Chapter 6

The next day at lunch Sam was planning on telling them whether or not her mom said yes or no about her joining the band. She waited until everyone was there to let them know.

"Well, what'd she say?" Zack asked, being the last one to sit down. Everyone practically dropped what they were doing to hear what Sam was going to say.

"Well, my mom had to think about it for a long time." She began. "But she said okay." She smiled as they all let out a deep breath.

Tomika high fived Sam. "That's awesome Sam." Tomika said.

"My mom and dad just wanna meet all of you guys, and Dewey too. Since he's kinda the adult in charge and all." She told them.

"No problem." Summer said, reaching for her planner from her bag. She took out the pencil from her hair and wrote a short message on a page. "I'll call Dewey tonight, and we can probably all meet your family…let's say," she checked her planner again. "Friday evening okay?" she asked, looking up to Sam.

Sam nodded in agreement. "Sure, I'll run it by my mom." She told them.

Sam went home that afternoon and waited until her mom got home from going to the market. She heard her mom pull up and hurried out to help her bring in the grocery bags. Once everything was put away and her mom had time to talk, Sam brought up the subject of meeting the band.

"Hey mom." Sam asked, sitting down at the counter. Her mom took out a pitcher of juice and poured her a glass of it. "You know how you wanted to meet everyone, in the band. And Dewey?" she said.

"Mmm-hmm." Mrs. Morton replied, drinking her juice.

"Well, you think it'd be okay if they come over tomorrow night?" she asked.

Mrs. Morton stopped drinking and looked at Sam. "Tomorrow?" she asked surprised. "I didn't think it'd be this soon. Well," she said putting down her cup. "Would they be coming over for dinner, or just a short 'say hello'?" she asked Sam.

"Uh, I don't know?" Sam replied, not sure whether or not they wanted to have dinner there.

"Hmm." Mrs. Morton thought. "I could make dinner and we could eat outside, where there's more room." She suggested. "That way we could all get to know each other better over dinner." She said.

"Sure! I'm sure they'll like it." Sam agreed, pleased her mom went along with the idea. "I'll come home early tomorrow to help you get dinner ready then." She said.

"Okay. We'll talk it over more when dad gets home for dinner." She told Sam. Sam nodded and headed up stairs to her room to start her homework.

Jesse turned to Sam as she walked by. "So, your band's comin' over tomorrow for dinner?" Jesse asked, lying down on the couch watching TV.

"Yep, so no weird stuff tomorrow okay. And no dirty jokes or kid stories. Or I'll do just the same with you." She warned him.

"Wouldn't matter, I'm not their friend." He retorted.

"So?" she said back, grabbing her backpack from the chair. "They'll just laugh it off it was me 'cause they are my friends. But you're just my kid brother who they have nothing to do with, so they actually might think it's funny and laugh at you." She said, smirking. Jesse sat up and thought about it long and hard. He finally looked up to her with a 'throw in the white flag' look on his face. Knowing he gave up she bowed on her way up the stairs.

"So your boyfriend's gonna be here too huh?" he asked.

She stopped walking. "What?" she was caught off guard with that question. "What boyfriend?" she asked him.

"You know, that Freddy guy, couple houses down." He said, getting her attention. "I know you like him Sam." He said, seeing her eyes panic.

"What?" she said, pretending she didn't like him. "I don't like Freddy. We're friends." She lied.

Jesse rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Right. I've seen you guys in school and at lunch. He definitely has a crush on you…I don't know why." He said in a brotherly tone.

"Oh, very nice. Why don't I just tell that little freshman girl you follow around in school that you like her, huh?" she threatened.

"Ashley?" he panicked, practically jumping off the couch. Sam began to laugh as she headed back up the stairs. "I mean, uh, what girl?" he said trying not to blush.

"Smooth little man." She said at the top of the stairs, still chuckling to herself. Jesse turned towards the stairs and yelled to Sam.

"Just so we know, this conversation never happened okay!"

The next day they all met at the second floor staircase like the days before. This was their normal meeting place in the morning and afternoon. When Sam got there she told everyone about dinner that night. She called Freddy the night before to tell him. He ended up calling Zack who then called Summer to let her know too. Sam let the rest know about it, and they all said they'd be able to make it. Before homeroom started Summer called Dewey just to tell him the time to pick them all up to drive over to Sam's house.

"Hey Sam," Zack started to say. "Is Jesse your younger brother?" he asked her.

"Yeah." She said. "Why?"

"He hangs out with these couple of freshman boys…Benny or something right? And that Alex kid?" he asked her.

She nodded her head and looked up at him. "Yeah, I think that's their names. Why, they bothered you or something?"

"Oh no." Zack said. "I think his friends like you or something." Zack told her, almost about to laugh.

"Oh yeah, Jesse told me about that." She confessed. Everyone started to smile and laugh quietly to themselves. All except for Freddy who took this seriously. "I mean, it's nothing worth getting all uptight about. No big deal." She said.

"Yeah Freddy, no freshmen can compete with you for a girl." Zack said to make it obvious to everyone about Freddy's crush. Both Freddy and Sam blushed and looked away from each other as the rest of the group smiled and laughed quietly. It was obvious to the rest of them that Sam and Freddy liked each other, but weren't going to say anything about it. Except for Zack who loved to torture Freddy like this.

"So, you guys wanna hang out after school today at Danny's?" Tomika asked everyone.

"Sure, I'm up to it." Larry said. Katie and Summer both nodded to that idea.

"Sounds good." Zack replied. He looked at Freddy to see if he'd like to come along too. Freddy nodded then turned to Sam.

Freddy turned to look at Sam who sat across from him. "You comin' Sam?" he asked her since she didn't say yes yet.

