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Title: Coffee Shop Confidential

Fandom: Popular

Pairing: Sam/Brooke

Rating: PG

Prompt: 021 Friends; written for the fanfic100 challenge

Word count: 1,019

Disclaimer: Alas, I don't own the characters of Popular. They belong to Ryan Murphy, but hopefully he won't mind if I borrow them for a little while.

Summary: Sam and Brooke make a discovery about their relationship... No, not the 'I'm gay for you' discovery. We still have 95 fics to go! You didn't think it would be that easy, did you? ;)

A/N: Yep, still sophomore year in high school.

A/N2: Thanks so much to theagonyofblank and wolfemeister for the beta reads! And thanks to Wolfe for the title.

Brooke (unsuccessfully) tried not to roll her eyes when she heard her name paired with Sam's. Of course, Glass teased them with the thought that the groups for the latest biology project would be completely random, but then proceeded to do nothing more than put them with their lab partners. Fantastic. Brooke had to admit that they had been getting along a lot better, recently, but that didn't mean that she really wanted to spend any more time with Sam than she had to.

At the end of class, Sam turned to Brooke. "Okay, I propose we just get this over with as quickly as possible. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Great. I have a Zapruder meeting after school, and you probably have Glamazons, so how about we just meet at the public library afterwards, and then we can get a start on research and stuff."

"Sure Sam. Whatever you say." This time, Brooke did manage to not roll her eyes, but just barely. She had found that when it came to things like this, it was best to just let Sam feel like she was in charge. There tended to be less potential for bloodshed, that way.

Later that afternoon, Brooke and Sam sat in the library, surrounded by several stacks of books.

"Sam, this sucks," Brooke whispered. "It feels like we've been sitting here for ages, now, and I think my butt is going numb."

Sam looked up from her notes at Brooke's comment, with one of her trademark smirks crossing her face. "Would Her Highness prefer that I found a perfectly fluffed pillow to ease her royal behind?"

Brooke just scowled. "No, Her Highness would prefer a change of scenery. And before you offer some snarky comment, yes, I am well aware of the fact that I just referred to myself in the third person. Deal with it."

Sam's grin only widened, and though she came really close to teasing Brooke further, if only out of habit, she decided to let it go. "You know, a change of scenery actually sounds good. We shouldn't go home, though. Letting your dad and my mom see us working together would only send the wrong kind of message, since we still need to convince them that the whole family merger thing is really a bad idea."

"Yeah, good thinking. Well, there's a nice coffee shop that I like near here," Brooke suggested.

"Lead the way, Princess."

o0o0o

For the next week, Brooke and Sam spent at least a few hours every afternoon working in the same coffee shop. They ended up just drinking coffee and talking a lot more than actually working on the assignment, but it seemed to make them more productive when they did finally bring out their books and notes. At least, that's what they told themselves.

On Saturday, they took a day off from the project, but Sam decided to return to the café anyway. She really liked the atmosphere of the place, and thought it might be a good spot for her to finish up her latest article, a piece on the new Spanish teacher.

Walking up to the counter, Sam recognized the server as the same guy who had been there whenever she came with Brooke. Sam smiled, but before she got a chance to order, the guy spoke, "Oh hey, you're here! Would you hold on a sec? Your friend left her jacket here."

Sam frowned in confusion. As far as she knew, none of her friends ever came there. "Wait, whose jacket is it?"

"I dunno her name," he shrugged. "The one you're in here with every day."

Sam laughed. "Who, Brooke? Oh, she's not..." Sam's sentence trailed off, her brows knitting together. She and Brooke weren't friends, were they?

The server was still staring at Sam expectantly. Sam broke off her thought process and continued, "Well, whatever. Thanks, I'll make sure she gets it back."

After trying unsuccessfully to make any progress on her article, Sam gave up and decided to go home, acknowledging that her mind was elsewhere.

o0o0o

Brooke returned from the mall that afternoon, and after dropping off her bags in her room, went to the kitchen for a snack. Sam was already in there, but it didn't look like she was actually doing anything. Brooke grabbed an apple and then sat opposite Sam at the table.

"Hey Sammy, what's up?"

Sam didn't say anything, just stared speculatively at Brooke. Shifting uncomfortably under Sam's focused gaze, Brooke tried again. "Okay, why are you looking at me like that? Do I have something caught in my teeth or something?"

Sam's line of sight shifted slightly, as she replied, "Actually, yeah, you have a tiny piece of something at the corner of your mouth, but that wasn't why I was looking at you." Sam leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, tilting one head to the side to continue staring at Brooke.

Brooke quickly wiped at her mouth, waiting for Sam to explain why she was being so odd. When no explanation followed, Brooke spoke again. "Okay, then. Why are you looking at me? You're starting to freak me out."

Sam finally seemed to snap out of it, blinking a few times, and learning forward to rest her elbows on the table. "Are we friends? 'Cause it kind of seems like we might be." There was an element of surprise in Sam's voice, like she could hardly believe it herself.

Brooke laughed. "What? We're not..." She paused, thinking about it. "Are we?"

Sam merely raised an eyebrow, offering a sheepish half-smile.

"Wow, we are friends," Brooke continued. "That's weird."

"I know. Very weird. No offense."

Finally, the strangeness of the whole conversation caught up with Brooke and she couldn't help but giggle. One small giggle turned into many more, though, until Sam was laughing too, and neither one was exactly sure what was so funny, but it didn't really matter.

When the laughter died down, Brooke simply smiled at Sam. "So, We're friends. That's interesting." She smirked playfully. "Just don't tell the rest of our friends. I think they'd die from shock."