Stifling a yawn, Samantha Carter zipped up her jacket and walked outside to wait for her father. She supposed she shouldn't have stayed up so late writing her project proposal for the science fair but even if it was six months away, Sam wanted to be ready just in case Dr. Lee asked her what she was entering.
"Ready to go, Sam?" Jacob Carter asked. She nodded and got into the battered yellow pickup, fumbling with the seatbelt as he started the truck.
Sam waited for the engine to warm up enough so that she could turn the heater on. "Dad? Didn't you say that today is when we're supposed to get the new students from Montessori?" She remembered hearing him talk about it on the phone to Superintendant Hammond. "Why are they transferring to our school if theirs is supposed to be so much better?"
Her father glanced over at her. "According to George there's been some restructuring at Roswell Montessori, and they've decided to set the age limit to six year olds. We'll be getting a handful of seniors and a few juniors whose parents are based out of Peterson."
"Do you really think they'll cause trouble?" she asked curiously.
"Well, anytime you have a group of young people who've been allowed to get away with murder for the past few years, there are bound to be a few problems."
Pulling into the parking lot, Jacob Carter stopped by the sidewalk and Sam grabbed her book bag before climbing out. "See you Third Period, Dad."
Sam joined the stream of students coming from the bus line and fell into step with her friends Daniel and Teal'c, who were discussing the pros and cons of TIE and X-Wing fighters. "Samantha Carter," Teal'c greeted, inclining his head.
She grinned up at the big exchange student. "Hey, Teal'c. Who's winning?"
"It is not a contest," he says calmly. "But if it were, my argument would undoubtedly prove superior."
Daniel pushed up his glasses, looking indignant. "Actually, the ratio of success would be… hey, who are they? " he asked, pointing across the parking lot.
They turned out to be a small motorcade of extremely expensive cars, led by… "Oh, wow – a Harley," Sam sighed. She reminded them about the new students, eyes still glued to the black Harley Davidson Night Rod Special and its two riders. Maybe she could sneak out during class periods to get a closer look.
"Can't wait to see that guy's face when he's told about the 'no motorcyle' policy," a voice chimed in from behind them. "Lookin' good this morning, Sam."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Go away, Meredith."
The other boy held up his hands. "Hey, I just came over to offer my sympathy to Danny boy…but it's nice to see you too. And the name's Rodney."
Sam glanced over at Daniel, who suddenly didn't look as happy as when he'd been debating with Teal'c, and back at McKay. "Don't you have anyone else to annoy, Meredith?" She wasn't sure where he'd gotten the news that Daniel's online girlfriend Sha're had broken up with him, but she wouldn't put it past Meredith to ask for Sha're's email address when Daniel was still so upset about it.
"No, you're my only customers," he grinned. "So, Daniel… since you're not seeing Sha're anymore, how about-"
"Remove yourself," Teal'c interrupted, then settled upon grabbing the back of Rodney's jacket and hustling him into the building.
"You okay?" Sam asked sympathetically. Her friend had been crushed when Sha're had dumped him via email and though it had happened two weeks ago, Daniel was still pretty sensitive about the whole thing.
Daniel ducked his head to clean his glasses on his shirt, nodding. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'm fine."
They separated to go to their lockers, but met up to walk to their first class together. It seemed like the entire school was gossiping about the new students, and Sam finally had the chance to see some of the Montessori students as a few sauntered in after the bell rang.
One of them looked so weird, she couldn't keep from staring at him – his skin was so white it looked like he'd never been outside a day in his life, and his head was shaved bald… but the creepiest thing about him were his eyes. Sam had heard of the new contact lenses that made it look like whoever wore them had the pupils of a snake, but she'd never actually seen anyone wear them.
The other two were a thin, dark-skinned boy wearing a tight fitting silver skullcap and some sort of robe-like outfit, and a boy who was dressed all in black but had his hood pulled up so she couldn't see his face - he looked like he'd nearly be a match for Dave and Aris on the football field, and she glanced around just in time to see the weird looking boy stop in front of Aris' desk. Which was odd in and of itself because the older boy hardly ever showed up for class.
