Sam, You Have No Idea How You Make Me Feel...

"Hey, Carter. You want to come over and play Black Ops?" I turned to face Sam and smiled.

"Sure." I started packing my bag, since the school day was over. Oh. Jeesh. He's talking to me again. "Um, what made you start to talking to me again? I mean, ever since I.....I told you about my past." He looked at me and sighed.

"There's nothing I wouldn't do for my best friend. That's behind me now, I want to keep you from getting harmed." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me. I smiled and followed him out the school. We weren't prepared for the group of boys that were waiting outside the doors.

"Hey, dorks." I heard behind me and started running. I only got a few feet before I was sent flying backwards into the doors, hard. "You really think that you would be able to outrun us this time. Face it, you're not athletic." I pushed myself up to face Mark and his stupid friends.

"I would, to get away from your stench of stupidity." Mark's smirk disappeared. Because of my smarty mouth, I was rewarded by a punch in the face. I know they say that boys aren't allowed to hit girls, but apparently, it didn't apply to me or Mark, who's father is the chief of police. Yeah, I know. You'd think that his dad is the chief, he'd be nice to everyone, right? Wrong. He's been bullying me since I moved here from Michigan. My life only got better when Sam showed up and tried stopping Mark from severely hurting me.

"Don't you talk back to me!" He yelled at me as I stood up, wiping blood off my mouth.

"Ever hear of freedom of speech?" I didn't stop to let him answer. "I didn't think so." Since I was surrounded by them, I couldn't run anywhere. Another reason why they think I'm not athletic, when actually, I'm on the track team. They never pay attention to me besides to beat me up. Hello? Earth to Carter! Pay attention.

"You know what? I'm gonna let you off on a warning." Suddenly, I felt some sort of adrenaline rush. Instead of running, I stood there, paralyzed. I couldn't move because of how much energy was flowing into my body. "But, I'm not going to leave you alone until you give me what I want." Even though, I couldn't move, I could still speak.

"What is it? A pencil? Sorry, I'm all out. Maybe later." Only then, did I see Sam from the corner of my eye. I noticed him standing a few feet to my right. Kevin and some of the new recruits were teasing him. My face became beet red and I pushed my crowd aside and stomped over to Sam. "Can't you just leave him alone?! He's done nothing to you. If you want someone to beat up, use me. Not him." I looked around and saw Kevin's truck sitting idly on the curb. I smiled and walked over to the truck, before they could stop me. They weren't expecting this, so they just stood there.

"What are you doing, Carter?" Sam asked. I shook my head, unable to answer because even I didn't know, and looked at Kevin.

"See?" I took my gloves out and grabbed the baseball bat from the back of his truck. "He's done nothing, but this." I laughed and swung the bat to his headlight. When it smashed, I looked up at the boys and saw Kevin staring at me in horror. "This is my fault. Now, beat me up. Leave him out of this." Kevin seemed horrified by what I did, so, blinded by his anger, he charged me. Right then, I felt like a tiger. So, I waited until he was a few feet from me and lept to the side. My feeling of a tigeress was gone. Mark had gotten behind me and grabbed my arms.

"Stop it, now." I thrashed around until Sam entered my vision, that's when I calmed down. What's wrong with me? I thought as Mark pushed me to him. When I fell to the ground, I stayed there.

"Carter?" I heard Sam's voice faintly. Right now, I felt like I had to close my eyes, so that's what I did.

"No!!" Screamed a boy about my age. The tall man in front of them was laughing. "You'll pay for that!" The man on his knees was dying. I tried running towards them, but unable to move, so I was comdemned to sit there and watch as the dying man fell over and became ashes. "Henri!" The boy's hands were glowing and the tall man was dead. I started crying and the glowing boy looked at me. "Don't believe everything you see."

I felt a sharp pain on my hip and bolted upright, gasping. My vision was blurry as hands wrapped aorund my waist and helped me stand up. I felt warmth holding me up and I started asking questions.

"What happened? Why can't I see? Where's Sam?" The person holding me up answered.

"I'm right here, Carter. I'm not leaving your side. I want to make sure you get to the hospital." Hospital? I can't go to the hospital. They'll say stuff like, 'She's delusional,' and 'Put her on medication.' Things like that.

"No. No hospital. I'm fine, just need rest." My vision started coming back to me and I could see the sight in front of me. Sam was next to me, looking concerned. Mark and the others were standing next to the truck, looking at me like I was a freak, which probably I was. I was just getting these visions or dreams or whatever they are. "I'm fine, really. Just get me home." Sam sighed and lead me to his truck which was parked a little ways away from the group of dumbstruck boys.

"Carter." I arched my eyebrows when we were on the road.

"Yes?" I asked when he parked in his driveway.

"You were screaming. That's why I said you should get to a hospital. Do you have any idea what just happened to you?" I looked at his handsome face and opened my mouth. Thinking about it, I closed my mouth and looked at his house.

"I'll tell you when I figure out what's going on myself." He nodded and I sighed. He turned off the car and we both sat in silence. Finally, I felt like I should break the tension, so I opened my mouth to say something when Sam spoke up.

