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John had been adamant that it wasn’t his fault. But so had Sam, and Sam had always been good at wrapping Mr Nolan around her little finger. And John… well, ever since getting kicked off the football team, he’d been in Mr Nolan’s bad books.
Mrs Nolan, on the other hand, looked at Sam like she didn’t believe her. And John smirked at the way Sam seemed to cower under her glare. Mrs Nolan had never been fooled once by Sam’s put on pout, which John was still of the opinion that it made her look ridiculous. He wasn’t fooled by it either, and actually preferred her standard sour look. At least he knew what he was in for with that.
Mrs Nolan turned her glare onto John and he quickly wiped the smirk off his face, but not before she had seen it.
“And what, young man,” said Mrs Nolan, her voice low and threatening and now John found himself cowering next to Sam on the couch (he was even contemplating using her as a human shield, if she wasn’t so damn small, that was), “do you think is so funny?”
“Nothing,” said John quickly.
“See,” said Sam sullenly, “I told you it wasn’t my fault.”
“Silence!” Mrs Nolan barked and Sam quickly clamped her mouth shut. “Now,” she said more reasonably, now that she was sure neither one of them were going to interrupt. “I want you both to tell me exactly what happened. And no arguing,” she added when both of them opened their mouths to do just that.
Eight hours earlier…
“Hey, Sam?” a voice whispered behind her, but Sam ignored it. “Sam,” the voice repeated a little more loudly.
Sam continued to stare straight ahead, focusing on the boring lecture Mr Hennen, their history teacher, was currently giving them about something do with… well, Sam had no idea. She wasn’t listening. Mr Hennen’s monotone voice was so boring she wouldn’t be surprised if he had put himself to sleep on more than one occasion.
“Sam,” the voice hissed behind her again and Sam gritted her teeth as a balled up piece of paper hit her in the back of the head.
“What?” Sam snapped, turning around in her seat to glare at the tall gangly girl who liked to call herself Root (for reasons that she had neither divulged to Sam and for which Sam did not care to know one bit.)
“Do you want to have lunch with me today?” Root asked innocently, but the bright smirk on her face kind of betrayed her tone.
“No,” Sam said flatly, turning back around in her seat. Mr Hennen hadn’t even noticed their conversation, too enthralled by his own voice.
“Oh, come on,” Root said seductively in her ear as she leaned across her desk. “I’ll give you my chocolate pudding.”
Sam bit her lip in thought, but really, what was there to think about? An extra chocolate pudding… Sam wasn’t about to pass that up. Especially not when John had made her miss breakfast that morning because he had decided to have an hour long shower - like, seriously? What the hell was he doing in there? Making the soap? – and the growling of her stomach kind of outweighed her annoyance in this instance.
“Fine,” said Sam, but made sure her voice sounded like she wasn’t happy about it, like she was the one doing Root a favour. “But you’re not allowed to talk. Just sit there. In silence.”
Root smiled wickedly and Sam wasn’t sure if she liked the look on her face.
“Hey,” said a voice from their right, “how come you never offer me your chocolate pudding?”
Sam rolled her eyes.
“Because nobody likes watching you eat, Lionel,” said Root.
Lionel scrunched his face up in confusion.
“Besides,” Root added mockingly, “don’t you have hall monitoring to do?”
Sam snorted at Lionel’s affronted look. Root had been teasing him about his extra-curricular responsibilities ever since he had been roped into volunteering. Mainly because Lionel tried so hard to be one of the cool kids and always seemed to fail so miserably. And hall monitoring definitely was not cool.
“Would you guys shut up,” a voice snapped behind them. “Some of us are trying to learn here.”
The three of them glanced sheepishly behind them only to be met with one of Joss Carter’s ultimate death glares. Sometimes they were even more spectacular than Sam’s, especially when they were talking loudly in Joss’ favourite class. Which was all of them, Sam realised, now that she thought about it.
Joss continued to glare at them until they turned around with their mouths zipped firmly shut, shooting Lionel an extra disapproving look just for good measure, like he should know better, and he ducked his head down, pretending to be fascinated by his textbook. Joss had been acting as Lionel’s sort of mentor since she had “encouraged” him to join the hall monitoring team with her. Although he wasn’t exactly her first choice. That had been Sam, but she had outright refused. She was not giving up her valuable lunchtime, especially not when she would have to listen to Joss Carter nattering in her ear for an hour.