"This is my seat now," Weird Boy declared.
Aris leaned back in his chair, looking unconcerned. "Don't think so. Find an empty one."
Weird Boy's eyes widened, as if he'd never been told 'no' before. "I like this one."
"Too bad for you, Freak Show – take your circus to the other side of the room," Aris drawled.
"If all of you could take your seats, please, and dispense with the hooliganism," the voice of their Geography teacher interrupted primly, "I'd like to take attendance."
Weird Boy shot Aris a resentful glance before stalking off to sit at the empty seat next to Carolyn Lam, who leaned over to poke Jennifer Taylor's arm with her pencil and mouthed, "Wanna switch seats? "
Jenny shook her head vigorously and turned her attention to Mr. Woolsey, who had just opened the attendance book. "Steven Adams… present, Roslyn Archer… present, Aris Boch, abs- oh, I see you've decided to grace us with your presence, Mister Boch. What a lovely change of pace that is. Samantha Carter…present, Donald Creedmore…"
Woolsey's voice droned on as he called the names of the rest of the class, then made the token speech about welcoming new students into the fold and asking the newcomers to introduce themselves. Of course nobody stood up to volunteer any information, so Woolsey finally read their names aloud and asked them to stand so everyone else could see them – that didn't exactly happen, either. What kind of parents gave their kids names like Anubis, Sokar, and Apophis?
Geography class over with, Sam carefully slid her textbook and notepad into her locker organizer and took a moment to sigh at the picture taped onto the inside of the locker door – it was supposed to be of her best friend Janet but only they knew she'd posed so Sam could really take a photo of the gym teacher, Mr. O'Neill. She didn't care what anyone thought; he might be a lot older than she was, but that didn't make him any less dreamy.
Sighing at the picture one last time, Sam grabbed her Chemistry book and shut the locker door just as more of the new students came walking down the hall. It figured that they all had to walk right beside each other so that everyone else either had to move or get shoved aside, and she watched through narrowed eyes as two of them (who were walking ahead of the rest like it was some sort of royal procession) drew closer. They looked like they'd been the couple out on the Harley, and Sam felt another swell of jealousy at the mere thought of the motorcycle.
The girl was almost as tall as Sam was, and beautiful with long black hair caught in pigtails that swung from side to side as she looked around interestedly, popping her gum and leaning on her boyfriend's arm. And speaking of the boyfriend…
Gorgeous was really the only word for it. Sam couldn't keep from staring as he sauntered past almost in slow motion like those cheesy movies Janet loved to watch and that Sam pretended not to pay much attention to but secretly liked anyway. He was the best dressed student she'd ever seen, and the only one she knew of that had a goatee that actually looked halfway decent… but then he looked over and ruined her half-formed crush by sliding his eyes over and past her as if she were just a piece of furniture, and a pretty ugly one at that.
It figured that someone that cute had to have an attitude the size of an aircraft carrier.
It also figured that both he and his girlfriend were in the same Chemistry class she was. Dr. Lee went around making sure everyone had gloves and an apron after handing Sam the attendance book. Daniel yawned and flipped his book open to the section they'd been going over the previous week before digging out the hard copy of Sha're's break-up email and reading it for the millionth time. She read down the list, trying hard to ignore Meredith McKay and John Sheppard messing around with the gas valves, and cleared her throat when she got to the names of the five new students printed on school stationary.
Apophis from Geography was sitting rigidly in his chair, glaring across at Tall, Dark, and Haughty so hard he didn't even bother responding to his name. "Charlotte Mayfield," Sam called next.
The beautiful blonde girl sitting next to Apophis jerked her head up to stare at Sam. "My name is Athena." Well, she certainly acted like she was a goddess. Apophis gave her a scornful glance and went right back to glaring across the table.
"Uh, okay. Ummmm… Bill Smith?"
Examining his nails, Mr. Arrogant didn't even look up when he corrected her. "Baal."