"Was it about my father?" I looked at Sam and saw the look in his eyes. I slowly shook my head.

A WEEK LATER

"Sam." I spoke loudly across the hallway. "I need your help. My locker is not opening." He smiled and walked over to me. Just by his eyes laying on my face, I felt my heart pounding. I don't think I'd ever heard my heart go that fast and hard before. I looked at my locker to watch him get the catch and my heart slowed down. I looked at him again and my body knew what my heart was saying.

"It's simple. You just gotta hit that little latch right there and pull." It opened to reveal my locker full of Sam. I suddenly realize what happened, so, lightning speed, I shut the locker door. Well, it was more like a slam. He was surprised. "I thought you needed your locker open."

"I do. Thanks for helping me out. Um, why don't you head to class and I'll try getting my locker open myself." I smiled the I'm-so-innocent smile and he shrugged.

"Okay. Let me know when you want to talk to me as my best friend." He backed away to go to class. I sighed when he was out of my view and followed his instructions to open my locker. Twenty seconds went by and I finally got my locker open. Looking around the hallway to make sure no one was watching me and stuffed all my pictures of Sam into my bag. "Never again, am I gonna have him open my locker again." I slammed my locker shut and headed to a boring day at school. With the school day over and Sam at science club, I decided to walk home, alone.

"I'm going in alone." The boy told the driver. "Don't try to follow me. It's not safe for you." The driver looked at his passenger and I saw that it was Sam. He looked disappointed.

"I'm going in. I don't care what you say. You chose me for this. I'm not turning my back on this chance to find out what happened to my father." His eyes went back to the road.

"It's too dangerous for you. I don't want you killed. These guys are not what you think they are." Sam looked at him and he changed his mind. "Okay, I take that back."

"My father was kidnapped by those Modagorians. I want to find him and get revenge. But, Henri is your friend. I'll stay in the car." Sam finally gave in. The boy faced the road also.

"Good." Pause. "And, don't worry about Carter. She'll be safe. I'll get her out of there." Sam looked at the boy in bewilderment.

"Carter's in there?!" His eyes went reluctantly to the road. "Why didn't you tell me, John? Now, I'm going in there. I don't care what you say." He looked at the boy and back at the road. "She's the only person, besides my father, that I love. I can't lose her. I just can't. I can't lose another one to those Modagorians." Sam looked off into the distance and the boy in the passenger looked at me and spoke meaningless words again.

"Love can save."

I bolted up again and started panting. What did that mean? I really need to see someone about these visions. Figure out what they mean. I stood up and brushed myself off, like this happened to me every day. I heard an engine rev and looked up. Across the street, three people were standing on the porch of the old house. I frowned and one the adults standing there looked at me and waved. I waved back and headed home. That night, I laid in bed, thinking about the vision and tried thinking about what is means. At school, I didn't expect to see who I saw. I arrived at the school and was looking for Sam, when I found him in the front yard. He was having a chat with Mark. I sighed and walked over to their little group and interrupted Marks' talking.

"-stay away from her. Got it?" Sam was about to nod, when I pepped up.

"Stay away from who, Mark? Your EX-girlfriend?" I grabbed Sam's arm and started pulling him away. "You don't control anyone. You're not the lord, though you should really consider dying so that you can." I heard Sam chuckle and I smiled. I looked back at Mark and saw him speechless. Smiling even bigger, I dragged my best friend to the other side of the lawn. As we sat down to do some homework before school, I heard a camera shutter go off, meaning someone was taking a picture. I looked up from my History homework to see Sarah with a camera, snapping away at us. I sighed and ignored her. She'd become nicer to me when she broke up with Mark, saying how sorry she was for bullying me. I forgave her and now we were just friends, nothing more. We both had our crowd. Her and her girl friends. Me and my best friend. We were nice to each other, but never really hung out. Anyway, back to the story. I saw her taking pictures of us and as I bent my head down, I heard the familiar car engine revving. I looked up again and saw that same car that was parked in the driveway of the old house. They must have bought it. The truck parked and a teenager got out. He was too far away for me to tell what he looked like, so I decided to see what he looked like later.

"Carter?" I turned to Sam. "Can you help me with this question? I can't seem to get it." Without further ado, I stopped looking at the new kid and helped Sam with his History question. The bell rang and Sam and I grabbed our stuff and headed in the school. In the meantime, looking for the new kid. I felt warmth leave my side, but I dismissed it. I wasn't thinking right now. All I was doing was trying to find him. Looking ahead of me, I saw him. He was walking with Sarah, talking about something, I didn't know. I was going to dismiss it when he looked behind him at me. His face stopped me on my tracks. My body may have been frozen, but my mind was racing.

"Oh, god." I whispered. "It's him. John. He's here. Why is this happening to me. This is not good. Not good at all." He looked at me, frowning, like he recogized me, but couldn't really place me. I felt faint. Very faint. "Is Henri your father?" It was small, but somehow he heard me. With a light nod, he answered and went back to listening to Sarah. My nausous feeling was overwhelming, so I decided to fall asleep. So, technically, I fainted right in the crowd of people. John and Henri are here!!!!!! Why?! This can't be a coinidence. At. All.