(sammi's outfit for this part of the chapter)

The Mendoza family, including Sammi, have been anxiously waiting for Lucas' grades to be posted. Sammi hasn't been able to spend a lot of time with Lucas since he was working on school stuff for the past few weeks. She just hoped that his grades were good because he deserved good grades for all the work he did. During all that time he was studying, she had been trying to work more on her music and even finished a song she had been working on whenever she would be alone in her room.

She was too shy and insecure to show her musical talents to the world for right now. Despite her shyness and insecurity about her musical talents she had always wanted to become a famous musician one day. But for now she's taking general college classes because she doesn't know what else she would rather do than be a musician.

Katie had been busy working and studying so Alexa and Sammi decided on having a movie marathon to give Katie a break. She and Alexa were currently in the kitchen, organizing the candy they had bought to bring with them to the theater.

Sammi looks up when the side door opens, and she smiles at the familiar blonde who lives next door. "Hi, Katie." Katie smiled and waved at her.

Alexa glances up and smiles at Katie. "Hey. Okay, so there's a prison break movie then a love story." She grins. "So it's an ex-con, rom-com marathon."

Sammi tilts her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows upon seeing the sad expression on Katie's face. "I have good news and bad news." Katie informed Alexa and Sammi.

Alexa frowns. "Don't tell us you can't go to our movie marathon."

Katie slowly nods. "Okay." She sheepishly smiles. "Uh...I am no longer free for our cinematic adventure."

Sammi chuckles lightly and shakes her head. "Creative way of telling us you can't go."

Katie smiles a bit. "Thanks."

"So," Sammi frowns. "Why can't you go?"

Katie sighs sadly. "I have to cover a shift at Wired."

"Oh, man." Alexa groans. She smiles upon remembering something. "Well, what's the good news?"

"Oh! Yeah," Katie nods and smiles. "The good news..." Sammi raised her eyebrows at Katie the more silent she was. She had a feeling that Katie didn't have any good news. 

Sammi chuckles. "You don't have any good news, don't you?"

Katie shakes her head. "Oh, I got nothing." She cringes, scratching the side of her forehead. "I really thought I picked up something on the spot."

Alexa exhales. "Well," She glances at Sammi. "I guess we don't need these anymore." She then took out the candy that she hid in her hoodie pocket and pants pockets and even what she hid in her sleeve. 

"Oh, and hey, before I go, rapid fire catch-up?" Katie inquired, looking at Alexa and Sammi hopefully.

"Of course." Sammi nodded.

Katie points at Alexa as the three girls went to sit at the kitchen table. "Go!"

"Alright. Well, we're all waiting for Lucas' semester grades to get posted." Alexa informs Katie. She shakes her head. "Still so odd he cares about school." She points at Katie. "Go."

"Uh, we thought Jack got his yellow belt in Taekwondo." Katie shakes her head. "Turns out he just hadn't washed it." She points at Sammi. "Go."

"I did really good with all of my classes. I have no social life and no clue what I'm doing with my future. And I think I'm starting to have feelings for someone." Sammi said, putting emphasis on the word 'and'. She smiles but it didn't meet her eyes. She points at Alexa. "Go."

"Wait," Alexa looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. "You have a social life."

"Besides Lucas, my only friends are younger than me." Sammi pointed out. She shakes her head. "And I hang out here, like, all the time 'cause that's where my friends are at, and I live here."

"Well, that's not bad." Alexa reassures her. She sends her a small smile. "I mean, at least you have friends, right?"

"Yeah, I guess it isn't that bad." Sammi agreed with the other brunette-haired girl.

"Back up," Katie's eyes widen when she realized something. She points at Sammi. "You like someone?" She grins excitedly. "Who is it?" 

Alexa smirks at Sammi. "Is it Lucas? I bet it's Lucas."

Sammi scoffs, pretending to act like he's not the person she's talking about even though she felt her face heat up. "What? No. We're enemies."

