Aim and Fire
Chapter Three: Sam Equals Walt Disney
"Do you guys know anything about this?" I shoved the small slip of piece paper into Danny's hands, who read it and Tucker squinted at it, peering over Danny's shoulder.
"Sounds like someone knows your secret," Tucker smirked.
Danny rolled his eyes, and I groaned lowly with frustration. "Duh, you idiot! Do you know what that means?"
Tucker stared. Danny raised a brow questioningly.
I sighed. Boys were such idiots sometimes. "Well, let's see. If one person knows about my secret, then eventually the whole school will know, and that means Valerie will know and this whole FIASCO will be ruined!"
They were silent as the new information sunk in, slowly. I resisted the urge to pull out my hair.
"Oh," was all Tucker said.
I rolled my eyes.
Danny groaned, "This is horrible. All of this is backfiring -"
"Or not." I perked up immediately, pointing a finger in the air. Oh wow, I'm such a dork.
"Not?" Tucker asked.
"Well, what if this person just needs help like Danny does, and they're just trying to intimidate me instead of just going out and asking for help?" I smiled. Yes, it was a good possibility.
A rare possibility, but a good one, anyways.
"That's not a bad idea, Sam, except how would they know about your special powers?" Tucker raised a brow.
Danny looked at me, too, and they both just kind of stared at me, as if I knew all the answers.
"Hm. Good point. But let's see…I also don't know how you guys know about my powers. Why don't you tell me that?"
Danny's eyes widened and he turned and punched Tucker in the arm. "Can't you ever shut up, Tucker?" Tucker shrugged and rubbed his arm, and I noticed that neither of them were really looking at me anymore.
I tapped my foot. "Well? I'm waiting."
Tucker grinned sheepishly. "Is that really important? Why don't we save that story for a rainy day?"
I huffed. "Oh, fine. But trust me - I will find out. Whether you tell me or not."
I walked away from them, and I could hear Danny punch Tucker again, and I just smiled.
To be honest, I didn't really care all that much about the note. It's not that I had another "case" to deal with, and it worried me a little that someone knew my secret, but it couldn't be too hard to figure out who gave me the note and convince them not to tell.
Right?
But of course, when I told Natalie and Elena this when I met them at my house an hour later, they disagreed. Of course.
"But Sam," Natalie argued, "What if you never do find out until it's too late?" There was a crease in between her eyebrows as she sipped her lemonade through a straw. We were sitting in my room, situated on my bed with a whole bunch of food and drinks to keep us occupied.
Elena nodded, glancing at me. "For once, she has a point," She pointedly ignored the stern look that Natalie shot her and continued, "He - or she - could end up telling the whole school and then you'd be screwed, Sam. Epicly Screwed."
"Epicly is not a word, Elena," Natalie rolled her eyes.
"Who cares?! It should be!"
I sighed. "Let's just forget about the dumb note, okay? I'll figure that out later - I talked to Valerie yesterday."
Elena's eyes lit up. "Oh, what did she say?"
"Um…not much. We just sort of…talked, you know? I told her some bullshit lie that my friend wanted to ask Danny out and I wanted to know if she was dating him," I shrugged.
Natalie snorted, a very un-ladylike gesture for her. "And what friend would that be?"
Elena waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Oh, I don't know. Danny is a little hottie, I have to admit. I'd push him against a wall any day of the week -"
Natalie looked scandalized. "ELENA. LANGUAGE."
But Elena just cackled and I picked up a nearby pillow and whacked her in face with it.
"Sam?"
I looked up at the sound of someone saying my name. "Um…yeah?"
"I heard something interesting yesterday."
My heart stopped beating.
It was the next day, and I was just sitting in class, right behind Valerie. Like usual. Nothing seemed different. I was sort of hoping I wouldn't get another note, but I had a feeling that what Valerie said next was going to be worse than a note.
"Oh…what's that?"
Maybe it wasn't about me, I tried to rationalize. Maybe Valerie thinks of me as a friend and she just wanted to gossip about something really trivial, something unimportant. I took a deep breath.
"Well, I heard that you…um, helped people."
My heart sank. Shit.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Her brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed. "What? I thought you helped people…like, investigations or something." She said it so casually!
I about choked on my own spit. "Um, can we talk about this later?"
She shrugged. "Sure," And she turned back around in her seat, leaving me a sputtering mess.
WHAT THE HELL.
"So can you help me?"
