A/N IMPORTANT!

Turn Back. Now. If you have not read Night of Skulls, you will be 100% lost. The lingo, references, and the major plot line will be used and talked about. Serious stuff man. This is for your own good. Trust me. There are spoilers in here that you do NOT want to know. It will ruin the enjoyment of the whole book. The identities of the criminals will be revealed, their motives. All the amazing scenes, all the suspense...I'm telling you this because if i were in your position, I would defiantly read this story, then slap myself for not listening to this warning. If you are a TRUE SK fan, you would never read this. Don't let me tell the story of NoS...Let Sammy.

Don't say I didn't warn you...

By the way, there is a forum to discuss NoS. There aren't really any spoilers on there, so if you really want to learn about NoS without it getting ruined for you, check it out. It's mostly hints and stuff.

Disclaimer: i do not own freaking amazing Night of Skulls, SK, or any other amazing stuff I forgot about. it all belongs to Wendelin and Random House, who are freaking amazing.

Holly's POV

It was three weeks after the showdown at the Crypt Corral, yet the town was still talking about it. In newspaper headlines, on the news, at school...how some minors discovered the bodies. It took all my willpower not to take the credit, but I knew I couldn't do it. That would be a disaster. I still couldn't even believe what we did. If Meg and Vera found out what I did that night...I shook myself, trying to get the terrible image of me having to wash Big 'Ol Bonnie all by myself, the punishment-knowing them- they'd give me.

Big Bonnie is not the dog to mess with. She's 47 pounds of pure fury. Okay, maybe she is a poodle, and maybe she is really tiny, but her hot temper makes up for it. I have never been more scared of a dog in my life. She is no Lucy. Surprisingly, Vera is 'the chosen one'. She's the only one allowed to be even remotely close to her.

Now, as I'm thinking about my fate, cruising home from school on my skateboard, I see Marissa and Billy, walking home together. Holding hands.

It was a match I NEVER saw coming, and I was surprised I was the first to catch on. But here they were, laughing, and talking ahead of me. It was something I would have to get used to. Yeah, I'm used to Sammy and Casey holding hands and all that, but they've never done anything, you know, revolting around us, thank God. I think they take us into consideration, how they're the only couple in the group. But if Billy and Marissa got together...

I shivered.

Billy loves hugging, Marissa is...well...lets just say she gets, uh, caught in the moment at times. Watch, they'll be kissing and hugging and all that crap everywhere they go. Fantastic. That leaves me and Dot single. That's depressing.

On the subject of couples, I hadn't seen Casey since the big showdown. Well, that's a lie. I have. I've seen him with Billy. They talk a little, and Casey gives Billy updates on the whole Heather/Danny/Casey thing. It's been three weeks, yet Candi, Heather's mom, is still on about it. Apparently Heather used her power of persuasion and manipulation to blame everything on Casey. Typical. Casey lost his phone, and still hasn't gotten it back yet. Given that, you'd think he'd be hanging around his friends even more, especially his girlfriend, but nope. Sammy says she hasn't really seen him since then either. Not a lot, I mean.

All this is going through my head as I watch Marissa and Billy in front of me from about 10 meters away.

Now, I'm having a debate whether or not to crash their party or leave them alone. I chose the former, just cause I'm mean like that.

"Hey!" I yell as I accelerate on my board.

Billy and Marissa jump a bit and look around. At first they're a little stunned, but they get over it fast and smile at me.

"Look," Billy smiles, "It's the Hollister!"

"What's up?" Marissa asks.

Now, throughout this short exchange, their hands are still there, holding on to each other. Great, I think, they don't even look slightly embarrassed. Yep, they will defiantly be difficult to look at when they become 'an item'.

"Um, nothing." I say, looking away from their hands before I'm caught. "Just on my way home."

"Cool." Billy says, "Me and Marissa were just talking about how Heather got owned by this girl between 3rd and 4th period."