"As in, basket?" John snickered, grinning over at Rodney who laughed at the dumb joke. At that, Baal did look up – and whatever the two sophomores saw in his face, it made both of them shut up faster than a threat of suspension.
Sam wanted nothing more than to just hand the attendance book back to Dr. Lee and let him deal with it, but he was busy trying to keep Dave Dixon and Jonas Quinn from juggling with the test tubes. "Nerus Bailey?" she sighed. The chunky boy sitting on Baal's other side took a break from licking his Twinkie wrapper to wave at her in cheerful acknowledgement. " And…. Vala Mal Doran?"
Baal's girlfriend immediately took the gum out of her mouth and flung a hand in the air. "That's me!"
They were all split up into groups when Dr. Lee announced that from then on he'd draw names from a hat so they could all learn to work together, and Sam bit her lip when she heard her name called along with Baal, Jonas, and Rose Bennett. Vala blew Baal a kiss as she hopped off her stool and headed over to sit with an alarmed-looking Daniel. Opening her book to the chapter experiment on 'polymer absorbance', Rose sighed irritably. "If I'd wanted to mess around with diapers, I'd have let Dave knock me up already!"
"What a charming sentiment," Baal sniffed as he tapped his fingers on the table.
Jonas grabbed a diaper and began to cut it up into squares, clearing his throat cautiously to pre-empt Rose's outburst - he'd learned the hard way not to mess with lacrosse midfielders. "So what kinds of experiments did you do at Montessori?"
Baal glanced over at Sam. "I built a bomb."
"And I'm the President of the United States," Sam retorted. She didn't know where he got off, showing up at their school and acting like he was better than everyone else. Jonas had just been trying to be friendly.
He looked at her longer this time, but she held her ground. Gorgeous or not, she wasn't about to let him push her around. "I highly doubt anyone at this…school… will accomplish very much in life."
She reddened angrily and was about to respond when Rose saved her the trouble and 'accidentally' tipped the beaker of water over so that it spilled on Baal's textbook. "Oops, did I do that?" Rose cried theatrically, clapping a hand to her heart. Dave looked over and laughed at his girlfriend's antics while Athena amped her glare up to 11.
After barely surviving Chemistry, Sam managed to make it through Calculus without any of the new students realizing that her father was the teacher and then, thankfully, it was time for lunch. Janet waved her over to their usual table as soon as she loaded up her tray, and they compared their experiences with the new students. "They're all pretty stuck-up, aren't they?" her best friend asked, pushing the macaroni and cheese around her tray. "I bet none of them are here eating this… I don't know why I'm here eating this."
"Next year we can go off campus for lunch, which is probably what they're doing," Sam pointed out, scowling at her portion of limp broccoli swimming in greasy cheese sauce. "I bet if I took this to the lab, I'd find out that we're being poisoned."
Janet laughed dutifully, then elbowed her. "Heyyyy, look who it is - it's your boyfriend!"
Sam blushed as she looked up to see that her friend was pointing straight at Mr. O'Neill, who was talking to one of the lunch ladies. "Stop looking over there, he'll notice," she hissed.
"Want me to call him over here? I could say that you need remedial badminton classes or something," Janet offered slyly.
"Don't you dare…!"
Janet's eyes widened. "Wait, I have an idea." She reached in her purse and pulled out her phone, hitting a number on speed-dial. "Hey, Jenny – are you anywhere near the cafeteria? Okay, good… if your fan club is hanging around, make sure he sees you. What? Just toss your hair or something, and then come in here to sit with us."
"What are you doing?" Sam groaned.
"I just made sure O'Neill's going to come over here and talk to you."
"By having Jennifer Taylor flip her hair at someone?"
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing," Janet grinned.
Moments later, Jennifer appeared at their table with her sack lunch. "You owe me for this, Janet. I can't believe you made me flip my hair at him!"
"Flip your hair at who?" Sam started to ask, but stopped when she caught sight of a familiar head of coppery hair. "You didn't ask him to help you in Wood Shop, did you? Everyone knows what he trades girls for if they ask him for help with the power tools."
Jenny shook her head. "No, but he keeps asking Dave to ask Rose for my phone number and he won't leave me alone."