*
John stalked up the hallway, pushing past the other students as he headed straight for his darling little sister. John slammed the homework clutched in his hand against her locker, closing it so abruptly that the entire thing shook. But Sam didn’t even flinch, just stared up at him with her eyebrow raised innocently.
But John didn’t fall for it. He never did.
“You want to tell me why I got an F on my math homework?” John asked through clenched teeth.
Sam shrugged and shoved him out of the way so she could get access to her locker again. “I dunno… maybe because you didn’t do it?”
“No,” John seethed, “you did it. I gave up my last Snickers for an F?”
“You bribed me into doing your homework, John,” said Sam, cramming a textbook from her locker into her bag, “not into doing it correctly.”
“It was kind of implied,” John hissed and Sam just smirked at him, slamming her locker shut.
“Do your own homework in future, John,” she said smugly.
John opened his mouth to say something but got distracted by the sight of Zoe Morgan walking past him with her clique of friends. John smiled dumbly at her as she walked past and liked to pretend the little quirk of her lips was just for him.
“Never gonna happen,” said Sam.
“What?” John stuttered, eyes still on Zoe’s retreating form.
“You and the most popular girl in school,” said Sam as if he were stupid. “It’s never going to happen.”
John scrunched his nose up in annoyance. “It could happen.”
Sam snorted. “Yeah, maybe when you were still on the football team. But now you’re just a big dumb loser like everyone else.”
“You’re a loser,” John retorted, knowing it was a lame comeback, especially when Sam rolled her eyes at him.
“Oh god,” John groaned, looking past Sam at the girl sauntering towards them. “Your weird friend is coming over.”
“She’s not my friend,” Sam muttered hurriedly, not even needing to look behind her to know who he was referring to.
“Hi, Sam,” Root said cheerily and John resisted the urge to snort at the look of disgust on Sam’s face. “Hey, Lurch,” Root said to him, not nearly as brightly, as though John were some gross bug she had stepped on with her shoe. John realised too late that he was still holding his math homework for everyone to see and he sighed inwardly as Root smiled widely when she saw his grade. “Still struggling with the basics, huh?” she said, fingering the complicated calculations that had a big giant red cross through them. John quickly folded the sheet away and shoved it in his pocket. “Do we need to go over what two plus two is again? I know you struggle to count to more than ten, what with having only ten fingers, but you could always use your toes.”
John felt his nostrils flare as Sam snorted and he had the sneaking suspicion that this was the only reason she tolerated Root.
“Whatever,” John muttered.
“Oooh, great comeback!” said Root sarcastically.
“I’m going to lunch,” John snapped and stalked past them both in annoyance.
*
“He’s so fun to mess with,” Root said breezily as she followed Sam down the corridor.
“Didn’t I tell you not to talk?” Sam grumbled.
“But we’re not at lunch yet,” Root pointed out. “You said I had to sit in silence. Right now we’re walking.”
Sam gritted her teeth and didn’t push her on it. There was no point really, Sam thought, as they rounded the corner and entered the cafeteria.
Sam stood in the lunch queue, pointedly ignoring Root, but she just carried on talking regardless. They had almost reached the front of the line when Leon squeezed his way in between them.
Sam glared at him as he stepped on her toes. “Do you mind?” she snapped.
“No, not really,” said Leon. He glanced warily at Root for a moment before turning his attention to Sam, lowering his voice as though that would prevent Root from hearing him. “So, um, have you heard this rumour that’s been going around?”
“What rumour?” Sam asked, wondering why he was acting so shifty.
“Well, I heard from that Japanese exchange kid,” said Leon, glancing around him to check to see if anyone was listening to their conversation, “that apparently someone managed to steal all the test answers for every subject for the entire year.”
Sam rolled her eyes.
“You haven’t heard anything about that, have you?” Leon asked. “Because I think this is a goldmine opportunity. My business suave, your … well,” said Leon, clearing his throat slightly. “Well, you’d be the muscle in case someone didn’t pay up.”
Sam narrowed her eyes at him and Leon started to recoil slightly.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to believe in rumours?” Root muttered in his ear and Leon jumped.
“Hey, no one was talking to you,” Leon said snidely. “So what do you say, Sam?”
