A/N Okay…I know I said I would update faster, but…..let's face it, I don't have a good excuse. I've been lazy, and I apologize. It's just that copying the chapter is really tedious, and I HATE it. It's the worst part . But, I now have a schedule I'm trying to work off of. My next few updates should be around these times:

June 14-chapter 3

June 22-chapter 4

June 30-chapter 5

If it's coming close to any of these dates, feel free to bug me I'm gonna start another fic on the PJO site, so that's why the 'due dates' are so far apart. So pretty much, I have 5 days to write each chapter…

Well, enough of my rambling, here is the gang reading Chapter 2!

"Okay, Chapter 2" Casey begun.

I don't know why I thought it was funny, but I did.

"Sammy, that's because it WAS funny." Billy said, rolling his eyes.

"You just say that cuz YOU did it!" Sammy protested.

"And everything I do is funny" Billy insisted.

"Well-" Sammy started, but was interrupted when Casey continued to read.

I mean, come on. How seriously can you take a death threat that has the word dude in it?

So yeah, I laughed. It just kind of came out. And other people laughed too, so it wasn't only me.

"Nope, it was everybody." Billy said.

But Mr. Vince?

Oh Boy.

He took it really seriously.

"You think this is funny?" he looked right at me.

"Why does he hate you so much?" Dot asked.

"Remember? The Sluggers cup tournament?" Holly answered.

"Yeah. I know. But accusing her of a death threat because she did the right thing?" Dot shook her head, disgusted.

"No one said Vince was fair." Sammy smirked.

"Do you know you can get arrested for something like this? Do you know it's a felony?"

"A felony?" I blurted. "Writing on your board is a felony?"

"And here's my big mouth." Sammy muttered.

"Her and her mouth. Always causing trouble. Changing other's lived drastically." Marissa shook her head.

"Trouble yeah. Changing lives, no." Sammy corrected.

The rest of the class snickered, but I was already kicking myself.

"Good." Holly nodded.

When am I ever going to learn to keep my stupid mouth shut?

"Never. You wouldn't be Sammy Keyes without your loud mouth." Casey smiled and laughed.

But off it yapped, anyway. "Hey, quit staring at me like that! I didn't do it!"

"Yeah, Billy did it!" Sammy accused.

"Hey!" Billy defended.

"Yeah? Then who did?"

"Already said it. Billy did." Sammy said.

"You do realize you're talking to a book, right?" Holly asked.

"Not just a book. She's talking to herself." Marissa giggled.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Sammy rolled her eyes.

he asked, looking around the room. "Death threats are felonies!"

Everyone sort of shrank back because he was he was defiantly turning red around the edges. Then over on my right, Jake Meers says, "Why do you think it's one of us? Someone could've put that up at break. Or earlier."

"Yeah," David Olsen adds, "Like, did you use the board in first or second?"

Mr. Vince just stares.

First at Jake.

Then at David.

"He probably doesn't like being wrong." Dot suggested.

"Nope, he doesn't." Casey agreed.

"Perhaps you should just erase the board and get on with class." Comes a quiet voice behind us.

Everyone turns to look at Mr. Foxmore.

His gaze is cool

Calm.

Mr. Vince says, "But-" and in that instant Mr. Foxmore's look sharpens, an eyebrow arches, and his head cocks slightly.

It's a total ninja move, but just of his face.

"Huh. I never thought of it like that," Billy said surprised.

Mr. Vince hesitates, then picks up an eraser and wipes the message away. When he turns back around, Mr. Foxmore is gone.

"Like a ghost!" Billy whispers mysteriously.

Everyone gives him a weird look.

The vibe in the room was really weird after that. It was quiet and seemed calm, but the air was hot and angry. Like any second there'd be a downpour of hatred.

"So you felt it too?" Billy asked Sammy.

"Yeah. It was really weird." Sammy agreed.

We were all glad to escape to fourth period, and by lunchtime the whole school knew about the message, and everyone had different theories on how it wound up there.

"Gossip." Everyone muttered.

"You swear it wasn't you?" Marissa whispered to Billy, who was sitting at our lunch table.

"Why does everyone ask that?"

"Cuz you're Billy." Marissa answered with a smirk. "and you lied to me saying it wasn't you, because it was you!"

Billy said. "I'm the poster boy for peace, love and understanding."

Casey snorted. "Whatever you say."

I laughed. "More like the poster boy for pranks, laughs, and under-studying."

"Now that I can believe." Holly laughed.

"Um, Sammy? What did you mean by under-studying? As in acting or Not studying?" Dot asked.

"I can't remember. But both seem to apply to Billy." Sammy answered with a little smile.

