CHAPTER THREEEEEE :D XD Hopefully it's a little longer for you guys. This isn't a very long fic to begin with, so the next chapter might be the last :/ :( But hope you like it! REVIEWWWW!

I had assumed people at William Rose Junior High would think I was a little strange. After all, neither me nor Sammy had any advance warning of my arrival, and even the teachers frowned upon having yet another student in their class. But the incident I endured was nothing like I would have ever imagined.

I got into a fight.

And thank goodness that Sammy had forgotten about my chat with Casey, because I would have been toast otherwise.

Then again, it might not have even happened.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice called from behind me and Sammy as we walked out of the school building.

I turned around, my mess of a ponytail flopping like a dead fish. It was Heather "Excuse me? Do you have a problem?"

Heather walked to me, her friends Tenille and Monet right beside her. "You know," she said, getting in my face. "I can have you arrested for trespassing. My mom didn't give you permission to sleep in our backyard, and you came into the house uninvited. You're like a criminal."

Sammy stood right beside me, and got right back in Heather's personal space. "Sounds like something I would do, doesn't it?"

Heather sneered. "Yep," she replied. "Which is why I'm gonna treat it like you did it."

Before I could say anything, Heather punched Sammy square in the nose, and she fell to the ground, her neck whipping violently as she hit the pavement. Shocked, I shoved Heather back, and dodged a punch.

"Leave us alone!" I screeched, and Monet came after me.

"I don't know why you're here!" Heather yelled. "But you better go back to where you came from! It's bad enough I have one Sammy. Now I have two!"

Sammy recovered from the fall, and laughed. "Three if you count Holly," she snapped.

"Shut up! The dirty trash digger doesn't count," Heather muttered.

Suddenly, we realized that Heather, Monet, and Tenille surrounded us; Tenille and Monet were behind us, and Heather was in front of us. It almost looked like we were beat, when suddenly heather began to charge at us like a bull. Sammy gave me a quick nod, and just as she was about to hit us, we sidestepped her, Sammy to the left and me to the right. She crashed into Tenille and Monet, and Sammy and I made a beeline for the street as they untangled themselves.

"We got 'em!" I cried, laughing victoriously.

We booked down the street, and didn't stop until we got to Maynard's Market, which felt like a really long way from the school, especially when we were running. When we walked in, Marissa, Holly, and even Dot, were already there, chowing down on some Doubly Dynamos, a rare coincidence, I knew. Out of breath, Sammy and I tried to walk to the girls, but even that was strenuous.

"Where on earth have you been, Sammy?" Marissa cried, eyeing both of us suspiciously.

Sammy shrugged it off. "Ran into some trouble with Heather and her goons," she said simply.

"What kind of trouble?"

I chuckled. "We got into a fight," I muttered.

Sammy nudged me, annoyed, but I shrugged and cracked a grin. "A what?!" Marissa cried.

"You heard 'em," Holly laughed. "They got into a fight."

"I heard what she said, but... a-a fight?!"

Sammy nodded. "Yes, Marissa. A fight. No big deal."

"No big deal?!"

"It was my fault!" I intervened. "I, ah, technically trespassed on the Acosta's property. And... I slept in their backyard. So I've been on Heather's bad side ever since."

Marissa shook her head. "It's not your fault. It's Sammy's."

"My fault?!" Sammy screeched. "How is this my fault?!"

"You should have known better. You should have booked before Heather caught up to you. You know she hates you!"

Sammy and Marissa were starting to get in each other's faces, and finally, Dot stepped between them. "Stop it, you two!" she cried. "You guys are best friends, so start acting like it! Anyway, shouldn't we be focusing on getting her home?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Now, how do you know anything about me getting home?"

"Marissa filled us in. What's this about reading a book?"

I sighed. "Okay, so right before I got here, I had been reading a book. And it was called Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash. It was about that counterfeit money station you found in the Senior Highrise, Sammy."

Sammy blushed. "You knew about that, huh?"

"I know about pretty much every time you get into trouble." I shook my head. "But that doesn't matter. The point is, right after I read that book, I found myself in the middle of the Acosta's street."

Now Holly caught on to my plan. "Oh, I get it! So you think if you read a book about an adventure you had, then you'll get home!"

I nodded. It was a foolproof plan. But Marissa had her doubts. "I really don't think that there are any books about you, Kate. Not to be a downer or anything."

I shrugged. "There's only one way to find out."

XxX

"I didn't even know there was a library in Santa Martina," I murmured, thumbing through a random book.

Sammy chuckled. "Definitely not typical Santa Martina, that's for sure."

Marissa came over moments later. "Ugh," she sighed. "I'm sick of looking. We've been here for two hours! Can't we go home?"

"Not until we find this book!" Sammy hissed. "Unless you want a repeat of the juvenile WWE."

"Fine!"

I scanned the shelves for anything that looked familiar; my name, my address, my friends, anything. But it was like the library shelves were hiding it somewhere. Just then, something dawned on me.

Something awful.

"What if someone checked out the book?" I asked, suddenly horrified.

Sammy raised her eyebrows. "Then you'd be stuck here for a while. It'd probably be almost a month till you'd get home."