"What'd she say?"

"She said something about Danny." Marissa said, without stumbling over her words. Billy didn't look depressed either, so they either were now comfortable with Danny, or they were too happy with holding each other's hands to even care. I chose to believe the first reason-it made me want to throw up less. "Something about how she got dumped for that high school girl. I don't know the exact conversation, i wasn't there. i heard it from Alice Jenkins, you know her?"

"Yeah. What did Heather do to be slammed with that?"

Billy answered by saying, "Apparently, Heather called her a poser because she was 'copying her style'. What style she was referring to, I don't know."

I laugh and shake my head. Heather's always uptight. About everything. And dramatic. Very dramatic. So yeah, it was defiantly beleiveable.

"Speaking of Heather and Danny," I say, "Have you seen Casey lately?"

"Not me." Marissa shakes her head, then turns to Billy. "You?"

"Uhhh, yeah." he says. He looks at his shoes for a millisecond, barely noticeable, then continues. "We hung out yesterday, why?"

"He just hasn't hung out with us lately. I was wondering why." I pause before saying, "Billy, do you know what's up with him?"

Billy starts squirming a little, looking uncomfortable. "It's not really my business to tell."

I stop Marissa and Billy. "Did we do something wrong?"

Marissa's quite, and you know, listening to me and Billy talk, but finally says, "I see what you mean Holly. He has been avoiding us."

"I never said avoided." I mutter, then turn to Billy. "Well, did we?"

He lets go of Marissa's hand and starts to fidget, not looking us in our eyes. "Well, no. He's just been, you know...busy."

"If he's busy, then why is he hanging out with you?" Marissa asks.

"Ummm."

"Has he talked to Sammy lately?" I say.

"I'm not an expert on his love life!" Billy yells, flinging his arms out dramatically.

"I asked Sammy in Drama yesterday. She said she hasn't." Marissa supplies. "She's been acting off, you know? She tries to avoid questions like that."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah." Marissa's eyes get big. "Do you think they got in a fight? Did they break up?" We both turn to Billy.

There he goes, fidget, fidget, fidget. Finally he looks up. "No."

"Come on, Billy!" I say as I grab his arm.

"Yeah. Please?" Marissa asks, grabbing his other arms, looking right into his eyes.

Billy stares back. "They're-" he stops himself, looks away and mutters, "Not my job." He looks at both of us in the eyes finally. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything. Casey told me something, and I can't tell anyone. I'll be gutted! Like a fish!"

Marissa and I sigh and let go of his arms. We continue walking in silence. Soon we get to the intersection where we have to split up. Billy goes one way, Marissa and I the other.

Marissa's quiet the whole time, so I ask, "Marissa, you okay?" Marissa and I have never been, you know, BFF's Forever. We're friends, close friends, but we don't have that much glue, let alone superglue that binds us together. So me asking about her personal life and taking the 'Best Friend" job was weird. Usually it's Sammy's position. I figured I'd wing it and try to copy what I see in the movies.

"Yeah. It's just, I'm trying to figure out this whole Casey/Sammy business now." I let out a sigh, thankful it's not some emotional problem, I cannot handle those, but what comes next out of her mouth throws me. "Do you think Sammy's lying?"

I look at her like she's lost her marbles. "Why would Sammy lie about seeing her boyfriend?"

Marissa shrugs, so I continue with, "Maybe Billy is."

She didn't like that suggestion very much.

We're almost at the Pup Parlor, so she offers "Something's off. Maybe we should follow her."

"What!"

She looks at me and shrugs. "Don't you wanna see what's going on? What happens if it's serious? Sammy needs us."

We stop for a moment and I start to shift. Spying on Sammy? If she figured it out, we would be dead. She'd kill us! But part of me says, 'But she has nothing to be ashamed of, right? She wouldn't lie to us...we're just doing it to make sure she's okay, right? It's for her benefit.

