"So when is Keoni's team on?" Lilo finally asked, unaware of the oncoming threat of Sam and her gang.
"They did the prelims only a little while ago. A lot of teams didn't make it. He should be up in maybe a half hour." Victoria pointed to a large board on the other side of the park. Upon it were all the names of the teams that had entered. Quite a few had already been crossed out. Thankfully, Keoni's team, simply named 'The Jam' after the experiment he looks after, was still displayed.
"That's good. We didn't miss him." Stitch was worried with the extra time they took at the dress shop, that they might have missed it already.
"No worries. They were great!"
"Were they great, or was it Keoni that was great?" Lilo joked, but her suspicions were confirmed as Victoria became as red as a tomato. The couple began to giggle as Victoria tried her best to hide her blush.
Their fun was quickly ended when Sam suddenly walked up, cutting between Lilo and Stitch.
"Hey, Lilo!" Sam exclaimed overly cheerfully, something the two girls had never seen. "I can't believe I ran into you here." Between her tone, and suddenly pulling Lilo into a hug, anyone who didn't know them would think they were longtime friends. Victoria herself was speechless. To her, it would have been less surprising if Sam had suddenly punched Lilo to the ground, or had Abby and Jen do it at least.
Lilo's eyes went wide from shock. The last person she expected to see was Sam, and getting a hug from her even more so. Not knowing what to do, she managed to get out of her grip, stepping away as fast as she could. Once out of the hug, she could see that the rest of Sam's gang had showed up as well. What are they doing here? What could they be planning? Normally, Lilo wasn't one to instantly jump to conclusions, but Sam's gang was a different story. They wouldn't have spied on her for over a week and then walked up and not have something sinister planned.
She thought she saw a sly smirk on Sam's face, before it returned to her fake cheery demeanor. Turning around, Sam feigned shock at seeing Styles standing there, looking really confused to what was happening.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there." She lied, getting as close to Styles as she could. "I'm Sam. I don't believe I've met you before."
This was the first time Stitch had ever seen Sam, Stitch was never around when it was her turn to spy on Lilo. He had heard enough about her from Lilo though to recognize who she was before her introduction. "Um, I'm Styles." He said rather confused. He looked to Lilo but she just shrugged, also not sure what was happening.
"Styles. That's an interesting name." She moved herself even closer, giving him a look of the eyes and a smile that always made boys melt. She was confident that if nothing else, the low cut top she wore under her jean jacket and her short skirt would do the trick. "Where are you from?"
Abby rolled her eyes, hating how boys always fell for Sam's charms. She looked away, hating that a painful memory started to crop up.
Stitch took a step back, not liking how close she was getting. However, Sam closed the distance, blocking his view of Lilo.
"I-I'm…from, um… Maui." He stammered out, trying to keep his English in check while feeling uncomfortable.
"Really? I heard the guys from Maui were good looking, but I had no idea how good looking." Sam finally grabbed onto Styles, wrapping herself around his arm. She pressed herself against him as much as she could. Now I've got him. Say bye-bye to your boy Lilo.
It was at this point that Lilo and Victoria understood what Sam was trying to do. They shared a light giggle, knowing that Sam's attempts were going to go nowhere. Myrtle raised an eyebrow, wondering what they were giggling about. To her, it looked like Sam had just about stolen Styles. The slight distant look in his eye and nervousness was one she had seen in plenty of boys before they fell for girlish charms.
"How about I show you around? I'm sure your friends won't mind. I know some great places to have some fun." She gave him a wink, by this point most guys would be putty in her hands. She tried to move him, take him away from the others, but found her wouldn't move an inch.
"Could you please let go?" Stitch decided to try to be polite. He didn't want Sam to cause any trouble for them at the moment, and he was sure she would. "I'd rather stay here with Lilo."
Sam couldn't believe what she had just heard. Her cheery façade had almost cracked. What? Stay with Lilo? Over me? The others were just as shocked as her, Abby even more so. Guess I'll need to try even harder. Lilo and Victoria were doing their best to hold back their laughs, and Myrtle was having a sense of déjà vu.
"Awe, you hurt my feelings." She put on a frown, trying to play with his emotions. "I'm sure you don't mean it though." She tugged again, finding him even more unmovable than before. "C'mon. I'll make it worth your while." Sam's voice took on a more seductive tone. A tone Stitch had heard from Lilo before, but he didn't like hearing it directed at him from someone else. Something inside him made him hate it, and made him feel sudden anger at the one who made it.