"Oh, sorry guys. Wish I could. I have to go around town and take pictures for my photography class. They already started their projects in the beginning of the week, so I gotta catch up to them." She said.

"Well, maybe next time then." Summer suggested.

"Sure." She replied to Summer. They all finished their lunch and went out to the courtyard to wait until the lunch period was over. After school everyone met at their meeting place on the second floor to all go over to Danny's. Summer and Lawrence drove to school that day, they all separated to go with either one of them. Sam saw them before they left to say goodbye to them. She went to her locker before she left school when Freddy came walking around the corner.

"Hey Sam." He said, with a bright smile.

"Hey." She said, somewhat confused why he was still at school. "I thought you were going to Danny's with them?" she asked, pointing towards the doors. "They just left." She told him.

"Yeah, I know. I told them I'd go with them another time." He said. He fidgeted with his backpack strap and straightened his shirt. "Yeah, I was just wondering." He began to say. "Maybe I could go with you to take pictures." He said. Sam looked surprised that he'd want to stay back with her. "I mean, I like photography, but I've never taken it before. So I could help you, show you around town where you can take some really good pictures." He said. "I mean, if you wouldn't mind. I could still catch up with them if you want." He said, already walking towards the door.

"No wait." Sam said, stopping him by putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'd love it if you'd come with me." She told him with a gentle smile. Freddy smiled back and waited for her to close her locker. They walked out of the school and onto the sidewalk in silence. They both felt a bit awkward going somewhere with just each other, but at the same time they didn't mind it.

"So, what kind of pictures do you need?" Freddy asked, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets.

Sam looked deep into the town she saw before her. "For my project, my theme is 'Live just to live'." She said. "So I'm thinking of taking photos of things with life. Not only people, but like trees, or cars that are in motion, the sun, animals, stuff like that. Hey, even stuff like fans that are one, or a TV that's one. When things are working, it's like they're living, does that make sense?" she asked Freddy.

"Yeah, I get it. It can be any object that when it's on or working, it's like humans. How we live when we work and move, like a fan or TV." He told her.

"Exactly." She replied. "I was thinking stopping by the park a couple blocks away. Hopefully there's some kids playing, or people walking around the place." She suggested.

"Sounds great." Freddy replied. They walked over to the park, and to kill time they talked about the band. They shared with each other the type of music they liked, and the different artists. Sam brought up Hawaiian music, and Hawaiian Contemporary music. Of course Freddy didn't know what that was, so she had to tell him what kind of music that was. By the time they got to the park they talked about Hawaiian music, oldies, classical/instrumental, jazz and blues, 80's rock, and of course classic rock.

"Hey, how about over there?" Freddy suggested, pointing to a jungle gym with a swing set. There were a few little boys and girls running around the jungle gym as well as swinging on the swing set. Freddy walked over to the jungle gym with Sam, but sat down on a bench near it. He didn't want to distract her when she'd be taking her pictures.

"Excuse me." Sam said, walking towards the mothers of the children playing. "Hi, I'm Sam, I'm a high school student at Horace Green High." She introduced herself. "If it's okay, I'd like to take some pictures of your children for my photography class. I have a project and I'd like to use them playing in it, if it's okay?" she asked them.

"Oh that sounds wonderful." One of the mothers replied.

"Well, if you can catch them in a still position to take any pictures." Another mother replied.

"Thanks." Sam smiled back to them. She took a few shots of 2 boys and a girl running around the jungle gym and over a bridge. She got one shot of one of the boys coming down on the slide. Sam got shots of 2 more girls and a boy swinging on the swing set. One girl was pushing the other, and the boy was swinging by himself. Freddy was impressed that Sam could go up to total strangers and just take pictures of them. He didn't know what it was, but something about Sam was different from all the other girls he's known and gone out with. Something different about Sam made her special to him.

Sam walked up to Freddy and stopped right in front of him. "Okay, done." She said to him. He stood up and walked with her back towards the sidewalk.

"That was pretty cool." He told her. "You just going up there and taking pictures of them. I'd be too afraid. I'd just take pictures of my friends." He chuckled. "Well, I figured why not ask them. Besides, if they saw me taking pictures of their kids they might think I'm a weirdo or something." She said. "I got some pretty good shots of them. They were sweet kids." She smiled.

"So, where to next?" he asked her.

"Hmm…" she thought. "I'm not sure. How about I just take random pictures of things that look 'alive'." She suggested. They walked around the neighborhood just taking pictures of trees, cars, people walking their dogs, anything that looked alive. By the time they reached their street they had 4 pictures of cars, 3 of people walking their pets, 5 pictures of trees blowing in the wind, 1 of a water sprinkler on someone's lawn, and 2 of a group of boys playing football in the streets.

"This was fun." Sam said once they got to her house. "Running around the neighborhood was fun." She said as they both smiled and laughed.

Freddy smiled and said, "I'm glad I went with you." He told her. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." He said.

"Okay."

"Bye Sam." He waved goodbye and turned around to walk to his house. Sam started to walk to her front door and looked back at Freddy. When she reached her door, Freddy also turned around to look at Sam. When he got home, he saw Zack waiting on his porch.

"So, had a nice date?" he said to Freddy.

He raised one eyebrow at Zack. "What?" Freddy said. "It wasn't a date." He told Zack.

"Yeah right, then why'd you wanna go with her instead of hang with us at Danny's huh?" Zack said to him.

"I just wanted to hang out with her that's all." Freddy said sitting down next to Zack.

"Mmm-hmm, yeah right." Zack said. Freddy pushed him on his shoulder when Zack started to laugh.