I don't know about you guys, but I'm very sad summer has officially ended for me. My school started on Tuesday. So yes, I'm very busy…but I'll definitely work on updating, alright?

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Aim and Fire;

Chapter One: Your Fate, In Progress

"Oh, this is just hilarious. You have to go. Are you going? You're going. I can come with you." Elena grinned at me, holding the mysterious note in her eager hands.

I shook my head. "No. For one thing, I am not going. And two: the note CLEARLY says that no one can come with me." I was about to snatch the note up again when Natalie beat me to it.

"This is so unusual! I thought Elena and I were the only ones who knew?" She asked with a bewildered expression on her face, setting the note down in front of me gingerly.

I shrugged, sighing. "That's what I thought, too. But I guess we were wrong." I slumped over my tray tiredly.

Right after I had found the note, I had a mini-spaz-attack right in the hallway before running back to Elena and Natalie to show them the note. Of course, their reactions were completely different: Elena was amused, Natalie was being cautious. Of course. Now I was torn between good thing, bad thing and show up, don't go.

"This isn't necessarily a bad thing, Sam," Elena informed me, sipping her soda. "This could do a lot of good things for you. Voted for Class President, Head of the school newspaper, Prom Queen…" She trailed off with a sly smile.

I raised my head to give her an incredulous look. "And what do those things have to do with my creepy ability to be the first to know everything?"

Elena rolled her eyes and looked to Natalie for help. She just shrugged, and Elena gave her a "go on, just say it" look. I was a little confused. Natalie turned to me and smiled encouragingly, "Well, what Elena means is that if you let people know about your…powers (insert pained look here), they would be willing to do whatever you want for your help with their relationships, and stuff."

Elena nodded, satisfied. I was horrified.

"What? You guys seriously expect me to ask to be PROM QUEEN in exchange for advice and help?" I said way-too-loudly, gaining quite a few suspicious and curious looks from surrounding tables. I quickly looked away from prying eyes and lowered my voice. "That's ridiculous!"

Elena laughed shortly. "No, it's not! It's totally human. Screw your outtake on life for a minute here, Sam, and look at it this way: You could get anything you want. Homework help, good grades, VIP access to parties and other social outings, money, power, popularity…" She trailed off again, smiling at me in a sweet way, not unlike Natalie was right now.

I was being back into a corner, and I knew it. "Uh, guys? Yeah, I don't need any money. Or power, or popularity; any of those things!"

"Respect."

My gaze snapped to Natalie and I focused on what she had just said. "What did you say?"

She glanced towards Elena, who was smirking. "Well, think about it. People always like to make fun of you because you're a vegetarian and because you wear combat boots, and if you helped them they would be much nicer to you."

I paused. Respect did sound nice, I had to admit. I was sick of most of the people here, always putting me down for what I wore or the way my hair looked. Mostly Paulina and Starr did, anyway. Everyone else was just too scared to stick up for what was right -

- and if I had the power in my hands that I needed, I could stop it all.

Elena and Natalie were right.

Shit.

I groaned, holding up the note for both of them to see, "Meet me at The Nasty Burger by 5. I'll tell you what happens."

And as I was getting up from the table and making my way out of the cafeteria, I could hear their shared high-five all the way from the hallway.

--

I didn't particularly like going behind the bleachers. Once, at a football game Natalie had forced Elena and I to attend, I had dropped a five dollar bill underneath the bleachers and when I was retrieving it, I spotted at least 10 different people making out: and instantly I knew who was just getting together, who was cheating, and who was playing who.

It had been so overwhelming and embarrassing, I just left without the 5 dollar bill. (But that didn't matter; I wasn't broke.)

So you could probably see why I was so hesitant about the whole thing in the first place, among other reasons, of course. But surprisingly, as I cautiously stepped behind the huge set of bleachers after the last bell, I found the spacious amount of grass almost completely empty.

Almost.

Down, near the other end, was two figures: hopefully my mystery guys. I could only guess that it was a guy who had written the note; with the messy handwriting and all. I hadn't been expecting him - whoever it is - to bring a friend, though. I still didn't want the whole school to know about what I could do, just yet.

I walked quickly and proudly (I wanted the prying little sneaks to know that I wasn't scared of them and I had the upper hand!) to where they were standing, slowing considerably when I could see them clearly.

Not popular people. Not jocks, no chess club members. Just…normal people, I suppose.

One guy had black hair and (very very nice) blue eyes, and he was fairly tall and sort of lanky. The other guy had dark skin and was wearing a red beret, looking down at a PDA distractedly.

Great. This looks like so much fun.

"Uh, hi." Good start, Sam! So much for "pride" and "having the upper hand!"

Both of them jumped slightly, and I held back a small laugh. They were nervous. Where they scared of me? What a great thought.

The black-haired one opened his mouth to speak, but then the other one narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me, "Who are you?" He raised a brow.

I raised one right back. Maybe I was wrong, and they weren't the people who had left me the note after all. "I'm Sam." I shrugged, trying to stay casual so I wouldn't feel like such a reject when I found out it was just a joke.

