The following day at school, Sam, Danny and Tucker had had gathered during lunch at a table. "And she's going to be joining us for movie night this Friday," Sam said, just finishing telling her friends about her encounter yesterday.
"Cool," Tucker said. "But I can't help but wonder if you have some ulterior motive for playing nice with Paulina."
"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Sam asked.
"Let's look at the facts: first you find out you're gay, then you find out that not only is Paulina not as bad as you always thought, but she's also bi. What I'm getting at is that you are trying to get into her pants," Tucker explained.
"Well I'm not," Sam said. Maybe later, but not right now, she internally added.
"That's quite a story Sam," Danny said. "But I also want to invite someone else to movie night this Friday."
"And who's that?"
"Valerie."
"Valerie!?" Tucker exclaimed. "Have your dad's genes caught up with you and you've lost your mind?"
"Possibly," Danny admitted. "But hear me out. It's possible that I might de-transorm in public one day and my secret will be out of the bag. Kind of like what happened last summer, except we wouldn't have a reality gauntlet to do a grand-scale mind wipe. Plus, did I tell you guys about all that happened when she caught my cousin Danni?"
"yes, you did."
"Imagine my surprise when I regained consciousness, found myself completely at her mercy and all she wanted to do was pump me for information. And then later, I was going to turn myself in to her as per our agreement and she let me go."
"What are you trying to say Danny?" Sam asked.
"What I'm getting at," Danny said, "is that I want to treat her nicely so that when or if she finds out my secret, she'll take it well. And another thing about that incident with her and Danni: it showed that while she has problems killing ghosts, she's not okay with killing half ghosts."
"You make several good points Danny. She can come Friday," Sam said. She suspected that Danny had an ulterior motive for wanting to extend the olive branch to Valerie. He was probably planning to try being a couple with her again. Not lang ago, that would have pissed off the goth girl. However that time had passed. Now she just hoped that Danny could find someone that would make him happy.
Tucker had reached the same conclusion as Sam. He wasn't exactly happy that both his friends were courting beautiful girls while he wasn't. But in the grand scheme of things, little had changed. He had simply gone from being a third wheel to a fifth wheel.
--
After school, Sam had gone over to Paulina's house. She rang the doorbell, was greeted by the hispanic girl's father and shown upstairs.
"Hello," Sam heard someone say to her. She turned towards the voice and found Paulina standing by an open door. "Come in," she said as she motioned for the dark dressed girl to walk into her bedroom.
Sam walked into Paulina's room and was instantly uncomfortable with what she saw. The room saw spacious and the walls were covered with wallpaper that had various colorful flowers. There was a queen sized bed with pink sheets as well as a pile of stuffed animals in a corner.
"Why am I here?" Sam complained.
"To help me with the demolition," Paulina said, which caused Sam to grin in satisfaction. Both girls went to the walls, grabbed the wallpaper and started tearing it down section by section. "Thank you for helping me with this," Paulina said after several sections had been taken down. "I've never liked how this room was set up."
"Then why did you have it set up this way?" Sam asked.
"It was all part of my act. In the event I had people over, I needed my room to look like it belonged to the bubbly air head everyone thought I was."
"Now, you see this is why I hate conformity. You couldn't even have your bedroom set up the way you liked because of your desire to fit in and be the one everyone turned to."
20 minuets later, the walls were stripped and the bed had been removed of sheets. Now, the two girls faced the question of what to do with the stuff animals. "I was thinking we'd take them to the backyard, pour kerosene on them and have a little bon fire," Paulina suggested.
"Ooooooooooh," Sam said, agreeing with the idea. But then her inner activist kicked in. "As awesome as that idea sounds, we should give these to charity."
"You're probably right. But I was really looking forward to that bon fire," Paulina said sadly.
"Why don't we compromise? We'll burn half of them and give the other half to charity," Sam suggested.
"Okay," Paulina agreed.
