Chapter 2
The next day, Sam and Pyrrha were getting ready for a party. Sam went to check on his eBay account while Pyrrha was getting ready, and then they switched places. While Sam was psyching himself up, Pyrrha gave Mojo, their Chihuahua, a treat. "That's it for today, Mojo," she said as he took the treat from her hand, "No more you little glutton."
Sam came out of the bathroom. "Were you talking to yourself about your car?" Pyrrha asked.
"Me? Noo—" was his response.
Pyrrha laughed. "Sure you weren't."
The two of them bantered as they walked outside. When they got outside, Ron was working on the pathway through the grass and Judy was out with him. "Ron," Judy said, nudging a stone with her foot, "This one's wobbly."
"Yeah, I'll take care of that real soon," he responded.
"Hey, Mom and Dad," Pyrrha called as her and Sam walked out of the house. "How's it going?"
Judy replied with, "Good, Pyr!" while Ron said, "Sam, I thought I told you I don't like footprints on my lawn."
"Sam and I are headed out," Pyrrha told Judy, "What time do you want us back by?"
"Hmm, how about 11? Does that sound good?"
"Sounds great!"
At that point, Sam complained to Judy, "Mom, I can't take this anymore. You're putting girl jewelry on a boy dog. He's got enough self esteem issues as a Chihuahua, Mom."
Pyrrha walked over to Mojo's tiny dog house and commented, "I think he looks adorable with it. Plus, it's not like he's gonna care."
Sam groaned, "Not you too, Pyrrha."
"He's cute! Anyways, Sam, don't we have a party to go to? We're going to be late."
"Right! Okay, Mom, Dad, we're gonna head out."
"We want you home by 11, no later!" Judy called out.
"Yep, 11 o'clock!" Sam replied.
"See ya!"
"Please, for the love of God, drive safely!" Judy called out. Sam put the keys in the ignition and turned the car on. As it started, it belched black smoke before they pulled out.
"Okay, Pyr, we're gonna pick up Miles and head over to the party," Sam said.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. You never said anything about picking up Miles."
"What's wrong with Miles?" Sam asked.
"First of all, he's weird. Second of all, he looks at me like I'm a piece of meat. Third of all, he's weird," Pyrrha said. "Do I need to continue?"
"Aww, come on, he's my best friend! Would you like it if I said your best friend was weird?"
"No, but the thing is, she's not weird," she retorted.
Sam then said, "C'mon, Pyr. Could you put up with him? Please, for me?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"Fine! But I'm not sitting in the back seat with him."
"Deal."
They pulled up to Mile's house, and he got in the car. "Sweet ride, you two!" he said as he buckled in.
"Thanks," Sam said. Pyrrha just looked out the window at the landscape. I can't get over the differences between Mistral and here, she thought as plants and houses zoomed by.
"Are you sure that we're invited to this party?" Miles asked as they pulled up.
"Of course, Miles. Pyrrha got an invite, why wouldn't we be invited too?" Pyrrha rolled her eyes. That's not how invitations work, Sammy, she thought.
"Now, you two, I brought you here. Anything you two do reflects on me. So don't do anything weird, capiche?" The two boys nodded. "Glad we can understand each other."
Sam spotted something that made him start to spazz out. "Oh my god, Mikeala's here. Just, don't do anything weird, okay?"
Pyrrha rolled her eyes again and said, "Didn't I just say that? And Sam, calm down, you're vibrating so much that you're going to spontaneously combust."
Sam ignored her and said, "I'm good, right?" to Miles.
"Yeah, you're good," was the response. They got out of the car and headed over to the party.
As they walked over, they saw Trent DeMarco walk over to them. "Hey Pyrrha," Trent said. Then he turned to Sam and Miles. "What are you two doing here?" Miles began climbing a tree.
"We're here to climb this tree," was Sam's response. Pyrrha mentally facepalmed.
"Yeah, I see that, it looks… fun," was Trent's response. Behind Trent's back, Pyrrha was mouthing, Get down! to Miles, who ignored her. I knew this was a horrible idea, Pyrrha thought.
"Wait," Trent said, "I know you… you tried out for the football team last year!"
"Oh, no, that wasn't like a real tryout. No, I was researching a book I was writing." Great, dig yourself a deeper hole, Pyrrha thought. She saw all her popularity credentials go down the drain.