Leon looked at her expectantly. Sam looked at him like he was an idiot.
“Go away, Leon,” said Sam exasperatedly and moved up the line to pay for her lunch before he could say anything more.
Sam scanned the cafeteria for an empty table and spotted one at the back. She headed towards it quickly and knew that Root was probably following dutifully behind her. Sam slid into a chair so that her back wasn’t to the rest of the room. She didn’t like people sneaking up on her.
Root slipped into the seat opposite and wordlessly handed Sam her chocolate pudding which Sam snatched from her hand almost immediately in case Root changed her mind and decided to make her work for it a little harder. Root kept up her end of the deal and didn’t say a word throughout the entire meal, just sat silently and watched as Sam ate, whilst she herself only picked at her food.
It wasn’t until Sam had licked the last bit of chocolate pudding off of her spoon that Root opened her mouth.
“Skip classes with me this afternoon,” said Root.
Sam frowned. “I have biology this afternoon.”
Root rolled her eyes. “So skip biology with me then.”
“I like biology,” said Sam and didn’t like the thought of missing a lesson. It was her best subject.
“Maybe we can do our own biology lesson,” Root suggested with a smirk, the tip of her tongue sneaking its way out of her mouth slightly. “You can teach me all about human anatomy.”
Sam swallowed, not missing the suggestive quirk of Root’s eyebrows and wondered if she was being messed with again. She could never really tell. Which was why she preferred having her lunch in silence whenever Root decided to join her.
“No,” said Sam bluntly. Root’s smirk dropped to a slight smile and Sam wondered briefly if that was disappointment she could see in Root’s face. But Root quickly hid it and glanced to the side.
“What’s your brother doing?” asked Root.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” said Sam, stacking her empty plate on her lunch tray.
“Since when does he hang out with those guys?” said Root, her voice now turning slightly curious and Sam found her own curiosity outweighing her indifference.
Sam glanced over to where Root was looking and saw John sitting at a table, surrounded by a group of boys that, a few months ago, he wouldn’t have been seen dead with.
“Do you think they’re up to something?” Root asked distractedly, still staring at the other table.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” Sam lied and decided to take advantage of Root’s preoccupation. “So how long have you been stealing test papers?”
“W-what?” Root stammered, whipping her head around. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Sam snorted. “Please, you’re the only one who got an A on Hennen’s stupid test. Well, apart from Joss,” Sam added. She didn’t think Joss had ever got anything below an A- in her life.
“I like history,” Root said unconvincingly.
“Nobody likes that stupid class,” said Sam. “Well –”
“Apart from Joss?” Root finished with a smirk.
But Sam didn’t let her try and change the subject and she sat back in her chair, staring at her pointedly.
“Fine,” Root sighed. “What do you want?”
“How did you do it?” Sam asked.
Root shrugged. “The school’s computer network has abysmal security.”
“You hacked it?” said Sam, trying not to sound impressed.
Root smirked. “It wasn’t exactly difficult,” she said and casually shrugged her shoulders. But Sam could tell she was pleased with herself.
“Why didn’t you take Leon up on his offer?” Sam asked.
“Please, that incompetent idiot?” said Root, fingering her fork lazily. “I’d rather not get caught by the principal, thanks.”
“What makes you think I won’t shop you in?” Sam asked and Root smiled brightly.
“Because you want something from me,” said Root and Sam glanced away to make sure no one else was listening in to their conversation.
“You may be good at stealing things from the virtual world,” said Sam quietly, leaning across the table so that Root could hear her. “But how are you at stealing things from the real world?”
Root smiled wickedly.
*
“Okay, gentlemen,” said John pompously, “it’s time for Operation: Get Zoe Morgan To Go On A Date With Me.”
“Seriously?” said Lionel sceptically. “That’s what you’re calling it?”
“Yeah,” agreed Michael, “shouldn’t it have some sort of code name?”
“This isn’t the CIA,” John snapped.
“Ooh, how about Operation: I’m A Big Dumb Loser And Zoe Morgan Is Never Going To Go Out With Me In A Million Years?” Jason suggested.
“Nah, to obvious,” said Lionel and quickly wiped the smirk off his face when John glared at him.
