"Morning all." I announce my presence as I always do, by just walking into the attic. Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde are all gathered round the computer on Sarah Jane's desk. "Ah, Asha. Good morning to you too." Sarah Jane responds. Luke grinned at me. "We just got off a call with Maria." He told me, sounding really happy. I grin back. "How are the Jackson?" I ask, only slightly hesitantly. I've never met them, preferring to give the gang some time to actually enjoy talking to her rather than me feeling awkward. "Yeah, they're both doing good. Maria's still enjoying school to the usual degree." He tells me. "Is that the human usual, or our usual?" I joke, the two of us laughing at that. It's our inside joke for when we see things differently to normal humans. Clyde faked a laugh. "Enjoying school to any degree is weird." He declares, walking over to the table football. I roll my eyes as I follow him over to play a game.
"Have any of you heard from Rani?" Sarah Jane asked about an hour later. By this point, we had evolved from just table football to an entire tournament style league. I was winning, significantly. Although, at the moment, Clyde and Luke were playing, so I was carrying on with an essay due on Friday. "I haven't seen her since yesterday." I respond from where I was sat, glancing up at her briefly. "Not since she came round earlier." Clyde said, the boys stopping their game in order to fully pay attention to Sarah Jane. "Gita just phoned. Rani told her she was spending the day with us." Sarah Jane sounds...frustrated? Disappointed? I'm not quite sure, but she's defiantly not happy. "Why would she lie to her mum?" Luke asked. I pulled out my phone to call her. This isn't usual Rani behaviour. I dialed Rani, ignoring the others as they discussed how to find out where she went. I'm getting really worried, she's not picking up. "She's not answering me. This is strange, Rani wouldn't just run away. Would she?" I ask. Luke shrugs, obviously thinking the same as me. Clyde bursts back into the attic. When did he leave? Must have been while I was trying to call Rani. He's out of breath and clutching a piece of paper. "She got an email from an old mate. Sam Lloyd. Danemouth. Missing people. So many stairs." He pants, bending down to rest his hands on his knees. "Danemouth? Isn't that where Rani used to live?" Luke asked. "Yeah, she's mentioned Sam a few times. Her best friend, only, he stopped talking to her a while back." I remember that ice cream party. She was devastated. Couldn't work out what was wrong, but didn't want to push him too hard. "I thought I could trust her!" Sarah Jane gritted out. What? what's that supposed to mean? "Mum?" Luke questioned, as shocked as I was. "Rani's been telling this boy about everything we do! Mr. Smith, I need you!" She calls. Hang on, Rani, rule-follower of the group, broke Sarah Jane's golden rule? And not only that, never followed it to begin with? Rani must really trust Sam. I hope Sarah Jane doesn't get too angry with her. While I understand that Rani has broken her trust in a very huge way, at the end of the day, we're only human. "Sam Lloyd. 15. Living in a town called Danemouth. Can you find him?" Sarah Jane asked, still sounding furious. "Searching. Samuel Lloyd. Born 23rd June, 1994. Currently resides in the Saint Anthony's Children's Home." Mr. Smith recites. "He's in care?" Sarah Jane asks, taken aback. I don't think that's quite what she had been expecting. "His parents died in 2001 in a car accident." Mr. Smith reveals. My heart breaks for him. that must have been awful. Sarah Jane shares this though. "Poor kid. Come on." She says, dashing toward the door. "Where're we going?" I ask. "Danemouth." She tells us, acting like it's obvious. I mean, it was, but I still wanted to ask.
When we reach the Home, Sarah Jane insists that she does the talking. We are led to his room. Sarah Jane knocked on the door. A voice from inside calls out. "It's open. Clyde Langer, Luke Smith, Sarah Jane Smith, Asha Yamamoto." We entered the room. There's a boy, Sam, lying on his bed. "Alright, Sammy? How are things?" Clyde asks energetically. He likes meeting new people, however he can be a bit overwhelming if you aren't used to him. "My name is Sam." he deadpans, sitting up slightly. "Yeah, Rani told us about you. Said you were good mates." Clyde tried not to be hurt by the way his outstretched hand was ignored. "Yeah. We were." Sam says, not sounding overly thrilled to have us there. "I know about your parents. It's not easy, is it?" Sarah Jane asks. I cringe at that. Maybe not the best way of getting information out of someone. "I was just a kid. I'm fine" Sam says, walking to his window. "My parents died when I was young. I know it's never fine." Sarah Jane told him. I face palm quietly. That's even more awkward. "I'll tell you where Rani is. You don't have to be nice to me." He then turns to face us again. "She's with her." With a bit of an emphasis on her. "Okay? Anymore details? Or is 'her' all we're getting?" I ask. "There's a demon at the pleasure park, according to some kid. I thought Rani might know what to do about it." He shrugged. I don't think he likes us all that much. To be fair, he's probably pretty jealous of us, he seems lonely, and we've got his only friend. "Okay, thank you, Sam." Sarah Jane says, gesturing for us all to start heading outside.
