Hello there. So, originally I started this as a contest entry but didn't finish in time so I'm just submitting it as a story. Hope you like :) Please review because if you don't then i have no idea if what I'm doing here is actually worth while. Every review, positive or negative, motivates me to keep writing. And some days I need that motivation to even get up from bed. Have good days everyone. See you soon

He walked through the crowd separated by his blast of bright yellow clothing. He knelt by a young boy and hugged him. Sam heard Astrid whisper something close to his ear but he wasn't listening to her. He was listening to the newly arrived Coates kid who seemed to glide through the masses. The dark haired boys voice was reassuring and calm, so different from anything he'd hear recently. Sam had killed a little girl. He hadn't meant to. And he hadn't been able to deal with the grief because people had thrust him into a position of power. Sam didn't want power. Sam wanted to be left alone by everyone except Astrid. And Quinn.

Maybe Quinn.

Just him and Astrid would be perfect.

This new boy could give him that. He could take away all the responsibility that Sam had recently acquired.

Just then the boy asked for suggestions of town representatives. Immediately, Sam wanted to slink away to avoid being called upon. But, of course, he was the first to be called. The boy's eyes settled on him for a second and he looked almost frightening but Sam decided it was his imagination because the look was gone in a flash and he was his charismatic self once again. As the representatives continued to be called, Sam snuck Quinn's name in. He didn't want to be alone in there and suggesting Astrid felt like it would be too forward. Luckily the name called after Quinn was hers so he would be going in anything but alone.

He was stopped at the doors of the church by a girl.

Her dark hair fell around her shoulders and gently curled at her mid back. Her eyes were a 95% chocolate brown that had a lovely way of burrowing into your skull and staying there. She introduced herself as Diana Ladris, Sam introduced himself as Sam Temple, and she reached a hand out for Sam to shake. He was in a haze as they're hands touched. He faintly recognized that she didn't actually shake his hand per say, she just held it. Out in front of her looking into his eyes. Slowly her eyes lost their calmness and widened. Her eyebrows made their way up her face and she started to grin. "Nice I meet you Sam. You should come and have a chat with me later. I have a feeling we could be fast friends," she said smiling, then turned around and walked into the church.

Sam tried with everything he had to not let his eyes dip to lower than her lower back as she walked away.

"Who was that?" A sharp voice from behind him made Sam jump.

"What?" He asked.

"That girl. Who was she?" Astrid said, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, her. I didn't catch her name." Sam surprised himself with the lie. But Astrid seemed to buy it because she just rolled her eyes and followed Diana's footsteps into the church.

Sam stood stupidly on the steps before Astrid whipped around and snapped, "Are you coming or not?" With that Sam scurried up behind her.

The meeting was a blur for Sam and the only part that seemed in focus were Diana's eyes. They stayed locked onto Sam for most of the meeting. In the background noise, Sam distinguished the voices of Orc, Howard, and some of the other town bullies. Caine was charming and had a way of calming everyone (except Astrid, it would seem) in the room. Sam was brought away from Diana's eyes by Howard raising his voice. Apparently Howard was anything but soothed by Caine. "You think you can just stroll in hear and take over? Just bulldoze over Captain Orc's rule? You think he's not a good leader? You think you're better than us with your stupid yellow shirt and your stripy ties?" As Howard continued to rant Sam stood a made his way to the front of the church. The few Coates kids were standing by the podium and Howard was standing just bellow them. "You all think that just because your parents had a bit more money than ours you can boss us around! We aren't your freaking slaves-"

"Howard, chill out dude." Sam lay his hand on Howard's shoulder. In a soft voice he added, "They're here to help."

Howard rolled his eye's and is an unexpected burst, shot his fist out to collide with Sam's face. Pain exploded in his nose and he grabbed hos face in his hands, folding in half, as if that would help. Sam could feel blood dripping slowly through his fingers. He heard rushing feet and opened his eyes a crack to see a drown haired boy with a mean face dragging Howard backwards and throwing him to the ground.

