Sam had been awake for an hour by the time her alarm went off. She had taken that time to assess herself. She felt better today. More like herself on a good day. Yesterday had been terrible. Well... not terrible in terms of things that happened, but terrible in herself. In the version of herself that she had been yesterday. On the bad days, she had to work so hard to function and interact with the world around her. Her brain felt like it was wading through mud. She muddled up words and thoughts. Everything needed a script and any deviation left her panicked. She felt weak and stupid after the bad days. Like a small pointless thing.

But today felt like it was going to be good day. She hadn't spent half the night poring over every social interaction and little thing she had done that might need correcting. Instead, she had slept almost all the way through and now she felt rested and energised. She could face school without feeling like she was going to melt down halfway through. And she had Eddie to look forward to. He had kissed her and asked her out on a date! She wrapped her arms around herself and hugged herself tightly.

There was a small possibility that he might laugh at her, that the entire thing had been a joke at her expense and she was in for humiliation today but she pushed that thought aside. That was a yesterday thought. Today was not a day for such a defeatist attitude. Of course, there was always the chance that she had imagined the whole thing. That it was nothing more than a pleasantly deranged daydream that she had come up with as she walked home last night. That was the problem with living so much in your own head, sometimes it could be difficult to distinguish the plans and dreams from reality. She had had that happen before. There had been times when she had scripted out whole interactions in her head only to find later that she couldn't remember if she had ever followed up with a real-life conversation. She usually had to check afterwards. It always helped to have some kind of physical evidence to prove it had happened but she had nothing from her conversation with Eddie. That was fine. She'd figure out a way to discuss it with him regardless. Maybe make a joke out of it. Self-deprecation was a useful tool. She could use that to ease her way into the conversation with him.

The hallways were busy when she arrived at school so she ducked and weaved around other students as she made her way through the crowds. Today was a good day for physical coordination. She easily sidestepped people, not bumping into anyone, leaving enough space between herself and everyone else that she didn't have to worry about anyone touching her. A trio of senior girls stepped in front of her as she walked, possibly on purpose to get in her way, but she smoothly stepped around them, pressing her back against a locker. She could feel the cool metal through her shirt and she dropped her hand to touch her fingers against it behind her back. Smooth and cool. Not a great feeling but not bad. Adequate.

"What are you smiling at, weirdo?" The lead girl glared at her. Sam ducked her head and moved away from them. Was she smiling? Ohhh, yes she was. Not a big smile but a little curve of her lips. It felt nice. Pleasant. Better than the feel of the metal against her fingers.

She kept her gaze low as she made her way to her locker. Halfway there, she saw a familiar pair of beat-up black boots in her path. She raised her eyes. Black ripped jeans. Chains. Band t-shirt. Metallica... She let her lips feel out the word. The T was very sharp but the M and the Ls were soft. The C was a nice bounce at the end. She kept raising her eyes until she met Eddie's. He was grinning as he watched her approach. Then suddenly he stepped to the side and held out his hand in a sweeping gesture to allow her to pass by. She felt her lips curve more. A bigger smile. Almost showing teeth. She dropped her eyes from his and continued to her locker. As much as she wanted to talk to him, a crowded hallway minutes before the warning bell rang was not the time or place to do it. She'd wait until lunchtime or after school. That way, she wouldn't feel rushed and no-one would overhear and make fun of her.

The morning passed. Her first class was Math, which helped focus her on her schoolwork. Lots of logic and no having to guess what things meant. English afterwards, which was less of a struggle now that she knew how the teachers wanted her to interpret the works they studied in class. Middle school had been terrible for English. She had foolishly thought that they wanted her opinions on the stories and poetry they studied. Now she knew that they didn't. They just wanted her to regurgitate the opinions from the textbooks back at them. That was easy. Similarly with essays. Make them as bland as possible. Definitely do not include dragons. Dragons were cute in elementary school but had no place beyond that. In middle and high school, English teachers hated dragons.

At lunchtime, Sam decided to seek out Eddie. She needed to know about their date. As she walked towards his locker, she saw him chatting to one of the other senior boys in his club. He wasn't like Eddie, Gareth, Jim or Jeff. He didn't play in their band, just in Hellfire. She didn't know his name. As she approached, she caught a snippet of their conversation. Eddie was speaking. "... Look, if you want to shake up your character for the next campaign, no worries. It would just be useful for me to have a rough idea of what class you're going for. If you're not going to be a spellcaster, we may have to level up Jim to compensate."

Maybe she should come back later. She didn't want to interrupt their conversation. But the other boy had noticed her walking towards them and then Eddie turned towards her too. It would look weird if she changed direction now when she was so obviously approaching them. Her eyes flickered from one face to the other. The other boy was frowning but Eddie was smiling at her. She tried to keep her smile to a minimum, just enough to let him know she wasn't sad or angry or any other bad emotion but not enough for the other boy to see how happy she was at seeing Eddie. She didn't know if he wanted his friends to know they were dating.

"Um... Hi." Stop staying 'um', Samantha. Her fifth grade teacher's voice in her head. "Could I talk to you?"

Eddie grinned at her and nodded, pulling a handful of hair in front of his mouth as he did so. He wasn't playing it very cool if he didn't want people to know about them. Maybe he didn't care. He didn't seem to care a lot about what people thought about him. He slapped the other boy on the shoulder without taking his eyes off Sam. "Let me know next week, man. It'll give me time to plan." Then he gestured to Sam to lead the way. That was an easy gesture to interpret. Most of Eddie's were. He was dramatic and physically demonstrative and easier to understand than most people. But he also had big emotions and sometimes that could be confusing. And slightly scary, even if she didn't want to be scared by him.