"Hey!" Billy yelled, like he was being accused.

"How is that offensive? You know it's true." Casey rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know. I just wanted to say 'Hey!'…"Billy said looking innocent.

"Okay…"Casey trailed off, confused.

I shrugged. "And who cares, anyway? Vince made a huge deal out of nothing. A felony? Come on!" I laughed again. "I'm just glad that it wasn't me!"

After lunch, though, I found out that Heather Acosta also had a theory. "I know it was you, loser" she said, slithering up to me during science.

"Is she accusing you because she has evidence or because she hates you?" Dot asked.

"Dot, number one: It's ALWAYS because she hates me. Number two: She's the one who told Billy to put it on the board. She knows who really did it." Sammy answered.

"Oh yeah! Sorry, forgot about that." Dot said shyly.

"Oh, right," I snorted, and that's when it crossed my mind that Heather might be the person who'd written the message.

"Really? I'm surprised she wasn't your first guess." Casey said in a surprised tone.

"It'll explain in the book…most likely." Sammy answered.

Now, maybe I should have suspected that right away, but it was actually counter-intuitive. I mean, Heather was on Mr. Vince's softball team last year, and let's just say there're peas in the same rotten pod.

"Gottcha." Casey said to Sammy.

But Heather also has a history of setting things up so that people she's mad at get blamed.

Usually that's me.

"Yep. Pretty much every single time…..except with this Die dude business…that's all Billy." Marissa said.

The thought really bothered me, but when I told Marissa about it in drama, she whispered, "Look, stop worrying. It's over. Erased. Just forget about her, okay?"

Obviously, this was something that she had no problem doing because, just like that, she switched subjects. "Do you want to go over to Hudson's with me after school?"

"You aren't even slightly interested in the death threats?" Holly asked, eyebrows raised.

"They weren't death threats at that time. And anyways, I HATE it when Sammy gets involved in stuff…cuz then she drags ME into it." Marissa defended.

"Okay, okay! "Sammy started. "Let's just finish up the chapter."

I blinked at her. Hudson Graham is my friend. He may be seventy-two years old, but I've been dragging Marissa to his house for iced tea and good advice for over a year, and now she's inviting me to go with her?

"Must've been weird." Holly muttered.

"Why are you going to Hudson's?" I asked, still trying to wrap my head around this change.

"Because, Mikey hangs out there after school." She tossed a scowl. "Mom says I have to either go straight to Hudson's or straight home, and it's way better than going home."

"It is! My house is soooo boring!" Marissa sighed.

"But don't you live in a fancy house?" Billy questioned

"Yeah. What's your point?" Marissa asked slowly.

"Uhhhh…"Billy trailed off.

"Ever hear 'Money doesn't by happiness'?"Sammy asked Billy.

"Yeah. I never got it though. I wouldn't mind being rich." Billy said with a smirk.

"You try and-"Marissa started, but was cut off when Dot said-

"Marissa, forget it. His brain's too tiny to understand."

"Yeah. So much for being the poster boy for understanding." Sammy said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Billy yelled defensively.

"I'm just gonna read now….." Casey trailed off slowly.

Something about this made me sort of, I don't know . . . fold up on the inside. Not collapse or anything like that. Just kind of…close in. I mean, I knew Marissa's little brother had gone to "camp" at Hudson's during the summer while their parents tried to straighten out their problems, but I figured when school started up again, that would be over.

Obviously it wasn't.

"Do you have a problem with that?" Marissa asked Sammy.

"If we read the book, we would know my feelings! I hate this book. Why did it have to be in MY point of view?

"Cuz you're the most exciting?" Casey asked.

"Sammy sighed. "Casey, can you please read?"

And the thought of Mikey and Marissa hanging out there, like, permanently, bothered me. I didn't want it to bother me, but still, it did.

Maybe it's because I'd finally gotten used to things. Hudson had helped me adjust to having an absentee mother,

"You said you didn't live with your mom, and that you live with your Grandmother. Your mom's a movie star, so she lives in Hollywood, right? But doesn't she call?" Billy asked, trying to fit each piece together.

"Nope." Sammy begun, "well, she didn't use to…"

and to living secretly with Grams in a building full of old people,

"So, pretty much you're breaking the law."Billy commented.

"When is she NOT breaking the law?" Marissa snickered.

"Hey! I'm a good citizen!" Sammy said, defending herself.

"Okay…you think that." Holly laughed along with Marissa, as Sammy glared at both of them, then punched Marissa in the arm.

and to being in junior high school, and…and to believing it was okay to like my archenemy's brother.

"Oh! So he's the one we have to thank for that beautiful couple over there." Billy smiled, nodding his head towards Casey and Sammy.