"Just go out with him and put him out of his misery," Janet said wisely. "Once he knows for sure that you won't let him haul you off under the bleachers, all you'll see of him is a dust trail as he goes to bug some other girl."
"I dunno. He's really cute, but he can be so rude to people sometimes! You should have heard him making fun of Principal Landry the other… oh no, here he comes," Jenny groaned.
Aris slid into the seat next to Sam. "That looks disgusting," the older boy greeted cheerfully, pointing at her mac and cheese. Jenny shifted in her chair and his eyes strayed in her direction before returning to Sam. "Did you write down our assignment in Geography?"
Sam bit her lip to keep from smiling. "Yes, and so did you because I saw you do it."
"How do you know I wasn't writing a poem?" he countered, glancing over at Jenny again.
"Boch, what the hell're you doing in here?" Mr. O'Neill's voice rang out, startling them all and nearly making Janet shoot milk out of her nose.
Aris scratched the scar on his chin, pasting a thoughtful expression on his face. "Last time I checked, it was called sitting down but the definition might have changed without my knowledge."
"Alright, wiseass, let's go." O'Neill hooked a thumb towards the door. "He's been bothering you, Carter?"
Sam just stared up at him, all the lines she'd rehearsed going completely out of her mind.
"He was just asking Sam a question," Jenny blurted defensively, turning red when they all turned to look at her.
O'Neill scrutinized her until she was squirming in her seat and clearly wishing she'd never said anything, but she didn't look away until he did. "Looks like you've got yourself a schoolgirl in shining armor, Boch." He opened his mouth to say something else – probably to tell Aris to get out, again – when someone pulled the fire alarm. "Damn kids," O'Neill swore as he took off to find out who'd done it.
After lunch, they stood around waiting for the bell to ring and Sam rolled her eyes as she saw Baal and his cronies walking back from the parking lot. "Here they come again," she muttered to Janet.
Charlotte "My name is Athena" Mayfield glared at her as Baal stopped right in front of them. He appeared to have lost his gum-chomping arm candy somewhere (she was probably at the 7-11 buying more), but Sam wouldn't have put it past him to come up to her with Vala in tow anyway. A tall dark-haired boy wearing a tight shirt with a celtic design on it elbowed Nerus and made him drop his Little Debbie snack cake on the ground. "Three second rule, Fatso."
"Baal, look what-"
"Pick it up, Camulus," Baal ordered. "After school, you'll buy him five more."
"Yeah, right," Camulus snickered.
Baal turned and looked at him. "Yeah. Right. Only now, you're buying ten."
Athena cleared her throat. "What about making him buy me a new pair of shoes, too?"
"Don't push your luck," Baal advised, turning back to look at Sam. "I heard that your father is the Algebra teacher. Is that true?"
Sam folded her arms across her chest, and then hurriedly uncrossed them as he followed the motion with his eyes. "What's it to you?"
Janet made a 'You Go, Girl!' sound of support and crossed her arms, too.
"If he is, then I know who to tell that I'm taking you home after school."
"What?" Sam asked.
"What? " echoed both Janet and My Name Is Athena.
"I know you want a ride," Baal informed her. "I saw you watching."
Janet frowned. "Don't you have a girlfriend? What does she think about you taking other girls home after school?"
"I don't expect that she thinks much about anything, and I also don't expect to hear unsolicited questions from someone I'm not including in this conversation," he pointed out, looking down his nose at Janet. The shorter girl simply frowned back at him, undismayed, and he jerked his head at his hangers-on. "Give us some room."
They obediently moved back – Athena was looking especially rebellious at this new development, and Camulus took the opportunity to steal another snack cake from Nerus while he was watching Anubis shake down some middle-school kids for their lunch money. Baal looked at Janet again, but she shook her head. "No way, Buster. I'm staying right here."
Baal sighed irritably. "We're not together any more, not that it's any of your business. Do you want a ride, or not?" he addressed Sam.
