Caught In The Lie

by Bob The Other Zombie

Little White Lie Season 2. It's a week after the awful party, and Sami's managed to work her way back into the good graces of the popular kids. But Kevin's back, and he's no longer keeping to himself...How will Sami and Duder keep Tanya away from him? What will Sami do about Toby? And more importantly, what happens if the Reeses are caught in the lie?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. Everything in here belongs to the wonderful people of Starkid Productions, especially Darren Criss for the song lyrics. Unfortunately I'm just a lowly fanfiction writer.

The Monday after the party, the popular kids stared at Sami and Duder in silence as they approached. Briefly, Sami hesitated. Did she really want to rejoin their group? Would she rather have no friends if it meant not hanging out with idiots?

"Hey guys, sorry about Friday night." Sami said. "I was-" she struggled to think of an excuse- "really drunk."

"Like a real rock star!" Zach said, and it was that easy. Zach high-fived her and the whole group relaxed, discussing Sami's party in excited tones. Even moron friends were better than no friends at all, Sami thought.

Just like that, things went back to normal. The incident became part of the legend of "Little White Lie", specifically, "The First Party Where Sami Went Crazy", and, for a while, it seemed like the everything would be the same as it was before the party...well, almost everything.

LWLWLWLWLWL

It had been a week since the party when Duder, preoccupied with his own thoughts, collided with someone in the hallway. He heard a clatter of things hitting the ground and a high-pitched squeal of "Excuse me!" and looked down. There, crouched on the floor gathering her things, was Tanya Freemont.

"Tanya!" he said, bending down to help.

"Leave it." she snapped. She jerked a book out of his hands and stood, brushing herself off.

"Tanya, we need to talk." Duder said. Tanya turned and began to walk briskly away from him. "Tanya, seriously, wait up!"

Tanya whirled back around, giving him one of her trademark forced smiles. "What is it, Duder?"

Duder stared at her, lost for words. What did he want to say? Apologizing came to mind, but he didn't want to bring up what happened at the party any more than he had to... "There's- there's band practice this afternoon."

"I'm not in the band anymore." Tanya said. "I quit."

"Tanya, you can't quit!" Duder said. Tanya turned away and began walking in the other direction. "Wait! Just- what is this about?"

Tanya stopped, still not looking at him. "Ask your sister." she said finally, and she was gone.

Duder stopped in the hallway, staring after her. Sami? Had Sami made her quit for some reason? He turned, spotted Sami talking with the Hot Girls, and dashed over to them.

"Sorry, girls, I need to talk to Sami for a minute." Duder said, pulling Sami away.

"What the hell, Duder?" Sami snapped. "That hurt!"

"Look, Sami, I need to talk to you." Duder said. "Tanya quit."

Sami almost looked guilty for a minute. "Well, of course she did." she said. "She's a jerk. You should know that by now."

"What happened? Did you do something to her?" Duder said.

"Of course I didn't do anything to her!" Sami said, sounding a little too high-pitched. "Nothing at all! She ran over Kevin Buschwald, okay?"

Duder's eyes bulged. "What?" he said. "Do you have proof?"

"She told me." Sami said. "And besides, she knew all of the details of the accident. She even had the nerve to blame me for it!"

Sami had begun walking very quickly, propelled by her anger against Tanya. Duder jogged to catch up with her. "So now what?" he asked. "Are you going to tell the police?"

"Well, I would, but have you forgotten what we're doing isn't exactly legal, either?" Sami said. She stopped at her locker and began to undo the lock. Duder leaned against the locker next to hers, still working through what he'd just heard.

"The Save Calvin foundation." he said. "What was the point of that?"

Sami shrugged. "I don't know, maybe she wanted to throw off suspicion." She grabbed a couple notebooks, shoved them in her backpack, and closed her locker again.

"Or maybe, she was feeling guilty." Duder said. He thought about some of the things he'd seen when he'd spent the afternoon following her- her donation to Kevin's aunt, the way she'd squirmed when Mrs. Buschwald asked her to come in... "Maybe she wanted to make up for what she'd done."

Sami snorted. "Yeah, right. Since when did Tanya Freemont care about anyone but herself?"

Duder pictured her at the party, how she looked when she first came outside, all ready to help him...and then moments later, after he followed her advice. "I guess you're right." he mumbled.

"Duh." Sami said. "Now I've got a plan for getting back at her. We're going to break into her computer tonight..."

