Chapter 6

(Next afternoon: Friday- during lunch at school)

Tucker raised his hands in front of him and lifted his eyebrows questionably. "Wait, you want us to do what?" he asked Sam.

She had just finished explaining everything pertaining to the talent show to both him and Danny. Somehow, they were still puzzled about the situation and kept asking her for extra details. Because she was patient, she answered all of their questions cooperatively.

"I want you guys to join me on stage for the talent show," she repeated. "The theme is pretty much the popular people versus the outcasts. Our groups will be merging together at the end to show that we're all the same and that it's okay to be different."

Tucker scratched his head. "That definitely doesn't sound like something Paulina would come up with. She'd want to steal the show, and that doesn't sound like a way for her to do it," he replied.

"Actually, this was somewhat my idea, but she agreed to it," Sam said, shrugging. She absently forked around her salad before continuing. "I said I wanted my part of the song to be about everyone being different and she wanted hers to be all about her, so that was our compromise. The whole jocks versus unpopular kids was her idea."

"That sort of makes sense," Tucker murmured. He then grinned and rubbed his hands together almost greedily. "I'm not sure how, but I feel like this whole show business will finally land me somewhere with a beautiful girl."

Sam ignored his remark and smiled hopefully at him. "So you'll do it?" she wondered.

"Heck yeah. I'm down." He looked over at Danny and asked, "What about you?"

"I don't see why not, but since when could you sing?" he inquired, staring right at Sam. He looked genuinely stumped because he knew almost everything about her except for that piece of information. Tucker now looked curious as well.

She blushed and raised her shoulders. "I'm not that good," she told him quickly. "Principal Ishiyama just wanted me to perform with Paulina and you know how strict she is about singing. I just went along with it."

She was always secretive about her singing because it was a talent that she chose to keep to herself. She didn't feel like it was something she needed to brag about, so it remained a hidden talent. Though she was pretty confident in her voice, she pretended she was a bad singer so that she could surprise her boys with the contrary.

"Oh," Danny drawled, chuckling twice. "I was about to say. I knew singing wasn't your thing, so I was surprised that you actually agreed to it."

"Yeah. By the way, what are we supposed to do on stage?" Tucker asked.

"Whatever you deem natural," answered Sam. "I don't care what you do, but Paulina's the complete opposite. She wants our stage presence to be on point."

"I'm sure we'll come up with something. Was she behaving yesterday?" asked Danny.

Her expression shifted to that of a grimace. "She said she was done fighting with me and that she was going to be nicer to me. That, and she called me Sam. Not Goth, freak, geek, or loser. Sam."

Tucker frowned. "Yep. That's definitely a trap. Run for your life while you still can."

"Do you think maybe she's starting to have a change of heart towards you?" Danny asked.

"I don't know." Sam took a long sip of her water before continuing. "A sudden change of heart after a month is understandable, but a sudden change of heart after like three days is a little suspicious to me."

"That's true, but maybe she's being genuine."

"So you're saying I should trust her?"

"Of course not. Just watch her. If she genuinely wants to be your friend, then I'm sure you'll do whatever you think is best."

Sam's brow furrowed and she stared at her boyfriend incredulously. "She wanted to claw my eyes out Tuesday and then she suddenly wants to be my friend Thursday? That's not suspicious to you?"

Danny scoffed and shook his head. "I'm not saying it's not suspicious, Sam," he told her, mildly irritated now. "I'm saying that if she's genuinely being nice to you and letting her guard down, then it wouldn't hurt for you to do the same. You've done it before with Val."

She leaned forward and pressed her index finger along the surface of the cafeteria table. "Those aren't the same situations. My beef with Valerie was mainly there because she kept trying to waste you. My beef with Paulina is a whole different thing. She's been nothing but disrespectful towards us for years and now you want me to be cool with her?"

Tucker awkwardly sat there, glancing back and forth between them. He knew better than to intervene in their arguments whenever it got heated, so he just kept his mouth shut and watched them.

"I mean, that's up to you! I'm not saying you guys have to be best friends or anything, but holding a grudge is pointless and it's just going to make you unhappy," Danny replied. "Just forgive and forget. That's what I did. We're sixteen now. We have bigger things heading our way."

Sam had no response for that because she knew he had a point. Still, she was pissed off now, so she ignored him and glared at her bottle of water. She kind of felt like he was defending Paulina, but then again, she knew he was more of a forgiving type of person than she was.