The bell rang, and she seized the opportunity to escape without answering beyond a shrug. "So they're together before lunch period and they're not after? Didn't take him too long to get back in the saddle," Janet snorted. "You really thinking about going? Your dad's going to hate him."
"You're telling me… but his bike is so nice," Sam sighed.
"I'd be careful, if I were you – if Whatsherface gets mad that he's already made a pass at you…"
Sam rolled her eyes. "Please. Like it's my fault he's a jerk?"
"She could corner you and blow a bubble in your face," Janet snickered. "Death by Bubble Yum!" Sam laughed. "No, I'm serious – these type of things happen all the time, according to Grey's Anatomy. A burst gum bubble at close range can be deadly."
"Grey's Anatomy? The show?" Sam teased.
"The book, you Philistine!"
"You made that up just now, there's nothing in there about bubble gum…"
They made the walk out to the art building, still talking about it, but slowed down when Sam noticed Carolyn Lam running towards them as fast as she could. "Oh my God, guess what!" She shrieked. "That new girl, Vala! She dumped Baal at Pizza Hut over lunch break, and she's already asked Daniel if he wants to go out with her!"
"What?" Sam asked.
"It figures," said Janet. "Let's wait to ask him until Ms. Weir gets out the pottery wheel, and then we can hum 'Unchained Melody.'"
Carolyn shook her head in disbelief. "I just don't get how all the teachers think you're so responsible and serious, Janet."
They found Daniel busy sketching a floating pyramid – he seemed to be obsessed with the idea that they could fly, and it made Sam wonder if he was on something or if he'd been watching too much Star Trek – and he looked up when they settled at the table around him. "Is it true?" Sam demanded. "Did she ask you out?"
"'How are you?' 'Oh, I'm fine.' 'Did you have a good lunch?' 'Yes I did, thank you for asking.'" Daniel pushed his glasses up his nose. "I thought you were above spreading gossip, Sam."
She shrugged. "Sorry. Now spit it out."
"It wasn't so much as asking me out than it was asking for help being tutored in Latin," he said reprovingly, looking over at Carolyn. "I don't know how that got changed to us going steady."
It turned out that Ms. Weir had some sort of emergency with her dog, so half the class actually worked on their projects while the rest of them wandered into the shop section. Sam finished the sketches of the bowl she was planning on making before going to see what Janet was doing and she found her friend talking to Aris, Dave, and Teal'c, who were keeping an eye on a group of freshmen.
"We will be having practice after school," Teal'c informed her. "Would you care to stay and watch, or would you rather endanger yourself by accepting a ride home with Baal?"
Sam shot Janet a glare. "Does everyone know?"
Dave grinned as Aris moved off to supervise one of the kids pushing a piece of lumber through the table saw. "They will once I get done telling 'em."
"You'd better not or I'll have Rose come after you with your own hockey stick, Dave," she threatened. He pretended to faint in terror.
Aris came back to lounge against the wall and listen to their conversation until Teal'c and Dave left to help the other students clean up, when he caught Sam's sleeve and drew her aside. "Uh, Sam? I was wondering… you know that Geography assignment Woolsey gave us? The paper?"
"Yeah, why? Do you need me to proof-read it for you?"
He scuffed the toe of his boot against the concrete floor, clearing his throat. "Well, I was kind of hoping you could help me with picking out a topic."
Sam looked up at him in surprise. "But… it's due next week! You mean you haven't even started? "
Aris shifted from foot to foot before looking down at her again. "I did. A few times, even... Hell, everyone knows I'm not much good at school, but Hammond said he won't pass me if I don't get at least a C this time."
"If you actually showed up, you wouldn't have gotten held back the last time," Sam lectured. "I'm not going to write your paper for you."
"Yeah, I didn't ask you to."
Sam grabbed his arm. "Aris, I'm sorry. I just meant… I can't help because my brother's coming to visit this weekend and dad needs me to help around the house-"
"Look, I've got things to do," he said defensively.
"-but I know someone who could help you. I don't think she has ballet except on Tuesdays and Thursdays…" Aris' eyes widened in dawning horror, and she smiled. "You know Jennifer Taylor, don't you?" Sam asked innocently.