"A demon?" Luke asks, not entirely sure what to think of the description. "No, must be an alien." Clyde said dismissively. "We've got to get to the park and find Rani." Sarah Jane stops after Clyde says that. "Someone should stay here and talk to Sam. He knows more than he's telling." She tells us. "I can do it. I've been told I'm quite a good listener." I volunteer. "I'll stay with Asha." Luke speaks up. Sarah Jane nods at us, which we take as a dismissal. "Come on, Miss Smith. I still need you." Clyde jokes, putting a hand on Sarah Jane's arm as they turn to walk away.
We head back into Sam's room. "Why are you still here?" He asks after a few minutes of awkward attempts at conversation. "We want to get to know you." Luke says, looking up from Sam's bookcase. "Yeah, you're really important to Rani, which means we want to get to know you because it's important to her." I say casually. "She's not my friend. Not anymore." He denies quickly. I furrow my eyebrows. Rani obviously wasn't aware of this change in status. Luke and I exchange glaces. "What do you mean?" Luke asks, turning more towards Sam. "You ever had someone leave you? Someone you thought would be your best friend forever?" He asks, looking at his hands as he says this. A memory stirs, but not in the way of pictures, more like flashes of comfort and happiness. A voice promising to keep me safe, even if I couldn't see him. "Yeah. I think so." I answered, trying to remember more about the Spaceman, as I called him. He did have a name, once upon a time. All I remember about him now are the red shoes and the big brown coat. "I had a friend called Maria. She moved to America." Luke told him, happy to finally have something to connect to Sam with. "Yeah, but you had your mum. And Clyde. And you got your mum and dad." He shot back. "Well, that's a bit of an overstatement. Dad died before I was born, and Mum defiantly prefers her husband to me." I wish I could keep my mouth shut. Sam winces when I say that. "Sorry. But you see my point, right?" He does sound sorry. "It's fine. I get it. And not to sound rude, but didn't you have other friends?" I ask. I am now concerned about Sam, because that just sounds concerning. "No." He tells us, getting up and walking toward his mirror. "But there are kids here. Kids you could be friends with. You don't have to be alone." Oh, Luke. You sweet, naive child. "Kids aren't always the kindest, Luke. You got lucky that Maria was kind. Clyde is Clyde, he grows on you like a fungus. I was lucky when I got here that You, Clyde and Rani got to me quickly, otherwise the cycle would have repeated again. It's not easy making new friends." I remind him gently. "Besides, I'm not alone." Sam says, his back turned on us. Oh, my, gosh there is a red face in his mirror! "Sam...what is that?" I ask, as calmly as possible, grabbing hold of Luke's hand. "I want to know who Luke Smith is." The face says as Sam grabs Luke's other arm. He stifles a gasp. "Luke! What're you doing to him?" I demand, so close to just ripping Sam's hand off him, but very much aware of the effect that could have on Luke. "She can read timelines. It's okay, she's just showing him his." Sam assures me. I want to glare at him, but he seems to genuinely think that Luke will be okay, so I refrain. Suddenly, Luke snapped out of it, almost falling over as he stumbles. "Luke! You're okay. You're good?" I ask once he's regained his balance. He stares at me for a second, before giving me a hug. I'm confused, but go with it. While we are normally very affectionate, the only times he initiates hugs are when I've done something that scared him. I let him take as long as he needs before he pulls away.