The bell rang five minutes later, so she quickly grabbed her backpack and got up from her seat. She only managed to march a few feet away from the table before Danny caught up to her, gently grasping her arm to stop her from walking. With a sigh, she turned around to face him.

"Stop," he said softly, moving his hand away from her. "I wasn't trying to pick a fight with you. I don't want you to be mad at me. Anyone else, sure, but definitely not you."

She found herself smiling at that. "Yeah, same. Sorry about that," she apologized. "This whole week was just really stressful for me and I took it out on you."

He returned the smile, though it was much more faint than hers was. "I wasn't trying to force you to be friends with Paulina. I'm not even friends with her myself. I was just looking out for you and trying to minimize your stress, so if playing nice with her is going to help with that, then—"

"No, I get it. Thank you." She reached out for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He blushed, his smiling increasing. "I'll watch her first to see if she's being genuine before I make any attempts at opening up to her."

"Let me know how that goes," he responded. "Mind if I walk you to class?"

"No, no I don't."

Sam and Paulina decided against practicing during detention, as it was Friday and they wanted to take a break. They strangely sat adjacent to each other in the classroom, but neither of them bothered starting a conversation with the other.

At least, until Sam broke the silence.

"Did you honestly mean everything you said yesterday?" she asked the cheerleader. She kept her eyes focused on the desk, refusing to make eye contact with this girl.

"Yeah," was Paulina's answer. She was picking at her nails, and when Sam glanced over at her, she noticed that they were re-done after their fight on Tuesday. "I'm working on being a better person. I'm an A-lister. We don't need to fight with anyone to prove our dominance."

"But what made you suddenly develop this mindset? That's what I don't understand," Sam replied. "Just a few days ago, you were at my throat all because I asked you what your problem was with me."

"You have no right to talk to me like that, freak. Fenton saved the world. Not you." Paulina then flicked her hair behind her shoulder and sharpened her glare. "I don't owe you even a pinch of respect just because you're shacking up with him."

Sam puffed out her lower lip and raised her shoulders nonchalantly. "That's completely fine. I don't care for your respect."

"Good," Paulina replied, "because you're not getting it. Don't come over here and start something with me that you're not going to finish."

"I'm not trying to start anything with you. Just stop throwing things at me and I'll go back to ignoring you. Simple, right?"

Paulina boldly decided to challenge her by grabbing another pre-ripped chunk of her eraser and chucking it right in the center of her face. Her lips then slid into her signature devious smirk, which only pissed off the girl in front of her. "What are you going to do about it, Goth?"

"You can't say I was starting with you because I came at you respectfully," Sam continued. She leaned upright in her seat and finally caught Paulina's gaze. "Am I right or am I wrong about that?"

"No, you're right, but I felt attacked. I countered and asked you what your problem was because you came up to me first," Paulina pointed out. "Then you insulted me."

"What's the problem?" Sam spoke so calmly that she surprised herself. If anyone chose to listen in, it would've just sounded like a regular conversation going on between them. Mr. Lancer was speaking over them, so nobody else was aware of their discussion besides their group.

Paulina simply sized her up in disgust. "I don't know. You tell me. You're the one who came over here."

"Because unfortunately, we're partners for this assignment. I really hope all that hairspray you use didn't give you amnesia," Sam retorted.

Sam snorted. "I only insulted you because you kept throwing parts of your eraser at me for no reason other than wanting to start a fight. Plus, you've said much worse things to me in the past."

"Well, I can't take any of it back now because it's in the past. If you want to hold a grudge against me for it, go right ahead."

Sam didn't respond to her and let an irritated sigh slip from her mouth. Normally, she would've left the argument at that, but her earlier conversation with Danny started flashing through her mind. Holding a grudge was exhausting, but she wasn't about to just hand her trust over to Paulina.

It would be a cold day in hell before that happened so quickly.

"Look, I'm done fighting with you too. We already did what we had to do, so it's squashed and over with now," she said softly. "We don't have to keep going back and forth every time we see each other. For the sake of this performance, I'll set aside our differences. Just for now though."

Paulina nodded understandably, studying Sam closely for a few seconds. "All right. I get it. It's pretty much a temporary truce," she responded, extending out her hand for a handshake. "Right?" Sam stared at it briefly before rolling her eyes in defeat and accepting her gesture.

"Yeah, sure."

Author's note: So, who was wrong in the argument: Danny or Sam? Who do you agree with more? Was Sam wrong for not wanting to warm up to Paulina? Thanks for reading.