Records
XXXXXX
"Sam?" Freddie whispers. I can't even speak. We were so close to getting proof. "Sam" Freddie calls me again. Still no words come to me. Freddie places a hand on my shoulder, I shrug it off; I don't even know why. Freddie looks hurt, I didn't mean to hurt his feelings, I want to apologize but my mind doesn't seem to want to work and I can't focus enough to say anything. I just walk into Carly's room and shut the door, leaving Freddie in the hall. I hear him softly knock on the door and call my name again, but I just throw myself onto the bed. Soon I hear Freddie sigh and walk away. I stare at the ceiling; I can't even bring myself to cry, my throat is dry. I just stare.
I don't even know how much time passes before I hear another knock on the door. I don't move for a minute and I feel one lone tear fall down my cheek. I wipe it away and get up to open the door.
"Freddie, I don't_" I start until I actually realize it isn't Freddie standing on the other side of the door.
"Hey" Aaron says with a smile.
"What are you doing here?" I ask. He keeps staring at me. I know I look disheveled, my cheeks feel red and my hair really needs to be brushed, but I don't care. I am seriously tempted to slam this door in his face.
"You disappeared, I was just curious where you went" He says, but for some reason I know that's not the complete truth.
"Well you found me so goodbye" I say not friendly at all. I'm done pretending to like this guy.
"Whoa, that was harsh" He says, smiling. It's creepy but I think he is enjoying seeing me all wound up.
"Yeah well it was meant to be" I snap.
"Now why would that be?" He asks. What….. Is he honestly taunting me right now? He doesn't want to start this. I know I should just ignore it and go back in Carly's room, but I'm on edge and an on edge Sam Puckett never does things rationally.
"Oh I think you know why." I say and take a threatening step towards him. Any other person right now would know back off, but Aaron still continues to smile.
"Sam, I don't know what you're talking about" He says, but I know he does; we both do.
"Stay away from me and stay away from Carly" I threaten.
"Oh Sammy, you know Carly is no interest to me" He says with that stupid grin on his face!
"DO. NOT. Call me Sammy" I growl through my teeth, "and don't you dare talk about Carly"
"I heard you were protective over your friends Sammy, but tell me who is it that protects you?" He says with a humorous tone. This is fun for him! That's it, I whip the back of my hand hard across his cheek, and I mean really hard, you could hear the slap hit him. His head falls to one side and he takes a step back. I basically punched him, but in slap form.
"SAM!" Oh no, no. I look towards the voice and see Carly running towards us. "What's wrong with you?" Carly shouts at me and goes to Aaron. "Are you okay?" Carly sweetly asks him. I'm going to be sick, this guy is playing Carly and it ends now.
"No, Carly you don't understand_" I start.
"Apologize to him!" She tells me. I know she doesn't know what's going on and I shouldn't get angry, but I do anyway. I love Carly, but she has always been quick to blame everything on me.
"Carly, it's fine" Aaron says. He even laughs a little and grins right at me, "I heard Sam could hit like none other, I just wanted to see if what people said were true. I dared her to slap me."
"Oh" Carly says. She lets out a little laugh, "Well that wasn't the smartest thing ever. Sam has quite an arm on her." She jokes.
"Yeah, she does." He says right at me. There is no way Carly could buy this crap.
"What's going on?"
"We heard shouting." I hear Freddie and Spencer say as they both walk into the hallway.
"Everything is fine" Carly says with a smile. I give Freddie a glance and he knows exactly what I was thinking.
"Aaron I think you should go" Freddie says.
"What, no you guys nothing happened." Carly says. I see Spencer look at me, then at Aaron, then Freddie. I think he knows something isn't right.
"Actually Aaron you should get going. It's a school night and we are going to have dinner soon." Spencer says. Thank you Spencer!
"Why can't Aaron stay for dinner?" Carly asks. Come on Carly! Get with the program!
"Because he needs to leave" Spencer tells her. Carly shakes her head and then looks at me. I see in her face she finally realizes something is wrong.
"Alright, thanks for having me over. I'll see you guys tomorrow." Aaron says and quickly walks passed us and down the stairs. No one moves or speaks until we hear the front door close. I let out a sigh of relief. Carly turns to me.