"What? No way."
"You want her to get her attention, don't you?"
Aris glared. "Not by her finding out how stupid I am! She'll think I'm a complete idiot."
Sam raised her eyebrows at him. "She already thinks you're a complete idiot, Aris; seems to me that you don't have much to lose."
"You've got a point there," he admitted.
After heading in to her Journalism class, she was able to get Jenny to agree to tutor 'a friend' before she admitted who the friend in question really was. As Sam had thought, the younger girl immediately began to identify Aris as an oversized, lovable, and misunderstood stray she was determined to save.
She left Jenny daydreaming about how to train her green-eyed monster, and finished the three-page layout for the school newspaper while stealing glances out of the window at The Bike. It was so beautiful… Sam sighed enviously – she'd wanted to ride on one of the new Night Rods ever since she'd seen them at the Denver dealership. Maybe I should just say yes, she thought, chewing on the end of her pen.
Glancing up at the clock then out in the parking lot a few more times (only about 47) helped pass the time until the bell rang and Sam scooped up her books before putting them in her locker and waiting to walk to P.E. with Janet. Her friend teased her about Mr. O'Neill the entire time they were changing and despite the fact that it was a little funny – just a little – her stomach lurched as they walked into the gym to find that both Baal and Vala were in the same class.
The two were arguing about something, although it was no real mystery what they were fighting about, and Sam winced when she saw their teacher heading over to see what the fuss was all about. "You two kids have a problem?" he demanded. Baal didn't even bother to look at him as he continued to talk to Vala, and O'Neill reached for his arm. "I said-"
Baal whirled to slam the side of his hand down the older man's wrist. "Get your hands off me."
Sam ran forward as Mr. O'Neill, looking pissed, grabbed the lapels of Baal's dress shirt. Daniel, Meredith, and John came wandering up from the locker rooms and perked up immediately at the thought of a possible fight. "Mr. O'Neill, he's probably just upset at getting dumped over the lunch period," she heard herself saying.
She was immediately favored with two identical expressions of righteous indignation. "You're actually sticking up for this little creep?"
"I'm surprised at that myself too, Sir," Janet informed him.
"I did not get dumped," Baal hissed.
"He did too, you should have seen his face when I told him – he nearly spat out his garlic bread," Vala offered, snapping her gum. "I've told him and told him to stop being so jealous, but do you think he listens to me? Daniel, darling! There you are!" She sashayed over to the group of boys and Daniel's shoulders slumped in defeat as both John and Meredith immediately began preening.
Sam turned back the two still glaring daggers at each other and her eyes widened as she saw Baal flicking open a switchblade. "Whoa, what the hell are you…"
The fury on Baal's face melted into a smirk as he lifted the blade to press it against O'Neill's throat.
"Oh, you are so outta here," their teacher breathed.
Baal's smile widened as he tapped on the handle, causing the point to dig into Mr. O'Neill's neck so that a bead of blood welled up. "We'll see about that, won't we?"
"This is the best P.E. class ever," John Sheppard enthused.
"No it's not," McKay corrected. "If we had popcorn right now, this would be the best P.E. class ever."
"Get out of here," Mr. O'Neill thundered, making all of them jump.
John screwed up his face in confusion. "You mean us?"
"Not you, you numbskull. You." He jabbed his finger at Baal, who wiped the blade of his knife on the P.E. teacher's 'Property of CMHS Athletic Department' sweatshirt. "We're going to pay a little visit to Landry. The rest of you play H.O.R.S.E. or something until I get back."
Sam stared after them as Baal sauntered lazily alongside Mr. O'Neill and Janet whirled on her as soon as the door closed. "What was that? I can't believe he just pulled a knife on a teacher! The second I get home I'm putting this on my Live Journal."
They spent half the period trading gossip with Vala - who was actually kind of fun even if she could be terribly overenthusiastic about life in general - before someone in the office remembered that they were unsupervised and sent in the guidance counselor, Walter Harriman.