"Oh? Yeah? What's it about? Sucking at sports?" Trent asked.
"No, it's about the link between brain damage and football." Sam began stuttering, "N-no, it's a good book, your friends would love it. It's got mazes in it and little coloring areas, pop-up pictures. It's a lot of fun."
As this was going on, all of Pyrrha's friends were looking at he with a look that said, This is your brother? Pyrrha's face was bright red.
"That's real funny," Trent said before advancing on Sam. Mikeala then decided to intervene.
"Okay, okay. You know what? Stop."
Trent then said, "You know what? I know of a party. Let's go."
As everyone went out, Trent turned to Pyrrha. "Don't bother coming." The group then headed out.
Sam then turned to Miles. "You gotta get out of the tree right now. Get… Just get out of the tree right now, please."
Miles hopped out of the tree. Pyrrha stomped over to the two boys. "What were you two doing there? You both just made me look like a complete imbecile!"
Miles ignored her and said, "Did you just see that dismount? All the chicks were watching!"
"Yeah, and made all of us look like morons," Pyrrha fumed. She didn't understand her emotions, she really barely knew these people, so why did she care? Was it the false memories that the Primes planted in her head?
As Miles dove into the back seat through the window, Sam and Pyrrha watched as Mikeala started walking home. The radio turned on, and a song played. "I'm gonna drive her home tonight," Sam said.
"What?" Miles exclaimed, "Dude, she's an evil jock concubine. Man, just let her hitchhike."
"She lives 10 miles away from here, okay? It's my only chance. You've gotta be understanding here, alright?"
"And it may be my only chance to stay friendly with my friends," Pyrrha said.
"Alright, we'll put her in the back, and I'll stay quiet," Miles said.
"Miles!" Pyrrha shouted, "You don't do that to a lady! Plus, I was shotgun."
"Miles, you've gotta get out of my car."
"What? That's a party foul."
"What rules?" Pyrrha asked.
"Bros before hoes!" Pyrrha narrowed her eyes and the car shook before she got her semblance under control.
"What did you say?" she asked before advancing on him menacingly.
"Nevermind!" Miles said. He then turned to Sam. "Dude, you can't do this to me!"
"You've got to get out of the car right now."
"Fine, but you owe me," Miles said. Pyrrha got in the back seat and Sam drove off.
Sam drove up to Mikeala. "Hey Mikeala! It's me, Sam."
"And Pyrrha!" Pyrrha called from the back.
"Yeah. And Pyrrha Witwicky. I was wondering if I could ride you home—" Pyrrha nearly died laughing, "I mean, I was wondering if I could give you a ride home, you know, to your house."
Pyrrha laughed and said, "Well, where else would she go?"
"Riight," Sam said. Mikeala stopped for a moment, and Sam opened the door, allowing Mikeala to get in. He cleared his throat, then said, "So…"
"I can't believe that I'm here right now," Mikeala said.
Sam said, "You can duck down, if you want. It won't hurt my feelings."
Yes it will, Pyrrha thought. Mikeala quickly corrected herself. "Oh, no, no, no. I didn't mean here with you. I just meant here in the same situation I'm always in. I don't know, I guess I just have a weakness for hot guys, for tight abs and big arms."
Way to run Sammy's ego, Pyrrha snickered. Sam looked devastated. "Big arms?" He was silent.
Pyrrha then spoke up. "Well, there's a couple new additions to the car."
"Like what?" Mikeala asked.
"Well, I just put in that light there. And that disco ball." Sam said, awkwardly pointing behind him. "You see, the light reflects off of the disco ball."
"Huh," Mikeala said.
"Yeah."
Mikeala asked, "Are you new to school this year? Is it your first year here?"
Pyrrha decided to keep her mouth shut and see how much crap Sam could get himself into with this awkward conversation. "Oh, no, no. We've been in the same school since first grade."
Burn! Pyrrha thought. She didn't even know that you exist before right now.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Well, do we have any classes together?" Mikeala asked.
"Yeah. History. Language arts. Math. Science."
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off above Mikeala's head. "Sam."
"Yeah, Sam."
"Sam Wilkicky."
"Witwicky," Pyrrha and Sam chorused.