"You were enemies." Alexa corrects her. "Now you're frenemies." She smiles. "Which means you two are closer than you were before."

Sammi bites lower lip nervously, eying Alexa's phone when it suddenly dings. Saved by the ding, Sammi thought as she let out a sigh of relief. Alexa glances at her phone and then looks at Sammi, pointing at the British girl. "This talk isn't over." She looks at her phone and sighs. "Things are still off with Spencer." She glances at Katie. "Go."

Katie furrows her eyebrows. "How off? Go."

"Well, we barely talked since Christmas." Alexa replies. "He just texts memes that don't make sense." 

"What? Here," Katie gestures for Alexa to give her phone to her. "Let me see. I can figure it out." Alexa handed her phone to Katie and Katie glanced at the meme Spencer sent Alexa. She flipped Alexa's phone upside down with furrowed eyebrows. "What? Oh, wait, if you go like that..." She tilted her head to the side and Sammi couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips at her friend's antics.

"Yeah," Kaite sits up straighter, shaking her head. "I got nothing." She hands Alexa's phone to Sammi. "Here, Sam. Maybe you can figure it out."

Sammi takes Alexa's phone from Katie, furrowing her eyebrows upon looking at the meme. "Okay, yeah. This makes no sense." She shakes her head, handing Alexa her phone back. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Alexa assures her. "I kind of figured you and Katie wouldn't figure it out either. It's really confusing."

"Do you think things changed after you helped shave his head and almost kissed?" Katie inquired.

Sammi looks at Alexa with surprise. She knew Alexa was helping Spencer shave his head, but she didn't know that Alexa and Spencer almost kissed. "This is news to me. What happened?"

Alexa takes a deep breath. "Okay, I went over to Spencer's the other night to check on him since I knew he was losing his hair and long story short I helped shaved his head and we kinda almost kissed."

Sammi looks at her with wide eyes. "Wow." She furrows her eyebrows, looking at Alexa with confusion. "Wait, I thought you might still have feelings for Dylan."

Alexa sighs. "I don't know. I'm still not sure Spencer and I almost kissed." A confused look forms on her face. "I mean, we almost kissed until we almost didn't kiss." She shakes her head. "If that's even what almost happened." Katie and Sammi stared at her with confusion.

Katie narrows her eyes at the brunette-haired girl. "I almost understood that."

Sammi raises her eyebrows at the blonde-haired girl, who sat across from her. "Really? I didn't understand it at all."

Katie chuckles quietly and shakes her head. "Um, you know, I'm-I'm sure with all that he's going through and all you've been through," She sends a reassuring smile to Alexa. "It's just complicated."

Alexa nods. "Yeah, exactly. And that's why me and Spencer are just friends."

Sammi nods slowly, wanting to ask if that's what she wanted but decided not to. "Oh, I better go." Katie said as she stood up.

Alexa stands up along with Katie. "Okay, but I'm gonna find something fun for us to do." She glances at Sammi with a smile. "And you're always more than welcomed to join us with whatever I come up with for us to do."

Sammi smiles back at Alexa. "Thanks, Lex."

"Great! Great!" Katie smiles, walking over to the kitchen island where the candy was at. "And I'm just gonna take a little candy for the road." At first, she only grabbed a few candy bags, but then she grabbed half of the candy. 

Sammi watched her with amusement as the blonde tried to open the door with her hands full. "Your grades are posted." As Alexa went over to help Katie leave, Sammi turns around when she heard Lori speak. She smiles upon seeing her, Dave, and Lucas walk in. She noticed that Lucas also held his laptop. "Read 'em. Read 'em!" The second time Lori said 'read 'em' she spoke in a more urgent and demanding tone which made Dave, Lucas, and Sammi look at her with surprise.

Lori smiles sweetly, folding her hands in front of her, now speaking in a calmer voice. "Read 'em."