“Operation: Pining My Life Away?” Daniel said absently as he moved one of his pawns on the chess board in front of him, causing Harold to frown down at his own pieces in thought.
“Are you guys going to listen to my plan or what?” John asked in annoyance and they all shut up. John was pleased to have their rapt attention as he went through the details of his plan, but wasn’t sure what to make of their dumbfounded faces when he had finished.
“What?” he said.
“Really, John?” said Harold sounding so much like an old man that John wanted to roll his eyes. “I really must advise against this.”
“Thank you for your opinion, Harold,” said John, “but I’m going to ignore it.”
“Um,” said Leon, “I have a question.”
John sighed heavily.
“You know we’re the biggest losers in the entire school, right?” He glanced around the table, but the others just nodded in agreement. “Why are you asking us for help?”
“Because,” said John tightly, “who else would be stupid enough to help me?”
*
Sam glanced at John’s table as she exited the cafeteria, Root still hot on her heels. She wondered what they were all hunched over discussing so intently, but knew that John would only yell at her to go away if she went over there. Besides, she could always pester one of the boys for information later. They were all more scared of her than they were of John anyway.
They bumped into Joss on their way out and Sam groaned inwardly.
“Hey, Sam,” said Joss, “do you want to walk to biology together?”
“Not really,” said Sam. She liked Joss, for the most part, but that didn’t mean she was willing to have her ear chewed off constantly. But Joss didn’t take her reluctance seriously, just smiled knowingly and then glanced warily at Root and the look she was giving her. “Hello,” she said tightly. Even though Joss and Root couldn’t stand each other (actually, thought Sam, most of the school couldn’t stand Root) Joss was always overly polite. With everyone.
But Root just smirked at her and they all whipped around when they heard a crash from behind them.
Lionel was lying flat on his face; his empty lunch tray had gone flying out of his hands and broken crockery lay about him haphazardly. Sam didn’t need to ask to know what had happened. Simmons’ smirk and outstretched foot kind of answered that question.
Joss rushed over and helped pull Lionel to his feet, glaring at Simmons. “I can give you a detention for that, you know,” she threatened Simmons.
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Simmons crowed and disappeared down the corridor with half the football team in toe, laughing their asses off.
“Someone should really do something about that asshole,” Sam muttered.
“I’m telling the principal,” Joss said scathingly, brushing off Lionel’s clothes as he turned bright red under all her fussing.
Root snorted. “What’s she going to do?”
“Well, what would you suggest?” Joss snapped.
Root shrugged. “I dunno… break into his locker and put dog faeces in it?”
Joss looked at Root like she had grown another head. “What is wrong with you?” she said, looking like a cross between horrified and disgusted.
But Root just smirked and disappeared off to her next class, Joss staring after.
“Your friend is kinda weird,” Joss said.
“She’s not my friend,” Sam muttered and began walking in the direction of the science labs, knowing that Joss would follow her.
“Then why are you always hanging out with her at lunch?” Joss asked.
“I’m not always,” said Sam sullenly. Sometimes she had lunch with Mike. But most days he had stupid AV club and Sam would rather not touch that with ten foot pole. So she suffered Root instead.
“Whatever,” Joss muttered.
They lined up outside of the biology lab and Sam tried to ignore her as Joss attempted to engage her in conversation. She let out a sigh of relief when the door opened to let them in and hurried inside.
Mr. Hersh, their biology teacher, cornered her almost immediately. “Bones of the hand?”
Sam recited them off dutifully without hesitation, not stumbling over a single one.
Hersh grinned. “We’ll make a doctor out of you yet, Sam,” he said proudly and Sam tried to hide her smile.
Joss stormed past her and threw her bag on her lab bench. Joss had always been a bit bitter about Sam being better at biology than her (as well as being Hersh’s favourite). Joss was top of the class in every subject apart from biology and Sam knew that it annoyed Joss that her perfect record was marred by Sam’s skill in the subject. But Sam didn’t care all that much that she was top of the class. All that she cared about was getting the grades to get into med school.
Mr Hersh disappeared up to the front of the class to write up today’s lesson on the board as the rest of the class shuffled in. Sam jumped slightly when Root suddenly appeared at her side, but quickly masked it as her taking her backpack off.
“What are you doing here?” said Sam in annoyance. “You don’t take biology.”
