Sam Puckett was a Teenage Girly Girl

Chapter Three: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Quinn sat by the pool in the girl's section of campus, her toes dipped into the cool water. The girl was clad in a skin-tight, light pink one-piece decorated with red Hawaiian-style flowers (something everyone who knew Quinn would never expect her to wear). Her hair was down and tasseled, and her glasses were no where in sight.

"Quinn?" Zoey asked, walking over to her friend. "Whatter you doing?"

"Working on my tan," Quinn answered, looking up into the air. "Want to join me?"

"I thought you were trying to help that Sam girl," the blond replied. "Isn't she the daughter of one of your surgical patients?"

"What's wrong with her?" Quinn asked, sounding clueless.

"I don't know," Zoey answered. "But you were studying those subjects for days."

"You sound stressed, sweetie," the brunette replied, taking off her sunglasses. "Just relax. You're too pretty to be obsessive." With that, Quinn lay down, letting the sun kiss her body.

Back in Seattle, Sam sat in a chair as Carly brushed her long blond hair. "You're so beautiful," Carly said, watching her friend's blond locks straighten.

"Thanks," Sam humbly replied. "But I'm not nearly as pretty as you."

"...You know, Sam," Carly began, sounding kind of hesitant. "I used to be kind of embarrassed by some of the stuff you did...I feel like I haven't been a good friend."

"Carly," Sam said, turning towards the brunette. Her voice sounded almost surprised. "You've been a great friend. I was the one being rude and crude and...all-around gross. I shouldn't belch in public...or be so nasty to Freddie...or use your bra as an emergency napkin."

"Well that's...What?" Carly replied.

"Do you think anyone'll wanna go with me?" the blond said, wanting to change the subject as soon as possible.

"I think so," Carly answered, gently fluffing her friend's hair in the back. "If you ask nice, maybe even Freddie would go with you."

"...You really think I look pretty?" Sam asked, turning back to the mirror, her voice sounding almost sad.

"You always do," Carly warmly answered. "On the inside, and out...You just need to show your true self more."

"True self?" Sam said to herself, feeling strange. The pretty, perky girly girl staring back at her in the mirror; something wasn't right about her.

Meanwhile, Lola looked over some of Quinn's slides. She'd noticed the shattered one on the floor, but never dared to touch it. "Something's wrong," she whispered. "What happened to Quinn? She never drops a project like this...especially when someone's counting on her...Hey, who'm I talking to?" After opening her roommate's drawer, which she'd agreed never to do (out of respect and fear), Lola stumbled upon something; "Thank goodness," she exclaimed. "Her notes." Most people view actors and singers as shallow, superficial, and less than bright; time and time again, they'd proved the world wrong: Lola was no exception. "Oh, my gosh," she exclaimed, dropping the papers.

"What's going on?" Zoey asked, running into the dorm room.

"I was reading over Quinn's notes for the matter distortion device," Lola answered, trying to catch her breath. "She missed something...The radiation has a side effect..."

"Cancer?" Zoey asked, fearing the worst.

"Worse," the Puerta Rican girl answered, trembling. "It doesn't just change the genetic makeup and brain functions of the subjects...it alters their entire chemistry...The radiation results in a chemical imbalance in living matter."

"Meaning?" Zoey persisted, growing extremely uneasy.

"Its subjects become toxic," Lola whispered, terrified. The room went silent.