Duder nodded in all the right places, but his mind was elsewhere. Did Sami want to break into Tanya's computer for justice for Kevin, or just for her own personal vendetta? Was Tanya really trying to get attention through the Save Calvin Foundation, or was she honestly trying to help Kevin? Duder wondered which of them was the better person, Sami or Tanya. Lately, he hadn't been too sure. Of course, Tanya had walked out on him at the party. And she had driven away without stopping to check on Kevin. But Duder wasn't much for thinking through things, and as he waved goodbye to Sami and headed off to lunch, his mind was already on Love Grenade's party this weekend and their next band practice and what was on the menu today. Anything else could wait.

LWLWLWLWLWL

Chemistry had once been Sami's favorite class. She remembered anticipating it every morning through all of her other classes, planning what she would say, how she would smile, what she would wear, how her laugh would sound. Not because of the subject, of course. It wasn't every class you got to sit next to the hottest boy in school- Toby Phillips.

Of course, since the party, things were a little different.

"Sami."

Normally, Sami would stare straight ahead and ignore him, and he would give up after class started, but normally Tanya Freemont hadn't been thrown in her face by her idiot brother.

"Sami."

"What do you want?" she snapped, trying and failing to glare into his puppy-dog eyes.

Toby was so surprised at getting a response that he was momentarily speechless. "Uh..."

"Well?" Sami asked.

"I'm sorry." he said. "I really am, you have to believe me! I didn't mean to-"

"What? Sing me love songs while staring deeply into my eyes? Entice me up to my own freaking bedroom in the middle of a party? Make out with me while you still have a GIRLFRIEND?"

"Look, Tanya and I are finished." Toby said. "We realized that we are very different people who want very different things. She's no longer an obstacle."

Sami snorted. "So, what, that's just supposed to make me go flying into your arms?"

"I don't know!" Toby said, but his tone confirmed what Sami had said.

"I don't believe you!" Sami said. "Not just about last night, but all of the last few weeks! Giving preachy speeches about friends and playing guitar for Tanya, joining our band and blowing off practice to spend more time with Tanya, getting mad at me for letting her join and spending band practice cozying up to Tanya, singing love songs to me while still. dating. TANYA! Honestly, what is your problem?"

"I don't know." Toby repeated helplessly. "I guess I was just confused."

"Oh, really?" Sami said. "You were CONFUSED so you cheated on Tanya and led me on?"

"Sami." Toby said. "I didn't lead you on. I swear, I actually do like you. Please, Sami."

"What, like you liked Tanya?" Sami said. "How do I know she's not going to give you a little butt-wriggle that sends you running back to her?"

"It won't happen, I promise." Toby said. "Please, Sami, I will do whatever you need me to, just don't-"

"Don't what?" Sami said. "Hurt you? Act like I like you then ignore you for weeks? I think it's too late for that for one of us."

"Sami, I said I was sorry." Toby said. "How many times do you have to hear that?"

"More than that." Sami said. "The band was going great, and Tanya and I were actually beginning to like each other."

"Well, you started it!" Toby said. "You leaned in! You kissed me!"

"Well, it's not like you pulled back!" Sami said. "How about next time, if you don't want a girl to kiss you, don't, hmm, I don't know, sing a love song to her while staring longingly into her eyes? How does that sound for an idea, Toby?"

Toby turned away from her in disgust. They sat for the rest of the period in stony silence. Finally, at the end of class, when they were gathering up their things, Toby said, "Look. This is my last peace offering. If we can't go out, we're still in the same band, so can we at least be friends?"

"I'll think about it." Sami said. She turned and stormed out of the classroom.

LWLWLWLWLWL

Other than that, the day was uneventful. As was said earlier, everything was back to normal. Well, almost.

On her way to sixth period, there was a commotion by the front doors. Someone in a wheelchair was trying to get in. Normally, Sami would have kept walking, but people started shouting something, something that sounded like a name, and Sami stopped in her tracks, suddenly nauseous, staring at the small figure in the wheelchair.

It was Kevin Buschwald.

LWLWLWLWLWL

(music)

We've been playing all of our lives

In a world of little white lies

And if we wanna make it

we're gonna have to fake it

and no one's gonna realize

We've got nothing but the songs we sing

Before we know what's happening

We might be the next big thing

And now I wish we could escape it but let's face it

Now we're caught in the lie

LWLWLWLWLWL

"Duder Duder Duder Duder!" Sami hissed, pulling him from his locker and down the hallway.