I finally give in and say, "Okay. When? Tomorrow?"

"Yeah. We get out of class ASAP, follow her from a distance, see where she goes...if it's home, we do it the next day to make sure there's not something up. If we see something suspicious, we slyly bring it up at lunch the next day. We can't let her know we followed her. She would never trust us again."

We finally reached the Pup Parlor when I respond, "Got it." And we both go our separate ways.

DIVIDING LINE-IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE NIGHT OF SKULLS, THIS IS YOU LAST WARNING!-DIVIDING LINE

Have you ever had that feeling in the pit of your stomach when someone's talking to you, and you know you stabbed them in the back even if they don't know it? They just look so...naive to what you did?

That's how I felt at lunch today.

I couldn't even look at Sammy without feeling guilty. She was such a good friend. Why am I backstabbing her? 'You're not' said a voice in my head. 'You're helping her, remember? This is for her! It's the only way!' 'Shut up!' I tell it.

"Holly? You okay?" Sammy asks me as I pick at my sandwich.

"Ummm..." I say and catch a glimpse of Marissa across the table, shaking her head. "Yeah."

"Okay..." Sammy mutters, like she doesn't believe a word that came out of my mouth.

"So what are you up to after school today, Sammy?" Marissa asks casually.

Sammy looks down, but then quickly looks up. "Nothing. Going home, catching up on school. Why?" She's not making eye contact, I note.

"You positive?" Marissa interrogates, leaning closer.

Sammy leans away a little, looking at Marissa like she's from another planet. "Uhhh, yeeeeeeah... Why?"

"No reason." Marissa says, sitting back in her chair.

"Okay then..." Sammy says, still weirded out.

Luckily, the warning bell sounded for class, and me and Marissa jetted out of there as fast as we could. ""That was real sly, McKenze." I say sarcastically.

When the last bell of the day rung, I jetted over to the Drama room, where Marissa, Billy and Sammy all had their last class together. Me and Marissa decided not to drag Billy along because we knew he'd try to stop us, or he'd tell Sammy.

Marissa spotted me hiding behind the tree near the door when she came out and ran for it, ducking out of view.

Billy and Sammy walked out together a few seconds later, and we caught a slip of their conversation.

"-can't tell anyone." Sammy said

"I know, I promised I'd keep it a secret, I really hope-" was all we could hear before they got out of ear shot.

"I told you!" Marissa whispered-shouted to me. "She is keeping a secret!"

"You said she was lying, not keeping a secret." I say. "Come on! We're gonna lose them!"

So we follow them out of the school's boundaries, and watch as Sammy and Billy wave goodbye to each other, and go in opposite directions.

Here's a lesson: Never stalk people with Marissa Mckenze. She is the loudest stalker that ever lived. The whole time we're trying to keep up with Sammy, who's on a skateboard mind you, without being seen, Marissa chatters.

"We need code names!"

"For what?" I ask her.

"All spies have codenames."

"We don't need-"

"Okay, for yours how about FoxCraft, and for me-"

"FoxCraft?"

"- how about The Black Panther."

"Where do you get this stuff from?"I ask her, shaking my head.

"Movies." She says, "Quick! We're losing her!"

So after chasing Sammy for about 7 minutes, I finally start getting some ideas and start realizing what direction we're headed in. "Marissa, do you think she's headed to the graveyard?"

Marissa's face gets all contorted. "Why would she go there? Teddy and Courtny got caught. There's no reason to."

I think. There was no reason to go there. The culprits were caught, Dusty Mike was okay...

"Maybe she's visiting someone?" I suggest. We stop, watching Sammy cross the street towards the graveyard. Yep, I was right.

"If Sammy had a relative buried there, she would've told us." Marissa countered.

"I know...maybe she's visiting that Ofelia girl? The one with the missing skull?"

"Again, why would she do that?"

"I don't know." I sigh. We watch as Sammy goes to the back gate of the cemetery and just stands there.

