With thanks to lkhoward for doing more then her fair share of workon this chapter, the previous one, and the next one! And as ever, thanyou for the reviews!

Chapter 13

Jack approached Janet after school to find out what exactly was going on with his… Sam.

Janet glared at him as he approached her. She glared even more once he had asked her to explain.

"If you don't know, why don't you go ask Sam?" she snapped at him. She quickly slammed her locker shut and left Jack standing there with Daniel.

Jack turned his attention to Daniel.

"Before you ask, I have no idea," Daniel insisted, trying to gather his books before Jack pounced on him. Daniel knew he was a terrible liar and could very easily have information coaxed out of him.

"Give me a hint Daniel," Jack begged. Daniel looked at Jack, who looked genuinely baffled at the strange events that had been happening, and took pity on him.

"Sam somehow has the idea that you don't like her," Daniel finally said.

"Why would she think that?" Jack demanded, his aggressive tone making Daniel jump back slightly.

"I don't know Jack, maybe you should ask her," Daniel suggested slamming the door to his own locker and walking off.

"What did I do?" Jack demanded, but got no response from the retreating back of Daniel Jackson.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"What was up with you today?" Mark Carter asked in the locker room after football practice. "It was like you were on another planet."

"Nothing," Jack insisted, brushing off Mark's attempt to get him to talk. "I've just got a lot on my mind."

Mark shook his head. "You know, Sam said the same thing this morning. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

"No, of course not," Jack said quickly, a little too quickly for Mark's liking.

Mark held Jack's gaze and tried to guess what was wrong. "If you don't want to take her to the dance, just tell her you changed your mind…"

"No I couldn't do that. I said I would take her to the dance, so I'm going to take her," Jack vowed. At least, he would take her if she would let him that is. Jack inwardly sulked.

"Don't lead her on Jack," Mark cautioned. "If you're doing this to just be nice, don't. If you're doing this because you're her friend, that's different. I wouldn't blame you for changing your mind."

"I know. I'll think about it," Jack promised, desperate to leave so he could get some serious thinking done. He needed to get his head straight.

"Just… let her down gently," Mark suggested.

"I will." Jack smiled weakly and left the room.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kawalsky and Ferretti emerged from the locker room and found Daniel sitting in the hallway. The two boys looked at Daniel and then back at each other, identically nasty grins spread across their faces.

There had been an awful lot of changes since Sam started attending their school. Sam wasn't a problem, she was hot and they were jocks. Jocks hung around with hot girls all the time. It was Daniel that was the problem.

Previously Daniel had almost lived in the library, only emerging to scurry to the cafeteria in search of food. If he was lucky then he escaped back to his book filled paradise without anyone seeing, if he wasn't then he could face anything from name calling to having his head flushed down a toilet.

Now, however, Daniel was dating the head cheerleader. That wasn't right. Ferretti and Kawalsky just had to do something about that.

"What are you doing here geek boy?" Kawalsky snarled, coming to a stop in a spot where he loomed over Daniel.

"Waiting for Mark. He's going to give me and Sam a ride home," Daniel explained without even looking up from his notebook.

"I just don't understand it Ferretti," Kawalsky said. "What does a woman like Janet see in a guy like Daniel?"

"I don't know," Ferretti answered as Kawalsky reached down and tore Daniel's notebook from his hands.

"What do we have here?" Kawalsky asked as he tried to read the notebook only to find it written in a language he couldn't read, let alone understand, so he started ripping pages out of it.

"No, don't please" Daniel begged, jumping up and making a grab for the notebook only to have Kawalsky pull it out of his clutches just as the tips of his fingers brushed the it.

Kawalsky just laughed and Ferretti joined in, though not as eagerly or heartfelt as the other boy.

"What are two doing?" Jack demanded as he emerged from the locker room with Teal'c. He quickly snatched the notebook from Kawalsky's hands, separating them both with his body.

Unfortunately for Jack, at that precise moment Sam rounded the corner. She assessed the scene, and made a snap decision based on what she saw.

"Leave him alone!" she exclaimed, rushing to defend Daniel who was scrambling to collect the pages of his notebook which now littered the floor. She quickly snatched what was left of the notebook from Jack's hands. "Why can't you just leave him alone?"

"I didn't do anything," Jack insisted.

"But they're your friends," Daniel said as he stood up.

"But I didn't do it. I wouldn't do that Sam. You have to believe me," Jack pleaded.

Sam shook her head. "I don't know what to think about you anymore Jack," Sam said as she placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder and lead him away from the group of boys. "Oh, and you can find yourself another girl to take to the dance," Sam sniped as she walked out through the door.

Jack stood there looking bewildered. He had just broken up a fight between two of his oldest friends and one of his new friends, and suddenly another one of his new friends didn't want to go to the dance with him!

"What did I do?" he asked to quietly, watching Sam and Daniel walk away.

Kawalsky slapped Jack on the back. "Well, at least you don't have to let her down gently now Jack," he reminded him, recalling the conversation between Jack and Mark in the locker room.