A/N: I know I confused a few of you...probably all of you...with the last chapter. This one will probably not help but everything will all come to light around chapter 7. These chapters are being written fairly fast, as in they are almost done, so stick with me. :-D As always feed the writer, read and review. Also I will answer anything that is not plot driven that has you puzzled about the story.

Nemo Malus Felix
(Peace visits not the guilty mind.)
Juvenal (55 AD - 127 AD)

"Samantha, I like that name."

A boy was standing in front of the girl, Samantha; he was wearing blue jeans and a "hair" band black t-shirt. Sam was also wearing a pair of jeans, and a sweater that was slightly too big on her small frame; her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. They were standing in the living room of the house; off to the side a bit. Teenagers were everywhere and not a parent in sight.

"No, I told you my name was Sam." Sam replied; her blue eyes conveyed her displeasure in being called Samantha.

"But it is short for Samantha, isn't it?" The boy replied back with a question.

"No one calls me Samantha!" Sam said and then she turned and walked away from the very confused boy. He shrugged his shoulders and moved on to the next girl. Sam meanwhile was looking for a place to escape. She had attended this party for two reasons; to spite her father and because her friends were here. It was nice that she looked older than 13, all the other 8th graders had been turned away at the door. Even with people being turned away the party had started to get out of control, and if it kept getting any bigger the police would show up at any moment. So Sam had decided to walk outside and enjoy the swing set she had seen in the backyard, and wait for her friends to find her.

As Sam sat calmly on the swing she went into deep thought. No one had called her Samantha in a long time, in fact her mother had been the only one that still called her Samantha, and she had died a year ago. Since then Sam had rebelled; that wasn't to say she had made a lot of bad choices, she just wasn't making the right ones either. For example, tonight she was at a party; sure it was bad that she had been drinking, but 1 or 2 beers wasn't that bad. The bad part was that she had had to sneak out of the house to get here. The people she was hanging out with were also the kind of people who were not always on their best behavior; not that she did everything they did but she wanted to be with other people who did not care as much as she did. Her grades had suffered but she was not failing, she just was not getting straight A's anymore. Her father was worried but all of her mother's old friends had told him to give her some time and space to deal, and time and space is what he had given her. He took tons of missions and Mark forever hated him for that. Sam wasn't mad at him anymore or what he did, more like didn't do. Perhaps her mother's friends were right maybe she did just need time.

Sam started to swing herself while looking up to the sky. She always wanted to go to space, and she still could. She still thought about going into the US Air Force like her father, where she would have a better opportunity to get into NASA. However, at this moment the idea of having to follow all those rules seemed to turn her off of that idea. She wanted to go to space but she also wanted to have her freedom. Sam sat there swinging for quite some time, mesmerized by the stars so much so that she didn't see or hear her friends coming towards her.

"Sam." A male voice called out to her. Sam didn't hear them, as she was still looking at the stars.

"Great, she's staring off into space again." Another male voice said as the other 4 snickered at his comment. "Sam!" He yelled as he snapped his fingers in front of her.

"Oh, hey guys." Sam replied, a little sheepishly. Although she could not see it, she could sense them rolling her eyes at her.

"Hey we're gonna blow this popsicle joint, you ready to leave?" The original voice asked.

"Oh yeah, where we going?" Sam asked as she got up off the swing.

"We don't know yet, might just cruise around. See what comes our way." Sam knew what that meant; "cruising" meant they would drive down random residential areas and leave "surprises" at some of their teacher's houses.

"Ah, well I should be getting home." Sam said.

"Oh come on Sam its not going to kill you. We aren't going to do anything bad." A boy replied. Sam rolled her eyes because she knew better; but why not go? She had nothing else to do.

"Fine." She said weakly, as she walked towards them.

They headed out to one of the friends cars and all piled in. They could all fit in but it wasn't legal. They headed down some local streets all the while they were talking. Apparently one of the guys named Michael had thought of someone that should be paid a visit. It wasn't that far out of the way so they stopped by his house to grab some supplies; a lunch bag and some dog poo, and then they made their way through the streets until they got to the house in question.

