It seemed a little ironic, how two girls whose crushes turned out to be in love also ended up falling in love. Sam wasn't sure if it was a miracle or just an extremely rare circumstance. Either way, she didn't really care. Sissi/Sam.

Strawberry Sauce

1: The Plan

...

"I'm sorry, Sam."

Three words that doomed their fate. Or was it those three words? Maybe it was the next three.

"Let's break up."

Or the three after that?

"I'm kinda gay."

The whole 'I'm kinda gay' thing took place outside her locker. Sam had just shut it when he'd jogged up to her, looking a little like he was going to be sick. He wiped his hands on his trousers. Assuming it wasn't a dire situation (most likely something had come up and he was going to cancel their date to the skate park again), she'd leaned back against her locker, folding her arms. Knowing he didn't have much time, he just decided to throw all subtleties aside.

"You're kinda gay?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Well, no, not really. I'm bi. I always have been. I mean, you already knew that, so." He laughed, but it looked like he was trying hard not to cry. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I'm bi. But, uh, I think we should break up."

"What is this about, Odd?" Sam demanded, folding her arms over her chest. "If you're bi that means you're cool with girls too, right? So what's the big deal?"

"I think I prefer guys. And I think I'm about to start seeing someone." His voice cracked and he coughed. Odd's face flooded with shame. "I think I might be seeing someone who isn't you, Sam. And I feel really weird about it and I don't want to lead you on so I'm doing this now. I'm sorry. I really care about you."

This wasn't something Sam saw coming. Admittedly, she'd tried breaking up with him at first because he'd been acting like a total jerk, but he'd been getting better. They were working out fine. Or so she'd thought.

"So you're breaking up with me... because you've met someone else." She said this slowly, to confirm. He nodded. "So you're leaving me so that you can run off to happy land with... who? Who is it, Odd?"

"Er..." Odd grimaced. "I wouldn't say leaving – because you'll leave me first, you know? And... I can't say, I don't think they'd want me to..."

"Why?"

"Because you'd either hit me, or hit them," he groaned.

"What, and you don't deserve that?" She was angry; not just angry at Odd for basically cheating on her but at herself for genuinely believing he wouldn't. They'd been in an open relationship for nearly two years now – she knew that when she was gone he spent time with girls (probably guys too, though she knew for a fact that it wasn't anyone at Kadic) – but their agreement was that for as long as they were attending the same school they didn't date other people.

Odd shook his head.

"No, I do deserve it. I just don't want you to take it out on... them. So I think concealing their identity is okay, isn't it? I'll take whatever punishment you dish out, but he isn't ready to come out yet, so please..."

She shoved him against her locker, body alight with hurt, her blood burning. There might have been tears in her eyes, but she did tend to get hay fever around this time of year, so it was probably the latter.

"I'll spare you that. That's my last favour as your girlfriend. We're through."

Murmurs rose around them as she stumbled back in the direction of the dorms, snapping at Milly and Tamiya as they tried to reach out to her for a scoop in the gossip column, leaving Odd leaning against her locker in bewilderment. Somehow she managed to contain her grief until the door was firmly locked behind her.

Then she cried.

Now, Sissi wasn't persistent. She wasn't. Sure, she made a firm point of addressing Ulrich every so often; it wasn't like she believed it was going to happen, not anymore, but that didn't make getting over the crush she'd had on him for the last three years any easier.

She wasn't sensitive to the feelings of others, but Ulrich was a rare exception. Recently, he'd seemed down. Sissi didn't reckon Yumi understood – all she seemed to do these days was hang all over William, in Sissi's opinion, and it wasn't a case of being biased, it was the truth – and she was determined to help in any way possible. Even if that meant ever so slightly crossing the line between good friend and stalker.

He'd been wandering off by himself. It wasn't like the others in his weird group noticed, either. In fact, Sissi was fairly certain she was the only one that had spotted him heading that way, so impulsively she followed him, anticipating some sort of secret project awaiting him. Maybe he was meeting a girl? One of those awful stuck up ones from the private school in the next neighbourhood, with the pretty uniforms and perfect hair? (Sissi already had cute clothes and perfect hair, thank you very much. Ulrich just looked like the type of guy to fall for a girl in uniform.) Her stomach clenched in a flicker of jealousy at the thought, and she wasted no time in following him.

Of course, she didn't expect what she got, but she really should have expected that much at least.