And now, just when I thought things were settling down, everything was changing again.

"You don't like change?" Dot asked Sammy.

"Not at all." Sammy said.

I wanted it to stop.

I wanted to go back to having Marissa in my classes.

"Same here." Marissa agreed.

I wanted to go back to having Hudson's porch be my safe haven.

"Possessive." Billy muttered, but no one heard him.

I wanted to go back to having Mr. Caan as the vice principal and Mr. Vince in a classroom that I didn't have to go into.

"Don't we all." Dot nodded.

And I wanted to go back to having Casey at school.

"Yeah. I really wish we were at the same school." Casey said quietly and looked at Sammy. And, of course, she blushed.

Back to him calling me.

"AWWWWWWWW!" everyone in the room besides Sammy and Casey said, while the two just rolled their eyes.

"Sammy, you're quite demamnding." Holly said out of the blue.

"What?" Sammy asked.

"You want and want and want."

"Actually, Holly, you missed 2 wants." Billy corrected.

"Okay…..?" Holly trailed off, a confused expression displayed on her face.

"What's wrong?" Marissa whispered.

I shook my head and said, "I should probably just go home. I've been putting off stuff I need to do for officer Borsch's wedding."

She laughs. "I still can't believe he asked you to be in the wedding. Does he secretly not want to get married?"

"I still take that offensively." Sammy muttered, while Casey laughed at her response to the text.

I tell her, "hey!" but I know exactly what she means. Whenever Officer Borsch and I deal with each other, there seems to be trouble.

Sometimes big trouble.

So including me in his wedding was either really brave or really stupid.

Maybe both.

Which in a weird Borschman way made sense, seeing how I've accused him of being both.

"Wow. And what's up with Borschman?" Casey asked.

"I'm telling you. She has nicknames for everyone!" Billy answered.

"Only people I don't know names for…but sometimes I nickname people out of nowhere. It depends." Sammy answered.

"What was my nickname?" Billy asked.

"Well, one of them used to be 'Pratt-the-brat." Sammy smirked.

"That's not very nice." Billy muttered.

"What was mine?" Casey asked her.

"That, I'm not telling you." Sammy laughed, while Casey gave her a worried look.

"He doesn't have anything to worry about," I tell Marissa. 'I'm just in charge of the guest book. What can go wrong?"

"Again, you jinx it!" Marissa said, shaking her head.

"When will you learn?" agreed Billy.

"Like I said before," Sammy defended, "there is NO SUCH THING AS A JINX!"

"You keep telling yourself that." Marissa teased.

She laughs again. "Everything!"

"Hey!"

So she drops the insults and says, "But that's next weekend, right? So what do you have to do today?"

"Grams found me a dress for the wedding, but it's too long and she's making me hem it."

"Sammy, does your grandmother secretly hate the dress? I can't even picture you hemming!" Casey teased.

"I know, she's awful at it!" laughed Marissa.

"Hello? I'm right here." Sammy said annoyed. "Continue reading, Casey."

"She's making you hem it? Why doesn't she just do it? She's really good at that sort of thing, isn't she?"

"Yeah, but she says it's something I should know how to do myself, so she's going to teach me."

Marissa snickers, "Should be fun."

I scowl at her. "A thrill a minute."

"Hmmm, my views haven't changed." Sammy muttered.

So that's the excuse I gave Marissa for not going over to Hudson's,

"You lied to me!" Marissa cried.

"Uhhh…" Sammy said, looking away.

and it was actually a pretty lame one, seeing how I could work on the stupid dress any time. But Marissa bought it, and I was glad.

"That's messed up!" Marissa said, glaring at her best friend.

"Yeah, but Sammy always makes excuses." Billy chuckled.

"Hey!" Sammy said defensively.

"Yeah. She just wasn't in the mood to talk, and if she said that, then Marissa would ask why." Holly defended.

"Thanks Holly. At least someone understands." Sammy thanked, glaring at Marissa.

"No prob." Holly responded.

I don't know why-I just kinda wanted to be left alone.

Trouble is, the minute I'm home, Grams says, "Samantha! Sergeant Borsch called. He needs you to call Debra right away."

"Why do you call him Officer Borsch when he's a sergeant?" Casey asked his girlfriend.

"I'm used to Officer Borsch." Sammy replied simply.

"And Debra is….?" Billy asked randomly.

"The bride-to-be." Sammy answered.

"Why?"

"He didn't say, but it sounded urgent."

"Everything he says sounds urgent." Sammy chuckled.

So I go to the kitchen, pick up the phone, and dial the number grams had jotted down on the notepad. And when Debra answers, I say, "Hey. It's Sammy. I'm supposed to call you?"