"Sami, I need to close my locker!" Duder protested, struggling.

"Duder, you need to come see this." She pushed him into the lobby where she'd been standing and pointed.

"Oh no..."

"I know. What are we going to do?" Sami said.

"About mystery meat for lunch? What can we do?"

"Not the lunch menu, look!" She pulled him to face where Kevin was engulfed in a crowd by the front doors. "Kevin's back!"

"Kevin's back?" Duder said. "But- I didn't even know he was awake! Why wouldn't Tanya tell anyone?"

"Tanya has no friends, remember?" Sami said. "And speaking of Tanya..."

Tanya was standing at the entrance to the lobby across from them, staring at Kevin as though all her worst nightmares were coming true. When she caught Sami looking at her, she smiled, mouthing, "It'sovernow."

Sami quickly pantomimed running into something with a car. Tanya's smile disappeared, and she ran off in the other direction, hands over her mouth.

Duder, meanwhile, had been watching Kevin wheel across the hallway with a crowd of girls following him. He had the facial expression of a deer being chased by a pack of wolves. "Sami." Duder said. "What are we going to do?"

"Try and keep him out of the loop, I guess." Sami said. "He doesn't talk to anyone, so it probably shouldn't be too hard, but we have to be careful anyways. Don't let him talk to any of the popular kids, don't let him hear any of our music, and, most of all, don't let Tanya near him. It should be simple."

"Right." Duder said. "That will be simple."

LWLWLWLWLWL

But of course, it wasn't. Kevin's return had made him even more popular than Sami and Duder, and, strangely, he was either too terrified to run away from the popular kids or he was handling it pretty well. Either way, he was standing with Love Grenade and Zach when the inevitable happened- Sami and Duder, trying their best to sneak by undetected, were pulled, literally, into the conversation.

"Little White Lie!" Love Grenade's lead singer said, grabbing both of them. "Hey! How's it going?"

"Great!" Sami said, glancing nervously at Kevin. "Uh...how are you feeling, Kevin?"

Kevin stared at her in shock. A little part of Sami felt guilty. Maybe, if she had just made an effort to talk to him more, he wouldn't have run away and been hit, and he wouldn't be staring at her now like it was a sign of the apocalypse that she would actually wonder how he was feeling. After a moment, he nodded, and returned to staring at the floor.

"Oh, that's right!" Love Grenade's lead singer said, slapping his forehead. "Kevin doesn't know about Little White Lie! Okay, so it's this AWESOME band that Sami and Duder here formed with, who was it, Toby Phillips, Jim Povolo, and Tanya Freemont? They played this wicked song at Battle of the Bands, called...damn, I forgot. Something about something being over. What was the song called?" He looked to Sami for help. Beside her, she heard Duder's breath hitch in his throat.

"Ah- I- I don't know." Sami said.

Zach and all of Love Grenade stared. Even Kevin seemed surprised. "You don't know the name of your own song?" the lead singer asked.

"It's unnamed!" Duder said quickly.

"Yeah, that's it!" Sami said.

"But didn't you guys give me a song title backstage?" Zach asked.

"Uh, well, we didn't like it." Sami said. "We've been trying to think of a new name. Kind of like how we changed the name of our band. I mean, Reese's Pieces? Lame."

"It wasn't that lame-" Duder began. Sami stepped on his foot.

"Yeah, that was kind of lame." the lead singer said. "Good thing you guys came up with Little White Lie so we could have that wicked party!" Love Grenade cheered. "Which reminds me, are you guys coming to my party tonight? It's gonna be totally awesome!"

Happily, Little White Lie was not brought up for the rest of the conversation. And even though Kevin was invited to the party, where he would be more likely than ever to hear some drunken karaoke version of "It's Over Now", Sami was almost certain he wouldn't show up. This was Kevin Buschwald, right? Probably the riskiest thing he had ever done was show up for the Reese's Pieces audition- and look where that had gotten him.

LWLWLWLWLWL

When the doorbell rang during band practice, Sami was very close to giving up on Little White Lie. They were trying to learn a new song from Kevin's stash, but Duder was distracted, Toby was upset, Tanya was missing, and Jim seemed to have picked up on the vibe and responded by being more offbeat than ever. So when the doorbell rang, Sami rushed to the door, expected nothing but a welcome break from her awful band- but what she found was Kevin Buschwald, standing on her stoop with a bouquet of flowers.

