Chapter 2:

"So, this is London..." said Sam, slightly in awe.

"Great isn't it?" said Ryan, an almost boyish excitement creeping into his voice.

"It's beautiful..." said Jen, and everything was quiet for a moment when Mrs. Ely's voice broke through the crowd. She had to go on the trip because it had a lot to do with historical stuff and she was the history teacher.

"Boys and girls, we're going to be landing in about two minutes. You'll be instructed to put your seat belts on. Do what the pilot says." She said, looking sternly at the Sam's class. Everyone proceeded to do as told. Even though Mrs. Ely was a small woman she had the strength of a lion in her. If she told you to do something, you did it. No questions asked.

After they landed and all boarded off the plane, Sam noticed that Ryan was really quiet.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine… it's just, well it's good to be home." Said Ryan.

"If you like home so much, then why don't you stay here all the time?" Sam asked.

"Well, I like it and all, but there are a lot of things I like back in Nevada too." She wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but she thought she saw him steal a quick glance at Jen. Sam didn't say anything about it though. Ryan was kind of shy, unlike his sister Rachel.

"Yeah, after living in San Francisco it was really nice to get back to Nevada. It's a big change but… it's home to me, no matter what." Said Sam.

"Yeah." Said Ryan and then he stop talking, and just looked around him. She didn't interrupt his thoughts and then began to talk to Jen.

"He looked at you." She whispered in her ear.

"What?" said Jen, in a confused manner.

"He said are a lot of things I like back in Nevada and then he looked at you." Said Sam, with a grin.

"No he didn't." and then she began to blush. Sam could tell she was pleased.

"Sure he did. What if he likes you? What will you do?" asked Sam.

"Uh, well, he doesn't. But I'm not sure I'd know what to do even if he did." Said Jen, looking thoughtful. And then she continued, her eyes looking mischievous. "What would you do?" she asked.

"If Ryan liked me?" asked Sam, confused. "Why would he like me?"

"No, not Ryan. Jake." Jen said, her eyebrows raised.

"He doesn't. And if he did, which he doesn't, I'd tell him to back off and get a life." Said Sam seriously.

"You'd say that?" said Jen shocked. "No you would not."

"Yes I would too." Sam insisted.

"No you wouldn't. You hate it when Jake's sad." Said Jen.

"He's my friend. If you or Ryan were sad, I would hate it too." She said adamantly.

"Whatever…" Jen said, rolling her eyes.

---

It was only when they arrived at their hotel that they were told who they were going to room with.

"Are you kidding?" Sam screamed.

"No, I'm not. You and I are going to having the pleasure of rooming with Rachel Slocum."

"We better hope that we're lucky and she's in at least a kind of good mood." Said Sam.

"Good mood- Rachel Slocum… when have those words ever gone together?" Jen said, sighing.

"Hey, you guys talking about me?" said a voice from behind them. They turned around to see Rachel Slocum with a nasty sneer on her face.

"Everyone always is." Said Sam sarcastically.

"Okay. Well anyways… as long as we're being forced to room together I have a couple rules to put into place." Said Rachel perkily.

"Rules? Are you kidding me?" said Jen, looking trapped.

"No, I wasn't. I just want you to know that I get to watch whatever I want on the TV whenever I want to. Boys will be coming into the room. I know that's against their rules, but really come on, their rules, my rules, which ones are more important? I don't even think we need to answer that one. I'm going to need the bathroom for at least three hours a day. Sorry girls." She turned around and pranced into their room.

"Three hours?" said Sam looking at Jen with disbelief written all over her face, "What is she planning on doing in the bathroom for three hours a day?"

"Who knows? She's crazy. But at least if boys are coming into the room then we can blame her when they do come in. I mean, what boys do we want to come in?" said Jen brightly.

"Uh, well there is that one boy you'd like to come in." said Sam grinning.

"Shut up." Said Jen, smacking Sam on the shoulder.

"Well, let's go see what little princess is doing now." Said Jen, leading the way into the room.

When the entered the room they were met by a slightly astonishing sight. Already in the room were three boys. Three boys watching Rachel Slocum do some yoga. Yoga!