When Odd emerged behind the tree, she didn't know what to think. Then after exchanging a few words they started kissing, and that just about confirmed every fear she'd ever had regarding those two.

She concealed herself behind the oak tree and listened in as they continued to make out, oblivious to her presence.

"I broke things off with Sam," Odd muttered so quietly Sissi really had to strain to hear. The crease in Ulrich's brow deepened.

"And she wasn't mad?"

"No, she was." Odd sighed and leaned against Ulrich's shoulder, and Sissi could hear the pout in his voice. "I mean, she had every right to be. But she slammed me against a locker!"

"You probably deserved it. You've always been bad at breaking up with girls." There was a tense pause, before, "Did you tell her... about me?"

"No," Odd breathed, and Ulrich's shoulders sagged in relief. "I promised not to, didn't I?"

"Still, it's not the first time you've ran your mouth around her," Ulrich ribbed with a dry smile. Odd scoffed, sounding offended.

"What do you take me for, Ulrich? I'm hurt, hurt I tell you, that you would say such a thing!"

Their conversation continued with a mixture of playful insults and chaste kisses, until Sissi finally slunk away, feeling small.

Sam was halfway through a heart-wrenching Tegan and Sara album when she was disrupted by a sharp knock at her door. Sitting up in a daze, she caught sight of her face, blotchy with tears she had wasted on Odd, and scowled at her reflection.

"Odd, leave me alone," she snapped at the door, hoping he would take the hint.

"It isn't Odd," the voice answered. The usually haughty tone lacked any of its attitude today. It just sounded small.

Sam's eyes widened incredulously, and she hunched back defensively, as though the offender would actually break down the door just to torment her on her split ends and 'shabby' fashion sense. "Sissi Delmas? What the hell do you want?"

"Rude!" Sissi shot back, sounding a little more like her old self. "Let me in, would you? I got something to tell you."

Sam searched for some concealer and hastily dabbed at her face, not wanting Sissi Delmas of all people to see her face so raw.

"Why should I? I'm not in the mood for hearing about how shitty my clothes are, Sissi, not today."

"I'm not here about that!" Sissi's impatient tones brought forth a spike of annoyance that, in the meantime, was an escape from thinking about Odd, so she reluctantly opened the door. Sissi opened her mouth, probably to say something cutting about Sam's complexion, but thought better of it and shut up.

"Can I sit down?" she asked, pointedly glancing between Sam's tattered desk chair and the dishevelled bed. Sam nodded listlessly, closing down her iTunes and taking a seat on the old chair. Sissi perched on the edge of the bed, looking out of place against the unmade bed and band posters.

"So what do you want?" Sam asked, running her fingers through her hair. Her trilby sat on her desk, untouched.

Sissi played with her hands for a few moments, uncertain, before piping up, "I know who Odd is seeing."

Sam felt like she had been punched.

"How? How exactly do you know that, were they... were they together today? Less than an hour after breaking things off with me he runs off to be with his new guy friend? Screw him!" Sam bit down on her lip hard, seeing red, before turning to glare at Sissi. "So what do you want, Sissi? Did you come here to rub it in my face? Get me back for that time in science I called you Regina George? What do you think you could possibly say that could make me feel any worse?"

For a few moments Sissi sat silently, stunned. Then, she lowered her head. "I didn't come for that. I just thought you had a right to know who it was."

"Well, I don't want to know."

The two sat in silence, Sam sulking, Sissi fidgeting, until finally Sam spoke. "So what did you think was going to happen if you did tell me? Were you going to leave it at that? Or did you expect me to pluck up some plan of revenge on the two of them and invite you along for the ride?"

"I don't know," Sissi sneered, scowl deepening. "I didn't think that far ahead. I just... I guess I just felt like I had to tell you. It's not right, what those two are doing."

"So this was for girls everywhere? No malicious intent at all?"

"I wouldn't say at all because you know that Odd gets under my skin," she protested, raising an eyebrow. "But mostly, yes. We may not be friends, Suarez, but we're both girls, and I'd absolutely hate it if a guy did that to me."

"You'll have to find one to date first," Sam ribbed, although she was smiling faintly. "All right, Sissi. Say that I did want revenge... what's the plan, exactly?"

"Sabotage. Odd never remembers to lock his room, so getting in there is pretty easy. Hmm... we could tin-foil everything? Someone in the year above did that to their friend's room when they went home for winter break. It was magnificent. So thorough, as well."