Sammi gets up and follows the Mendoza's to the living room while Lucas sat on the couch. Sammi went over to stand by Alexa, who stood beside Lucas' right side while Dave and Lori stood beside Lucas' left side.

Lucas sets his laptop on the coffee table and exhales sharply. He smiles upon reading his grades. The first two grades were both B's and the third one was a B-, but they were still good grades. The fourth was a B and Sammi was even more happy to hear that the last one was a B+.

Lucas smiles widely at his parents. "I'm a B student!"

Everyone cheered for him and after the brother-sister duo high-fived Lucas and Sammi high fived. "I'm proud of you, Lucas." Sammi told him. 

Lucas smiles brightly at her. "Thanks, Samshine." He stands up, shaking his head. "I can't believe I did it!"

Lori points at him. "We can."

Dave nods and laughs. "You studied your butt off!" 

"Yeah," Alexa chuckles. She gestures to his laptop. "Hold up your laptop so I can take a picture of you and your Bs." 

Sammi had decided on just letting Lucas' parents be in the picture with him, but he had grabbed her arm and pulled him over to join them which made butterflies swarm in her stomach and a smile tug on her lips. Lucas had his arm wrapped around her waist, showing his grades on his laptop so it was in the picture, and Dave, Lori, and Sammi were pointing at the laptop, all of them smiling at Alexa's phone that she was using to take the picture.

"Okay, got it." Alexa smiles. She goes to post it on Instagram and says the caption she's typing out loud as she started to walk to the stairs. "So proud of my brother. Not joking. Seriously, not joking."

Lucas sets his laptop on the table, taking his arm away from Sammi even though part of him didn't want to and unbeknownst to him part of Sammi didn't want him to move his arm and she hated that she missed his touch when it was gone. Lucas turns to his dad with a smile. "Give me a B."

Dave starts beatboxing which surprised Sammi. Sammi knew he could beatbox, and she heard him beatbox before, but she was always surprised at how good he was at it. "I got all Bs from plus to minus." He leans his elbow on Sammi's shoulder, grinning at her. She chuckles, rolling her eyes. "Ain't nobody gonna mess with my flyness." Sammi laughs a bit along with Lori at hearing that lyric. "Oh, I studied really hard." Lucas takes his elbow off Sammi's shoulder, pointing at his mom with a smile on his lips. "A, take it away."

Lori's eyes widen. "Oh! Uh, uh," She laughs. "Okay. My son's got Bs and he's-" She stops herself in the middle of her sentence and she had a cringed expression on her face. Dave stops beatboxing as she shakes her head. "Yeah, I can't do this."

"Nice try, Lori." Sammi commented, sending the dark-haired woman a smile.

Lori smiles back at her. "Thanks, Sam." She then goes over to the side table by the couch and picks up something. She turns back to them, holding a small gift bag. "But, hey, I got you something." She laughs. "Couldn't help myself." She handed the bag to Lucas, and he took it, looking at her with a smile.

Lucas sets the bag on the coffee table and gets out whatever was inside the bag. Sammi smiles upon seeing it's a doctor scrub which is a kind of t-shirt they wore. Lucas gasps and smiles widely. "Wow." He glances at Sammi, turning the doctor scrub around to show the front to Sammi since she stood beside his left side. He smiles at her. "Look, Sammi, doctor clothes."

Sammi chuckles. "Yeah, I see that. Very cool."

Lucas turns the doctor scrub so it was facing his parents. Lori smiles, pointing at his name that was embroidered. "They're called scrubs and I had it embroidered."

"'Dr. Lucas Mendoza M.D.'" Lucas read off what the doctor scrub said. He smiles and nods. "Most def." Sammi shook her head and laughed along with Dave and Lori.

Lori wraps her arm around Dave's shoulders and smiles. "Oh, it's not a competition, but we're totally winning parenting." Dave hummed in agreement and fist bumped her.