"Sam Manson?" The dark-haired boy finally spoke up. His voice was deeper.

I nodded slowly.

"You got my note, right?" I almost smiled, but I just nodded again. "So, do you think you can help me?" His blue eyes searched mine nervously.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Sure, why not? I mean, I don't know you or anything, and I sure as hell don't trust you, but I guess that random acts of kindness are really my thing…I do it all the time, so I guess you guys aren't any different. Even though I don't know your names or anything."

Silence. Maybe I had gone too far with the sarcasm…

Then I heard a loud laugh, and it came from the first guy. "Oh man, I like her already."

I gave him a small smile, despite my sudden cynical mood.

"I'm Danny." The second guy chimed in suddenly, and I glanced towards him quickly.

"Huh?"

"You said you didn't know our names…I'm Danny Fenton, he's Tucker Foley." He shrugged, smiling a little.

Tucker whipped his head towards him and glared. "Hey, man! I thought you were going to keep this on the down low?! What good is all this sneaking around if you're going to pour our life stories to this stranger?"

I just stood there, a little shocked. I looked at Tucker warily. "Are you bipolar?"

"Shut up, Tucker. We can't expect her to help us if she doesn't even know who we are." Danny ignored me.

Tucker was silent, thinking. "How are we going to do this, without getting caught? You're always…busy, and you wouldn't want Valerie to know about this-"

I was very confused at the moment, and I waved my hands in front of me to shut them up. "Hey, now! I never agreed to helping you!"

They both snapped their heads towards me, eyes wide. "Well, aren't you?" Danny asked. He sounded desperate. Wonderful.

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess so…"

There was no backing out of it now. I had to accept my fate.

There were big smiles from the both of them, but I was pondering on if I should make them pay me for my…services. Oh gosh, that sounded wrong. Very wrong.

But they were at it again, planning and arguing and talking. Leaving me out of everything, even though I was still confused and hesitant about the whole thing.

"Um, hello?" I waved my hands again, less frantic this time. "What exactly do you need me to help you with?"

Tucker laughed, and Danny looked embarrassed. "Sorry…I kinda forgot about that part…" I just shrugged, impatient. "Well, it's about my girlfriend." I nodded. "She's…well, I think that she might be-"

"Cheating. We think Valerie is cheating on Danny." Tucker smirked. Danny glared at him.

"Cheating, huh? And your girlfriend's name is Valerie?" I asked.

Danny nodded. "Valerie Gray." (A/N: Or is it Grey?)

"Oh, I think I know her. She's in my Chemistry class." It was true. She sits a few desks in front of me. Dark hair, dark skin, green eyes. Tries far too hard to be popular and well-liked…but a nice girl, I suppose.

"That's good, but we need more." Tucker urged me on.

My eyes widened. "What do you guys exactly want me to do? It's not like I know things before they happen. I'm just the first to know when they happen. If she's cheating, I'd probably know about it already. But if she's planning to cheat, I'll know."

There was a long moment of silence as they thought about what I had said.

"Can you figure out if she's cheated in the past?" Danny asked quietly. I didn't really know how much it probably hurt him thinking or talking about his girlfriend cheating on him, but I could imagine.

And for some strange reason…I didn't want to let him down, so I lied a little. "Yes…but it might take some investigating…"

Finding out people's past was not my forte, but they asked for help, and I had accepted. I couldn't back out now. And remembering what Elena and Natalie had said earlier about respect made me think twice about ignoring my wonderful little gift. Maybe it was time for a change.

Danny smiled at me. He had a good smile. I mean, he was pretty handsome, now that I thought about it. And he seemed like a nice guy. Why would Valerie want to cheat on someone like him?

"Thanks, Sam. I don't know how to repay you."

You better think of something soon, buddy.

--

"Ah, I know what's going to happen already: You will help Danny, and he will totally fall in love with you. But eventually he will patch things up with his girlfriend and when it's all over, you'll realize you're in love with him, too…but by then you're both doomed." Natalie gazed at me sympathetically over her milkshake.

We were sitting in The Nasty Burger. Natalie and Elena were sitting across from me, both looking thoughtful (that was Natalie) and amused (that was Elena) after I told them what had happened behind the bleachers. I could tell Elena was trying not to laugh.

"Oh, please. Natalie, you're such a romantic. Things like that don't happen in real-life! It's too…"

"Cliché? Predictable?" I mocked Natalie, putting a finger to my chin. Elena snorted.

Glaring at me, Natalie retorted, "You never know, Sam. It could happen."

"No, it couldn't. Things like that only happen in movies." I argued.

Natalie's mouth opened to let out a dry reply, but Elena held up a hand to stop her, "Hey, shut up. Listen, we don't know what will happen - that's the beauty of life." She rolled her eyes and grinned at me. "It can either go extremely well for you…or it extremely bad." She put her hand down and shrugged, looking between Natalie and I.

We were silent for a moment, Natalie stirring her half-drank milkshake, and I stared at an interesting spot on the ceramic tabletop.

"I vote for extremely bad." I muttered.

Elena laughed again.

"Only if you want it go that way, Sam. Only if you want it to."

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