The two girls took half of the stuffed animals and brought them to the backyard, careful to place them on a concrete part to prevent the spread of flame. Kerosene was spread on the pile and a match was thrown on it. The pile ignited and all the animals were consumed by fire.
"Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?" Sam asked as she saw the stuffed animals burn.
"Once," Paulina said as she turned her head to face Sam. However the goth girl missed this.
Several minuets later, the pile of stuffed animals had been burned to ash. "That was cool," Sam said. "What do you want to do now?"
"I think we should shower," Paulina said. "To get rid of any ash or smoke that might have gotten on us."
"Good idea," Sam agreed, and the two girls made went back to Paulina's room.
"Sam, there's something I want you to do for me," Paulina said once they were back in her room. "I've let you see the real me. I would like to see the real you."
"But this is the real me. I've never hidden anything about myself to fit in."
"Except for changing your hair and eye color to be more goth like."
"Oh. That."
"I would really like to see your green eyes and what you look like as a blond."
Sam thought over what Paulina was saying. She supposed that the least she could do for the hispanic girl was show her real hair and eye color. "Okay Paulina, you win," Sam said
"Great. Now follow me," Paulina said as she left her room and Sam followed her. They walked down the hall and entered the bathroom Paulina used. The hispanic girl opened a cabinet and pulled out a shampoo bottle. "This is a special shampoo that gets rid of hair dye almost instantly."
"Why do you have it?"
"I sometimes like to experiment with hair dye. When I do, I like to cover the results if I don't like them. Now I'm sure that as an environmentalist, you're aware that it saves water for people to shower two at a time."
"That is true. Are you suggesting that we do that?" Sam asked.
"Why not?" Paulina asked with a sly grin.
Holy crap, she's coming on to me, Sam thought. She was not sure how to respond to this, but she did know how to respond to Paulina's offer to bathe together. "No thanks," Sam answered. Maybe another time though.
Paulina left the bathroom so that Sam could have some privacy. The goth girl undid her ponytail, took of her clothes and stepped in the shower. As the water cascaded down her naked body, Sam thought about all she had learned of Paulina.
She's defenintly not like I always thought she was Sam thought. She's intelligent, vindictive, a little eccentric... I could definitely see myself falling for her.
--
Some time later, Paulina had gotten her turn with the shower and was now looking at a blond Sam (who had used the special shampoo to wash away the dye on her eyebrows as well as on her head). "You look good as a blond," Paulina said.
"Thanks," Sam replied. The whole reason she dyed her hair was because of all the things associated with having blond hair and because it didn't work well with her gothic wordrobe. But now she was putting those things aside, and she had to admit that the blond hair did look good.
Sam then took out her colored contacts so that Paulina could see her real eyes. "Wow," Paulina said as she gazed at Sam's emerald orbs. "Their beautiful."
I doubt that, Sam thought as she took a close look at her eyes in the mirror. After looking at her eyes up close, she changed her mind. "Maybe I don't need the dye and contacts to go with my goth look."
"If you say so. Just a suggestion, try wearing a contact in one eye and have the other be green."
Sam did as Paulina suggested and put one of the contacts back in her left eye. "Oh," Sam said as she looked at her different colored eyes and liked the effect. "Good suggestion Paulina."
"I have another one in mind if you're interested," Paulina said. "But I'd rather show you than tell you."
And with that, Paulina placed her hands on the sides of Sam's face and pulled the dark dressed girl in for a kiss. Sam returned the kiss just as quickly as she had received it. The two kissed for several minuets before breaking apart.
"How did you know I was gay?" Sam asked.
"You're gay?" Paulina said.
"What? You just kissed me without knowing that I gay?"
"You didn't seem to mind while we were playing tonsil hockey."
"I am so pissed at you right now," Sam yelled at the hispanic girl. However, while her head was angry, her lapido was aroused. "Screw it. I'll be pissed at you later, for now let's just make out some more," Sam said, then put her mouth around Paulina's.