****

Alexa was hanging out at Wired's with her friends and Lucas went to visit with his advisor most likely to see what he should do next. Sammi was sitting at her desk in her bedroom, playing her song 'Watch Me' she recently finished making. 

(start video at 0:29 & stop it at 0:58)

https://youtu.be/LNNmdYh469w

"I can feel it, I can taste it. I can, I can almost reach it. Gonna have it, gonna have it all. Just go on and watch me. Giving it all I got. No, no one can stop me. Moving up 'till I hit the top. I'm gonna light the stars and show my heart and leave my mark. Just go on and watch me, watch me."

"Wow." 

She stopped playing and singing when she heard that familiar voice. Her eyes grew wide and her she felt her face heat up at the fact that someone caught her singing and playing guitar. She turned around, surprised to see Lucas standing at her door she forgot she left slightly open. Her door was now open all the way though since he had opened it more when he heard her singing. 

"That was incredible." Lucas commented, looking at her with a wide smile. 

Sammi knew her face was most likely a bright shade of blush now and her heartbeat had increased at hearing him say that. "H-How long were you standing there?"

"Long enough to know you have serious talent that shouldn't be hidden." Lucas responded, walking further into her bedroom.

Sammi looked down shyly, her lips forming into a smile. "So, um, how did it go with your advisor?"

"Nuh-uh," Lucas said sassily, pointing at her. "Don't go changing the subject. What was the song called that you were singing?"

"It's a song I wrote called 'Watch Me'." Sammi replied, avoiding eye contact with him. 

"Well, from what I heard it sounds amazing. Do you have more songs that you wrote?" Lucas walks over to her, pointing at the closed blue colored journal on her desk. He picks up the journal. "Are they in here?"

"Don't touch my book." Sammi demanded, snatching her journal from him and held the journal close to her.

Lucas sheepishly smiles, raising his hands in defense. "Sorry. I forgot you don't like anyone touching your book."

Sammi shakes her head, sending him a small smile. She sets her journal on her desk. "It's okay. But to answer your question I do have a few other songs I wrote for fun." 

Lucas smiles at her. "I would love to hear them sometime."

Sammi couldn't believe she was actually talking to someone about her music, but she had to admit it made her happy to share it with someone. And it was even better that it was someone who's important to her. 

"Okay, yeah." Sammi smiles. "So, um, really, how did it go with your advisor?"

Lucas sighs, shaking his head. "Apparently Bs aren't good enough to be a doctor."

Sammi looks at him with wide eyes. "Seriously?" She felt bad for Lucas because he worked really hard for those Bs and to find out they weren't enough must be hard on him.

"Yep." Lucas nods and starts walking to the door. "So, I'm gonna go study more."

"I'm honestly surprised you're gonna study even more than you already have." Sammi admits. She shakes her head, looking at him with a smile. "But I'm still really proud of you."

Lucas looks at her with surprise, his lips forming into a smile. "Wow, you're complimenting me twice in the same day? I think that's a new record."

Sammi rolls her eyes playfully and sets her guitar down. She goes to grab a small pillow off her bed and threw it at Lucas. Lucas laughs as he catches the pillow. He threw it back at her and Sammi chuckles, catching the pillow. She then threw it back on her bed. "Yeah, whatever. Just go on and study."

Lucas salutes to her as he left. "Yes, ma'am."

****

(sammi's outfit for this part of the chapter)

For the past three days Sammi noticed all Lucas did was studying. Which was both good and bad. It meant that he could get better grades, but she saw that he didn't do anything else. He didn't even do anything with music, and he didn't even try to annoy her or watch movies with her because he was too focused on studying.

Sammi was laying on the couch, reading a book when she noticed Lucas walk down the stairs. She furrowed her eyebrows upon seeing he held his amp and electric guitar and then she smiled, thinking maybe he was taking a break from studying.

Dave must've thought the same thing because he looks at Lucas with a smile and says, "Glad you're taking a break."