Sam felt hands on his back rubbing small circles. He looked up, expecting to see flowing blond hair but was pleasantly surprised by a wave of chocolate brown. Diana crouched in front of his and took his face in her hands. "Move your hands. Let me see it."

Sam shook his head. He didn't want Diana to see his face covered in blood, especially if his nose was broken. It felt like it was broken. It felt like his face was on fire. "Sam, move your hands." He shook his head again. "Jesus, stop being stupid. I need to check if it's broken."

Sam mumbled "Fine," through the blood pooled in his hands. He took away his hands and there was a disgusting slush as the blood trapped in his palms fell to the floor. "How does it look?" Sam asked.

"Bloody and quite gross but not broken. Clearly the little shit can't punch very hard." Sam laughed a little bit but when he opened his mouth, blood tended to drip in.

Sam focused his eyes beyond Diana for a second and saw Astrid trying to stand between Howard and the steely boy who was cracking his knuckles. He looked ready for a fight and Astrid was standing between him and his victim. Nothing good was going to come from that and the not looked like he could do some serious damage to Astrid if she stayed in her current position.

Sam stood and despite a small protest from Diana, ran toward Astrid. She was protesting violence but it looked like the boy just found it funny.

When Sam was between them, he raised his hands in a defensive manner. He spoke slowly, trying not to slur with a mouth of his blood. "Hey, bro, we're fine. She had nothing to do with it. I'm fine. Nothing's broken. Just let him off. He's cool. We're all good."

The boy scoffed and took a step forward.

"Drake." Caine was standing behind him and called the boys name in a challenging way. As if daring him to take one step forward. Drake stopped in his tracks and Sam could see the cogs in his brain spinning. Trying to decide if he should bet the shit out of everyone in the church or if he should play it off as one big joke. He stared at Sam for four Mississippi's before grinning like a shark and shaking his head. Like, an actual shark. The resemblance was uncanny. He stayed staring at Sam and Astrid until growling through his teeth, "Whatever you say Caine."

Caine walked past the boys who's name Sam now knew was Drake, and extended his hand. "I'm Caine. You must be Sam. Why don't you come with me. I'll help you get cleaned up."

"Thanks," Sam said but it probably sounded nothing like the word.

Caine just smiled. He looked behind Sam at Astrid who was steaming. "Do you want to come to?"

"I'd really rather not," Astrid snarled.

"Well then," Caine raised his eyebrows and looked back at Sam. "Shall we go then?"

In the fuss, they hadn't noticed Diana creeping towards them. When Caine turned around he jumped, not expecting someone to be there.

"I'll take him. You stay here with the town," Diana said quietly. For a second Caine's face faltered and his eyes turned into a cold fire. Sam looked back and forth between the two dark haired teenagers and felt their tension seep into his core.

Sam looked back at Astrid for a bit of help. He was not enjoying being stuck in the middle at all. "Don't look at me Sam. I'm staying here and learning about their plans. I don't trust these people." Astrid spoke loud and proud so that everyone in the church could hear her. She wanted everyone to know how she felt about the outsiders. Because she was known ans 'Astrid the Genius', people would listen to her opinion, and Sam could see them turning to each other and whispering.

But Sam had power now too. He hadn't wanted it and he was planning to get rid of it, but for the moment he could use it. He wanted the Perdido Beach kids to trust the Coates kids. He wanted the power that he held to be transferred from him, and to Caine. The only way to do that was to have his town trust the leadership of Caine and his friends. With a strong voice, equal volume to Astrid's, he said, "Well I do. I trust these people and I think that they can help us. I'm behind him. So Astrid, you can stay here and be skeptical," Astrid's eyes widened and her glare intensified, but Sam kept going, "but I'm going to let the Coates kids help up." Sam then turned to Diana and said in a much smaller voice, "Can we go now? I can feel the blood drying on my face and it's kinda gross." Diana's eyes sparked with something in between admiration and attraction, but neither of those feelings seemed plausible so Sam decided it was more of a look saying 'Yep, you look gross but I'm slightly worried that you'll look grosser without the blood.'