"Kevin." Sami said. She didn't know what else to say. If he'd heard his music and recognized it, he didn't say anything. "Uh, you're not in your wheelchair."

"I, well, I, uh, I, I- " he squeezed his eyes shut, concentrating- "I wanted this be, uh, tobe, uh, special, I guess?" He gestured at the lawn behind him, all the way to where his aunt was waiting in her car at the curb. "Short distance."

"Uh, okay." Sami said. "So...do you want to come in?"

Kevin shrugged and followed her inside. She prayed as he did so that the boys would have the sense not to practice without her- luckily, they seemed to have taken a break. "So, Kevin." Sami said, leading him to a bench in the entrance hall where he could sit. "Why are you here?"

Kevin stared off to the side, moving his lips nervously as if he were trying to speak. Finally, he shoved the bouquet at Sami. "For you." he said. "For, for, for-"

"Kevin!" Duder said from the doorway. He marched in, giving Sami a look that said 'I am saving your butt.' "Hey, dude! What brings you here?"

Kevin's deer-in-the-headlights look returned and he glanced nervously at the door.

"Kevin?" said another voice. Sami restrained a groan of frustration. Toby appeared behind Duder and pushed his way in. "What's going on?"

Kevin looked from Sami to Toby and Toby to Sami. "It's band practice." Sami said, glaring at Duder and Toby. "He was just-"

"WHO DARES DISTURB MY BAND PRACTICE?" Jim said, shoving both Duder and Toby out of the way. Kevin, to his credit, managed about a second before losing it completely. He stood and ran out the door, as fast as someone who'd been bedridden for a week could go.

"Hey, wasn't he in a wheelchair earlier?" Duder asked.

Sami put down the flowers and ran out the door after him. "Kevin! Wait!"

LWLWLWLWLWL

Kevin dashed down the lawn, nearly tripping over himself several times in his haste to get away. "Wait up, Kevin!" Sami said. Did he really want a repeat of last time?

"Sami!" called another voice. Kevin's aunt was waving at her from the driver's seat. "Hey!" She smiled as Kevin threw himself into the backseat and slammed the door. "It's nice to see you two getting along."

Sami had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. How oblivious could one person be?

"But, Sami, I was wondering something. Since you and Duder are so close to Kevin. Kevin's missing some papers- nothing important, he just likes to mess around on his musical instruments every once in awhile- and I thought maybe you two might be the ones to ask since you are his friends."

Sami could feel Kevin's eyes on her from the backseat. "I- I'm sorry, I don't know anything about them."

"Well, it was just a thought." Kevin's aunt said. "I told him he probably lost them beforehand but he doesn't believe me. Of course, he's still mad at me because he thinks I deleted his website, but I didn't, did I?" She turned to look at Kevin, who carefully kept his gaze out the other window. "Teenagers. Anyways, tell him if you find out anything, all right?"

"I will." Sami said, waving. She had never been more relieved to see a car drive away since- well, since a week ago, when the last car pulled away from that disaster called a party. But that was beside the point.

LWLWLWLWLWL

"Hey Sami!" Duder said as she came back inside. "He left you a note in the flowers!"

"What? Don't read that! It's private!" She snatched it out of his hands and opened it.

Dear Sami,

Underneath it, several sentences were written and crossed out.

I hope you don't hate me too much for this. I kind of like you.

Several more lines were scribbled out, illegible.

I was planning on not telling you about it. But I guess being in a coma made me think about things. I don't really want to be that quiet kid anymore. I want to talk to people and go to parties. Not that you really care I guess.

I madea CD of a song I want you to hear. I made it before the accident but I wasn't going to give it to you because I didn't think you'd like it. It's about you. I hope you won't hate me after you hear it.

Kevin Buschwald

P. S. Please be careful with the CD. It's my only copy and I can't make more.

"What did he say?" Duder said. Jim had returned to the practice room to bang around on the drums, but Duder and Toby still stood in the hall with her.

"Well, I think he's going to the party tonight." Sami said, carefully avoiding Toby's eyes. She moved to put the envelope back into the bouquet and accidentally dropped it. The envelope landed with a loud snap!

"Hey, there's something in here!" Toby said, reaching down to pick it up. He pulled the CD out of the envelope. "Did he say what it was?"

