Chapter One: Read Between The Lines
You say it's all right but something's wrong // I can see it in your eyes // If I turn around will you be gone // Are we running out of time // I'm not stupid // I see through it // I can read between the lines
I can't really explain what's happening. Me, Sam Puckett, becoming . . . dare I say it, emotional. I used to be some tough, skater girl who took crap from nobody. Now that I'm supposedly a sixteen year old teenage girl, I have to have emotions, and that comes with crying a lot apparantly. It all changed around the beginning of freshman year, our first year of high school. And by 'our' I mean, me, Carly, and Freddie of course. I knew there were going to be changes, but I didn't know that my life would change this much. Someone in my life had left me. Someone who I never wanted to see ever again, came back into my life. I almost lost my best friend. And to top it all off, I fell in love with the most unexpected person in the world. I guess that's what made me this way, all the crap that managed to fit itself in that tiny year and a half made me develop stronger feelings than what I had before high school. For the most part, having feelings is somewhat annoying, but it only proves that I'm human, soft and pathetic. What had happened was something kind of like this.
~*~
On the morning of August 29th, the sun loomed into my bedroom window, practically yelling at me to get out of bed. The alarm clock had the same intentions as it went off, ringing loudly in my ears. My bed, the most secure and safest place I've known, suddenly seemed to give me a headache. The ringing of the alarm clock combined with the brightness of the sun seemed to make my head hurt while it sank down into the pillows. Throwing an extra small pillow, mostly used for decoration, I hit the alarm clock dead on which fell onto the gray carpet, rolling a couple of feet away from my bed, still ringing obnoxiously. I groaned as the alarm clock wouldn't shut up. Covering my head with the pillow I tried my best to ignore it. Footstep could be heard coming down the hallway towards my room. A slight panic rose into my chest. I have no idea why, it just did. I never understood that part of me. Whenever I could someone coming into or near my room, I am either close to hyperventilating or most likely one of the most tense people in the world. There was no reason for me to be scared, for I knew exactly who it was. Sure enough, my body relaxed when I saw my mom standing in the doorway.
"Sam, get up and get ready for school," Sam's mom said as she stared at the ringing alarm clock.
"Good joke mom, but I ain't falling for that one, no matter how hard you try," I muffled to her underneath my pillow.
"Sam, get out of bed and get dressed before you're late. I don't want you to be late on your first day of high school. I was and that was a disaster honey. Trust me you're better off not attracting that sort of attention to yourself, at least on the first day of school anyway. I had that happen to me. In fact I ended up cutting class and smoking in the gir'ls bathroom. Don't go and get a bad reputation for yourself, or you'll not like the next four years of high school," my mom was leaning on the doorway, staring at the gray carpet, reminiscing. Finally after what seems like forever, her eyes focused on me for a bit. "Come on, get out of bed." And with that she left the doorway.
I groaned and lifted my head so I could hit my pillow. My ears were buzzing due to the stupid alarm clock's nonstop ringing. I finally managed to find the energy to swing my feet around, lift myself up from my bed and walk over to the alarm clock. With a few seconds of fumbling around with it, I succeeded in turning it off. The silence was comforting, at least for a bit, until I heard my mom yell to me again to get my ass out of bed. I shuffled my way over to the bathroom and immediately locked the door as soon as I went in. After stripping off my clothes, I let the hot water of the shower hit my body. Creaking could be heard, due to our apartment's extremely old age. My heart started beating faster every time I heard a creak. My mind was racing a million miles a minute. Why was I getting so freaked out? For some reason this all seemed too familiar. Being alone and feeling vulnerable, in my own home. My breaths were coming out shorter. I took a peek beyond the shower curtain and nothing was there, just like I pictured.
"Sam relax, why are you getting so worked up? There's nobody here but you and your mom. Stop being a wuss," I told myself.
After the shower I changed into my usual clothes, capris, a tank top with one of my favorite sweatshirts over it. Entering the kitchen, I was surprised that my mom wasn't in it. Instead there was a note on the counter.
Sam
Me and Michael decided to start off early to that Dead Puppies concert. We'll be gone for a while so your grandfather is coming over to come watch you. He should be there by the time you get home from school. Try to behave, for me? Remember that I love you so much.