"This is hopeless," Dot said, coming over to meet us. "We've looked everywhere."

"We can't give up," I tried, hoping to keep the morale up. But it was getting more and more hopeless, just like Dot had said.

Sammy managed to keep the girls looking for another half hour, and that's when they all threw in the towel.

"I have homework to do."

"My mom's gonna kill me if I'm late for dinner!"

"Vera and Meg need my help back at the shop!"

Sammy and I were determined, and kept trying to look. But after another hour, I finally knew it was time to give up. We both flopped onto beanbag chairs in the children's books section, and I heaved a huge sigh of frustration.

"Maybe this was a stupid idea," I muttered.

Sammy let out a short chuckle. "I've asked myself the same question a lot of times."

I looked up at a clock on the wall. "Sammy, it's almost six! Don't you have to get home?"

Sammy stood up quickly. "Crap! I do! Ugh, I hate leaving you here... you sure you'll be all right?"

I nodded. "I'll find my way somehow. You go on ahead."

Sammy waved quickly, and ran out the library door. I kept sitting on the beanbag, and suddenly I felt drained. Emotionally, mentally, and especially physically. The day had been more consuming than I thought it'd been, and I'd gotten nowhere in trying to get home. I wondered if everyone had noticed I was gone by now. My friend, April, might have told her mother I went missing, and her mother would surely have told mine. From there, I knew it'd be complete chaos. Maybe, I thought, it'd be better just to stay in Santa Martina. Maybe Vera and Meg needed help at the Pup Parlor; maybe I could stay with Holly. Maybe I could-

"What'cha doing? Reading The Cat in the Hat? I think you've graduated to chapter books."

I stood up quickly. "Casey! Stop doing that!"

"Doing what?"

I tried to gesture around, but I just looked like a bumbling fool "...Appearing from nowhere!"

"Mhm..." Casey murmured. "Okay. Right. But you never answered my question."

I pushed past him, and decided to continue my search. But he followed me, and it was getting on my nerves. I knew that if he kept this up, Sammy would eventually see us together and assume the wrong thing. And the last thing I wanted was for Sammy to think I was a liar and a cheat. I needed her help to get me home, and there was no way she'd help me if I stole her boyfriend.

"Just leave me alone!" I cried, probably louder than I should have in a library, as I was immediately shushed.

Casey didn't leave, though. "What's wrong? You've been acting like this since the fire escape!"

Finally, I decided to cut to the chase. "Look. I'm not from here, okay?"

"I figured that."

"No!" I cried. "Like I told you, where I am, Santa Martina is a fake place. Which means you, Sammy, Marissa, and all the others are fake people! Are you starting to see a connection here?"

"Not really..."

I face-palmed myself. "Ugh! Don't you see? I was reading Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash for the second time when I landed here, which means it's only a matter of time before Sammy Keyes and the Wedding Crasher is supposed to happen! Which means, if I'm still here, I'm going to mess up the whole story!"

Casey sighed, and shook his head. "You are making less and less sense."

I bit my lip. I was starting to sound crazy. "Okay. I told you that you guys are all technically book characters, right?"

"You told us we were fake, yes."

"So I've landed in Santa Martina right after that book took place. Make sense?"

"Yeah."

"So that means the next book is going to take place soon, right?"

"Right."

"And I'm not a character in the next book. Which means I'm gonna wreck the story. Which means-"

"You need to get home," Casey interrupted.

I sighed. "Which is proving to be easier said than done."

"So... did you try that theory you told me about?"

I nodded. "But we couldn't find any books about anything I recognize."

"Mind if I help?"

Finally, I needed to tell him. I mean, really tell him why we couldn't be seen together.

"Casey!" I cried. "You... need to go away."

"What?"

I sighed. "According to the books, you're supposed to become Sammy's boyfriend. And Sammy is not going to like you very much if she thinks I'm stealing you."

Casey laughed. "Sammy wouldn't think that."

"I've seen the look in her eyes," I said. "You need to leave me alone and spend time with her. Because I'm messing up the entire storyline."

I started to run off, and Casey grabbed my hand. "And how is that a bad thing?"

I wrenched away from him. "Because it is!"

Finally, I managed to get away from him. But he stopped me in my tracks. Not physically, but because of what he said.

"It's because you like me, isn't it?"

I could feel my face burning as I turned around. "No!"

"It's because you like me, and you know you can't like me. Because I'm a book character."

He had me there. It was technically true, but not really. I didn't even know what I thought anymore. But I did have an answer for him.

"No!" I cried. "It's because I've always felt like Sammy was my friend. Partially because we're alike, and partially because I admire her. And you don't betray friends. Ever. Not even for a guy."

"You're so much like Sammy," he said. "That's why I can't stop being around you."

Finally, I shouted. "Shut up, Casey! You are being so STUPID! I'm not a real person in your world; you're not a real person in my world! You need to wake up and realize the situation here!"
If the library was quiet before, it was nothing compared to how dead silent it was now. Unable to take the tension any longer, I bolted out the door, and ran down the streets, not knowing or caring where I was going.