"Uh, I don't know." Sami said.

"Well, we should listen to it!"

"No!" Sami said, grabbing it out of his hands. "It's private. He said it was private."

Besides, she didn't need to hear the song. She'd already heard it- twice.

LWLWLWLWLWL

Sure enough, Kevin was the first person Sami and Duder saw when they walked into the party. The Hot Girls were fawning over him in his wheelchair and he was looking around wildly as if trying to find an escape route. When he saw Sami, his face lit up and he wheeled himself over to her. Duder quickly made an excuse and left.

"So?" he said.

"The lyrics were kind of creepy." Sami said. Although they hadn't seemed creepy at all when Toby sang it to her, with his deep brown eyes... "But, uh, it was really sweet. I really liked it. Thanks."

Kevin smiled but still seemed to expect something else.

"I just- I don't like you that way. Sorry."

"Oh." Kevin said, looking crestfallen.

"Yeah." Sami said.

Kevin hesitated for another moment, looking like he wanted to say something, but one of the Hot Girls came over and whisked him away.

"Sami!" someone called. Sami turned and saw the lead singer of Love Grenade approaching her, cups in both hands.

"Hey!" Sami said. "Great party!"

"I know, right? Thanks for those balloons. Top notch." He gestured with one of the cups at the balloons hanging everywhere. "But, here. I got you this." The lead singer pressed one of the cups into her hands. "You have to promise not to go on an angry rampage again though. And no puking."

Sami stared at it. "What is it?"

"Beer, of course!" the lead singer said. "The only thing to drink at parties. Man, Sami Reese. I would have never thought of you as a drinker."

"Uh, I'm not really, I mean, that was just a-"

"One time thing?" the lead singer said, grinning. "Yeah right. You were stone cold drunk, I could tell as soon as you walked in. Nobody ever does that their first time drinking."

Sami struggled to think of a response. "Okay, so I have drunk a little before, but not that much."

"Then what's the problem now?"

Sami opened her mouth. She couldn't see any- at least any that a semi-experienced drinker would have. She needed a clear head to keep an eye on Kevin tonight, but if they didn't believe her about being drunk last week... "Uh, I don't know." she said lamely, and knocked back the cup of beer.

Love Grenade's lead singer laughed. "Whoa, she's not a sipper! Wow, look at Sami, she sure knows how to drink her beer!"

"I guess I do." Sami said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

The lead singer roared with laughter. "Come on, let's get you another."

LWLWLWLWLWL

Duder was attempting conversation with the Ex-Boyfriends and Zach when Sami unexpectedly hugged him from behind. "Duder." she breathed in his ear. "Duder. Dude, Dude, dude, Duder, Duuuuuuuuder. You have such a weird name. Why did our parents name you that?"

"Sami!" Duder said, pushing her away. "What are you doing? Did you find out something?"

"Yeah." Sami said, holding onto him for balance. "Calvin's in love with me."

"Well, he sent you flowers, so I thought he might be, but-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." she said. "He is." She walked off unsteadily.

"He sent her flowers? I used to send my ex flowers..." said an ex-boyfriend.

The other ex-boyfriend patted him on the shoulder sympathetically.

"I wonder why Sami's acting so weird." Duder said.

"Isn't it obvious?" Zach said excitedly. "She's drunk again! Just like a real rock star! She's probably even going to die young from too much alcohol, just like all the legends!"

"Drunk? Uh, excuse me." Duder said. He walked off quickly, pushing his way through the crowd.

He finally caught up to her a few feet away from where Tanya and Toby were having an intense discussion. Before Sami could approach them, Duder dragged her away.

"Sami, I can't believe you!" Duder said.

"What?" Sami said. "What did I do wrong, Duder, duuuuuuuude?" She laughed loudly at her own joke.

"Snap out of it, Sami!" Duder said. "In case you forget, we have something else important we're trying to do here!"

Sami rolled her eyes. "Oh, right, our shuper shecret shpy mission." she said, emphasizing the sh sounds. "Hey that's cool. We're like spies. Sami and Duder are spies. HEY EVERYBODY!" she shouted. A few people, including Tanya and Toby, turned their heads. "DUDER'S A SPY! LOOK OUT FOR THAT GUY!" She slumped against the wall, laughing. "Hey, that rhymed! I should write songs!"

"Sami, this is bad." Duder said, running a hand through his hair. "How are we going to to keep Kevin and you-know-who apart now? And what will Mom and Dad say?