"Maybe she's meeting someone?" Marissa asks, staring at Sammy, squinting to make sure there's no one standing by her.

"Maybe..." I mutter. Now, Marissa and I are hiding being a trashcan, so as 15 minutes pass, not only do our legs cramp up, it starts stinking...bad.

"Maaaaan!" Marissa whispers, her nose scrunching up. "What does this dude throw away?"

"Do you really want to find out?" I ask with my eyebrows raised, a mischievous look on my face.

"No thank you!" she tells me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone coming towards us.

"SHHHHH!" I tell Marissa, pointing to the stranger.

The stranger, obviously a boy, crosses the street towards Sammy. Sammy looks up and smiles.

"Who is that?" I ask.

Marissa's about to say something, but then her eyes get all wide, she resituates herself to get a better view of the Mystery Boy.

"I think that's Casey!" I squint. Auburn hair, flannel top, jeans...

"I think you're right! it is!" I look at Marissa. "But why would she say she was going home and doing homework? Why didn't she just say she was going to hang out with Casey?"

"Remember what Billy and Sammy said? They have a secret! They're keeping something from us, and it involves Casey." Marissa looked pained. "Why would she lie to us? We're her friends."

"Sammy usually has a reason." I say. "A stupid reason, but a reason nonetheless."

"That doesn't give her a right to lie to us!"

"I know." I tell her. I stand up, and pull her up. "Quick! They went through the gate! We're gonna lose them!"

So as we're tripping from our legs being numb and trying not to look like drunk stalkers trying to cross a street towards a graveyard, we're actually trying to be quiet. I know, hard to believe.

We slip through the gate as quietly as possible, and just catch a glimpse of Sammy and Casey holding hands and turning a corner past some tall trees.

"Come on, Marissa! We're going to lose them!" I tell Marissa, but I can tell she's a little scared. She's whimpering and looking everywhere, acting paranoid. "Remember what we're here for? We need to find what's up with Sammy, Casey and Billy!"

That seemed to snap her back to reality, at least a little. We stop and hide behind a rock as Sammy and Casey stop between two walnut trees. Now, during our stalking spree, I can't help but thinking about how abandoned I feel. Sammy's kept secrets before, but that doesn't mean it doesn't bother me. Marissa was right, no matter the reason, it does hurt. She doesn't trust us. So here I am, hiding behind a big bolder in a cemetery, watching Sammy and Casey from about 15 meters away, when someone behind me whispers, "I told you not to come here!"

I'm about to scream my freaking face off and punch this dude behind me, but i come to my senses quickly, and remember where I am. I clasp my hand over Marissa's mouth, and her screaming gets muffled.

"Billy, I'm going to KILL you!" I whisper-yell at him. I quickly check on Sammy and Casey, and Billy and Marissa do the same. They hug, and then sit down together. I look back to Billy and take my hand off of Marissa's face.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Billy retorts. Then I notice that he's pretty serious. He's not his happy-go-lucky self. He looks pretty devastated.

"We needed answers, and you weren't giving us any, so we went searching for some ourselves!" Marissa whispers.

"It was a secret!" Billy says, pain spreading across his face.

"What secret are you-"

"Shhh!" I tell Marissa. "They're going to hear us!" I point towards Sammy and Casey. The three of us all look out from behind the rock to see Sammy and Casey next to each other. Casey has his arm around Sammy's waist, and Sammy's leaning on his arm. I couldn't hear anything, we were too far away, but they were smiling and talking.

"Awwww!" Marissa gushes.

"SHHH!" Me and Billy tell her, then get back to watching the scene.

Casey must have said something funny, because Sammy starts laughing, her eyes sparkling.

Now, you have to understand. I have never seen Sammy like this. Taking on Heather? Yeah. Slugging a softball across a field? Yep. Stabbing a girl with a hoe? You betcha. But...looking so..i don't know...girly and...and..and...soft? Nope.