"Tin-foil isn't too bad. We'll see what we can find when we get there."

"Perfect."

Sam grinned. "So when should we strike?"

"Well, Ulrich and the dream team usually slip out around five, right after dinner. So Odd should be with them. That would be the ideal time." Sissi stood up and showed herself out, smirking as she took one last sweeping glance at Sam. "Meet me there?"

"It's a date," Sam echoed, picking up her hat and placing it defiantly on her head.

When Odd returned from yet another one of Jeremie's programming runs, he stared in dismay as his iPod nano sat solidly in a frozen glass of water on the counter. On the piece of paper beneath the glass, a lipstick mark and a crude drawing of a trilby lay side by side.

A few weeks later, Sissi decided to take Sam shopping.

It was premeditated, ever since the raid on Odd and Ulrich's room. Now, Sissi had been trying to wipe her slate clean of the kind of malicious things she used to do to her classmates – there was nothing mature about blackmail, after all – but after Sam's iPod-in-frozen-glass-of-water trick... how could she recover from that? It was brilliant. It reminded her of all those times she had pulled tricks on Ulrich and his gang when they were younger, and it was somehow nostalgic. Taking Sam shopping was not only to improve her fashion sense, but to show her that she had appreciated being able to take part in such a cruel sabotage on the prank master himself.

"Want to go into town later, Suarez?" Sissi dropped casually as she approached the bench in the courtyard that Sam sat at between each class. It was always the same sight – legs crossed, skinny paperback in hand, like she was posing for a Starbucks photo shoot. Sam glanced up in surprise, although when she saw who it was her face relaxed a little and retained some of the sneer it usually did when she saw Sissi.

"What brought this on? Did my wardrobe finally get too much for you to bear? Are you going to dress me up in high waisted shorts and make me crimp my hair?"

The sarcasm dripping from her mouth made Sissi's stomach twist and she scowled.

"Why, do you not want advice from a fashion guru like me? I could probably introduce you to some guys too, so you can rub it in Odd's face."

Sam laughed, though it sounded more like a cough. "I'm not looking for more revenge right now. And I definitely don't want you of all people to set me up with a guy. Also, I don't really rock the look you're going for, Sissi. There's a reason I don't wear those skirts, you know."

"True, your legs would definitely look better in shorts or pants," Sissi agreed, eyes sweeping over Sam. "I still think I ought to take you out, though. I need to know which shops you get clothes from so I know to never, ever shop there."

"I used to live by the coast before I came here, I think you're safe," Sam replied, eyebrow raised, though she rose to her feet. "Well, all I had for the rest of the day was biology, and I can't deal with Ms Hertz right now. Sure, lets go."

"What kind of mascara do you use, Suarez?"

"I don't."

"Well that explains a lot."

"Piss off about my face, okay? At least I have natural beauty on my side. What's your excuse?"

"Rude!" Sissi sipped on her cappuccino and raised her eyebrows. "All I'm trying to say is that maybe you'd turn a few more heads if you darkened your lashes some more. I mean, you have the natural gift of dark lashes, apparently, but they're very fine because you don't put anything on them. Mascara and eyeliner would really bring out your eye colour."

"Is that so?" Sam asked without much interest, chugging the last of her strawberry frappe through a straw. "Well, I hate to break it to you, Sissi, but I'm not planning on 'turning a few heads'. If I wanna look good I wanna do it for me, not for guys. What I'm most concerned about is how to go about catching Odd in the act with the guy he's hooked up with."

"Look, I know who it is, and if you'd just let me tell you it'd be twelve times as simple to catch them in the middle of something dirty," Sissi pointed out. Sam scowled.

"No! Where's the fun in that? If I catch them in the middle of something and I already know what to expect the reaction won't be nearly as brilliant as it will be if I'm completely unaware of who the man on the other end of Odd's cock is."

"Please stop saying that."

"Why? It's true." She closed her eyes. "Normally I wouldn't be so caught up in it, but this is Odd. We had an agreement – no dating other people while we're attending the same school – and he broke it. So, I'm taking this personally."

"I think I'd take it personally regardless of whether he cheated," Sissi vouched. "I mean, leaving you for a guy? Isn't that, like, insulting?"

Sam shook her head, opening her eyes and examining her phone. "Nah, I already knew he was bi. That part doesn't bother me. It's just the nerve of him running off to be with his new guy within an hour of breaking up with me. What's with that? It would be easier to forgive him if he just had a little tact."

