Chapter 2: Fake It Til You Make It
The Junior hallways were not new to Sammy like they were to many other kids in her class. They were almost more familiar than last years. Amy used to drag her down this hallway for the usual morning butt-kissing to Heather every day. Her sister's fascination with the popular upperclassman began after watching Heather read Gwen's diary in the middle of the cafeteria in their tenth grade year. Ever since, she had done everything possible to get the girl's attention. Heather carried her around like an accessory, and Sammy the keychain attached. But this year, she didn't want to hang out with Heather anymore. She wanted, for the first time in her life, to make her own friends.
People whispered as she walked through the hallways. Only a few of them figured out who she was, and that was with complete shock and hesitation. It was either Amy or Samey, but without the other twin present they couldn't judge which one. Another theory was that she was a new student. Sammy ignored them all, slipping into the classroom early with about five minutes to spare. She pulled out her two section notebook for the history class she would have as soon as homeroom ended. One side was for homework, and one side was for class notes. The front used to be a simple light blue, but it was now covered in black sharpie doodles, ranging from little flowers to sick figures.
"Hi! I'm sorry, I was just wondering if we've ever met before?" A small girl asked. She was a cute red head that wore a flower in her hair that was styled in pigtails, a red tube top, khaki capris and wedge sandals. Her name was Zoey, and she had been in the same class as Sammy for five years.
"Umm, yeah, we have. I'm Sammy?"
The red head gave her a blank look.
"Samey?"
"Ohh!" She was startled, looking apologetic with a mix of both hesitance and regret in her voice. Sammy quickly tried to revive her name.
"Umm, it's actually Sammy. Short for Samantha. My sister started calling me Samey because I was the 'second Amy,' and then she told everyone else that's my name."
"So, you guys changed your look this year?"
"No. Just me. I didn't want to dress like a... well, a slut anymore. Amy got mad at me though, and she wouldn't let me come to school with her."
"You're own sister made you walk?!" Zoey asked, horrified. Sammy nodded, deciding to leave out the part where Duncan had given her a ride.
"She's not a very nice person."
"I didn't think you were a very nice person for a while either..." Zoey trailed off. Sammy sighed, looking down at her desk.
"Maybe I wasn't."
"But you're off to a good start! I like the new outfit. It suits you. And the hair looks great!"
"Thank you." Sammy said sincerely. A wave of happiness spread over her. She should have tried talking to Zoey years ago.
"Hey, mind if I see your schedule?"
"Not at all." Sammy passed over the paper she had just received, hoping that Zoey was looking for the classes they did have together and not the ones they didn't.
"We have History, Science and Math together. Nice!"
"R-really?"
"Sure." The red head answered easily. "We get to pick our own seats in Science. Now I don't have to scramble around looking for someone to sit with!"
"Ah-"
"Everyone settle down." It was at that moment that the infamous history teacher, , walked into the room. Zoey and Sammy quickly face forward again, both smiling. After all, each of them had just made a new friend.
"Rules for homeroom. Sit down, be quiet, and say 'here' when I call your name. I will read the announcements, and you will listen. Then you will go to your first period class. For many of you, that will be this one. At the end of the day, you must be dismissed from this room. Dismissal is at three o'clock sharp. If you are not staying after, hallways must be empty by three-ten. If you are playing a sport, you must be signed in at the locker room doors by three-ten. If you have any questions, ask someone from another class, because I don't care."
Sammy stared at the teacher wide hide. He was like an evil Ron Swanson except this guy was a stick and instead of a mustache he had a thick unibrow that must have been combed daily based on how properly 'cared for' it looked.
A bell rung, and anyone who didn't have history next quickly fled the room. Zoey and Sammy exchanged glances of defeat.
History had been exactly the hell that Duncan described. At the beginning of class, Howard had confiscated hats from anyone who wore them, had students taking out several piercings, made people wear snuggies if they were to 'exposed' (Sammy was really glad that she had chosen her current outfit) and even made one student sit in the front of the classroom next to the board when they revealed they didn't have their project. All they had to do was a powerpoint and a small model. Sammy's model was a war plan from the battle of Gettysburg. She had soaked her piece of paper in some tea and crumpled it to give it that 'aged' feel. Then she used a quill to draw the plan and showed the class. For Amy, she had made paper mache riffle. After breezing through her project presentation, Sammy realized that Amy was going to be doing the same thing in third block, because there was no way that Howard was falling for her charms. At the end of class, everyone quickly packed their stuff and rushed for the door. Sammy was surprised when Zoey had done the same, but was there waiting for her in the hall when she finally squeezed her way out.
"Come on, science is on the other end of the school!" Zoey exclaimed. She grabbed the girls arm and began tugging her along. Sammy laughed as she followed.
"Someone seems eager for this class!"
