AN: I feel like people are losing interest in this series? It's not SUPER dramatic right now... and it will STAY not super dramatic... but you know how I am. one minute Jon and Sammy are having normal teenager problems and then BOM their old life side swipes them. So... don't forget how I am... JS...

Chapter 3

"So?" Lynn asked Sammy.

"And therefore?" Sammy replied on automatic pilot as they looked at the flyer.

"You're a shoe in." Lynn pointed out as Sammy could both sing and play piano.

"I'm terrible at guitar." Sammy pointed out.

"Pretend and have Jon playing in the background." Lynn suggested. "Or you could have him tutor you." She said suggestively and wiggled her dark eyebrows.

"Cute." Sammy grumbled.

Lynn gave her an odd look. Sammy literally never lost the opportunity to hang out with her boyfriend at any turn. Jon was a shoo-in for the male lead as well as he had an excellent singing voice and already played guitar.

"Or we could all just try out for the talent show." She suggested.

"Some of you should do both." Zulfi said softly from behind them. He'd finally picked up some height but he was still as soft spoken as ever.

"Hey Z." Sammy said affectionately. They didn't see much of each other in school as he was focused on biology and psychology classes as he wanted to go to Harvard to get his medical degree. He'd decided as long as his parents were paying for it anyway he may as well get the most prestigious degree he could manage.

"At least Miss Nora took the hint and stayed away from Olivia Newton John this year." Lynn observed.

"Blagh!" Sammy and Zulfi said together and laughed.

"I kind of like Xanadu though." Zulfi said.

"You would." Lynn said laughing.

"The music is pretty." He explained.

"We don't have anyone that can hit those notes though." Sammy said. Not that she knew of anyway. Lynn's habit of staying out of the limelight meant Sammy had no idea how well Lynn sang.

"Didn't you sing back up the year we did The Music Man?" Zulfi asked Lynn.

"They just picked me because I can sing fast." She said dismissively of singing 'Pick a little talk a little'.

"Miss Nora has been bugging you every year to try out again." Zulfi argued.

Lynn just shrugged. How did you explain to your friends that being in that play had only brought her grief at home and constant reminders to not think of herself as special just because she got a bit part. It had been demoralizing to hear her mom say things like that day in and day out for weeks every time she practiced her part.

It had not helped that her sister had not managed to get a part and then had lied and said she tanked the audition intentionally because plays are stupid. And because her dad had to work, no one in her family had gone at all. Her mom had lied to her dad about the reason and Lynn couldn't prove it so she'd shrugged off the abuse as normal yet again.

It hadn't been until she'd made a genuine friend in Sammy who didn't constantly bully her that it had finally started to dawn on Lynn that her mother and sister's attitudes towards her weren't normal or healthy. Her mom kind of hated Sammy but pretended to like her because Sammy was nothing but a gawky flat-chested dork and no kind of threat at all. Well, that and Mr. Teal'c had threatened her. That had worked pretty well.

Neither of her friends knew about this though. Sammy knew her home life wasn't exactly happy and that her mom had emotional issues. She had seen those in person. But Sammy had started school here almost halfway through the school year and hadn't been involved in theater or the arts at all until recently when Miss Nora found out Sammy was an accomplished pianist. The crowd empty of anyone who cared about Lynn was in the past and she'd rather stay in the background at this point. She'd been painting sets the last couple of years and decided she would be again.

Lori walked up to the three of them. "Who's auditioning and who's chicken shit?" She asked them.

"No one needs to hear me sing." Zulfi joked. He was tone deaf.

"Not it." Lynn denied.

"Chicken shit." Lori told her.

"Absolutely." Lynn agreed.

"Sammy?"

Sammy looked thoughtfully at the flyer. "I don't know."

"Oh, come on. You can sing, play the piano, anyone can be taught to dance, even this left footed dork." Lori said jokingly as she nudged Zulfi. "You're a shoo in."

Sammy's mouth squeed to the side. "I dunno." She hedged.

"Oh, like you're doing anything else." Lori pointed out. "Just audition. You can always back out if it gets in the way of practice."

Sammy stared at the flyer thoughtfully until the bell rang.

"You know you want tooo…" Lori's voice trailed away as she disappeared down the hall.

Sammy frowned and went to class. It was the second time the school play had been discussed. Oh the hell with it she decided and resolved to add her name to the audition list the next time she passed the drama classroom. The auditions were in two days.

Later that night Sammy was on the phone with Jon.

"Feeling better finally?" He asked her absently as he worked on his senior art portfolio.

"I guess." She said moodily as she answered physics questions on her homework with next to no effort at all.

"I have some school crap Wednesday night. Want to go to dinner after?" He asked her.

"I have stuff to do too." She hedged.

"Okay. We can stuff ourselves full of eggrolls another night" He said to her. "Mrs. Wu will just have to wait." He said of the owner of their favorite Chinese place.

"How does Saturday sound?" She asked him absently.

"Are we going on an actual date date?"

She hummed absently and dug out her copy of Sound of Music to refresh her memory. "Sure." She agreed and genuinely smiled for the first time all day.

"Good. I like actual date dates. Even ones at Mrs. Wu's House of Noodles." He said, the grin evident in his voice.

"Oh, I don't know, I kind of especially like them." She said chuckling.

Jon huffed a small sigh of relief inwardly. She'd been so down lately he'd been worried something had happened to Mark or something. So much so that he hadn't told her he was going to try out for a part in the school play. He was hoping for the lead as he'd perfected being a grumpy asshole before it was popular to be one. "G'night Carter. I love you." He said softly to her.

"Love you too." She replied equally softly.

Jon hung up with a small smile then frowned. Why was he scared to tell her he was going to try out for the play? Lynn opting out he could understand. Her parents had been huge jerks and not shown up for the only play she had a walk on part for. The Karens had mocked her mercilessly about it which had prompted Jon to opt out of the popular kid crowd from the start. It wasn't really his vibe anyway he thought as he turned on his PlayStation and started Streetfighter.