"What in the world is going on?" She asks me.
"We have to talk." I tell her. She knows it's not good, I mean are those words ever used in a good way? The phone rings and Spencer leaves to go answer it. Freddie walks closer to us and asks if I'm okay.
"Okay, will someone please tell me what's going on?" Carly demands.
"Come on" I say and walk into her room with Carly and Freddie following. We all sit down and I begin to tell her. "Well I guess it all really started the first time I met Aaron…"
XXXXXX
"And that's why I slapped him a bit ago." I say, finishing the story. Carly stays silent. "I'm sorry Carly. Are you okay?" I ask.
"Am I okay?" She repeats, "Sam… why wouldn't you tell me this?" She looks right at me, she looks so hurt. I mean she as a reason to be, I kept all of this from her. She probably feels like I didn't trust her, which isn't right at all.
"Carly, I'm so sorry. I wanted to but I was just so confused and I didn't know what to do and on top of everything else; I just didn't know…." I say.
"But I'm your best friend, I just feel terrible that you thought you couldn't tell me." She says.
"I know" I say, "You just liked him so much and I didn't have proof_"
"Did you think I wouldn't believe you because I liked him?" Carly asks with a little anger.
"I know it sounds horrible, but I really didn't know and I was just trying to protect you, I didn't want this to hurt you" I say. Carly gets up and sits next to me on the bed.
"Sam" She says softly, "You have to stop trying to protect me, please. You have to tell me things and not keep it bottled up. I know you Sam, you think you have to protect everyone, but just stop. We can do this together. We will get Aaron together." Carly always knows exactly what to say.
"You're the best." I tell her. We hug. I needed that, I needed my best friend.
"So what exactly was your guy's plan?" She asks.
"Freddie was going to try to get Aaron's backpack" I say.
"I see that didn't go so well" She jokes.
"Hey now" Freddie says pretending he is offended. I laugh a little.
"Yeah, it wasn't the best plan ever." I say.
"Clearly" She jokes again.
"I blame Benson" I joke.
"Oh definitely" Carly adds, we both laugh.
"Hey! When did this turn into a pick on Freddie session?" He exclaims.
"Haha, sorry Freddie" Carly says.
"So we need another way to find those papers." Freddie says.
"Mood kill!" I say in a sing song voice jokingly.
"Well we have to think of something." He says. We all think for minute.
"No idea" I say breaking the silence.
"Me either" Carly says.
"Nada" Freddie adds.
"Great, so we have nothing." I say.
"You what I want to know… Why did he even come here in the first place?" Carly asks.
"He said that his dad moves around a lot because of his job." I say.
"I heard that too but there are rumors going around that he got expelled from his last school." Carly says.
"Expelled for what?" Freddie asks.
"I have no idea" Carly responds.
"That's so weird" I say. I knew there was something he was hiding; we have to find out.
"Maybe the reason would be on his school records." Freddie suggests.
"Maybe, but aren't all the student's personal flies locked in Principal Franklin's office?" Carly asks.
"Yeah, behind his desk." Freddie says.
"Well how we would possibly get his records?" I ask, "It's not like Franklin will just hand them over to us and I don't want this stalker information to be brought up without any proof."
"We will just have to break into his office." Freddie says. What? Did Freddie Benson really just suggest that? Carly looks equally surprised.
"You have to be kidding." Carly says, "Freddie, how in the world would we do that! That's insane!"
"We can come up with something." He says.
"I can't believe you are even suggesting this." I say.
"I'm just saying we could_"
"Freddie! Your mom wants you home!" We hear Spencer shout.
"Urrgghh… well we will talk about this later, but I think it could work." He says, "I'll see you guys tomorrow." He grabs his jacket and walks out of Carly's room.
"Okay what was that?" Carly asks me.
"What?"
"Freddie just said we should break into the Principal's office." She says.
"I know, who would have thought" I say. She gives me this weird look. "Why are you looking at me like that, Shay?"
"I think it's because of you" She says.
"Wait, what?" I ask.
"Why, Freddie would want to break into the office; it's totally because of you, you know." She says.
"I think you are losing it. Why would he do that?" I ask.