The two of them walked out of the church and once they were out, Sam heard Caine sink right back into a speech about unity and togetherness. "Closest bathroom?" Diana asked and Sam lead her into the daycare. He knew that it would have baby wipes to help remove the red in case the only paper towel in the bathroom was toilet paper. As they walked closer Diana's eyes focused on the burnt building. "When did that happen?"

"Day this thing started."

"Who did it?" When Sam didn't reply, Diana expanded her question, "Did an adult just leave the stove on? Did they disappear when they were holding a match? Something like that?" Sam avoided eye contact and Diana kept prying, "Do you even know what happened? Was it a kid?" When she asked that, Sam's eyes darted over to a patch of upturned dirt lay. There was a small, wooden marker standing up from the earth. It looked like... Diana suddenly realized what it was. "Sam... I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I didn't really know her. No one did," Sam whispered, looking at the ground now.

"I'm still sorry."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" Sam suddenly snapped. It was too much and too soon. He hadn't meant for his voice to be so loud. But it was and Diana didn't even flinch. Sam looked back down. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell-"

Diana scoffed, "Don't worry. I'm used to it. Is this the daycare?" They were standing out front of the door. Sam held the door open for Diana and she walked in. "Bathroom?"

"Not sure where. Just look around." Sam walked through into the next room and left Diana in room filled with stuffed animals and alphabet blocks.

Sam was in the kitchen when he saw a closed door, most likely the bathroom. He was about to turn around and get Diana when he heard a high pitched scream. "Diana?!" Sam ran into the next room, arms stretched in front of him. Diana was standing on top of a plastic table on one foot scanning the ground with her eyes wildly.

"There's a rat!" she screeched. "It ran over there," she said in a small voice and pointing to a corner.

Sam couldn't help but laugh. "Jesus, Diana! I thought you were in real trouble."

"The freaking Black Plague started because of flea on rats. Don't tell me that a rat isn't something to be scared of," Diana said in a distressed but sarcastic voice. "There!" she pointed at a pile of stuffies. A Grey mass of fur poked out behind a big bird. Sam walked on tip toes towards the mountain of fuzz, stopping along the way to cover his hand in a baby bib just in case he had to pick up a rat. He snapped his hand forward and grabbed the rat. He expected it to start wriggling in his palm, but it didn't. It didn't because it wasn't a rat.

"This is a stuffed elephant Diana."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." Diana relaxed and after a second, put her face in her hands.

"Seriously? I'm such an idiot."

Sam walked back to the table and held out his hand. "Here, let me help you down."

Diana reached but tripped on her own foot and the two teenagers crashed onto the cushioned floor. It was the classic rom-com moment where the leads fall in love. Their faces were dangerously close and Sam could feel her breath on his face. Sam held his breath, waiting. For something.

Anything.

"Sam?"

"Yes?" he said too quickly.

"Your face is still covered in you blood."

"Shit, sorry." Sam pushed himself up and walked as fast as he could out of the room. I'm such an idiot. I don't even know her. She's just so pretty. Beautiful really. He made his way into the bathroom, ran the water, and splashed cold water in his face.

In the other room, Diana was brushing herself off. Guys are idiots, she thought to herself. If Sam had actually been paying attention he'd have realized how fake she was being. Of course she knew it wasn't a rat. She just needed to see Sam's power. She had hoped he would hear her scream and run in, guns a blazing. He was a four bar. The only one other than Caine and she needed to know what he could do before deciding to tell Caine about him or not.

Diana knew that she needed Sam to trust her. She might even be safer around him then Caine. If his power was stronger then she'd have a better chance with him. So she'd play the shy girl who was afraid of rodents and tripped on her own feet into boys arms. She'd be who she would have to be to get the protection she needed.