"I can't help it! Biology is my favorite subject!" She exclaimed. "Well, after gym."
"Amen to that." Sammy giggled as the two burst through the door. Neither were surprised to find that there were some seniors in the room as well. After sophomore years, students got to chose what classes they wanted to take with the exception of a few like History and English.
"Oh Dawn! You're here too!"
Zoey pulled Sammy over a table in the second row near the wall, where Dawn was sitting. She was petite blonde girl with pale features. She wore a large green sweater over a blue collared shirt, a gray skirt, purple tights and ankle boots. Her eyes were closed as she took in the sun from the window, but they popped open when she sensed the two girls coming over. She smiled at them.
"Greetings Zoey, Sammy. I'm glad that you've finally began to show your true self Sammy, you're very beautiful!"
"I-uh-" Sammy was blushing, stumbling over her words. No one had ever called her beautiful. The compliment was usually meant for Amy. "How did you know it was me?"
"You're Aura has always been much kinder than your sisters."
The twin wasn't sure exactly how to respond to that.
"Umm, thanks?"
Dawn smiled back at her.
"She can sense emotions and sometimes memories on people, as well as some aspects of their identity." Zoey explained, taking a seat. "After a while, you learn not to question it and just take her word for it."
"So then, you believe I'm...nice?"
"I didn't need Dawn to tell me you were nice. I just needed you to tell me. And you did. This morning."
"Look at you, not getting bullied about the way you look."
Sammy turned her head to the table beside them. Duncan was taking the seat closest to her, and next to him was Geoff, resident party thrower of the senior class. Back when he was a junior, he had seniors practically begging to be invited to his parties. Of course Sammy and Amy were always invited, Amy made sure of that.
"You have AP Bio this year?" Sammy asked. The look Duncan gave her made her feel dumb.
"Seniors chose their science class. And since I took AP chemistry last year, they're making me take AP Bio this year. How was Howard?"
Sammy groaned. "He was terrible. He made people wear snuggies if they were 'to exposed.' And you'd think that it would only happen to girls, but there was this guy, Justin, who also had to wear one since he wasn't even wearing a shirt!"
Duncan and Geoff (who had over heard the statement) burst out laughing. "Aw man, Justin got held back last year, and Howard always said that he would get Justin to cover up and look stupid if it was the last thing he did."
"Guess he forgot the part where they have an open back." Zoey cut in. "I sit behind him. Hi, I'm Zoey. Sammy's friend."
"Sammy? Are you new?" Geoff asked. Sammy sighed. She had thought that people would recognize it was her, but that was apparently to much to hope for. Duncan nudged him and whispered something into his ear. The blonde's eyes shot wide open.
"Oh! Samey! I mean, Sammy! I just had a class with your sister brah. Thought you'd be doin' that freaky twin 'wear the same thing' thing. I like the look! Short hair looks nice on ya."
"Oh, um, thank you." Sammy answered awkwardly. Duncan's eyes flickered back and forth between the two teens.
"Hey Sammy, do you have a pencil I could use?" Zoey asked sheepishly. "I only brought pens today."
"Yeah, no problem."
After that, Science class was kind of a blur. Everyone turned in their experiment plans with an outlined lab reports and took notes on how to make a proper one based off what the teacher was writing on the board. It talked about control groups and experimental groups, acceptable hypothesis, and other things everyone already knew. Sammy suspected that they were only being taught this now so that if someone turned in a bad lab report that teacher could say that they should have known how to do it properly.
Half way through though, Duncan and Geoff began snickering, already in the midst of their first prank of the year. What Sammy and Zoey hadn't realized when they walked in the room due the red head's excitement to talk to Dawn was that Duncan was already at the front of the room tampering with the projector.
"Now I'll show a full example of what a good lab report should look like." The teacher droned. He waddle towards his desk and grabbed the remote for the projector, turning it on.
The feedback was instantaneous.
People were either cringing in disgust or were blown away by a sudden burst of laughter. There, on the board, was a collage of pictures depicting genital warts. In the middle of all of them was a clipart picture of a condom with eyes saying 'use protection kids!'
"Oh god!" Zoey gasped, cringing away with disgust. Sammy almost screamed, throwing her head down onto the desk. She looked to her right, where Duncan and Geoff were practically peeing themselves in their seats.
It was definitely them.
Despite being quickly shut off only seconds after the display began, everyone had seen the pictures. The teachers face was going red, so much so that he began to resemble a cherry.
"WHO. DID. THIS?"
"Welcome back everyone!" Duncan yelled, throwing up his hands. Several of the guys in the class cheered, throwing up fists and laughing.
"DUNCAN WARD, DETENTION AFTER SCHOOL IN THE LIBRARY!"
"Dude! We've only been in school for an hour~" Geoff laughed.
