Chapter 10

Sam returned to the auditorium about half an hour later when she felt a little more calm again. She knew Paulina continued rehearsing without her because she faintly heard the instrumental to their song being played from her place in the hallway.

Her intention was never to get into an argument with the cheerleader, but what she said earlier rubbed her the wrong way. She felt like Paulina was victimizing herself instead of taking responsibility for her past actions. That just didn't sit right with Sam.

She pulled open the door to the auditorium and walked in slowly. The music wasn't playing anymore and Paulina wasn't singing anymore. Instead, she was standing in the aisle and staring up at the stage the same way Sam had been earlier. She didn't seem to notice that the Goth had entered until she spoke.

"Listen, about what happened back there..." she trailed off. She decided that she was going to simply apologize and be the bigger person because Paulina certainly wasn't going to do the same. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose my cool like that."

Paulina turned around and fixed her gaze onto the girl. Her expression was soft and almost apologetic, which slightly caught Sam off-guard. Nonetheless, she rubbed her hands together and kept speaking.

"I just thought it was weird how you tore me down for years, called me all these names and pushed me around, only to backpedal now and tell me that it was because you were jealous of me. Why shatter my self-esteem in order to boost yours?"

"I don't know," Paulina muttered darkly. "I just assumed you were so confident with yourself that you thought you were better than me, so I wanted to break you down a little. I'm not saying I'm not happy with myself, because I am. I just, I wanted some parts of your life to add to mine."

"You should never want someone else's life. If you're not happy with where you are now, you have to get up and go after what you want. The right way, Paulina," Sam clarified. "It shouldn't involve tearing other people down."

Paulina sighed. "Well, I know that now. I just thought you stole Phantom from me because I was pretty much obsessed with him and you magically swooped into the picture. He went from swooning over me daily to ignoring me completely."

"To be fair, you always said that us 'two losers would end up together' way before his secret was revealed, so technically I didn't magically swoop in anywhere and steal him from you," Sam pointed out. "He's not anyone's property and nobody kidnapped him. He went by his own free will."

"I get that," Paulina sighed. She seemed to be drinking in Sam's words instead of nonchalantly brushing them off, which the Goth was appreciative for. "How I feel is how I feel. I know it's wrong, but that's just how I feel."

"Well, first of all, I'm glad you took your anger and frustration out on me instead of him. Thank you for that," Sam praised, walking up to the stage. "Boys come and go, but friendships are much more likely to last longer. We... we could've actually been friends had you not picked on me so much in the past."

"You just never gave me and my group of friends a chance," Paulina said softly. "You judged us right off the bat because half of us are cheerleaders and the other half of them are football players. You stereotyped us without getting to know us."

"That couldn't be further from the truth," Sam objected. "You guys prejudged not only me, but other students as well because you didn't think we fit your popularity standards. You said I didn't give your group a chance, but really, you didn't give my group a chance first. That's why I didn't give you one."

"I realize we're speaking in past tense. We can both fault each other all day, but that'll get us nowhere. I'm seriously willing to squash this if you are," Paulina replied. "I already explained why I felt the way that I did towards you, and while that doesn't excuse the way I treated you back then, I don't see why we need to keep arguing about it."

"You're right. I know this may be out of character for you, but do you think you can at least start being a little nicer to me? At least until the show is over."

"Of course," Paulina grinned, reaching down for Sam's abandoned microphone and handing it to her. "We still have a lot of work to do, so come on. Let's do a full run-through of the song."

They both rehearsed the song repeatedly for twenty minutes before taking a break from singing to work out the choreography. Well, at least on Paulina's behalf. Sam had no problem with doing a small dance, but full out choreography was far out of the question for her.

She heard the auditorium doors swing open, so she automatically glanced over in that direction. However, when she saw Dash, Kwan, Danny, and Tucker walk in, her right eyebrow raised questionably. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked, mainly to Danny and Tucker.

"Dash told us to come," Danny answered, sounding just as confused as she did. "Well, Paulina told him to come here with us."

She looked to Paulina for an explanation, but the cheerleader merely smiled at her and shrugged. "Remember when we said that we were going to recruit them for our performance? Well, they're going to have to rehearse with us," she stated.

"I figured that," Sam replied, "but I thought there were more of them."

"We don't need all of them acting like hooligans in here, so we'll just stick with these four," Paulina concluded.

Sam sure was glad to hear that because she didn't want Ava or Star to be present. She always got a bad vibe from them, but from Ava especially. She didn't know what the girl's deal was, but she honestly didn't care enough to dig deeper into it.

"Now we get to sit back and watch you stink in action," Tucker quipped as he took a seat in the middle row and propped his feet up on the chair in front of him. Sam rolled her eyes at her friend and smacked him one good time on the back of his head, causing him to yelp and glare at her.

"Wrong. Now you get to get your butt up and participate in this dysfunctional showcase that you're apart of," she retorted, smiling oh-so-sweetly at him. He grumbled, but stood and fixed his beret, which had shifted from the impact of the smack.