“I got that thing you asked me for,” said Root, smiling at her smugly.
Sam’s eyes widened and she quickly checked no one was listening and spotted Joss staring hard at her textbook and knew she was eavesdropping.
“Not here,” Sam hissed, but Root slipped something into her hand anyway. Sam quickly hid it in her bag before anyone could see it. “How did you get it so fast?” Sam asked, sounding impressed despite herself. But Root just continued to smirk at her.
“Um,” said Mike, who had just appeared beside them. “You’re in my seat.”
Root glanced at him, but didn’t look like she was about to move anytime soon.
“Are you going to tell me what you need that for?” Root asked Sam, completely ignoring Mike as he hovered over them awkwardly.
“No,” said Sam, wishing Root would just go away before they got caught.
“Can I at least help?” Root asked and Sam knew she was going to keep pushing until she got what she wanted.
“Fine,” Sam snapped when she saw Hersh moving towards them.
Hersh frowned down at Root in confusion. “You’re not in this class.”
“No,” Root agreed. “Must have took a wrong turn somewhere,” she said breezily and quickly left the lab before Hersh could comment.
“Hurry up and sit down, Mr Cole,” Hersh snapped and Mike quickly took his seat, looking abashed.
*
John elbowed Harold in the ribs to get his attention.
Harold ignored him.
John did it again and this time Harold sighed heavily.
“Do it now,” John muttered.
“We’re supposed to be reading Macbeth,” said Harold, turning the page deliberately.
John rolled his eyes. “I’ll watch the movie. Come on, do it now.”
“May I remind you,” Harold began, still staring down at the book in his hands, “that your plan is riddled with flaws.”
John scowled.
“And that I would rather not be a part of it,” Harold continued.
“Come on, Harold,” said John, trying not to whine. “You’re my best friend. I need you to do this for me.”
“As sincere as that sentiment sounds,” said Harold, “my answer is still no.”
“I’ll play chess with you at lunch,” said John.
“I play chess with Daniel at lunch,” said Harold.
“Fine,” said John, sighing resignedly. “I’ll join your stupid chess club.”
Harold smirked. “When you put it so eloquently…”
“Harold,” John warned.
“Fine,” Harold sighed. “I’ll do it. But if she catches me…”
“She won’t,” John assured him, failing to mention that he himself would be making sure that he was long gone if that happened. “Okay,” said John, glancing around the room. “Wait for my signal.”
John quickly scribbled something into his notebook and tore the paper off, folding it haphazardly before tossing it over to Daniel on the desk behind him. Daniel then passed it to Jason at the desk opposite him. John glanced over his shoulder and watched as Jason read the note, then nodded an affirmative when Jason looked up.
Jason stuck his hand up in the air and waved it about to get the teacher’s attention.
“Yes, Greenfield, what is it?” said Mrs Segel.
“May I go to the bathroom please?” asked Jason.
“You were just at lunch,” the teacher complained, but Jason just shrugged at her and she sighed in annoyance. “Fine go, but be quick.”
Jason hopped out of his seat and as he was making his way down the aisle of desks he “accidentally” tripped and fell into Kara Stanton.
John nudged Harold to get him to move and Harold bent over and reached out an arm to Kara’s bag as she started complaining loudly about Jason being a clumsy idiot (although her choice of words were much more colourful) attracting the attention of the entire class so that no one – besides those who were in on the plan – knew what Harold was doing.
“Miss Stanton!” Mrs Segel snapped and Kara eventually dwindled down her tirade and sat back in her seat, arms folded in a huff. “Greenfield – go. Just go.”
Jason grimaced and sprinted out of the room as Kara continued to glare at him.
John smirked when Harold slipped what he had stolen from Kara in his hand. “Nice work,” John muttered.
Harold shrugged as if it were nothing.
*
“You’re late,” Sam complained as soon as she saw Root.
“Sorry,” said Root, not looking sorry at all, “I got held up after class.”
“Whatever,” said Sam. “Are you ready?”
“Ready for what, exactly?” asked Root following Sam down a corridor. But Sam didn’t answer her, just double checked no one else was around to see where they were heading. When she was sure the coast was clear, she headed down towards the science labs and stopped outside one of the chem labs, pulling the key out of her pocket that Root had stolen for her earlier.