Lucas looks at his electric guitar with a sad smile. "I wish." 

A confused look forms on Sammi's face when she sees Jack walk in by using the side door. "Oh, you said you had something for me?" Jack asked Lucas and smiled a bit.

"Yeah, I do." Lucas nodded. 

Sammi sits up straighter and her eyes widened when she realized what he was doing. She put a bookmark in place of where she was at and closed her book, watching Lucas with surprise as he hands his electric guitar to Jack. "This is for you, kid." Lucas tells him, handing him the small amp that went with the electric guitar. Sammi frowns upon hearing how sad he sounded. "There's no room for music in my life anymore."

Jack shrugs. "Okay." He left while Lucas walked into the living room, sitting on the couch beside Sammi.

Dave gestures to his and Lori's son with a frown on his lips. "Lori, he's miserable."

"Lucas, I can't believe you just gave your guitar away." Sammi looks at him with disbelief. She shakes her head. "I never thought you would do that."

Lucas shrugs, sending her a sad smile. "Yeah, I didn't think I would ever do that either. But I did since I only have time for studying." He turned his attention to his textbook on the coffee table and began studying once again. Sammi sympathetically smiled at him when he started beatboxing quietly as he studied.

"I don't know, look," Lori points at Lucas, smiling a bit. "He's-He's rapping."

"Bs weren't enough. Pre-med's really tough. Learning arteries has been so hard on me." Lucas sang in a sad voice and he had even laid his head on Sammi's shoulder, closing his eyes with a frown on his lips.

Sammi was impressed that even when he was sad he still could make up a good song. Sammi ignored the way butterflies swarmed in her stomach when he rested his head on her shoulder and sympathetically smiled at him, rubbing his back comfortingly. She wished there was something she could do to help him out with this.

Dave looks at his wife with a frown. "Oh, he's sad rapping, Lori. Sad rapping!"

Lori sighs sadly. "Alright, I know you're right. It's just..." She sniffles, trying not to cry, and Dave wraps an arm around her shoulders. "It's really hard for me." Lori looks at Lucas with a small smile. "Honey, can we talk to you for a second?"

Lucas lifts his head off Sammi's shoulder, and she sends him a small smile when they lock eyes. He returns the smile and picks up his textbook, looking at it as he stood up and walked over to his parents. "Sure, go ahead."

"It's so dumb. Intestines come in small and large." He glances at Sammi with confusion and then at his parents with the same amount of confusion. "There's no medium?"

Dave sighs, taking Lucas' textbook from him and closes it before he set it on the kitchen island. Dave puts a hand on Lucas' shoulder. "You know, you don't have to be a doctor if it makes you miserable." 

"But I wanna help people." Lucas said.

Dave takes his hand off Lucas' shoulder, sympathetically smiling at him along with Lori. "Honey," Lori says to Lucas. "You can't help people if you're not happy."

Lucas looks at them nervously. "But would you guys still be proud of me if I quit pre-med?"

His parents stare at him with disbelief. "We're proud of you for having your heart in the right place." Dave reassured him and Lori nodded in agreement. Lucas smiled at them.

"Me too." Sammi chimed in. Lucas glanced at her with a smile, and she smiled back at her.

"Thanks, guys." Lucas said to Sammi and his parents. He then hugged his parents and they hugged him back. He went into the living room, standing behind the couch but was standing behind where Sammi sat. He leaned over the back of the couch, wrapping his arms around Sammi in a hug. Sammi smiled widely, holding onto his arms.

Lucas smiles and let go of her. He fist bumps the air and grins. "So happy I don't have to think anymore."

Sammi is honestly a bit upset that he's not going to be a doctor because she thought that was really cool of him and she would most likely end up bragging about being friends with a doctor. But he's happy now and that's the important thing.

A/N okay but seriously lucas is really good at rapping, especially coming up with lyrics right on the spot im jealous lol.  anyway,  lucas & sammi are literally so cute you guys i love them !