"What just happened?" He pulls his phone out of his pocket, going to call Sarah Jane. "Calling mummy?" Sam mocks. "Hey, leave him alone." I glared at him, still worried about what Luke had seen that rattled him so badly. "Don't you think that was a bit...weird?" Luke asked him, defensively. He's put his phone down, though. "You're the weird one. You're not even human." Oh, he did not just go there. "Yes he is!" I snap back at him. Sue me, I'm defensive of Luke. Plus, I know that his origins are a sore spot, so Sam taking a poke at it is massively out of order. "I saw him. He was made. Like Frankenstein." Sam digs further. "Actually, I'm more like the creature. Frankenstein was the man who made the creature." Luke corrects him. I'm so proud that he specified creature, not monster. Sam sighed when he sat back on his bed. "Rani said you were both clever." Luke sat down next to him. Okay, but they look like they could be brothers. "She said a few things about you as well." Luke smiled shyly at him. "What'd you mean?" Sam seems really insecure about his friendship with Rani. "She was devastated when you started ignoring her." I told him. I'm really sorry, Rani, but he deserves to know about this. "Yeah, right." He scoffed. "She was too busy to be upset. She kept going on about you, and Clyde and Sarah Jane and space and Sontarans and I was stuck here, by myself! I couldn't listen to it anymore!" He ranted, sounding so sad and hurt. "Rani told you about what we do. Do you know..." Luke starts, trailing off when I shake my head at him. Sam won't see it how we do because he's outside. I then realised something. "Sam...why did you ask Rani to come down?" I ask cautiously. "You tricked her into coming here!" Luke exclaimed angrily. "I didn't trick her! I asked her to come." He defends himself. "Why? Because someone saw something in a theme park?" Luke shoots back. "You've been ignoring her for months." I remind him. "I was scared." He admits, swallowing slightly. "It was you, wasn't it." I ask quietly. "You went into the park. You met the demon." Luke said accusingly. "She's not a demon! She's called Eve, and she's my friend!" That's actually quite sweet, if you think about it. Sam sighed. "She...she read my mind. And because I knew about Rani meeting aliens and that...so did she." "So, she wanted you to bring Rani here?" Luke asked. Sam made eye contact with him. "Eve won't hurt her." He promised. "Can you swear on that? 100%" I prod Luke gently, nodding my head towards the door. "Sam, I'm going to get some drinks. Do you want anything?" I ask, Luke already walking out. "Just some water, please. And, Asha." I turn back to him. "I really am sorry." I just smiled at him before joining Luke in the kitchen
"Hey, are you okay? That vision really shook you up." I say, gently taking a trembling hand into mine. Luke looked at me, and I realised just how young he actually is. "It's just...she showed me my past. My activation day. Even a bit before. I was used as a human experiment." Luke admits to me. I'm shocked. "What do you mean?" I ask quietly. "Bubble Shock! didn't work on 2% of the population. Mrs. Wormwood wanted to use all the data gathered inside me to improve the recipe and turn it to 100% effective." I suddenly realise something. "That's why you can stomach pretty much anything. You're taste buds..." I trail off. Luke just nods. "I'm really sorry, Luke." I pull him into another hug, leaning my head against his shoulder. We stand like that for another minute before I pull away to pour our drinks. We walk back upstairs to Sam's room. "Sam, they didn't have regular cups, so..." I trail off when I see that there's no Sam in the room anymore. There's a note on his computer screen that reads: It's not Eve who wants Rani. What's that supposed to mean? Luke pulls his phone out of his pocket. "Mum, it's Sam. He's disappeared. He told us about someone called Eve. And, there was a face in his mirror. Mum...he showed me my future." He listened to what Sarah Jane said before reassuring her that he was fine. He then passed the phone to me. "Asha, is he actually alright?" Is the first thing she says. I look up at him. He's stood behind me where I'm sat on Sam's chair at his desk, death staring me. I think he knows what his Mum asked. "He's currently giving me a death stare. He's as okay as he can be. Don't worry. I'll look after him. It's what we do." I promise. She sighs. "Okay. You both stay there. I'll call if we need anymore help." With that, she hangs up. I silently hand Luke his phone back. He sits back down on Sam's bed. "Mum wants us to go through his computer, check his emails...things like that." Luke says after a few seconds. I sigh. "I don't feel comfortable doing that." He shrugs in agreement. "Same."
We pass the time by quizzing each other on things for our next biology test. We do this for close to 20 minutes before Sarah Jane calls us. "Hey, how'd it go?" I ask once the call connects. "Well, Eve, Sam and Harry are now travelling through space together." She starts. emWho's Harry?/em I mouth at Luke. He shrugs, so I don't feel as bad asking out loud. "Harry?" "Caretaker of the park. He's been something like a father to Eve." Sarah Jane clarifies. That's sweet. "So, are you coming to us, or are we going to you?" I ask. "We'll come to you. Also, I have wonderful news! K-9 is coming home...permanently." Yes! K-9's really cool. I've only met him once, when he circled round to check in on Sarah Jane. Luke grinned. "Brilliant! Why?" He asked. "Well, turns out that Ship uses black holes as fuel. So now K-9 doesn't need to look after it anymore, so he's free to come out." She explains, sounding really happy. "That's great news. Luke and I will be outside when you get here." I hang up. Just before I walk past Luke, he grabs my arm. "Hey, so you mind not telling Mum about earlier? I really don't want to worry her." He gives me the dreaded puppy eyes. I dare you to try and say no to him when he uses them. I crumple like wet paper. "Okay. But you know that I'm here if you ever need to talk. Okay?" He nods. "Now come on. Sarah Jane and the others will be back soon." I pull him outside just as they get there.
We all run into the attic, eager to see K-9. We all start getting into position for a picture, trying to get K-9 to say "Cheese!" It's times like these where I'm the happiest, squashed between some of my favourite people in the world, all just happy to be together. And I wouldn't trade it for anything.
an: This chapter is combining both parts together, but considering that most of this episode focuses on Rani, I thought it would be better to do it like this. Anyways, as usual, I don't own Sarah Jane or anyone other than Asha.