Sissi stared off into the distance thoughtfully and Sam took this opportunity to steal the last strawberry from the pile of waffles they were sharing (not that Sissi would mind; she'd complained about the calories of eating café food enough in the past five minutes, after all). When she spoke, there was a note of curiosity in her voice.

"Well, what would Odd say if you got together with another girl? It would be one thing to find yourself a new guy, but a girl would throw him for a loop, wouldn't it?"

Sam stared.

"I'm not suggesting anything!" Sissi hurriedly tried, even though now it sounded even more like she was suggesting something than before. She felt her face redden. "It's not like that. It was hypothetical. I mean, an eye for an eye, right? If he gets with a guy, get with a girl and see how he likes it? That's all I was trying to say!"

Sam swallowed the strawberry and exhaled. "...Well... I never specifically told him I was bisexual too... I never thought there was much point bringing it up. I don't know if getting with a girl would do much good though. I mean, how many lesbians do you see hanging around Kadic, anyway? Not to mention it would be just as bad as leading them on, and I'm not a bitch."

"Well, what if you found a girl who was totally fine just flirting with you a bit in front of Odd, who was in on the plan and didn't care if people thought you were going out? Would you do it?"

"Are we still talking hypothetically here?" Sam asked suspiciously.

"Yes! Of course!"

Only now Sissi wasn't thinking hypothetically, she was thinking realistically, and how awful yet magnificent it would be. Dating Sam, that'd be the awful part. But the satisfaction of being able to pull the ultimate trick on Odd, to see his face as his ex-girlfriend waltzed off in the arms of not just any woman, but Sissi Delmas... that was the magnificent part.

It was an offer almost too brilliant to pass by. But she didn't want to give Sam any ideas. After all, it wasn't like she was looking to hook up with another girl. Getting Sam's hopes up would only hurt her later. And Sissi was trying to be nicer these days.

Sam contemplated the scenario for a few moments.

"I guess," she said eventually, "if there was someone willing to do that, I'd be up for it. Just long enough to show Odd how it feels. Then we could stage a dramatic break up and be done with it. Who would get a kick out of that, though?"

"Well, for one, the long line of Odd's ex-girlfriends whom he treated like dirt," Sissi pointed out.

"A valid point," Sam agreed, before dissolving into laughter.

It was almost 1am and Sissi couldn't sleep. Each time she tried to doze off the conversation would plague her thoughts and she'd shoot awake almost immediately. Why did she get like this whenever a good opportunity to prank someone arose?

Groggily she climbed out of bed, appreciating the silence as she left her room, tiptoeing towards the bathroom. The corridor was dark, and the only noise was the sound of typing coming from Aelita's room. If she pressed an ear to the door she'd probably be able to hear the muffled whispers between the Einstein couple (and that Laura girl, if they even still talked to her. Sissi didn't know and frankly didn't care – that third Einsteinette freaked her out, the way she stared at her from across the room every history lesson). She pushed on the bathroom door with a sigh and came face to face with a ruffled-looking Sam.

The two stared at each other as several long moments passed. Then, after briefly eyeing Sissi up and down, Sam cleared her throat.

"So I was thinking-"

"Me too," Sissi rushed. "We should. You know, do it. What we were talking about earlier."

"You want to?" Sam asked, astonished. "For real?"

"It's a chance to play the ultimate cruel prank on Odd Della Robbia. Of course I'm for real."

Sam pursed her lips. "Guess we're going out, then."

"Cool. Meet me before breakfast and we'll come up with a plan of action?"

"Deal."

High-fiving her on the way out, Sam retreated to her room as Sissi began to wash her face, never once turning off the taps.

"So, here's the schedule: we'll walk to every class together, hand in hand; you'll compliment me on my clothes, I'll compliment you on your eyebrows; we'll plant kisses on the cheek, mouth or hand if and whenever Odd walks by; we'll eat every meal together; we'll hang all over each other in the wreck room; we'll constantly text and act super loved up about it; and last but not least, I'll be in charge of changing facebook relationship statuses and we'll take a bunch of cute lovey-dovey selfies to upload to both of our instagram accounts."

"This is extremely thorough," Sam complimented as she buttered a croissant. "Were you up all night making this plan?"

"This isn't the first time I've fake-dated someone, so I know the drill," Sissi replied with a shrug. "I've just never done it with a girl before, so it should be even more fun since girls are actually sensitive about whether or not we're wearing special perfume and stuff."

