Breaking all the rules

Date: October 2004

Disclaimer: All belongs to Kate Andrews except for Delilah Morgan.

Alex had invited Delilah over three days after their lunch together. They did not take the school bus because Matt, Alex's older brother offered to drive them home.

"Hi Matt," Delilah said as she got into the back seat.

"Are you trying to be nice to me so that I will talk to Dad about giving you an hour more on your curfew?" Alex said before she entered the car.

"Please?" Matt asked with a megawatt smile. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Your charms doesn't work here, Matt."

"Hi Matt!" an irritatingly sweet voice interrupted them. Alex groaned. That Amy Anderson had some sick fascinations for Matt ever since middle school. Thankfully, Mat didn't show any interest.

"Hi Amy, want a ride?"

But that didn't stop Matt from being such a goody-goody around people.

"I wish, but Luke will be here soon. He's my driver, you know." Amy said with an air of smug around here. Alex pretended to gag. Delilah had to suppress her laughter at the sight of Alex's mortification. "Delilah, this is a surprise." Amy said when she caught sight of Delilah.

"Hi Amy," Delilah said from inside the car. "See you tomorrow." Amy looked like she wanted to say something but she was trying hard to hold whatever it was back.

"Don't be so nice to her, Matt" Alex said when Matt drove out of the school gate. "Otherwise, she'll be stuck to you like a leech."

"Mr Anderson is a very successful Director of the School Board. It is always good to be nice to members of the Board."

"Her father's in the Board, not her." Alex said. "Besides, don't cause any trouble between you and Casey. This will not be the first time."

"Who's Casey?" Delilah asked. She leaned forward to the front seat.

"His girlfriend," Alex said over her shoulder.

When they reached Alex's house, they were surprised to see an unexpected visitor waiting for them in the kitchen.

"Sam!" Alex said. "What are you doing here? And my God, how did you get here so fast?"

"The bus is always faster, don't you know?" He turned to Delilah. "Hi."

Delilah smiled at him but said nothing. She had not talked to Sam ever since their confrontation the week before. She still found it weird to be around him for reasons she could not fathom.

Sam and Delilah followed Alex up the stairs to her room. "I had a last minute change of plans." Sam said as he took a seat by Alex's desk. He removed a few stack of papers and a notebook out of his bag. "I had an epiphany for a speech and I came straight down to work on it." He turned around to find both Alex and Delilah stared at him both with a smile tugged at the corner of their lips.

"What?" Sam asked in irritation.

"Not yet President and already you started to make plans for all of us." Alex said with a smile.

"Oh," Sam said. His face fell. "I'm sorry if I spoiled your plans then. I can leave." He started to pack his bag.

"Hey," Alex said quickly. She grabbed his notebook. "Don't be so sensitive. I was just kidding."

Delilah spoke up. "I can help too. Can I?"

Sam looked at her. "You sure Amy wouldn't mind?"

Delilah could feel small tension of anger build around her. Before she could say anything that she would regret, Alex piped in. "Who cares about Amy?"

"Unless," Delilah added. "You think you're too good for my help."

"That's not what I meant…"

"Good," Delilah grabbed a pen and the stack of papers Sam was holding. She sat on the floor. "I'll take a look at your speech then."

An hour into working on Sam's speech, the three friends decided to take a break.

"I think the mention of the need for more computers is good. But how are you going to help them achieve more computers?" Delilah asked.

"Right, I can assure them that I will dedicate my time into organizing fund raisers for the school." Sam said.

"These fund raisers can be held every month. That way more money will be collected." Alex added.

Sam was on a roll. "We can even have drive in movies where kids come with their friends. That will be fun."

"I know who loves a good movie or two." Delilah said with a smug smile to Alex.

Sam looked from Delilah's smile to Alex's warning look to her. "Is this about something I don't want to know about?"

"You don't have to know." Alex said.

"Yeah, you don't have to know about Alex's crush whom by the way, happens to like action movies. Take that down, Alex." Delilah handed Sam's notebook.

Sam grabbed his notebook from Delilah. "Let me guess, Jonas?"

"How did you know?" Both Alex and Delilah asked with wide eyes.

"I've seen the way you looked at him." Sam scribbled on his notebook. "Don't think I don't know."

Alex hit his elbow. "Don't make it sound like I'm lusting after him, alright?"

Delilah and Sam snickered. Alex said, "Oh shut it you two. Wait till it happens to you, then we shall see whether or not it's funny."

Both Delilah and Sam stopped snickering and resumed back to their work. Alex picked up the empty lemonade jar. "I'm going to get a refill. You just continue working."

"I'll go with you." Delilah quickly got up. When she saw the weird look Alex gave her, she muttered. "I'll stay here and help Sam then." She sat back to where she was.

"So," Sam said when Alex shut the door behind her.

"What?" Delilah asked. She didn't look up from Sam's speech. She had read it more than twenty times and she could already memorize the entire thing.

"Carrie said she was sorry about what happened last week."

"Don't lie, Sam."

Sam looked up from his notebook. "I'm not. You can ask Jordan, if you want."

"That's not important. Why didn't she come straight to me then?"

"You know how Carrie is."

Delilah looked up from Sam's speech. "I don't know how Carrie is because I don't know her. That's the problem."

Both of them stared at each other for awhile before Delilah felt a blush crept up to her face. She quickly resumed back to Sam's speech. Sam cleared his throat and went back to his notebook.

"Just so you know," he said. "You have a friend in Alex, Jordan and you know, me."

Delilah nodded. "Yeah." She gave Sam a small smile before resuming back to reading.

"By the way," Sam added. "I hear Jonas is a big skaters fan."

Delilah laughed. "Thanks for the info bite."

Sam shrugged. "He sucks at it though. Everyone knows I'm the best at skateboarding. I just don't have enough practice with the elections and all."

Delilah raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh really?"

Sam gave a smug smile. "Yes, really. But… just don't tell Alex that."

Delilah rolled her eyes. "Sure."