help you to grasp the concept of game development workflow in more of a fun, visual way with high-level programming, which should be quiet easy and make you confident enough to go on lower level. It's fair way to get involved too.
You have quiet few of the ways to start and every one of them is as good as the others, so just pick something you think would be fun. As I said earlier, the first pick barely matters as it will all get much clearer when you'll have more experience.