"To be honest I probably wouldn't notice if you wore new perfume because I don't pick up on things like that," Sam admitted. "Though, it would be fun to hang all over each other and announce that we're so compatible that our periods have synced. Can you imagine Odd's face?"

"...Yeah, we aren't going to do that."

"Hey, I'm just trying to put forward some creative input. Can't call it a group project if you're doing all the work," Sam retorted, lathering strawberry jam over her croissant and taking a bite. "Anyway, are you sure you're okay doing this? I mean, it'll smash your reputation to smithereens, and I know you care about that stuff.

"Look, when I dyed my hair I didn't do it just to change up my look. It was a fresh start, you know, a chance to reinvent myself. Don't you think mixing up my sexuality is a big change? Who knows, maybe it'll make me even more popular than before. Guys love thinking they have a shot at 'turning' a girl straight, so when we've done our huge dramatic break up I'm sure guys will be lining up."

"That is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard," Sam deadpans. "But if that's your plan, go for it, I guess. I don't really care. But how will Principal Delmas take it? Your dad's one of the most conservative men I've ever met. I haven't met any gay students at Kadic, I have no idea how he's going to treat the two of us if this gets out."

"Oh, quit worrying about that," Sissi said dismissively, waving her hand. "My father loves me too much to do anything too terrible to me. It might take some getting used to, but he always tells me that he swore by my mother's deathbed that he would love me and care for me no matter what. I'm holding him to that." She could admit to herself that it was a bit cruel to force her father to adapt to a fake relationship, but then she reasoned he should be more accepting of same-sex couples in his school anyway, and chose not to dwell on it anymore.

"That's quite harsh, since it's not even genuine. But anyway, are we going to make this public, or something exclusive? Maybe have Odd 'accidentally' catch us in the middle of something?"

"No, we have to be more sneaky than that," Sissi explained, leaning in closer. "Yumi always waits for Aelita to come down before coming into the cafeteria. If we play our cards right they can be the ones who catch us 'slipping up', and they can run over to Odd and tell him what they saw. He'll believe it, get really bummed out, but he's still touchy over the break up so he'll probably try and keep his distance. That will give us about a week to romance it up and make it real convincing before he finally works up the courage to confront you."

"You have it all planned out, don't you?" Sam grinned, reaching for her hot chocolate. "I'm impressed."

"It's all talent, baby. If we pull this off successfully they'll still be talking about it several years from now. We'll be the stars of Milly and Tamiya's favourite gossip column – 'Are They Or Aren't They?' - we'll be brilliant. Not to mention Odd will get a taste of what he dished out."

"You're having way too much fun with this," Sam pointed out, although she was smiling. "Okay, so what exactly are we going to do to spark off the chain of interest?"

"Hm... kiss, maybe?" Sissi rolled her eyes dramatically. "I mean, I hate to jump the gun so soon, but it is necessary to be convincing otherwise Yumi and Aelita are never going to mention it to Odd. We only have to do it once. I mean, we might have to do it later on as well, but a kiss will totally stir things up. It doesn't have to last long, it just has to occur the moment they step through the door. Or maybe we should pretend to flirt first?"

"Well, we're gonna have to hurry it up, they're coming through the door now."

Sam's gaze flickered over to where the two were stood, deeply engrossed in their own conversation, and without thinking she grabbed Sissi forcefully by the face and pulled her into a kiss that was supposed to look romantic and meaningful but ended up feeling like the trainwreck it has been born from. Sissi almost spluttered in surprise but held back just in time to catch Yumi staring from the corner of her eye. She decided to shut her eyes tightly, make a real show of it, and hastily began to lose her fingers in Sam's hair, deepening the kiss. As it would happen, it really wasn't that bad; Sam's lips were about as chapped as a boy's would be, if not slightly softer because apparently she did use Vaseline after all, despite how cracked her lips looked on the outside; her mouth tasted of strawberry jam; Sissi found her hair felt kind of like straw, but softer and more pleasant to run her fingers through. By the time she pulled away she could feel more than just Yumi's eyes on the two of them. Sissi could feel her face burning but instead she focused in on Sam, who was pink in the face and looked a little stunned at her own impulsive creativity. Her hat was skewered and Sissi set it straight with a grin, tapping Sam lightly on the nose.

"Well, that's set the ball rolling," Sissi said simply, winking at Sam before bringing her cup of hot chocolate to her mouth.