Chapter 3

Sammy walked into the building of Degrassi Community School. Sammy sighed and walked over to a blond girl talking to an over ecstatic girl. "Hey, where's the principal's office?" Sammy asked.

The girls looked at her. "I'll show you," the blond said. "I'm Emma Nelson. This is my best friend Manny Santos."

"Samantha Thomas," Sammy replied. "But my friends call me Sammy."

"Ok," Emma said. "Come with me, Sammy."

Sammy nodded and followed Emma down the hall. Manny turned back to her locker.

Manny's heart skipped as she looked up and saw Craig, Spinner, Marco, and Sean walk into the school.

"Hi, Craig," Manny said.

"Huh?" Craig asked. "Oh, hi."

"What's wrong?" Manny asked.

Craig looked like he was in a daze. "He's been like this the entire time since we opened that box," Spinner said.

"Box? What box?" Manny asked.

"There is no box," Craig said. "It was something a friend of mine left me to remember her."

"A girlfriend?" Manny asked.

"Sort of. She was a girl and she was my friend. Yeah, sort of."

"What was her name?"

"Sammy," Craig said.

"Oh," Manny replied. She didn't want to tell him about how weird it was that his best friend's name had been Sammy and the new girl had the name Sammy but a lot of Samantha's had the nickname Sammy.

"Yeah," Craig said. "Well, I better go to my locker."

"Yeah," Sean said. Sean was a grade younger than Spinner, Marco, and Craig because he had failed one grade. Sean was in the same grade as Manny and Emma and he had dated Emma a couple of times and Manny had gone out with Craig only on one date.

Sean watched as his friends left him alone with hyper Manny.

"Do you know what's weird?" Manny asked.

"You?" Sean teased.

Manny glared at him. "No," she said, sharply. "That there's a new girl here named Sammy and Craig's best friend was named Sammy."

"So?" Sean asked.

"Don't you think that's some sort of uncanny coincidence?"

"No," Sean said.

"Do you think anything is uncanny or coincidental?"

"Besides you having one to many Vanilla Pepsi's before coming to school. No." He started to walk away.

"For your information, I had an espresso!" Manny yelled after him.

"Whatever!" Sean said, without turning back.

Manny made a face at his back and turned and walked to her class.