Title: The Life & Times of Sara Sidle

Rating: T

Summary: (You all know by now)

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A/N: Thank you all for your reviews! You guys are awesome!

November 3, 1984- 6:45 am

Sara grabbed another rotten apple just to make her foster mother let her go to school with the satisfaction that she thought her foster child had eaten. As soon as she got out of the house, she threw the apple away and started on her way to school. As she continued to walk, she expected to hear the familar skateboard wheels coming toward her, and she was relieved to see him in the distance just yards away.

She had never thought that she would be wondering where he was. She was never too keen of Mr. Deckard, but from his change of attitude toward her recently, seeing him gave her a small sense of reassurance.

Now that she thought about it, she noticed his insecurities. When he was the school jock and a total jerk, she never thought he had a problem in the world. But now that she saw his soft side, now that she thought of the way he acted around everyone, she noticed the walls he always seem to put up in certain situations. Being the child prodigy couldn't be easy since you were trying to bring all of your parent's dreams to life...and not exactly your own.

She stepped onto school grounds, and she looked around- kids going to their lockers, others trying desperately to fill in the last sections of their papers before the big test that day. She walked into the gymasium, grimacing at the smell of student's breakfasts they got from the school...which weren't really breakfasts...they were more like...soggy pieces of bread with...erm...stuff that was supposed to taste like cinnamon.

She made her way to the hall way to get to her locker. As she approached the locker, the spray paint from the day before had been scrubbed off...well, most of it. She could still make out some of the letters, but not as much as the day before. She opened the locker after clicking the lock off, and was greeted by the sterile smell of the disinfectant she used to clean it. Yes, she used disinfectant...no one else realized how much bacteria was moving around a public school.

She slipped her notebook out of her backpack and put it in her locker. She took out her bagged lunch and slid it in the back and grabbed a textbook she needed for a class. She closed her locker, locking it back up, and smiled when Josh was standing right next to her.

"So...how are you today?" he asked.

"Pretty good, you?"

"Good."

"That's good...um...Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to thank you for yesterday-"

"Don't worry about it, I've wanted to tell Melissa off for some time now."

She smiled. "Alright."

"Okay, sport, well, I'll see you at lunch, then?"

"Sure."

"Alright, bye!"

He waved as he walked down the hall to his first class and she smiled as she watched him disappear around the corner. Sara walked to her first class with a little jump in her step. She was filled with glee, and all she was thinking about was getting to see Josh at lunch.

She took a seat in the back in her english class. As she sat down, she took out her textbook and started reading on the assigned page. As she skimmed through the sections, a piece of paper was thrown at her and she blinked when she looked down in front of her at the crunched up piece of paper. She unfolded it slowly and looked at it. On it was a rather sloppy drawing of a knife and in bold writing: PSYCHO, FREAK, and MURDERER. She shook her head as she threw the paper down after scribbling everything out. She couldn't tell who exactly made the note, as everyone in the class seemed to have it in for her except her teacher.

On her way to her next class, flashes of crimson and cries of pain came flooding back to her. She shook her head trying to make them go away, but she just couldn't. The memories were too much, they were forever burned in the back of her mind. Now, even when she saw a sharp object, she had to look away. She couldn't bare to look at it, it just brought back the horrible memories of that day.

She took a seat in the back of her algebra class, rubbing her head. She was getting a headache thinking about everything so much. All she wanted was for lunchttime to come so she could see Josh. He comforted her; she had no idea what it was about him that made her feel safe, perhaps it was the fact that he was the only friend she ever had in life.

The bell rang. Damn, it was time for PE.

"Watch your back, Sidle."

A cold chill ran down Sara's spine as those words came back into her mind. What would Melissa and her posse try to do?

She slowly walked into the girl's locker room and changed into her PE clothes. None of the other girls even looked at her, they just changed out as they made their way into the gym to start PE. Sara knew something was up, and she wasn't going to like whatever was about to happen.

"Alright, from a vote, we're going to play football! We're in the gym, so be careful!" the PE teacher said holding up the orange and yellow sashes used for flag football.

Huh...now that can't be a coincidence. And we're in the gym...great.

Sara grabbed one of the sashes and tied it around her slender waist as the rest of her team got into position. As soon as the whistle was blown, the ball was in the air, centimeters away from the ceiling. The ball came down and Sara watched it, dumb-founded. She had no idea the ball had landed in her arms until she looked in front of her to see the giant mob of kids running at her. She backed up and then started running, but the kids were gaining on her quickly.

Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap!

And that was when it happened. One of the kids pushed her (no one was sure who, but Sara could only guess who did it), and she lost her balance. She fell forward into the wall, banging her head on it and crumbling to the floor. And then, four kids just 'accidentally' fell on top of her.

"Woah! Alright, anyone hurt?" the PE teacher had sprinted over to them.

Everyone got up unharmed, except for the motionless Sara who had been at the bottom of the pile-up. The PE teacher quickly kneeled down beside her and nudged her.

"Sara?"

No answer.

"Sara, come on, wake up."

No answer. The kids were all holding back the urge to laugh as she lay unconscious on the floor of the gym.

"Someone get the nurse!"

The kids were stiff, just watching and grinning.

"NOW!"

One of the kids ran off to get the nurse, leaving the PE teacher to try and wake up Sara.

"Sara, come on."

Nothing.

"Oh sh-"

Before the PE teacher could curse, the nurse had run into the gym and moved the PE teacher away from her. She held Sara's head in her hands and rubbed her head.

"Come on, Sara, wake up."

She got a groan as a response.

"That's it, come on."

Sara winced from the pain growing in her forehead and tried sitting up, but the nurse pushed her back down.

"Don't try and sit up. We're going to call and ambulance, you may have a concussion. You've got a nasty bump on your head."

Sara just nodded as the rest of the kids stared at her with evil grins on their faces. They found this entertaining?

"Where is she?"

His voice made her jump.

"Where is she?"

His voice had a little more urgency in its tone now, and she smiled as she saw him running over to her, his calm brown eyes staring at her with concern. He had a white lab coat on and teal rubber gloves, and as he came closer she saw the plastic goggles over his eyes.

"Oh god, what happened, Sara?"

"Nothing, Josh...I...just fell is all."

He turned around and gave Melissa and the rest of the kids a death glare as if to say 'I'll deal with you later' and then turned back to Sara. "You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, an ambulance is coming to make sure I don't have a concussion, but uh...how did you know I got hurt?"

"Word travels fast."

She smiled as she closed her eyes and sirens were heard in the background. "You look like a nerd."

He smiled as he ruffled her hair.

"Josh, you're going to have to move," the PE teacher told him.

"No, I'm going with her."

"No you're not. You have a math test today and you're not going to miss it!"

"I don't care about the test, I said I'm going with her."

The ambulance came up and the EMTs ran out and helped Sara into the ambulance. Josh, despite his superior's wishes, got into the back of the ambulance and sat down beside Sara.

"Bite me."

He closed both doors as they drove off, leaving the entire group at the school stunned.

Sara smiled at him in the ambulance as she drifted off to a much-needed sleep. He was like a big brother. A big brother that actually cared about her, and wouldn't most likely be trying to mooch off of his little sister thirty years later when he was needing money and a place to crash.

Josh really was like a brother to Sara, and it was then when she finally realized it.