"How did they get in here without us knowing?" said Sam, her voice full of disbelief.

"I let them in of course." Said Rachel, and then looked back towards the TV and continued following the yoga instructor on the screen.

"What are you doing?" asked Sam.

"Yoga, duh." Said a boy with short dark hair, who Sam thought was the captain of the football team.

"Don't duh, me." Said Sam, "You're the one that's in my room!" she shouted, and ran out. Jen followed her out the door. Once outside Sam fell against the wall and cracking up.

"Yoga?" said Jen, her voice wheezing from the laugher.

"What about yoga?" asked a voice from behind Sam.

They turned around to see Ryan Slocum and an unfamiliar boy standing behind them.

"Yeah, there's three guys in our room right now. And they're watching your sister do yoga." Said Sam smirking.

"Yoga?" said Ryan.

"Exactly what I said." Said Sam with a laugh. "Who's your friend?"

"Oh, this is Alex. He used to go to school with me. I told him that I'd be coming here in a while and he said that he'd meet up with me at some point. Alex, this is Sam. And this is Jen." They all shook each others hands, and Sam found herself blushing. With is dark hair and light blue eyes, Alex was certainly very cute. But Sam didn't usually act that way if someone was cute. She sighed. Maybe she was losing it. First hugging Jake, now she was blushing… what would happen next?

"So…" said Ryan, "Uh, we were going to go get something to eat. You guys want to join us?" he asked. He looked at Jen for a second when he said this. Jen had looked away for a moment so she didn't notice. When she looked up, Sam saw that her eyes were unusually bright. She smiled.

"Sure. We're starved, right Sam?" she said looking at her best friend.

"Right." Said Sam, even though she wasn't very hungry at all. She didn't know why Ryan would be either. They had all eaten on the plane. But they again, he was a guy so you never knew when they were going to be full. She'd figure she'd just tag along for Jen's sake… maybe get a soda or something. She knew that Jen would want to go with them, and Sam didn't want to spoil her fun. And plus a cute guy was coming along so why wouldn't she want to? Sam blushed at the thought. What was happening to her?

"Hey, Sam. You coming?" asked a Ryan, while snapping his finger in front of her face.

"Uh, yeah. I guess I just zoned out for a while there." She said apologetically.

"I guess so." Said Jen, with a smirk.

---

They walked to a pizza place that wasn't far away from the hotel after asking their Mrs. Ely for permission. Mrs. Ely figured that Ryan must know his way around here pretty well since he had lived there before.

"This is cute." Said Jen, looking at the quaint looking building sitting before her.

"You like pizza?" said Alex, turning towards Sam, who was standing next to him.

"Who doesn't?" said Sam with a smile. She almost blushed even though nothing at all embarrassing had happened.

The pizza in the restaurant was very good, and Sam saw that Alex ate nine slices. She didn't know where he put it. After all, he was just as skinny as Ryan, who was built like an athlete.

"Apparently you like pizza too," said Sam with a grin.

"You bet. Well my mom's side of the family is all Italian so my grandmother and my mom are always cooking really good Italian food. Trust me, this doesn't even compare to their cooking. You should eat it some of it. It's great." He said with a look of longing in his eyes.

"Well I don't know when I'd get the chance, but it sounds good. Then again, at this point I'm all pizza-ed out." Said Sam with a laugh.

"I could go for three more slices." Said Alex, his eyes twinkling.

"Oh, my goodness. You have got to be kidding! You already had nine." Sam exclaimed.

"Well I was kidding. And hey, look, you counted." Said Alex with a laugh.

"I couldn't help it. It was an impressive feat." Said Sam.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." He told her.

"So you usually eat more than that?" Sam asked, astonished.

"No, I think my all-time high is fourteen." He announced.

"Fourteen! That's outrageous." Sam exclaimed.

"I was really hungry." He smiled.

---

"So you and Alex seemed to get along pretty well tonight." Jen commented later while they were recounting the events of the day. Fortunately Rachel was gone. Sam and Jen weren't sure where she was, but as long as she wasn't in their room they didn't really care all that much.

"He's a nice guy." Sam said and then she was silent.

"He's a nice cute guy." Said Jen with a smile. Sam almost blushed again, and then she caught herself.