"Come on Sam! You are obviously wearing off on him, he just suggested breaking into Franklin's office; that is something you would do and he didn't even have to second guess his decision. I know he wouldn't break the rules for just anyone." She says with a goofy smile.
"No. Oh no." I ramble shaking my head. I stand up from the bed. "Freddie is just being a good friend."
"Uh huh" She says not believing it. "You two have been together a lot since everything, without me and without fighting." … I never really thought about that. Crap, she is right. Why is Freddie doing this for me? But I mean he could do it for anyone not just me. Well we haven't been fighting for a while either. And I did tell him all this Aaron stuff before Carly. When did I start going to Freddie for help? Things have been changing between us and I haven't even noticed. When did I get so blind to everything around me?
"I'm going to take your silence as you know what I'm talking about" Carly says.
"Whatever" I say and walk into her bathroom.
"You know I'm right!" She says. I slam the door as my response and I hear Carly laugh on the other side.
XXXXXX
"There is no way this going to work" Carly says for the tenth time. She is really anxious and won't stay still.
"Carly it's a good plan" I say.
"You guys all set?" Freddie says walking up to us.
"There is no way this is going to work" Carly says again.
"It will." Freddie says.
"Let's go." I say. We go and walk into the school office. I walk nonchalant across the office, pretending to read the posters.
"Excuse me, I need to_" I hear Carly turn her sweet charm on and distract the secretary, while I creep back and quietly open the door to Franklin's office. I step inside and start searching for the right file cabinet. It doesn't take long to find it and with my lock picking skills it's open within a few seconds. Come on where is it? I flip through all the files looking for Aaron's.
"Find it?" I hear someone whisper behind me. I jump and whip around.
"Freddie! Don't do that!" I whisper shout at him.
"Sorry. We need to hurry. Carly can't keep asking questions about the copier forever."
"I'm going as fast as I can" I say and turn back to the cabinet. Freddie walks up next to me. He starts to try to flip through the cabinet too, I slap his hands away; they are we getting in the way.
"It's in alphabetical order" He says.
"I know" I say.
"You're going the wrong way." He says and starts thumbing flies the other way. I shove him.
"No, I'm not!" I say.
"There" Freddie says as I grab Aaron's file. He comes closer to me and we open the file.
"Okay transferred from Mountain Hill High School…" Freddie says reading down the file; he starts murmuring off parents' names and his grades and yada yada.
"Wait!" I say as something catches my eye and turn back the page. "Look, it has that he was expelled from his old school before he came here."
"Expelled for what?" Freddie asks.
"It doesn't say" We quickly flip pages trying to find something.
"Whoa" Freddie says and stops on a page with really bad handwriting on it, like doctor looking handwriting. How does anyone read this? I squint and try to figure some of it out. I start to piece some of the words together.
"Is this a court record?" I ask.
"Aaron was accused for harassment and a minor break-in charge a few months ago." He says his voice in utter shock.
"Accused by who? What happened?" I ask.
"A girl named Grace Matthews and nothing happened, the accusations were never brought to court. They were dropped, but Aaron still got expelled from the school." He says.
"What's that?" I point to what looks like a newspaper clipping in his file. Freddie pulls it out. My heart honestly stops. It's a newspaper clipping about Aaron's accusations in a local town paper. I don't even read it, but what stops me is the picture. I'm guessing it's the Grace girl, she is petite with long blond hair and grayish blue eyes.
"That looks like you" Freddie whispers. It's not exactly a match, but you can see the likeness.
"So he has done this before." I whisper. I can't take anymore; I leave Freddie and walk out of the office. I hear him call my name but I don't turn around. I walk passed Carly, she gives me a worried look, but I don't stop again. I practically run down the hall and out the door of the school. I run and stop to breathe by the big oak tree on the side of the school and before I know it my stomach fails me and I throw up, I crotch down and hold my stomach just trying to breathe.
"Deep breaths, Sam. It's alright. Just breathe." I mutter to myself.
"Are you alright?" I hear someone say behind me, but I know exactly who it is. I freeze for a second before I stand and face him.
"Aaron." I say, fear and anger escaping through me just by saying his name.