Maybe a kiss will get him. Sam thought, beginning to lean in. Lilo saw what she was about to do, making her blood boil and her fists clench. She was about to run over and pull Sam off her boyfriend when she saw Stitch's face distort into anger.
Stitch effortlessly shoved the girl off. "I'm sorry you had trouble understanding." She was completely stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened. "I'll be staying with Lilo." He quickly walked to Lilo's side, taking her hand. The smile on her face lit up his world, making him feel infinitely better.
The three decided it would be best to walk away. Not wanting to cause a scene, and really to just get away from the gang in general.
Meanwhile, Sam's mind was reeling, trying to figure out what she had done wrong. Her façade completely vanished, making way for her anger and disgust. "What could she possible have that I don't?" She had begun shouting, not caring who around her heard. "I'm taller than her, prettier than her, richer than her!" Stomping over to Lilo and Styles she put a forceful hand on their shoulders, splitting them apart. Getting right in Styles face, she continued her ranting. "You could do so much better than her. I'm better. I can do so much more for you than she ever could."
The cold stare in Styles' eyes sent a chill through her body. Never in her life had anyone, especially not a boy, ever looked at her like that. Sam noticed that she had forgotten to breath for a second, not understanding why she couldn't convince him to leave Lilo.
"You could never do anything for me." He walked past her, not caring to look back. "All I need is love. It's clear you have none of that." Taking Lilo's hand once again, he brought it up to his lips, leaving a gentle kiss on it. Sam didn't see, but Abby, Jen, Lea, and Myrtle did.
The trio walked away, this time for good. They had a feeling that Sam wouldn't be following, and they were happy to find out they were right.
Sam didn't move for several moments. Trying to see what she had done wrong, where she had gone wrong. She felt a hand touch her shoulder and shook it off quickly. "Don't touch me!"
"Sorry." Jen said, pulling her hand back as fast as she could. "But we should really get out of here."
Sam looked around, seeing that people were staring at them. Staring at her. She didn't like when people saw her as anything but the cheery popular girl. Wordlessly, she walked away, not bothering to see if her friends were following or not. Lea and Myrtle stared at her back, while Abby and Jen shared a look before they all went after her.
"This isn't going to be fun." Abby mumbled to herself.
"Shut it!" Lea shot at her, not wanting Sam's mood to be brought down any more than it already had been.
"'All I need is love'" Victoria mocked in a deep voice. "That was quite the declaration, Styles."
"Well I thought it was sweet." Lilo gave him a kiss on the cheek, causing him to turn a deep red.
The three had walked around the crowd, putting as much distance between them and Sam as they could. The skate park itself was off limits to everyone but the teams and event workers. The chain fence was as far as anyone could go. Most of the viewers were right near the action, but they had just as good a view down the fence a little. They could at least see the skating, that's all the really mattered.
"I-I wasn't really sure what was going on." Stitch admitted. "The way she was talking… It made meega really mad for some reason."
"I'll tell you what was going on." Victoria became really serious, overly agitated at the whole experience. "She was trying to steal you from Lilo."
"Steal meega?" The shock on his face was only matched by his confusion.
"Yeah. Make you fall in love with her." Victoria crossed her arms on the fence, leaning against it. "The nerve she has. To think she could just walk up and seduce someone's boyfriend."
Stitch looked to Lilo, seeing the face that wasn't quite his in her eyes. "Why would she want to do that?"
"Probably to get at me." Lilo looked away from him, staring out onto the competition. "Most likely she wanted me to feel humiliated and alone."
Stitch tilted her face back to his, looking into her eyes with as much love and caring as he could. "Well that could never happen. I'm yours forever."
"I know." She said with a smile. "I'm more worried about what she'll do next."
"Yeah." Victoria stretched before standing back up. "She's not going to like that she didn't win. This won't be the end of it."
Silence fell upon them. The cheers and yells of the crowd continued to grow around them. It seemed like there were even more people there than there were a few moments ago.
"Up next, 'The Jam!' Lead by Keoni Jameson!" The announcement reached them loud and clear. Excitement pushed away all the worry they had just felt.
"C'mon!" Victoria was already running to get closer to the action. "Hurry up!"
The two were amazed at how fast she was able to run through the crowd. It seemed like all she needed was the right motivation. While allergy season was slowly coming to an end, it wasn't quite done yet. Victoria ran through it, not caring that it was a little difficult to breathe. She needed to be as close as she could to see Keoni skating his best.