"You think he's cute?" said Sam, trying to pretend as if she hadn't noticed.

"Sure. Don't act as if you don't." said Jen, rolling her eyes at Sam.

"I seriously don't." Sam insisted.

"Oh, so maybe this isn't just Jake Ely that you're in denial about. Maybe it's the whole male gender. You don't have to be embarrassed, Sam." Said Jen with an intrigued smile on her face.

"It is so not. There's guy that I think are cute." Sam insisted.

"Right. Try to name one." Said Jen.

"Uh, um, Rjay." Said Sam, and then covered her mouth realizing who she had just said. She didn't even think that Rjay was cute but he was the first boy that had come to her mind. Jen broke into a hysterical laughter.

"Are you kidding me? You think he's cute? That's great, Sam! You guys could so totally get together!" Jen said, her voice sounding like an excited little one year old\"Actually it is. I don't think he is cute. He's just the first boy who popped into my head when you asked.

"Right, Sam. Don't try to get out of it now. But really I thought you always liked Jake. Rjay never even would have popped into my head as a suggestion." Said Jen looking slightly baffled.

"That's because he's not a choice. I have absolutely no romantic feelings towards Rjay. Trust me. We're best friends. Would I lie to you? And plus doesn't every gut feeling tell you that I don't like Rjay?" said Sam, trying to convince Jen that she didn't like Rjay. And she really didn't.

"But every gut feeling tells me that you like Jake and you won't admit to that. So how am I to believe that you don't like Rjay?" asked Jen.

"You know, sometimes I think he likes me. But I certainly don't like him. If I were to have my head chopped off and I had to choose Jake or Rjay I would definitely pick Jake." Said Sam.

"Really?" asked Jen. "Well of course you would. You in LOOOOVE with him." She teased.

"No, I just know him a lot better." Said Sam.

"And you love his eyes." Jen reminded her.

"I do NOT love his eyes!" Sam shouted.

"Whatever, Sam. Someday when you two realize, you're just going to have to admit that you do, and always will love Jake Ely. No matter what happens. Even if you can't see it the rest of us can see it coming." Said Jen proudly.

And that was when Rachel walked in.

"Sam loves Jake?" said Rachel, her eyebrows raised higher than Sam had ever seen them before. "Thank God she finally admitted it. Come on, Sam, it's making us sicker and sicker every day."

"I DO NOT LOVE JAKE!" Sam shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Well I don't know why not." Said Rachel, shrugging her shoulders. "Jake Ely is absolutely gorgeous. I mean, have you seen those eyes?" She said, looking impressed. "Unfortunately he's the one boy who doesn't give me the time of day."

"You like Jake?" said Sam, astonished at this sudden breakthrough.

"I did not say I liked him, I just said he was hot. There is a definite difference between those two things. Now, you my friend love Jake Ely. I only think he'd be a good catch. Except for the fact that he never says anything. But you know, maybe he's the strong silent type." She said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Sam likes his eyes, too." Said Jen with a smirk.

"I DID NOT SAY THAT." Sam said firmly.

"Come on, cowgirl. You can live in denial, or embrace the hot thing coming for you. Which one sounds cooler?" said Rachel rolling her eyes at Sam.

"I'm not sure there is a hot thing coming for me. And if it is, it's definitely not Jake." Sam said with a laugh.

"I can not believe her!" said Jen looking at Rachel. "How long is it going to take for her to realize that deep-down Jake will always be her prince in shining armor? Or his shining Stetson if you like that kind of thing…"

Jen trailed off looking right at Sam.

"I don't know if you guys are looking for some kind of confession time or something… but you're not going to get it, because I have nothing to confess. Absolutely nothing." Sam said with a nod of her head.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and Sam ran to see who it was, glad to be out of her current situation.

Little did she know that she was about to get herself into a bigger problem altogether.

She opened the door to see Ryan and Alex standing outside.

"Did someone say confession time?" asked Alex, grinning at Sam, his blue eyes twinkling.

So what did you think of it? It was a pretty fun one for me to write. I love writing fics where Sam is in denial about her feelings. Those are such fun! So even if you didn't like, or if you did, still review it.

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