Sami blew a raspberry. "Screw them. Screw Kevin."

"No, Sami, not screw Kevin." Duder said. "And I don't really agree with the first one either, but that's not the point. The point is-"

"That we never get to actually enjoy being popular. I know. Yada yada yada yada." Sami said. "Ugh. Go find yourself a girlfriend and stop ruining the party for the rest of us."

"Sami!" he called as she walked away, but he didn't follow her. What was the point? It wasn't like she would be any help now.

LWLWLWLWLWL

"T-t-t-t-t-toby." someone said into Toby's ear.

Toby jolted and turned, nearly crashing face-to-face with... "Sami?"

"Yup." she said, striking a pose. "It's me. Hi Tanya, go away."

"Excuse me?" Tanya said.

"Yeah, really Sami, it's fine." Toby said. "I don't mind. She can stay."

"I mind." Sami said.

Toby turned to Tanya. "Tanya-"

"No, it's fine." Tanya said dramatically. "I expect my company might be needed elsewhere. Perhaps Kevin Buschwald might want to have a little conversation with me." She gave Sami a significant smile that might have registered as important in Sami's mind, if she could think clearly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, go talk to Kevin." Sami said. "Hey, you guys are actually perfect for each other if you think about it! He used to be a loser and now he's popular, you used to be popular and now you're a loser, he likes a girl who doesn't like him back, you like a guy who won't have anything to do with you..."

She trailed off, swaying. Tanya stood frozen, smiling like she wanted to burn Sami alive on the spot. "Do you have anything else to say, Sami?" she asked.

"Yeah!" Sami said. "He's a musically talented, and you suck!"

Tanya took a deep breath, balling her hands into fists. "Well." she said at last. "We can't all be musical geniuses like Kevin. Even you, Sami Reese." She flounced away, nose in the air.

"What did she mean by that?" Toby said. "You're a genius! Just look at all the songs you write!"

"Yeah. I sure wrote a lot of songs" Sami said. She felt like there was some hidden meaning in Tanya's words, something that was just out of reach...

"Come on, let's get you to a seat." Toby said. He pulled her over to a couch someone had brought into the hall to make room for dancing. Sami flopped down on it immediately, Toby more cautiously. "Why did you do that, Sami?" he asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You said all those bad things to Tanya." Toby said. "That wasn't cool. She's have a bit of a rough period right now."

Sami made a rude noise. "You broke up with her."

"Yeah, but there are other things too. She has no real friends anymore, she barely even got invited to this party, she's running herself ragged with the Save Kevin Foundation, and besides that, she's just been really stressed out lately for some reason. You, too."

"Me?" Sami said.

"Yeah." Toby said. "I mean, I didn't really know you before, but you and Duder seem like... well, worried all the time."

"Worried?" Sami said, watching Tanya wheel Kevin down the hallway towards her. Everything was spinning. She felt like she could just lie back and fall asleep with the world spinning around her.

"I don't know, I thought you might tell me." Toby said. "I mean, I know we've been arguing lately, but maybe if you got it out, you might feel-"

"TANYA!" someone shouted. Duder appeared, shoving people out of his way. "Tanya! Don't do this! Kevin! Wait up! Please!"

"Oh, give it a rest!" Sami shouted. Tanya, Kevin, and Duder all stopped in their tracks and stared at her. "Everyone knows she doesn't like you."

Duder froze, giving Tanya just enough time to wheel Kevin into a room and shut the door. The door locked with a click. Duder ran over to it, beating on it, but it was no use. "Sami! What have you done? SAAAAAAAAAMIIII!"

LWLWLWLWLWL

"Now, I pulled you in here so I could talk to you about something private." Tanya said, wheeling Kevin to a stop and sitting across from him on a bed. "Don't worry, you won't have to do any of the talking."

Kevin looked somewhere between relieved and anxious.

"Come on, Cal- Kevin, I don't bite!" Tanya said. "No matter what the Hot Girls may have said. In fact, I'm going to do you a favor. You see, Kevin, I've found out something very important. Someone is stealing your music, and I know exactly who they are."

Kevin's eyes widened.

"Here, I'll show you." Tanya slid the disc into the DVD player and turned on the TV- she had selected this room earlier for precisely that purpose- and fiddled with the remote until it began to play. It had taken a bit of wheedling, but she had managed to get Zach's copy of the Battle of the Bands. Specifically, the part where Sami and Duder's blatant plagiarism nearly won them the award. Tanya smiled as she watched Kevin's face change from confused to shocked.