“This had better be the right one,” Sam said as she tried it in the lock.
Root leaned casually against the wall next to the door. “Don’t you trust me?” she sing-songed.
“Not really,” said Sam absently as the door unlocked and she pushed it open slightly.
Root smiled smugly at her. “Told you I could get it.”
“Whatever,” said Sam and slipped inside the lab, Root following closely behind.
“So what are we doing in here?” Root asked, picking up a test tube off of one of the benches and playing with it idly in her hands.
Sam headed for the chemical storage closet and used the key to unlock it too. “Just a little experiment,” she said, running her hand along the bottled chemicals as she read the labels. She found the two she was looking for and carefully took them off the shelf and carried them back into the lab.
Root hopped up onto one of the benches to watch her work. Sam tried to ignore her, but failed, finding she didn’t like the way Root’s eyes bore into her back.
“Hand me that beaker,” said Sam, gesturing to Root’s side.
Root sighed, jumping off the bench and grabbing the beaker up. “What’s your experiment?”
“Do you have to ask so many questions?” Sam complained.
“Do you have to be so evasive?” Root countered and smirked when Sam snatched the beaker out of her hands and placed it on the bench.
Sam lifted one of the bottles she had retrieved from the store cupboard and pulled it’s stopper off, pouring a decent measure into the beaker.
“What’s hydrazine?” Root asked, lifting up the other bottle and reading the label.
Sam snatched it off her. “It’s a reducing agent.”
Root looked at her like she didn’t know what that meant but didn’t ask. “What happens when you mix it with nitric acid?” she asked, glancing at the other bottle.
“You’re about to find out,” said Sam tightly and moved to open the bottle of hydrazine.
“Wait,” said Root, placing a hand on Sam’s arm to stop her. “Safety first,” she said, grinning as she produced a pair of safety goggles.
Sam rolled her eyes and snatched them off her, shoving them on her face and gesturing for Root to stand back. Sam poured a few drops of hydrazine into the beaker. Nothing happened.
“Put more in,” Root suggested.
“No,” said Sam. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Maybe you need to heat it?” Root said, turning on one of the gas taps.
“Stop touching that,” Sam snapped, batting Root’s hand away and not seeing how she deftly reached an arm around her to nudge Sam’s hand into pouring more hydrazine. The mixture immediately started to fizz and bubble over the top of the beaker.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Root asked, not sounding concerned.
“You idiot,” Sam hissed, grabbing Root by the arm and pulling her over to hide under another bench.
After a few moments of nothing exploding, Sam chanced a peek. The beaker was still intact where she had left it, but its contents were now all over the bench and the floor.
“I think the acid wasn’t strong enough,” said Sam, feeling a bit disappointed at the anti-climactic end to her experiment.
“Is this what you do in your free time?” Root asked. “Make explosives?”
Sam shrugged. “I thought it would be cool.”
Root smirked at her and Sam thought she might be trying to humour her a little. “It didn’t totally suck.”
Sam narrowed her eyes. “Whatever, let’s get out of here.”
Sam stood up, but quickly threw herself onto the floor as the door to the science lab opened.
“What –” Root began, but Sam put a hand over her mouth to shut her up and they both froze at the sound of footsteps.
“What the hell,” someone complained and Sam recognised the voice as Mr Hersh’s. If he caught her in here, messing with the volatile chemicals… she didn’t want to think what he would do about her med school application. He’d be furious. Not mention her foster parents, who would go ape shit if they found out.
Root tugged her hand away and peered over the bench. “I think he’s gone,” she whispered.
“But he’ll be back,” Sam hissed.
Root just looked at her smugly. “This way,” she said, grabbing Sam by the wrist and dragging her to one of the windows. Root opened it wide and gestured for Sam to climb through. Luckily, the science labs were on the ground floor and Sam made a quick escape, Root not far behind her.
“That was fun!” Root said brightly as they strolled casually across the football field. “We should do it again sometime.”
Sam snorted. “Which part? The not so high end explosives or almost getting caught being somewhere we shouldn’t be?”
Root shrugged. “Both.”
Sam opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by the sound of an engine roaring. Sam glanced behind her only to find a car ploughing towards them, tearing up grass as it sped across the football field.
“What the f-” Sam began.
“Is that your brother?” said Root, but Sam didn’t answer her, too busy shoving Root out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.