"Is there murder and/or mayhem happening in the Principal's office?" Vala asked eagerly.
Walter, as he liked the students to call him, blinked in surprise. "What? Of course not."
She slumped back against the wall looking bitterly disappointed. "Oh."
"So who's up for a game of volleyball? I bet you kids are really good at it, though I'm not too bad myself," Walter said modestly. "If you've ever seen that big trophy out in the hall, you might have noticed my name on the plaque."
Meredith snorted. "Yeah yeah, Mister McFeely, let's see what you've got."
"Mister McFeely? Is that the best you can do?" John asked skeptically. "Cause I've heard better." Un-wrapping a lollipop, he stuck it into his mouth for emphasis.
"Get off me, Sheppard; you know I'm never at my best when I'm hungry!"
"Lunch was, like, two seconds ago!"
"If you hadn't been busy mooning over Teyla's latest text message like a total loser, you would have noticed that the food was so horrible that I couldn't eat it!"
"I wasn't mooning over it, I was just reading it," John said defensively.
"Whatever you say, Moony McLame."
"See? I knew you could do better than Mr. McFeely."
Walter finally regained control of the class, and they were in the middle of most disorganized game of volleyball ever when the gym doors reopened. No one was particularly surprised to see Mr. O'Neill walk back in looking as if he'd sucked on a lemon, but when Baal walked in behind him Daniel stared so hard he forgot all about the volleyball hurtling towards him.
It bounced off the back of his head so hard that his glasses went flying off, but McKay didn't even spare the time to laugh at him. "Shouldn't he be in jail right now or something?" He motioned for John to duck under the net. "Come stand in front of me so he'll shank you first."
"Nobody's 'shanking' anyone," O'Neill snapped before turning to Baal. "Pick a side, you little snake."
Baal just eyed him and went to sit on a section of the bleachers. "The swimming coach had me excused from all other physical exercise," he said coolly.
"I don't give a rat's tuckus what Maybourne had you excused from; this class is required," O'Neill insisted, the skin on his knuckles slowly turning white as he clenched his fists. "No matter what crap you pulled back there, this is my class." He seemed to realize that the rest of them were all too fascinated by the public conflict, and made everyone run laps after warning Baal that he'd be speaking to Mr. Maybourne about the situation.
Sam jogged alongside a blatantly irritated Janet, whose expression boded ill for the next person to cross her, and stole glances at the tall boy. He sprawled on the bench seat and watched the rest of them; her in particular, though he spared the odd death glare for Vala and Daniel.
Their eyes met more than once as she completed five circuits around the gymnasium floor and for some reason she didn't quite understand, Sam jerked her gaze away guiltily when she glanced over to see Mr. O'Neill watching both of them. It was stupid, really. She'd been nursing a crush on the handsome teacher for years, but it wasn't as if anything could ever come from it…
Janet seemed to know that Sam had made up her mind to accept the ride home even before Sam realized it, but as they went down into the locker rooms her friend shook her head and told her to be careful.
"It's just a ride home," Sam protested. "What's the worst that could happen?"
"I can think of quite a few things," Janet said, making Sam promise to call her as soon as she got home.
Baal was waiting by the double doors as soon as she came out, and she felt her stomach do a funny little flip as he smiled at her for the first time. "Are you ready?"
Earlier that morning, he'd been acting like she was the lowest form of life on Earth and now he wanted to give her a ride home on the most beautiful Harley she'd ever seen.
She'd ask him what the sudden attitude change was all about, she really would.
Later.
"Just let me get my bookbag."
Sam was hardly aware of walking past Teal'c - who was shooting disapproving glances at Rose and Dave for making out in front of the lockers – and Aris, who slouched up to Jenny looking equal parts embarrassed and hopeful. She wasn't aware of anything but the sleek black machine out in the parking lot waiting to convey her home.
When she threw her leg over the side of it and Baal pulled her arms a little tighter around his chest than was strictly necessary, Sam didn't mind a bit. The bike purred beneath her as he started it and she didn't need any urging at all to hold on tight.
Oh, her dad was definitely going to hate him.
fin