Keoni stood at the top of the half pipe. Ready to drop in. His eyes scanned the crowd, hoping he could catch a glimpse of Victoria before he had to start. Come one, Victoria. Where are you? He heard the bell go off and looked to his two teammates to his side. They both gave him a nod that they were ready, and he was committed to riding without seeing his girlfriend.
The skate competition was broken into five rounds. Each round three of the five team members would get a three minute heat to score as many points as they could. At the end of the round the bottom three teams would be eliminated. The only exception was the final round, in which one member from the final two teams would face off, head to head. Keoni's team barely managed to make it past the preliminaries, they had to score almost perfectly in order to stay in.
Victoria, Lilo, and Stitch managed to squeeze to the front of the crowd just as Keoni and his two teammates dropped in. They started cheering as loud as they could. It was truly amazing how far they had come over the years. Before he was good, but now it looked like Keoni could be a pro if he wanted.
The run looked like it was going good, until Keoni missed his landing, falling to his knees. Dammit. It was going so good. He hesitated getting up for a moment. He knew that he needed to get going to make it to the next round, but his legs weren't moving.
"You can do it, Keoni!" Victoria's cheering broke through the roar of the crowd. He followed the sound of her voice, seeing her and his friends cheering him on.
Can't give up here. Not when they're watching me. He cocked a smile, feeling rejuvenated. Giving Victoria a wave as he grabbed his board, he quickly tackled the ramp again.
After the final buzzer, the run ended, and the crowd went silent. Everyone waited with baited breath, wanting to see the result. With four sevens and one six, they managed to make it to the next round. Everyone cheered, but no one cheered louder than Victoria. Keoni's remaining team mates, rushed the half pipe, pulling them all into a group hug. They had a long way to go, but for now, they were still in it.
"Who does he think he is?" Sam was still fuming. If there was anything near her to break, she would have done so. She stood at the edge of the park, pacing back and forth as her gang watched her rant. "Turning me down. For her? What's so great about her? I'm clearly so much better. There must be something wrong with him. This has never happened to me before. Wait…this is a dream. It has to be a dream. That's it. It's all a bad dream."
Abby giggled at her leader's display. She had never seen Sam lose her cool so badly, it was actually quite refreshing to her.
"Is something funny?" Sam turned on her heel with fire in her eyes.
"Yeah actually." Abby admitted, not caring to hide her insubordination. "It's really funny. Hilarious even. You actually didn't get him. After all that's happened, you failed at something."
"I never fail at anything!" She stomped over, raising her hand. Sam was fully prepared and ready to hit the girl, but felt a hand hold her back. She looked over to see the tall form of Jen keeping a tight grip on her wrist. "Ugh." She broke free, returning back to pacing. "Don't think this changes anything. I can still get any guy. You of all people should know that, Abby." She took pride in the hurt look that came over Abby's face. "There's definitely something wrong with that boy."
Myrtle took a step back. She didn't understand why they were fighting like this. She and her old friends would never go on the way they were. I guess this isn't me and my old friends though… For a second, she missed seeing the laughing faces of Teresa, Elena, and Yuki. They really did have a lot of fun. I wonder what they're up to.
"So?" Lea asked, hoping Sam was finally done with her temper tantrum. "What are we going to do? It's pretty clear we aren't going to be breaking her heart through her boyfriend anytime soon."
"I could just beat her." Jen suggested, getting a light laugh from Sam.
"No. That'd just get you in trouble with the cops again."
"Besides, she pushed both of us off last time." Abby reminded her, wishing she could just leave already. "Remember?"
"We need to really get at her. It's not enough to force her into anything. She needs to submit. Truly submit and commit to staying out of our way."
"We could go through her friends." Myrtle knew the most about Lilo. She thought she would be the best one to come up with some sort of strategy. Mostly, she wanted to contribute to fit in more and get on Sam's best side. "She's always had a soft spot for her friends. Get to her through them."
"Closer. But that's never stopped her before. We've basically put the fear of god into her one friend, it just makes her fight back more."
"Then I don't really see any other way." Lea wasn't one for giving up. To her, just beating Lilo to a pulp, threatening her friends, or both, was seeming like the best options.
"Wait." Sam stopped moving. Brilliance had just rained down on her. "I've got it." The look in her eye excited Lea, and made Myrtle shudder. She didn't know why, but something told her she wasn't going to like the idea Sam had just gotten. "Those weird animals."