It was lunchtime, and I was late. I was supposed to be meeting Elena and Natalie like I did every other day, but they could wait, couldn't they? I was sure that this was more important.
"Okay, two things. One: who the hell told you? And two: what are you talking about?" By this time, I was confused, pissed off, and a little frustrated. Just a little.
Valerie crossed her arms. "So it's true?"
I sighed. "Well…" I trailed off. I didn't really know what to say.
"I can't tell you who told me -"
"WHY THE HELL NOT?"
" - but just know that they told me pretty much everything about you." Valerie was smirking at me now. Oh lord, I felt scared.
"Um…everything?"
"Well, sure. That you're filthy stinking rich, where you work, who your friends are and of course, what your special power is."
I blinked, feeling like I was going to have a stroke. "Do I have a stalker, or something?"
"Sam, I don't want to be mean, but if you don't help me I might have to…oh, I don't know, tell the whole school everything about you." Her smirk widened and I started to sweat.
"Um…um, okay. Sure. I'll help you. What else do you know?"
"Not much."
"Do you know who else I've been helping?" I had to ask, but I figured if she knew that I was helping Danny, she wouldn't spoken up already.
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "…no. Why, should I?"
"No! Um, it's not important," I laughed awkwardly. I coughed. "So…what do you need help with?"
"I'm a ghost-hunter."
"And I'm Walt Disney." I deadpanned, raising a brow.
She did not look amused.
"I'm serious."
"Oh, then so am I."
"Sam! You've never seen a ghost before?"
"Well, sure. All the time."
"You know, Amity Park is just full of them."
"I hear you, man. Damn ghosts!"
When Valerie's glare turned from deathly to lethal, I shut up. I coughed again. "Cut the crap, Sam. Whether you believe me or not, there are ghosts around here - I've seen them and fought them. But you cannot tell anyone."
"Well, then neither can you." I crossed my arms, too, and now we were just standing there, face to face, glaring at each other. Weird.
"Fine." She said in a clipped tone."
"Okay, so are you finally going to tell me what you need help with?"
"Oh, yeah. So, I hunt ghosts and I suspect that a student here is half-ghost, or something. I don't know all the details, so I need your help."
I blinked. A few moments passed. "Uh, what?"
She looked confused. "What?"
"I'm not that kind of investigator, Valerie. I've never even seen a ghost, let alone know anything about them." This girl was ridiculous!
"Then what do you do?"
"I'm not even sure! People just think I'm magic, or something!"
"I don't get it."
"Honestly, because I don't either."
She let out a sigh of frustration. "You said you were helping other people. What do you help them with?"
"Um, relationship problems."
"So you give advice?"
"Something like that."
Valerie looked like she was concentrating really, really hard. "Ohhhh…"
I started to laugh a little. "Um, whoever gave you're your information is full of crap."
She glared at me, suddenly. "Shut up! You're supposed to be helping me!"
I stopped laughing. "What? I don't know how, remember? What do you want me to do?"
"Find out what you can. I already asked you for help, and you said yes. Might as well go through with the job."
I started to get angry. "Why should I help you?"
"I'll tell everyone -"
"If you tell something about me, I'll tell something about you. We're both screwed here."
She was silent.
I waited.
"Okay. Fine. You don't have to help me, then. But…"
"But what?"
She sighed. "Okay, it's just that I don't have many friends here and I'm kind of stuck. How am I supposed to find out who the ghost kid is no one will talk to me?"
The Ghost Kid? What the hell?
Oh, but I could see why no one would talk to the poor girl. She was somewhat of a maniac.
I groaned. "FINE. I'LL FREAKING HELP YOU."
She smiled happily. "Thank you!" But then she started to walk away, and a thought erupted in my mind.
"Wait!"
She turned. "What now?"
"So…you were the one who gave me that note, right?"
"Um…what note?"
I had the sudden urge to punch a wall. "Oh never mind!"
Valerie turned around and walked away slowly. "Okay, whatever. I'll talk to you later, Sam."
I grumbled under my breath.
Not only was I helping two idiots underneath the bleachers after school - one who was just annoying and the other a paranoid boyfriend - I had to help a freaking ghost-hunting psycho who could probably kill me, if she wanted to.
Oh, FUCK MY LIFE.
This chapter is totally lame, and it's not edited, either. I get a beta and I hardly use her. LOL. But it's been, what? Almost five months since I updated?
That's a little unfair, right? I'm sorry. So forgive my mistakes, and please review!