"Oh, Sams!" she says, and even in those two words I can tell she's totally frazzled. "How'd you like a promotion?"

"Huh?"

"I need you to fill in for Robyn as my third bridesmaid."

"uh…why?"

"Always so blunt and to the point." Casey smiled.

She heaves a sigh. 'Honey, sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas."

"What?"

"What?

"Whoa!"

Snickering filled the room.

"What?"

"To cut to the chase, she's no longer in the weddin' party, and I'd really appreciate it if you could fill in for her."

"But…can't you just fire one of the groomsmen?"

"Really, Sammy? Really?" Marissa asked.

"Yeah, Marissa. Yeah." Sammy teased. "I was trying to get out of it."

There's a moment of silence. "No."

"But…don't you have any other friends who could do it? Or relatives? I mean-"

"Sam, look. I wouldn't be asking if I wasn't desperate."

"Uh, gee, thanks."

"Sammy, honestly, letting you have a major role in an important event is a desperate move." Holly chuckled.

"Am I really that bad?" Sammy asked her friends.

"Yep!" agreed everyone.

She heaves another sigh. 'I didn't mean it that way. It's just that the weddin's in a week, and everything goin' wrong! Gil broke his wrist, Robyn dumped a lifetime of garbage on me, the florist skipped town with my deposit, and the last time we met the minister he was drunk."

"He was drunk? And he's marrying cops?"

"Not a smart move." Muttered Casey.

"Well, I'm not a cop, technically. I just work the reception."

"You're cop enough," I tell her. "And how did Officer Borsch break his wrist?"

She sighs. "He fell off a treadmill."

The room bursted with laughter, holding their sides.

"He what!" I mean, let's just say that Officer Borsch could use some time on the treadmill-a lot of time-

"You're kinda mean." Dot giggled.

but him actually running on one was something I couldn't picture.

She sighs again. "It was goin' too fast, and he stumbled and fell. It's his left wrist too. So now his tux won't fit right, and all our pictures'll have an ugly white cast in em'."

"Wow." I tell her, trying to take it all in.

"Sams," she says, and her voice is all suddenly all choked up. "I'm forty years old. I've never been married. This is a big deal to me. Will you please do me this favor? Honey, you know the big man adores you. You know we both do."

And that's how I wound up saying, "Sure."

I mean, how could I not?

"I now know why you said yes. That really sucks for her." Marissa said, shaking her head in sympathy.

"I know." Sammy sighed in agreement.

So she tells me her address on Elm Street and says, "I'm around the corner from the Community Presbyterian Church. Just go down Constance, turn left, and there you are!"

"You're talking about that little white church?"

"Yes!" she says, all excited like. 'isn't it a perfect place for a weddin'?"

I said yeah 'cause I didn't know what else to say, then promised to meet her at her house the next day so that she could take Robyn's dress and turn it into mine.

It wasn't until I got off the phone that I started to wonder if her wedding luck was about to go from bad to worse.

After all, I was now officially in the wedding party.

"See! Even you agree with me that it'll be a disaster!" Marissa pointed at Sammy.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Sammy muttered, waving her off.

"So who wants to read the next chapter?" Casey asked the group.

"I guess I will." Holly volunteered.

"Hey. Who wants to get a snack?" Billy randomly asked.

Everyone looked at him then said a chorus of "I do's!" "Sure's" and "I'm starving's!"

Marissa and Sammy got up, went to the kitchen and brought out some frosting and graham crackers.

"Dude, I LOVE these!" Billy smiled once he saw the snack that the two girls picked out.

"I know, aren't they amazing!" Marissa agreed as she opened the frosting and graham crackers, then dipped a graham cracker in the frosting and shoved it in her mouth.

"Okay. We have our snack. Lets read." Holly said, and then began to read…

A/N So…..? Do you like it, hate it? Are the characters OOC? Are they IC? Please review! I really appreciate it, like almost every author. Reviews brighten my day! Even if it's an 'its good' or why you liked it, or any suggestions to what the characters should say at certain parts in the book. Anything!

And thank you to:

(No name) thanks! I'm glad you love love loved it! I'll try to update. Like I said, I've got a schedule. Lol

PZZZZZZZ-I'm happy that you like it

Tia Pakhi-sorry if this wasn't quickly enough, but I will really try hard for the next chapters.

Lolipops-thanks!

Iluvbowling4soup-thanks! I always liked the characters reading the books, and I will try and update ASAP!

And special thanks to cammygrl because she reviewed every single chapter! you are truly amazing!

Anyways, I hope you have had a terrific summer so far (and if you are still in school, good luck ) Remember, feel free to bug me to update! Mwhahahahha!