Sam came back, clean face, and Diana saw that he was cute. He had a the surfer hair and his skin was a smooth honey brown. His smile was almost perfect, just a few of his bottom teeth a little bit crooked. Not enough to get braces, but enough to give him an imperfect smile. It worked. He was a bout half an inch shorter than Caine but in better shape so he looked bigger. He was cute. Not quite hot. He was the boy next door.

Of course Diana's actual neighbor used her vast amount of wealth to stuff her dead cats. So hopefully Sam wasn't anything like Bertha.

"Better?" he asked.

Diana smiled. Sickly and full of sugar. "Much." He rewarded her with a smile. Almost hot. Almost.

"Meeting over." Their heads turned to Caine standing in the door way. "I see you've cleaned up," he said to Sam.

"Um, yeah." Caine intimidated Sam, there was no hiding it. But Sam got the impression that Caine intimidated most people. "Did the rest of it go alright?"

"It was great," Caine smiled. "It ran smoothly. All except for your girlfriend-"

"Not my girlfriend."

"Oh, sorry. You two were just so friendly."

"Not my girlfriend. My friend who is a girl."

"Anyways," Caine continued, "The blondie interrupted every minute or so."

"Yeah..." Sam felt mildly embarrassed that Astrid couldn't just shut her mouth when a good thing came along. "She does that."

Caine laughed. "I'm sure she does. No matter," Sam had never heard a kid his age say no matter without a trace of sarcasm in their voice. "Everything is good. Drake has organized a small police force and people has nominated your friend Quinn as our town fire fighter. Apparently he was very helpful when that apartment caught fire. I also heard about that girl," Caine paused for dramatic effect, "I am so sorry to hear about that Sam. They said that you found her? I can't imagine how that feels."

Sam thought about saying something like, 'No, you couldn't.' But he just nodded. Saying something would have felt like bragging.

"So everyone has a job then?" Sam asked.

"Not quite everyone. We have someone looking after the younger kids, the fire chief, a girl to look after the injured and sick, a group of kids to collect and ration the food. We've got pretty much everything covered." Caine was speaking with amazing confidence and grace. Every word had been pre-planed. "But you, my friend, can I call you a friend?" Sam nodded. "You, my friend, are still unemployed. Any suggestions?"

Sam stayed quite for a moment. He liked Caine. He really liked Diana. And that Drake kid couldn't really be too bad. Right? "I could.. I mean, if you don't mind..." Sam couldn't make himself say it. It was too much like asking to join the cool table. And Sam had never sat at the cool table. He'd always just sat with Quinn, at the truly uncool table.

"Spit it out," Caine said. He was trying so hard to be cool but he needed to get back to work and with Sam standing there like an idiot with his mouth hanging open, it was wasting time. Time that Caine really could use.

"I think what Sam here is trying to say is," Diana interjected with a glare at Caine, "is that he could work with us." She looked at Sam and smiled. He smiled back and again Diana could admire his crooked teeth. He was millimeters away from being hot now. She continued talking. "He could be our inside ears, and if he trusts us and the town trusts him, then they'll be way more likely to trust us. It's a whole trust thing. It's kind of important Caine."

Caine pondered for a moment. He was holding the suspense in the air, but Diana knew what he was going to say. He needed Sam.

"Sure Sam. You'll be my right hand man." Caine smiled a fake smile at him. "If you want that of course. If not, I'm sure Drake could use more people on the police force."

Sam looked at Caine. Then at Diana. He held her intense, chocolate gaze. Diana saw the corner of his mouth turn upwards, just the slightest. Sam walked up to Caine, keeping Diana in his peripheral, and extended his hand to him. "Partners."

"Partner."

Diana smiled to herself. She almost felt bad for using these two boys so easily. Almost.

But two protectors is always better than one. And in the end, she'd pick the stronger one.

A world of possibilities.

P.S.- I'm not sure if I should keep going with this, but I liked writing it so I might. If you want me to please let me know and if there is interest then I definatley l will. Thanks everyone :)