Dakota was tired by the time she got to school. She'd stayed up a little late, trying to see when her parents were home. When she walked into the building, she was greeted by Heather and Lindsay, who had been waiting for her.
"Hey, Dakota. Where were you last night?"
"What do you mean, last night?"
"Duh! Hannah invited you shopping!"
"Oh, that... I was kinda busy."
"Okay, if you say so. Did you get the math homework done?"
"Crap! I forgot, it was too hard."
"Well, I wish I could help. My phone's dead, so I can't text you the answers. Lindsay doesn't know how to do half of what we've been doing."
Dakota nodded, heading for her locker. On the way, she listened to Heather talk about finding her dress for the Halloween dance, which every girl at school was excited for. Lindsay was also listening, and asked Heather to help her pick hers for her. Dakota rolled her eyes when she heard Lindsay's begging, Lindsay wated to look pretty for her date, Tyler. Heather and Lindsay were actually going together, along with their dates.
"Did you get a date yet, Dakota?"
Heather was busy scrolling through something on her phone, waiting for her to answer.
"No, not yet. What are you looking at?"
"Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, stuff like that. I can find one for you."
"Well, thanks."
Heather held up her phone, for Dakota to see. "What about him?"
The picture was of a blue-eyed boy, holding a mirror in front of himself. He had dark brown hair, and looked familiar somehow.
"Is that Justin?"
"How can you not remember? He was new here last year. Before I met Alejandro, I kinda liked him."
"Uh, with you two it wasn't exactly love at first sight."
"Whatever. What do you think?"
Dakota studied the picture, looking at it in every way possible. He looked good enough, Justin may even make Dakota look better.
"Sure, I can try."
"Yay! Alberto, Hannah, Dana, Jack, Taylor and I can all go together!"
"I think you mean Alejandro, Heather, me Dakota, Justin, and Tyler."
"Yeah. Has anyone seen Tom around anyway?"
It was time for the girl's first class, math. Lindsay was long gone, so Heather and Dakota went by themselves. Right away, the teacher asked for homework. Heather easily turned hers in, but Dakota was stuck staring at the class as she admitted she hadn't done it.
"Dakota, you're going to fail if you don't start turning in work."
This caught the attention of Sam, from the back of the room. He knew who Dakota was, everyone did. He carefully listened, to every word the teacher and her said. He figured out Dakota was going to need a tutor, and wondered who it would be.
After class, he was about to leave when the teacher called him up to the desk. Near him were Courtney, Heather, Alejandro, and Cameron.
"You have been called here because Dakota needs a tutor for math. You're the best students I have, and was thinking one of you could do it?"
Alejandro intstantly said no. "I'm already helping Heather."
Of course he was. The whole school knew about their on-off relationship.
Courtney said she was running for class president, and Cameron was worried he wouldn't teach her right. The only one left was Sam.
"Sam? Will you help her?"
"Okay."
He walked to where Dakota was waiting out in the hall, and waved. "Hi, Dakota."
"Hi... are you my tutor?"
"I guess I am."
"At least I get help."
Sam watched shocked as Dakota walked off and out of sight. He wondered if they could ever be friends, but that wasn't possible. She was pretty, popular, and had everything the other girls at school wanted to have. All he had were video games.
When it was time for lunch, he joined his friends Cody and Harold. Harold was reading about ninjas, and Cody was being held tightly by a crazy girl named Sierra. This was normal: Sierra was Cody-crazy, and Harold was trying to get over his fear of ninjas by becoming one.
"I have news for you guys."
"What is it? Does it involve Gwen?"
Sierra held Cody tighter, and glared down at him. She loved him so much, he almost wasn't seen without her. Sierra was proud of it, and labeled them the Coderra team.
"No Cody. I'm going to tutor Dakota in math."
Harold nearly spit out his milk from the lunch line. "Lucky. She's one of the prettiest girls here that's still single, but I still think LeShawna's the most amazing. Heather's just plain mean, and Lindsay's just dumb."
Sierra clapped her hands excitedly, nearly dropping Cody. "Samkota! I've come up with labels for every couple here, like Tysay and Aleheather!"
"Is that all of them?"
"Okay, yes. Only because they're the popular girls and the others nobody really knows."
"Okay then."
Sam went to the library after school, to wait for Dakota. He couldn't stop thinking about Samkota, how Sierra had come up with the name for them so easily. Could it really happen?
"Okay, bye girls. Lindsay, good luck finding a dress." Sam saw Dakota waving to her friends, who were heading to Heather's car. She turned to Sam, cautiously sitting next to him. "Hi."
"Hi, Dakota. Ready?"
"Sure... but this place is lame. Wanna do this somewhere else?"
"What about my house? It's really quiet."
Dakota chuckled nervously, agreeing. "Sure... but it may not be best for you to visit me."
"Why?"
"You wouldn't understand."
So we have the Samkota story beginning, and Sam's tutoring Dakota in math. How do you think this'll end? What do you think Heather and Lindsay will say about this?