"My music!" he said. "They have it!"

"Yes, they do." Tanya said. "Isn't it horrible of them? They stole your music. Now, what we're going to do is go out there, tell everyone that they're frauds, and get your music back!" She stood and prepared to unlock the door.

"N-no." Kevin said.

"I know, I know, it was wrong of them." Tanya said. Hmm. The banging against the door hadn't stopped. Maybe she should wait.

"No, I won't tell everyone." Kevin said.

"Why not?" Tanya said. "Sami and Duder STOLE your MUSIC and played it to get popular! They deserve to be exposed for horrible people they are!"

"I, I, I, I, I think it was a misunderstanding." Kevin said. "And even, even if it wasn't..." He trailed off, watching Sami sing. "She's, uh, talented. I'll, I'll just ask for it back. She'll probably give it to me."

"Oh come on, everyone knows about your little crush on Sami, but even you can't be this pathetic!" Tanya snapped.

Kevin shrugged, as if to say, Sorry.

"Fine." Tanya said. "Be a weenie." She was about to open the door again when a thought occurred to her. That song about Sami she'd heard Toby singing...Toby wasn't a songwriter... "But that wasn't the only song she stole. Didn't you have a song called Sami?"

Kevin paled. "Uh, yeah."

"And didn't it go a little like this?" She hummed a few bars and his eyes widened in recognition.

"She, she, she found it?" he whispered.

"Not only that, she gave it to someone else." Tanya said. "In fact, she gave it to Toby. I heard him practicing it." Another memory floated up in her mind, of that disastrous party where Sami Reese ruined everything. "And not only that, but I heard him singing it to her, at a party last week! And then you know what I found them doing later? They were making out. So apparently, you writing the song isn't good enough for her, but if Toby Phillips sings it..."

Kevin grabbed the sides of his head so tightly Tanya feared he would rip his hair out. Finally, he sat up straight.

"We have to tell everyone." he said quietly.

LWLWLWLWLWL

When Tanya wheeled Kevin out of the room, she found Duder leaning on the wall across from them, waiting. "Tanya!" he said, blocking her path. "Tanya, please, don't do this, Kevin, I swear I can explain, if you'll just-"

"Out of my way, Duder." Tanya said. "Kevin doesn't want to talk to you."

"Kevin, please." Duder said, refusing to move.

Kevin glanced over at Toby and Sami, still sitting on the couch. "No." he said.

"Come on, Duder!" Tanya said.

Duder let her go and instead grabbed Sami. "Come on, Sami, we have to go." he said.

"Noooo..." Sami groaned, leaning her head back. Duder pulled her up.

"Why? What's going on?" Toby asked.

Duder stared at him. He and Sami had gotten so close to having actual friends... "No time to explain. Sami, let's go."

Duder pulled Sami along behind him into the living room where Tanya was trying to clear a path to the ministage set up for karaoke and similar activities. He could see the hall leading to the front door, all the way across the room from him, but the room was too crowded to get through. Duder began to push people out of his way, still pulling Sami behind him. It was slow going. They could make it though, they could make it if only they had more time...

Tanya had by now found the ministage and pushed Kevin up onto it. She followed him, clearing her throat for attention. When that didn't work, she shouted, "Hey everybody! I've got an announcement to make!"

Nobody appeared to be listening, and for a moment, Duder thought he and Sami could escape in time. But then-

"Okay, Kevin's got an announcement to make!"

Immediately every head in the room turned to the front. Duder stopped shoving. There was no point now.

Terrified by all the eyes on him, Kevin made a squeaking noise that might have been an attempt to talk.

"Okay, what he's trying to say is, Little White Lie is a lie! They didn't write any of their songs! Kevin Buschwald here wrote them all!" Some party goers began to protest, booing loudly, but Tanya was persistent. "I'll prove it!" She pushed a CD into the stereo and pressed play and the whole party listened to 'It's Over Now', as sung by Kevin. When it was over, there was total silence.

"And the best part is," Tanya said, "I've posted a screenshot on my blog of the download. You can see when it was downloaded- one week before Kevin woke up from his coma."

The last thing Sami remembered before the shouting began was Toby staring at her, betrayal written in every line on his face.