Danny joined her side, laughing a little at their exchange. "Think you can go ten minutes without hitting him?" he challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," she admitted, smiling. "That urge is definitely lingering."

Dash made his way over to Paulina and slammed his fist into his palm. "Let's get this crap-fest over with. I have to go wash my car." He smirked flirtatiously and leaned in towards her, his eyebrows bouncing. "That's right, I said it. My car. I have a car."

"And I'm sure I have a cookie in my bag. Do you want it?" she asked, scowling lightly at him. "Anyway, you're right about getting this over with, so let's just get started." She then pointed at Danny and Tucker. "You two come on the stage with me."

After sharing an equivalent look of curiosity, both boys obeyed while Kwan and Dash awkwardly moved to Sam's side. She couldn't help but ask, "They're not standing with me?" Paulina shook her head. "Why not?"

"Because I thought we could have the jocks stand with you and... these two stand with me," Paulina answered, and Sam noticed that she avoided calling them geeks this time. "Unless you want to swap one of them out?"

"Dibs on the stage!" Tucker claimed, quickly raising his hand up. Danny snorted and switched spots with Kwan, who made his way onto the stage. Now, he and Tucker were by Paulina's side and Danny and Dash were by Sam's.

"Let's walk through this," Paulina suggested. "We'll start with your part since you're the one opening up the performance." She glanced up at the control booth, where Mikey and Nathan were patiently waiting for her to give them the cue to start up the music. After she did so, they immediately played the instrumental.

Sam chose not to sing, more so out of nervousness than anything. Instead, she raised the microphone to her mouth and neutrally hummed along to the music. She wasn't used to performing, especially not in front of Danny and Tucker, so she was feeling a little bit timid.

Paulina must've caught onto her nervousness because she ordered Nathan to cut the music. "Discomfort isn't allowed in here," she announced, pretending that she was speaking in general, but Sam was certain she was indirectly addressing her. "Step out of your comfort zone because no one's judging anyone."

She discreetly smiled and flashed Paulina a thumbs up. The instrumental started over, so she waited for her moment to enter the song. She still didn't sing, opting to just hum through her verse, but she did loosen up as far as body movements.

She slowly made her way down the aisle with Danny and Dash on either side of her, following her like two lost bodyguards. Dash began flexing his muscles, but Danny just awkwardly walked beside her because he wasn't really sure what to do.

After her opening verse drew to an end, she stopped in her tracks and silenced her humming. "I'm not really going to do anything fancy for the opening because I'm just... opening, but during my verse, I'll improvise something," she explained to Paulina, who nodded.

She watched as the Latina proceeded to steal the show, or the rehearsal. She was confidently striding across the stage with her hips swinging and her gorgeous long hair bouncing against her back. Kwan and Tucker were much better hype-men to her than Dash and Danny were to Sam, though Dash and Kwan seemed to be competing with each other.

When it was Sam's time to shine again for the second verse, she actually decided to sing instead of hum. The beat had already dropped at the start of Paulina's verse, so she was deeply feeling the music. After positioning the microphone at a distance from her lips, she inhaled and began to sing.

Despite her nerves being somewhat mild, her voice came out smooth and natural. She couldn't hear anyone's reaction because the loud music drowned out their voices. She managed to catch a glimpse of Tucker, however: his mouth was agape.

She avoided looking over at Danny for his reaction and continued pushing herself forward, carrying the tune like she was born to do it. The more she sang, the more her anxiety subsided. She wasn't sweeping around the auditorium and dancing her ass off like Paulina was doing, but her newfound confidence was evident.

Paulina took over after Sam's verse was finished. Sam felt a hand touch her shoulder, and when she turned her head, she saw Danny staring incredulously at her. He said something to her, but because it was so loud in there, she didn't catch a word. However, she was able to guess what he said after he broke out into a surprised grin.

That action alone gave her the extra boost of confidence that she needed.

When the last chorus of the song began, meaning that she and Paulina were supposed to sing together, she decided to be risky. She, Danny, and Dash moved to the stage with everyone else and merged together the way they said they would.

She let Paulina sing the last few lines, but somewhere in between, she moved her hand to her chest, closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, and then belted out the longest, strongest note she could muster. She was shocked because she never attempted something like that before, so she was afraid to try it again.

She expected Paulina to be fuming, but to her great surprise, the cheerleader grinned at her and continued singing. The two stood before each other, finishing up the chorus together until they reached the outro of the song. Instead of letting the other person have it, they shared it and blended their voices together for a beautiful finale.

Once they were both finished and the music stopped, they lowered their microphones and grinned proudly when everyone around them started cheering and applauding. Sam felt her face grow hot and knew she was blushing, so she turned her head and looked away, retaining her broad smile.

"Okay," Danny started, approaching her along with Tucker, "where the hell did that voice come from?"

"I thought you said you weren't that good of a singer!" Tucker joined in, the pitch of his voice rising slightly.

She couldn't contain her laughter as she listened to the pair pretty much scold her for 'keeping something like that a secret from them'. At one point, she tore her attention away from them and looked towards Paulina, only to see the girl smiling proudly at her.

For some reason, she found herself returning that same smile.