So here i am, getting all soft-hearted...in a graveyard...hiding behind a rock...spying on my friends. How jacked up is that?

Then Casey lifts up her chin, they stare into each other's eyes with love written on their faces, then kiss.

Billy, Marissa and I all say "AWWWWWWW!" because we have NEVER seen them be all, I don't know, lovey-dovey.

Then I have the urge to slap myself. Here I am, spying on my best friend and her boyfriend.

"Why are they keeping this a secret?" Marissa asks, rolling her eyes. "If they wanted to have alone time and be alone, they could've just said so. It's kinda expected."

"You don't know the whole story!" Billy whisper-yells to Marissa, but it's too late. She's already up heading to Sammy and Casey who are still holding hands and smiling at each other, talking. "Hey!"

Casey and Sammy jump. Big time. They bump heads, and look up, panic in their eyes. Hey I'd be panicked too if I saw my best friend watching me and my boyfriend making eyes at each other. Not that I have one.

"Marissa?" Sammy yells, frantically looking around, rubbing her head. Casey does the same thing.

I get up from my hiding place.

"Holly?" Sammy squints when she sees me.

But when Casey and Sammy see the next person to come out from behind the rock, they put on some pretty evil faces and mutter, "Billy."

"Hey, hey,hey!" Billy says, holding his hands up in surrender. "I tried to hold them back! i really did! They're pretty stubborn!"

Casey and Sammy look at each other, then they look at us. "Who else knows you're here?"

"Just us three." I say. "Why?"

The two look at each other again. Sammy stands up and unsteadily says, "There's some things we haven't told you."

"Well, DUH!" Marissa tells her while Casey stands up. "That's why we followed you! We wanted to know what was up! You, Billy and Casey have been acting a little different since the whole Corpse Under the Coffin thing. Not a drastic difference, but still. Casey hasn't been hanging out with us, Billy keeps talking about some secret, and you're lying to us about your whereabouts! What are we supposed to believe!"

We all stand there and stare at Marissa like 'whoa'. "Sorry." she says.

"De ja vu." Billy mutters.

"Look," Casey says. "There is stuff we haven't told you, but-"

"Why?" I ask. "Don't you trust us?"

"Of course!" Sammy cries, obviously hurt by the accusation. "But it's a dangerous playing field!"

"What playing field! What's going on?" Marissa asks, looking like she's going to break any minute.

Sammy and Casey look at each other again, sigh, then turn to us, and, together, they say, "We're forbidden."

"What?" Marissa and I ask.

"We're kinda forbidden." Casey shrugs.

"Huh?" Marissa and I say, not quite comprehending the words coming out of our friends' mouths.

"THEY'RE FORBIDDEN!" Billy yells. "For stalkers, you have pretty bad hearing."

"Can you please elaborate?" I ask, glaring at Billy. Now, I'm feeling pretty...flustered. Forbidden? How come Billy got to know?

"Well, Casey and I have been coming here for awhile, since before we solved the Body Mystery thing a couple weeks ago."

"Why?" Marissa asks. "And why here?"

"I'm getting there! So anyways, after the whole Danny/Heather/Casey thing went down at the mall, Heather told her mom a bunch of lies and blamed everything on Casey. Casey got his phone taken away...but that wasn't his only punishment." Sammy stops and takes a peak at Casey, offering him to finish the rest of the story.

He obliges, and continues, "Well, it's a...permanent...punishment." He shifts his feet and says, "She told me I was forbidden to see Sammy."

Now, this isn't a shock. Well, not a big shock, like they're playing it. So yeah, I ask, "That's all?"

"Well..no." Casey and Sammy say together.

"Then what?" Marissa asks.

"If I do see her, and Heather or my mom finds out, I'm kicked out of my house and forced to move to LA with my dad."