- Mom
After reading the note a couple of times, I sighed and picked up my bag ready to face the hell that most would call school. On the way I started thinking about how my mom could just leave me alone and go spend time with her new boyfriend. She did do that but not to drive some ways to go to a concert. She would always be back some time during the day, or at least the next morning. But I knew that this time she wasn't going to be back, at least not for a while. I shook the thought from my head, I didn't want to be depressed about this, especially in front of Carly and Freddie.
After arriving, I searched around for the two familiar faces I wanted to see. How about that? I actually wanted to see Freddie, but of course the person I wanted to see most was Carly. I hadn't seen her in a few days which to us was the equivalent of a few months. Looking around, all I could see were a lot of really tall people which I thought to be juniors and seniors, definitely not freshman. I decided to climb the stairs and stand on the railing. At last I finally spotted them and jumped off the railing to go and greet them. They were standing at what I assumed to be their lockers. Freddie saw me but didn't say anything, Carly had her back to me. I snuck up behind Carly and attack-hugged her from behind. She screeched and we both fell to the floor, laughing. Freddie just stared at us as we laid on the dirty floor. After our laughter had subsided we finally decided that we didn't want to get swine flu from laying on the ground so we stood up and had another hugfest all over again. Afterwards, I decided that since I was in a good mood, I could hug Freddie too. I hadn't seen him in a while anyways. As I went to hug him, his body became tense and eyes grew wider, but once he realized that I wasn't going to do anything bad to him, he relaxed. He smelled sort of chocolatey in a way that made me really hungry. I decided that I should stop hugging him before I had thoughts about trying to eat him. When I let go, his face still had a weird look, but he was totally relaxed. Carly didn't say anything but just looked at Freddie. I could feel the tension rising in the air, but to my relief, the bell rang, saving me from a most definite awkward moment.
"Come on Benson, stop staring and get moving," I snapped at him. It felt good to be my usual self towards him. I hadn't in a while. Me and Carly, arm in arm, headed off to class.
The day went by slowly. It was just so full of introductory stuff that pretty soon I was going to fall asleep. Soon enough the last bell rang, signaling all of us to get the hell out of there while we still could. I was close enough to the entrance that I could sense the sun and possibly birds chirping outside. I was so transfixed on getting there that I almost fell over when Carly pulled me aside.
"What the chiz? I was so close dude!" I shouted. I didn't want to be stuck in this place anymore.
"I just wanted to know if you were coming over to help plan iCarly this week," she said innocently.
"Yea I'll be there later, I have to meet my grandfather at my place. My mom and her new boyfriend are travelling somewhere to go to a Dead Puppies concert." Carly released my arm.
"Dead Puppies? Who wants to rock out to some guys who are acknowledging lifeless puppies?" Carly had a slightly disgusted look on her face. I could understand, but Dead Puppies were OK, if you just ignored the name.
"Apparantly my mom and Michael, but I'll be there in about a half hour."
"Fine, half hour! Since it's the first week of school for most people we need to plan some wacky stuff. We don't want our viewers dying of boredom."
"I'll be there, promise." And with that I turned around and headed outside.
The brightness burned my eyes slightly but that quickly subsided. On the way home I started thinking about what me and my grandfather would do. He's not one of those old people who just sit around and sleep, playing bingo and listening to stuff he listened to when he was sixteen. He was cool, doing some pretty wicked stuff such as riding his motorbike, watching horror movies, and listening to heavy metal or some rock. I loved hanging out with him.
After I reached the apartment building I started heading up towards my apartment, getting excited with every single step. Even though I probably wouldn't admit this, I was excited to see my grandfather. Finally reaching the front door, I went to go open the door but strangely it was locked. I took out my key and unlocked it.
"Grandpa? I'm home," I called out.
I received no answer. I set my bag down and went to go look for him. He wasn't in the kitchen. I could hear the TV going off in the living room. I turned the corner and stared at the man who was on my couch watching my TV in my apartment. Whoever this dude was, was definitely not my grandfather. The weird man noticed me and smiled a really creepy smile.
"Hey, remember me Sammy?"
Author's Note: OK that's it for chapter 1! It's kinda short but leaving you guys off with a good cliffhanger is satisfying! ^_^ So what did you guys think? Who's the strange man in Sam's living room? Let me know by reviewing! Reviews really make me happy and might make me update sooner, so review quickly. Chapter 2 will be up soon!