"What can I say, it's a talent." Duncan smirked. The two boys high fived.
"In addition, you will switch seats this instant! Zoey, would you please?"
Zoey began to regret that she had been the only one to offer answering a question earlier in class. She gathered her stuff, patting Sammy's shoulder as an apology as she moved to Duncan's seat.
"At least we're still next to each other." She offered, waiting for Duncan to get up.
"Yeah, there's that." Sammy agreed, feeling disappointed. Duncan loudly plopped down in the seat next to her.
"What's wrong blondie? Sad to have lost your little friend?"
"Yes." Sammy snapped back. She was already irked at Duncan, and he was making it worse by sitting there and taunting her.
And here she thought she was going to have a good day.
Lunch wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be.
It had began awkwardly enough. After stalling for as long as she could, Sammy finally forced herself to walk into the cafeteria. Right away she spotted Amy sitting with Heather, Lindsey, Dakota, Ann Maria, Justin, Alejandro and Topher at the same table they always did in the middle of the room. She noticed that the spot she usually sat in was being filled by a perky senior named Beth that usually got on everyones nerves. Being replaced by her was a low blow.
"Sammy! Over here!"
Out of the corner of her eye, Sammy saw her old table turned towards her, giving her sneers of disgust. She did her best to ignore them as she moved towards Zoey who was waving her over. At their table was three girls and four guys. She noted that with her they would have even numbers. The walk was long and painful, people whispering after her as she went.
"Here, I saved you a seat." Zoey said, scooting over. The two girls had been split after science, and Sammy had to brave Gym and Spanish all on her own. Besides Zoey, she recognized Dawn, the tall dark skinned girl from her Gym class along with two of the guys from Spanish.
"You already know Dawn, and this is Cameron, Shawn, Jasmine, B and Mike. Guys, this is Sammy."
"I thought you're name was Samey." Jasmine asked suspiciously. Sammy flushed.
"Umm, that's what my sister calls me. It means s-second Amy. I'd rather go by Sammy now, if that's alright." She wasn't sure what she found so intimidating about this group of people, but if meant she could sit with them and not with her sister then she would let them call her whatever the hell they wanted too.
"She's a very sweet girl. I think she would fit in great with our group!" Dawn backed up. The others were quiet for a moment, thinking back to what they knew about 'Samey' before nodding.
"If Dawn likes ya, I like ya. Welcome to the group mate!"
"As long as you aren't a zombie and agree to fight with us if need be, you're in."
"I suppose it wouldn't be harmful to have another person."
"Once you've pledged your loyalty, you can never leave!"
B nodded.
Sammy felt tears welling up, but she quickly blinked them all away. She was smiling her brightest as these people not only seemed to accept her at their lunch table, but in their group of friends as well.
"You were in my gym class, right?" Jasmine asked, making conversation. Sammy nodded.
"I'm surprised you even noticed me since you were so far ahead on the track."
Jasmine blushed. "I may have lapped you a few times." She admitted, scratching the back of her head. Shawn, B, Mike and Zoey giggled at the hidden implication. Suddenly, Mike gasped. He scrunched up his face so that wrinkles appeared on his face, hunched of on his seat, folded his lips back into his mouth and spoke with a raspy voice.
"Why, all you kids laughing at every little thing, trying to find some sexual joke! Back in my day, you were polite and you kept yer mouth shut about things like that until after marriage!"
"Wh-what?" Sammy asked, confused.
"Oh, Mike has multiple personality disorder." Zoey explained like it was no big deal. "This one is Chester. If you couldn't tell, he's an old man."
"Trust me, I could tell."
"Hey Mike, Zoey's trying to ask you something." Cameron whispered in the boy's ear. Mike gasped again, blinking as he returned to himself.
"What were you saying Zoey?"
"I wasn't saying anything." Zoey responded, confused. "Are you feeling okay Mike."
Mike's face turned red. "Who me? Haha, yeah! I'm fine. Just great. Umm, Sammy! What other classes do you have?" He stared the blonde, begging her to save him from embarrassment with his eyes, which she complied to.
"I have math next, and then English and Art to end the day."
"Sweet! Shawn and I are in math too!"
"I'm in your english." Jasmine added.
"Oh! I have art as well!" Dawn said excitedly.
Sammy spent the rest of the lunch block chatting with what she hoped would be her new friends, feeling like she was on top of the world.
If only it weren't all about to come crashing down.
A/N: And there's chapter two. So far it's kind of just been running through Sammy's school day and meeting some of the other characters. Not all that exciting, but we're getting there. This chapter has really given you guys the opportunity to see how I'm going to portray the characters. If anyone seems to OOC or you have an idea for one, let me know! I'll do my best to get an appearance out of all the cast members from the different seasons, even if it's just in passing. Hopefully, you're willing to stick with me here!