Chapter Five

The next morning, Brynna drove Sam to the bus stop, on her way to Willow Springs. The air in the car was tense after what happened last night. Sam wanted to get out of the car, not just to escape the intensity of the situation, but she had come up with a plan to break her mother out and she was anxious to tell someone. Finally, the truck came to a stop at the bus stop. Sam put a hand on the door, but before she could open it, Brynna stopped her.

"Sam, is something wrong?" she asked.

A dozen responses raced through Sam's head, but she only said, "No, everything's fine." and quickly got out of the car, leaving her stepmother looking doubtful.

Jen was already there waiting for her, arms crossed. She was dressed in her usual style, bright red jeans, a maroon shirt with cherries all over it and her two braids. She waited until Sam was within earshot and then started.

"Where were you yesterday?" Jen asked. "I tried calling after school, but your gram said you were grounded...What did you do?"

"Okay, before you lecture me, it was for a very good reason," Sam assured her.

Jen gave her a look.

"Really," Sam convinced. "Early yesterday morning, I had this weird dream about the Phantom..."

"Sam!!!" Jen interrupted, but stopped when Sam glared at her. "I'm sorry, go ahead."

"Thank you," Sam said. "It wasn't like others I had of him, he seemed to be telling me something. So, naturally, I had to go out and see what it meant."

"Naturally," Jen commented.

"Jen!" Sam glared again.

"Last time, go ahead," Jen told her.

"Well, I rode out to Aspen Creek, I had no idea why, that's just where he was in my dream. I was nearing Caleb Sawyer's property," Jen sucked in a breath. "and that's when I saw her. My mother. She was working in the garden."

"Sam, Sam, stop," Jen stopped her.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Do you know how ridiculous you sound," Jen told her.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked again, she was confused now.

"What do I mean? Sam, you just said you saw your mother," Jen explained. "She's dead, she's been dead for years. You only think you saw her, because Mother's Day is approaching."

"No, she's not," Sam contradicted. "She's alive and well. Caleb's been hiding her, he wanted my family to think she was dead, so he could have her for himself. But she's alive, trust me...Ask Jake, he saw her too."

"Wait, Jake was there?" Jen asked shocked. "How did he know?"

"That's not important," Sam told her. "What's important is that my mother is being held hostage by a madman and I know just the way to set her free and bring her home."

"I don't like the sound of that," Jen said.

Sam just smiled.

---

When they had arrived at school, Sam had told Jen all about her plan to bring her mother home. While she didn't agree with it, Jen did agree to help her friend out. However there was someone else that would not agree with it, under any circumstances, and Jen insisted on pointing that out.

"Good luck on convincing Jake," Jen called to her as they headed in separate directions toward their first classes.

Sam's first class was history with Mrs. Ely, Jake's mom. She had just slid in her seat when the bell rang. Throughout the class, Sam could hardly concentrate on the current topic, she was too excited about this Saturday. But she also saw Mrs. Ely giving her looks during class and Sam knew it must have something to do with her and her son ditching school yesterday. When the class ended, Sam hurried out of the room before Mrs. Ely had a chance to hold her after.

In her haste, Sam bumped into something or rather someone. They grabbed her arm to keep her from falling and when she looked up, their eyes locked. The world seemed to shrink down to just the two of them. Nobody else existed. Sam didn't know how long they stood like that until the bell broke their trance. Each went their separate ways to their classes, with one last glance at each other.

"No, no, absolutely not," Jake said later that day Sam finished telling him her plan for Saturday. They were about to start working with Sterling and Sam decided to tell Jake before they got started because if she didn't she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the mare.

"Why not?" Sam asked him. "It's a perfectly safe plan."

"Safe?" Jake repeated. "Sam, think about it. The man has a gun. He will not hesitate to shoot you, if you over there again."

"So, you're not going to help me?" Sam walked over to the barn corral and scratched Tempest's nose. "That's okay, I'm sure Jen and I can handle it. I mean we have been through a lot together. Trouble's really nothing to us."

Jake sighed loudly.

Sam smiled to herself. It was working. She could tell that he was having trouble with the decision, by the way he kept scuffing his boot on the ground. Finally, he spoke.

"Fine, I'll go,"

Sam spun around and squealed, "Yay!" Jake took a step back, seeing that she was about to hug him and Sam took the hint, but that didn't hinder her excitement. This Saturday, she, Jake, and Jen were going to get her mother back.

After they had finished working with Sterling, Jake mounted up on Witch, needing to get home. Sam watched him off and then headed into the house, seeing as there was nothing else to do. She had finished her chores before Jake had arrived. Gram was busy with dinner in the kitchen when she entered.

"Dinner will be ready in an hour," she told Sam.

Sam nodded, acknowledging that she heard and continued up to her room. Sam was looking down, so she didn't see Brynna in the hallway and almost collided with her and Cody.

"Oh, sorry," Sam apologized.

"It's okay, Sam," "Brynna smiled. "You look preoccupied, you want to share what's on your mind?"

"No!" Sam quickly answered and ran into her room, closing the door before she could be questioned further. Sam sat down on her bed and sighed. She had no idea how she was going to make it all the way to Saturday without spilling the secret to somebody.

Deciding she needed to get her mind on something else, Sam pulled her backpack up next to her and pulled out her books. She immediately put math aside for later, she didn't feel like getting a headache over numbers right now. Instead, she pulled out english assignment and started working on that, while lying on her stomach, until dinner was ready.