Sam landed on top of Root with a groan and it only deepened when she caught the devilish smirk on Root’s face.
“I’m pretty sure that car was nowhere near us,” said Root, quirking her eyebrows suggestively at the way Sam’s body was pressed against hers.
“Shut up,” said Sam, embarrassment turning her cheeks red, “it totally was.”
Then she realised she was still lying on top of Root and quickly jumped to her feet only to be met with the sound of a large crash as the rampaging car ended its journey by embedding itself into the chem lab they had just vacated.
5 minutes earlier…
“Hey, Zoe,” John called, hurrying to catch up with her.
Zoe turned around and shot him a confused look. “Do I know you?”
“It’s John,” said John, feeling affronted that she didn’t recognise him. “John Reese. I used to be on the football team.”
“Oh,” said Zoe, “right.”
“Anyway,” said John, clearing his throat awkwardly when Zoe said nothing else. “I was wondering if you wanted a ride home?”
“You have a car?” Zoe asked in surprise.
“Yes,” said John slowly, clutching the car keys in his hand so tightly his knuckles turned white.
“Great,” said Zoe brightly. “I just need to get something from my locker. I’ll meet you out front?”
“Uh, sure,” said John, surprised that his plan was actually working. He caught Harold shaking his head at him out of the corner of his eye, but John decided to ignore him because his plan was working and he was finally going to be going on a date Zoe Morgan.
“Incoming,” Leon coughed as he hurriedly walked past John. John glanced behind him and saw Kara Stanton storming down the hallway.
“Shit,” John muttered and ran for the exit.
He found the car in the parking lot and hopped in, staring the engine quickly. John struggled to change gears because… well… he’d never exactly passed his driving test and he let out a manly (yes manly) yelp as the car shot forwards suddenly.
John continued to struggle with the gear stick and frowned down at it in annoyance. When he glanced up, he had somehow ended up on the football field. John belatedly realised that he should probably take his foot off the pedal that seemed to be making the car go faster, but by that point he was pretty sure he had just almost ran over his sister and her weird friend and suddenly the school building was looking a lot closer than it had a few moments ago.
The car came to a sudden halt as bricks and mortar pounded off the roof and hood and John coughed as dust went up his nose. John tried the driver’s door but it was stuck, so instead had to climb into the back seat and get out from there.
He was still coughing and trying to get dust out of his eyes when Sam stormed towards him, the look on her face clearly saying that he was an idiot. Which, considering he had just attempted to drive a car when he couldn’t in fact drive, did make John think she had a valid point.
“John Reese,” Kara yelled, running towards him across the football field, “you piece of shit! What did you do to my car?”
“Oh no,” said John.
“You’re an idiot,” said Sam.
“I think the car might be on fire,” said Root.
“I’m going to kill you,” yelled Kara and quickly changed direction as John tried to run away from her.
Sam and Root followed them but they both ignored John’s pleas for help as Kara launched for him.
All four of them froze suddenly when there was a large explosion behind them and the chemistry lab went up in flames.
Kara was the first to recover and she went right back to punching John in the arm as hard as she could as he struggled to fight her off.
“Well it’s better late than never,” Root muttered with a smirk, staring gleefully at the flames and Sam elbowed her in the ribs to shut her up.
“Miss Stanton!” a voice yelled. “That is quite enough.”
“Oh shit,” Sam muttered.
“Control,” said Root and quickly wiped the smirk off her face.
Control was the school’s principal, but everyone called her Control because of the way she so easily controlled the entire student body (and most of the staff) without breaking a sweat and, sometimes, without even needing to say anything.
Kara immediately straightened and tried to look innocent.
“Mr Reese,” said Control, giving him a withering look, “and Miss Shaw. Why am I not surprised the two of you had something to do with this.”
Sam and John looked at each other and knew they were in big trouble.
*
“And that’s when Kara tried to hit me again,” John finished.
Mr and Mrs Nolan stared at them both with their mouths hanging open.
“Jonathan, why do we let them out of the house?” said Mrs Nolan faintly and sat wearily down on a nearby armchair.
“You’re lucky not to have been expelled,” Mr Nolan snapped.
“I’ve told Kara’s mother that we’ll pay for the car,” Mrs Nolan said and John knew he’d be paying for that one in quadruple chores.