By the time they got there it was around 1 am. Michael ran up to the front door with the bag, placed it one the doormat, lit it and rang the doorbell. Then he made a quick dash towards the bushes while everyone else watched from afar. Lights started flicking on everywhere in the house; a man came to the door in jeans and no shirt and saw what was waiting for him. He shouted some obscenities and immediately set to stomping out the bag. Well this caused everyone to start giggling, except Sam. The man started looking around for who had done it while Sam just sat quietly watching, she felt horrible for what her friends were doing. At that moment a lady joined the man at the door, she was trying to calm him down. You could see that the lady was worried but her top priority was to calm her husband down. After the man had a good look around she got him into the house. Sam and everyone else then started to get up and sneak back to the car when they heard a window break

At that moment they all knew that Michael had taken it too far. They ran the rest of the way to the car and piled in as the driver started the car and made their hasty retreat. "I can't believe you did that!" Sam said, in horror.

"Oh come on, it was good harmless fun." Michael said.

"You broke their window!" Sam shouted.

"Yeah, and she is failing me in math. She deserved it." Michael calmly pointed out.

"That is no reason to break her window; all you have to do is stop skipping your classes and do your homework." Sam argued with a raised voice.

"Hey Einstein, some of us aren't as smart as you are." Michael retorted. At that Sam sat stunned for a moment, and just as she was about to pipe up someone else broke in.

"Yeah Sam, give him a break and you have to admit it was pretty funny." Sam couldn't believe she was hearing this. This was not funny and it had never been fun but they had crossed a line. Flaming bags of shit was one thing but this crossed a line.

"Take me home." Sam said, evenly.

"What?!" everyone asked in unison.

"I said Take. Me. Home!" Sam said, with authority.

"Alright, fine." The driver said.

The next morning Sam still felt bad about the whole situation so she jumped on her bike and made her way to the house that they had been to the night before. She went to the same spot they had hid in and found the husband rubbing a hand through his hair as he studied the broken window. His wife, Michael's math teacher, was visibly shaken. Even though it happened the night before, it had definitely rattled her.

The man looked at his wife and then with silent words his wife was in his arms. Clinging on to him for any comfort she could grasp. Sam jumped onto her bike; she rode around for hours just thinking about what had happened, and thinking about what she was doing with her life. By the time she had gotten home it was near 9 pm. Her father was sitting there in the front living room waiting for her.

"Sam, where have you been all day?" her father asked.

"Sorry Dad, I was out thinking." Sam replied.

"Thinking, all day?" he asked, puzzled.

"Yeah." She paused for a moment before continuing. "I want to talk about mom." Sam stated, looking unsure towards her hands.

"You want to talk about mom?" her dad asked, stunned.

"Yeah." She stated once more and then they talked. They talked about how her father met her mother; about their first date and how he proposed. They also talked about why he joined the military. They talked about what Sam wanted to do for the rest of their life and he told her stories about when she was little, about how she was always fascinated with space. In the end Sam decided she had to make some changes in her life and she was going to start now. She was going to go to space and to do that she had to be the best; she had to stand out if she was going to make it up there.

The next day, after school she went to the teacher's house again. Standing nervously at the front door, she tentatively stretched out her finger and rung the doorbell.

About a minute later a women answered the door, drying her hands on a dishtowel.

"May I help you?" The woman asked.

"Uh hi, um, I don't know how quite to say this, but I am sorry for what happened to your window." Sam said, as she pointed her head to the window that had a piece of cardboard covering it. "I just wanted to give you this." Sam pulled out an envelope that was obviously filled with money, coins and dollars. "I hope it covers the cost of the window." The woman took the envelope looking a little puzzled at it.

"Did you break my window?" She asked, as Sam was walking back down the steps. Sam looked over her shoulder.

"No ma'am." Sam calmly replied.

"Well if you did not break it why are you giving me money for it?" The woman asked, as she held out the envelope to give it back to Sam.

"Because I should have stopped the person that did." Sam stated and then made her way over to her bike that was on the lawn. As Sam put on her helmet, a car pulled up in the driveway. Sam gave the women a nod and then at the car, and jumped onto her bike making her way down the street as the husband stepped out of his car, wearing military fatigues.

He looked up at his wife questioningly, "Sara, who was that?"

"I don't know but whoever it was she felt guilty about her friend breaking the window." She stated as she held up the envelope. He looked shocked for a moment and then started grumbling about the broken window.

"It's not as bad as it looks, Jack."