She walked to the door that lead to the far end of the car park. Most people were in the cafeteria at this time so this area should be pretty quiet. Once they were outside, Eddie leaned his shoulder against the wall of the building and looked at her. She let out a shaky breath, and wrapped her arms around her waist. "So..." Stop starting sentences with 'so', Samantha. Shut up, Mrs Mulhearn! "So, I may have taken leave of my senses and dreamed that you asked me out last night..."

The corner of Eddie's mouth twitched. "Sounds more like a nightmare to me."

That wasn't part of the script. Sam glanced up at him with confusion. He thought going out with her would be a nightmare? The skin around his eyes was crinkled again. She licked her lips, nervously, and asked, "Teasing?"

His smile widened and he nodded. "Teasing." Ok, that's what he looks like when he's teasing me. Nice teasing. She felt a pleasant little rush. Chose to ignore it for now. She needed to get through this conversation.

She went back to staring at his chest again. If she looked at his face while she felt like this, she would blush and he would know the effect he was having on her. "I was wondering what you have planned for it? Our date, I mean."

"You don't want it to be a surprise?" That tone is also teasing. Sam filed that away for future. It would be useful to know.

She shook her head. She didn't deal well with surprises or spontaneity. There were too many variables and she couldn't possibly account for all of them. "I want to know so I can plan." Surely he would understand that. After all, he had said to the other boy about needing to know about his character so he could plan their campaign. Gareth had told her about D&D once when she was at his house with her parents. Enough that she had a basic understanding of the concepts.

"Depends on what you'd like to do. We could go to a movie. Or dinner. Or gatecrash Amber's party. Whatever you want..." His chest moved as he shrugged, the fabric of his shirt pulling taut over his muscles before relaxing again.

Sam considered. They had already watched movies last night. It wasn't a date but they had already done it. And they couldn't talk during a movie. Usually that would be a big point in its favour but she found herself wanting to talk to Eddie, to get to know him better. She couldn't even contemplate going to a party. She may as well save his time by melting down in front of him right here and then going mute and semi-catatonic for the rest of the day. Dinner seemed like a good option. They could talk between the two of them and she wouldn't have to converse much with anyone else except the waiter or waitress. Waitstaff were easy. There were only a few scripts to follow and they were always pleasant when you were polite. You never had to deal with any big unexpected emotions when ordering food.

"Dinner would be nice."

She saw his mouth pull into a wider smile. "Dinner it is, then. Is Benny's good for you?"

Benny's was perfect. She hadn't been there in a few months but they hung the menu outside the door so she could check it on her way home from school today to see if anything had changed. That would give her a couple of days to think about what she might want to eat and what would be an acceptable alternative if her first choice was unavailable. Usually, it would be busy with kids her age on a Friday night but if Amber was having a party, it was likely that most of the junior and senior students would be there. At least she guessed they would. She'd never been to one of Amber's parties but she had overheard other students talking about them and they seemed to attract all the popular kids.

"Benny's is good. Um... can I make one request?" Best to get this one out quickly. It was weird but she'd feel happier once she asked. "Would you be ok if we didn't dress up? Just wore normal everyday clothes?"

Eddie's tone sounded teasing again when he answered, "You don't want to dress up for me, beautiful?" There was something else in there as well. She couldn't quite identify it but it made her shiver. Made her want to press her legs together.

She shook her head, trying to dislodge that feeling from her mind. She couldn't feel like that at school. It would have to wait until later when she was alone in her room. "No. If I do, it won't feel right. It'll be all I can concentrate on because being dressed up, it's distracting. I don't want to have to worry about whether the collar on my dress is annoying or whatever. I want to be able to focus on you."

Silence from Eddie. He wrapped his arms around his chest and tucked his hands under his armpits. She had never seen him do that before. Had she angered him? Disappointed him? She risked a glance at his face. He was staring at her intensely. Too intensely. Suddenly his look changed. Softened. He licked his lips. "Yeah," his voice sounded kind of hoarse. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, that's a good reason. Not that you need one. You can wear whatever you want. And I'll do the same. So I can focus on you too." He said the last part at a very low volume and she wondered if she was meant to hear it at all.

Sam dropped her eyes and smiled to herself. That was easy. He was easy. She liked that. She didn't have to negotiate with him for concessions. And he seemed to understand when she explained her reasoning. He teased her, sure, but it was friendly teasing. She nodded, still staring at the floor. "Thank you. I should go. And you should too. You'll miss lunch otherwise." She didn't want him going hungry because of her.

"Sure... Pick you up at seven at your place on Friday?"

She nodded, still smiling as she turned to re-enter the building. She looked back briefly as she opened the door. Eddie was leaning fully against the wall now, his upper back pressed to it, head thrown back. He had thrust his hands into his jeans pockets and he was smiling as he stared at the sky.

She looked up at where he was staring. Despite the overcast morning, she could see little bits of blue sky peaking through the cloud. She decided she would collect her homemade sandwich from her locker and go for a walk in the woods today as she ate lunch. It would help her relax and get her on track for the afternoon. The teachers didn't like students leaving the grounds but she didn't do it often, usually opting to walk around the athletic track instead if it was empty during the lunch hour. Rainy days were spent in the library or sometimes in the cafeteria. But today was a day for the woods. Lovely, dark and deep. She popped the P under her breath. The teachers wouldn't be bothered by her leaving. She was a good student and she followed nearly all the other rules. When you were good at school or your job and were polite and followed all the big rules, people sometimes allowed you to break the smaller ones. There was no rhyme or reason to it that she could identify, but it was something she had learned over the years. And she didn't take advantage of it enough.