Well, THAT was shocking. It took me a second to remind myself to breathe. LA? Poor Sammy! Poor Casey! Poor, well, everyone!

"To LA?" Marissa gasped.

"Yeah." Casey said glumly.

"That's kind of ironic." I say.

"Why is that ironic?" Billy asks.

We all look at him, and I realize that he doesn't know about Sammy's situation. Oops.

"Nothing." We all say.

"Okaaaay then." Billy trails off, confused.

"Oooohhhh!" I say, finally realizing everything. "You guys meet here because you can't be caught together."

"And you use Billy as a messenger because you can't call each other from your house/cell phones." Marissa finishes.

So I'm feeling pretty bad, actually, terrible. I just followed my best friend to a secret meeting place so she can see her forbidden boyfriend.

I am totally blaming this on that voice.

I really have to stop listening to myself.

"I am so sorry you guys." I tell them.

"Same here." Marissa nods.

"It's no problem." Sammy says, not mad anymore. There's actually relief spreading across her face, and Casey sees it too, which makes him stop being upset. I guess he thinks if his girlfriend is happy about this, he should be happy that she's happy. Which makes my heart do a little 'Awwww".

I'm starting to really sound like Marissa.

Crap.

"But here's the deal." Sammy says, shaking up me out of my horrific thoughts. "No one knows. Not anyone. Not Dot. Not your parents. No one. Remember, one slip, it's all over, Casey moves."

"No pressure or anything." Marissa mutters.

"That's why we didn't want to tell you guys" Casey told us.

"But you felt fine putting it on me?" Billy yells, which makes me jump because I did not remember he was here.

"Yeah, cuz you suck." Sammy tells him, "but really, no one, okay?"

"This is kinda like Romeo and Juliet!" Marissa suddenly yells.

Oh Gosh.

"What?" we all yell.

"You know, Forbidden to see each other because of their families? Billy could be Friar Lawrence-"

"Friar who?"

"-and I could be the Nurse, since you know, I'm Sammy's best friend."

"Billy, you need to become a reverend. You're going to marry Casey and Sammy, okay?" Marissa says all serious like.

"Okay!" Billy says with a goofy grin.

"Then who am I?" I ask.

"Well...nobody, I guess."

"Are we really having this discussion?" Sammy asks us with disbelief.

"Kinda." We say.

"Wow." Casey says.

"Would you rather me compare your relationship with Stuck in the Moment by Justin Bieber?"

"NO!" Casey and Sammy say together.

"That's what I thought" Marissa says smugly. She walks over to the two. "Right here." Marissa smiles, throwing her arms around Casey and Sammy, "are the modern day Romeo and Juliet."

"Marissa, you make one more reference to that play, I will kill you, and dump you in that coffin over there without hesitation."

All Marissa does is smile. "Okay then!" And Casey and Sammy grumble.

I guess, no matter how scary it may seem, Casey and Sammy are the twisted modern day Romeo and Juliet.

I should totally make a movie. Ha!

A/N If you didn't listen to my warnings, you might be a) saying "Crap, i really should have listened to you" or b) I am SO glad I didn't listen to you. For both responses, my answer is, "You will regret it." Completely ruined the book and all it's epicness.

Did you get my title? Jacked Romeo and Juliet? Yeah….I'm really tired.

And yeah, I know I have to work on MLWN, but, I couldn't help it, I HAD to write a NoS fic. I'm also trying to work on my dialogue with stories. I'm really bad at that. So I've been trying REALLY hard to work on it. And are the characters IC? I have a problem with OOCness. I flip out.

FANFIC IDEAS?: Should I make a spin off story? Sammy's friends making a movie about Cammy? And if there's any specific NoS scene/fic you want me to do, just tell, I'll see if I can make it happen ;)

Sooooooooo. Review? Please? Sometimes I really ask myself if anyone's even reading this, which is sad. :( I REALLY love you guys, you're amazing!

SAMMY KEYES FOREVER!