"You know what, I'm so sorry, I just didn't recognize you, Sam." Suddenly, the engine stalled. Pyrrha saw the key turn and narrowed her eyes at it, while Sam panicked.
"No, no, no, no. Come on." The radio turned to Sexual Healing and began playing. Pyrrha suddenly choked on her laughter as the car drove to a cliffside. "This radio is like, you know… it's an old radio, too, so… Look, this isn't something that I, you know… Look, I can't get this radio to stop." Sam fidgeted with the radio's controls as Pyrrha giggled. "Look, I wouldn't try this on you."
"Yeah, Sammy's not that bold," Pyrrha managed to get out as she laughed.
"This is a romantic thing that I'm not trying to do. Not that you're not worthy of something like this. I'm a friend of yours, not like, a romantic friend. Romantic friends do this. I mean, I'm not that friend. I mean… we could be." Dear gods above, please help us, Pyrrha thought as Sam bumbled his way through excuses.
"Just pop the hood," Mikeala said impatiently as she jumped out.
Sam started telling the car to shut up. He then turned to Pyrrha. "Some support system you are," he told her.
She replied with, "Hey, you like her, you try to get her. This car's just providing me with a lot of entertainment."
As Mikeala opened the hood, she was astonished. "Woah, Sam, Pyrrha. Nice headers. You've got a high-rise double-pump carburetor. That's pretty impressive."
Pyrrha got out of the car. "Double pump?" she asked.
"It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster," Mikeala said.
"Oh."
Sam couldn't tear his eyes away form Mikeala. "I like to go faster," he said.
"And it looks like your distributor cap's a little loose."
"How'd you know that?" Pyrrha asked as Mikeala pushed down on the cover.
"My dad," was her response, "He was a real grease monkey. He taught me all about this. I could take it apart, clean it, put it all back together."
"Do you think you could teach me about this?" Pyrrha asked, "After all, doing maintenance on my car myself would save me a lot of money."
"Sure!" Mikeala said.
Sam said, "That's weird, I would have never pegged you for mechanical."
"Well, you know, I never really broadcast it. Guys don't really like it when you know more about cars than they do. Especially not Trent. He hates it."
"The guy is a bit of a jerk," Pyrrha commented. Mikeala nodded in agreement.
Pyrrha laughed when Sam said, "Yeah, no, I'm cool with females working on my engine. I prefer it, actually."
"Okay," Mikeala said. "You want to fire it up for me?" Sam responded in the affirmative and ran over to turn the car on.
"You know, I was thinking. If Trent's such a jerk, why do you still hang out with him?"
Bad question, Sammy, Pyrrha thought. Mikeala said, "You know what, I'm just… gonna walk. Good luck with your car."
"Alright. Walking's healthy, right?" Sam asked as Pyrrha closed the car hood and got in the passenger side. She closed her eyes and extended her semblance throughout the car, attempting to see what the problem was. She didn't see anything out of the ordinary, until she delved in deeper. When she did, she found something odd. A mass of energy was present, encased in a metal sphere. She prodded at it with her polarity, and the radio squealed to life as Sam walked away.
"Little lady, don't do that!" it said in disjointed words. "That hurts!"
Pyrrha startled, her eyes opening. She looked around, and upon not seeing or hearing anything, closed them again and sank back into her meditation. Sam jumped back into the car, muttering about how he hoped the car would turn on. It didn't work for two tries, but then the car turned on, blaring, Baby come back! Any kind of fool could see, I was wrong, and I just can't live without you! Pyrrha got out of the passenger side and hopped in the back. "Hey!" Sam called. "Wait a second!" He pulled in front of her and opened the window.
After nightfall, the three of them pulled up at Mikeala's house. "There it is," Sam said.
"I had fun," Mikeala started, "So, you know, thanks for listening. Do you think that I'm shallow?"
"I think you're… No, no, no. I think… I think there's a lot more than meets the eye with you."
Mikeala smiled. "Okay. I'll see you at school." She got out, and Pyrrha got in the front seat. "Thanks for driving me home."
"No problem!" Pyrrha called.
Sam, meanwhile, was figuratively beating his head against a wall. "More than meets the eye? C'mon! Really, that's the best you can come up with?"
Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the radio. It seems to be true for you too, car.