“What about me?” said Sam cautiously.
Mr and Mrs Nolan looked at each other.
“Well, according to your principal,” said Mr Nolan, “a Samantha Groves came forward and admitted that she left the gas taps on in the lab.”
Sam frowned.
“You had a lucky escape, young lady,” said Mrs Nolan, staring at her sternly. “You’re grounded. Both of you. For a month.”
“But you can’t do that,” John protested. “I have a date with Zoe tomorrow night.”
“Tough!” Mrs Nolan barked and sent them both to their rooms.
Both of them reached the doorway at the same time and there was a bit of a kerfuffle as they both tried to shove the other one out of the way. Sam brought the heel of her foot down hard on John’s toes and he yelped (still manly) and she quickly ran past him before he could retaliate.
At the top of the stairs, Sam paused, waiting for him to catch up.
“Hey, who the hell is Samantha Groves?” she asked.
John stared at her as if she were stupid.
“What?” said Sam.
“Seriously?” said John. “You don’t know who she is?”
Sam shrugged.
“Your weird friend,” said John. “You didn’t think her real name was Root, did you?”
“No,” said Sam sullenly. She had just never been interested in finding out her real name. “Wait,” she said as John made to close the door of his bedroom. “How do you know her real name?”
John shrugged as if it were obvious. “She lives next door to Harold. Apparently she’s always stealing his dog or something.”
John slammed his door shut and Sam went into her own room, thinking that sounded exactly like something Root would do.
One week later…
“Ugh,” said Sam in disgust as she left her last class only to find John sucking face with his new girlfriend. “Do you have to do that up against my locker?”
There was a sucking sound as John and Zoe pulled apart that made Sam want to barf. John smirked at her as he shuffled Zoe down a bit so Sam could access her locker.
“Still can’t believe you managed to get her to go out with you,” Sam muttered under her breath as she opened her locker, but it was drowned out by the sounds of John’s moans as Zoe pressed against him harder.
“Seriously?” Sam snapped, knowing he was doing it on purpose just to annoy her.
Someone cleared their throat and John and Zoe pulled apart reluctantly.
“I think you’ll find that’s a hallway violation,” said Joss, flashing them both her hallway monitor badge.
John scowled and grabbed Zoe by the hand, dragging her into an empty classroom.
“Thanks,” said Sam once they had gone.
“No problem,” said Joss watching as Sam emptied her bag into her locker. “Do you want to sit with us at lunch today?”
“No,” said Sam quickly.
Joss smiled at her as she started to walk away. “Okay, well… you know where we are if you change your mind.”
Sam was pretty sure she wasn’t going to change her mind, but didn’t tell Joss that and she slammed her locker door shut, nearly jumping when it revealed Root leaning casually on the one next to it.
“Where the hell did you come from?” Sam snapped and straightened the strap of her bag in an attempt to appear more casual.
“My week’s suspension is up,” said Root by way of explanation. “So here I am.”
“Oh,” said Sam. “Right.”
Sam cleared her throat awkwardly when Root didn’t say anything else.
“Uh, about that,” Sam began. “Thanks for not dropping me in it with Control.”
Root shrugged like it was no big deal. “I was the one that left the gas on.”
“Yeah, but,” said Sam, “I’m kind of the one who tried to make explosives in school. I’m pretty sure you can go to juvie for that.”
Root smirked. “Probably,” she agreed.
“So, uh… thanks,” said Sam again and felt more awkward when Root continued to stare at her. Sam cleared her throat. “Why did you, by the way? Not tell on me to Control, I mean?”
Root glanced at her feet before looking up at her again. “A suspension on your record isn’t going to look very good on your med school application, now is it?”
“Oh,” said Sam, more than a little surprised. “Probably not.”
“Anyway,” said Root, pushing herself off the locker and starting to move away from her. “I’ll see you around, doc.”
Sam clenched her teeth in annoyance at the nickname, but when Root winked at her over her shoulder as she walked away, Sam couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips.
It quickly disappeared though, as soon as she realised that Root would probably be looking at this as some kind of favour. And now Sam most definitely probably owed her one.
Sam decided that that could only possibly end in tears. Or perhaps flaming torches. Maybe a hack saw or two.
Either way… it was probably going to be fun.