Sam did nothing productive leading up to that Wednesday. She finished her homework, mostly, and she did not get herself sent to the principal's office. This was not a large shock to her, but it was to her mom. She hadn't actually done anything wrong recently.

Well, no. She had cut through the construction zone with Diana and Shane. Sam knew that she could totally be sent to the principal's office for doing that, were someone to find out. But it wasn't like she had actually affected anyone else in deciding to take the shortcut. No one got hurt or anything. This wasn't grand theft auto or breaking and entering this time.

But whatever that meant to her mom, Sam did nothing but wait until Wednesday. Shane and Diana didn't seem to understand why Sam was looking forward so much to the meeting, but she couldn't make them understand. They were more excited about the fact that the weather forecast said that the sunny days might be coming to an end.

Summer had extended into fall like a relative extends a visit: completely unwanted and rather irritating to anyone who wasn't a small child. It was not that Sam wasn't excited about the possibility of storm clouds and snow days soon. She was. It was simply that she was more interested in other things.

One thing she was not interested in was the pile of articles that Diana had started sending to her. Every single one of them was on the same thing, and it was not something that Sam particularly wanted to consider. As she had told Diana before, the world was not going to end of genetic warfare. People could hardly scramble together a vaccine to the most recent illnesses the broke out, and that was pretty bad seeing as some pretty vicious ones started coming to light in big cities. No one with medical knowledge had time to worry about genetic warfare, because no one would have time to develop it.

Plus, there was one thing worse that the bits of actual evidence that Sam could pull from Diana's articles. That terrible thing was that Mom insisted on attending the meeting between Sam and the directors of the Counterparts Program.

Sam had been intending to use this meeting to try and get as much information about the matching process as possible. She had a whole plan set out. First, she would just ask how it all worked. If they gave her a good answer that made sense with something about how the files from schools and therapy and stuff were compiled, but are being kept top secret, then maybe she would let them be. She'd get hooked up with her counterpart and then everything would be fine.

However, if they gave her some baloney answer, she would start trying to see if they would slip up. If they said something about her they could only know from her therapy stuff. Like about Diana or about why she had been charged with robbing some guy, and kidnapping, and murder, only to have most of the charges dropped later on. She still had to go to juvie for a few weeks and then therapy after because you don't let kids with a list like that roam the streets.

Because Sam knew one thing, and she knew it well because of how many times it had been said to her by her shrink when she started getting worked up about it. The only ways that someone could know about what happened were if she told them or they had access to some deep down legal stuff. Because when a fifteen year old becomes a murderer and a hero in the same day, it takes a level of discretion to keep her from breaking down. Especially when the teenager knows, just knows, that one can't be a hero and a murderer because of the same thing. So Sam avoided telling too many people.

Diana didn't know, and neither did Shane. And her mom couldn't know either. The worst of her charges hadn't been made public and she hoped it never would. On top of that was the fact that Sam's mom would definitely, one hundred percent not be finding out about her and Diana either. So basically, Mom coming along to the meeting completely decimated Sam's plan.

"Hello, Samantha, it's nice to meet you. My name is Christiana Green, and you can call me Miss Green. May I call you Samantha?"

Sam shook the hand of the woman who was waiting in the room that was listed on the letter. It was on the second floor of one of the new college buildings, so the hallways were pristine from lack of use. It also had a level of sophistication that wasn't bothered to include in the elementary, junior high, and high school buildings. It looked nice.

This woman, on the other hand, did not look as nice. She was trying to, sure, but had a glint of cold and scientific studying in her eye. The smile on her face was nothing but a mask. Sam gave an equally genuine smile back, hiding her mistrust just as thoroughly as Miss Green.

"Sam would be better," she said, nodding and letting Miss Green lead her into the classroom. Behind them, Sam's mom followed after and she did not look happy.

She coughed. "Samantha, it is fine for you to use a nickname with your friends, but this is a professional meaning. Use your full name."

Miss Green turned around at that, looking as though she had just noticed Sam's mother was there at all. "Kiren Gregor, yes? I am very sorry, but this is a rather confidential meeting, so I'm going to have to ask you to step out into the hall for a minute."

Sam opened her mouth in shock, but quickly closed it. Maybe this Miss Green woman would be able to actually get Mom to go away for a bit. Then her plan would be back on track. The only thing in the way, after all, would be Mom's rather unwanted presence.

Though she looked more that a little caught off guard, Mom gave Miss Green a snubbing glance before shuffling out into the hallway. Sam waited as Miss Green closed the door behind her.

"Have a seat, Sam." Miss Green motioned to a chair that was sitting by the teacher's desk at the front of the room. "I'm sure you have some things which you wish for us to discuss."

Sam sat down and raised an eyebrow, asking, "So this meeting isn't for you to ask me things? I thought this was all for you to check if I will make a good lab rat in your pairing thing."

"You're already a part of our program, Sam, and we know all we need to know about you. This is your turn to ask the questions, as we have already gathered the information we need to know."

This was her chance. Sam cocked her head. "And where is it that you got all of your information from? I don't have any more information than my grades and I don't know how you could piece together enough about me to find a clone from that."

"We don't clone. We match, like you had been saying before. And you know as well as I do that there is more information available about you than simply grades." Miss Green smiled again, but this smile was less cold and more condescending. Why was she acting like that? "Like your friends, Shane and Diana."

"What about them?"

"Oh, nothing. You just seem to have an interesting friendship, seeing as most children or people in general aren't able to maintain a close friendship with a previous partner, while dating another friend. Most people, though, also haven't stolen a car from a dead man," Miss Green said, shrugging as though this was nothing.

Sam stood up so suddenly that she knocked over her chair. She had been expecting the bit about Diana. That was something that was obvious to find a match. Got a pool of possible matches? Pick the bi one. But the part about the man was something new. "You can't know about that. It's buried."

"I have a shovel. Don't act so defensive, Sam, we're not coming back for you. You are a part of the program because of separate reasons, and what you are so worried about had been dropped from your matching results. We aren't planning on pairing you with a murderer."

Sam cringed. "I'm not a murderer."

Miss Green hummed in response, smiling again, and Sam found herself wondering why she had been looking forward to this meeting at all. Then, without another word back, Miss Green entirely changed the subject, leaving Sam more than a bit worried that this was going to come up again later.

"When we finish this program, and have it implemented, the children participating will be given far more accurate results. We'll have a wider pool of both kids and adults after all, and each child will be administered an in-depth personality and interests test. We'll know more about them than we know about you," Miss Green told her.

"Yeah, but they'll be twelve. How much can you tell about someone from what happened when they were twelve?" Sam shook her head.

"More than you would think."

"Why did you bring me in? There are a thousand honor roll students who would think it was the bee's damn knees to be brought into this thing. Why not one of them?"

Sam was sick of this cryptic stuff. She didn't need to be here. Sure, they had information on her, but Shane was right. She could sue their butts off if they actually made any of it public, probably.

Miss Green shook her head. "We didn't choose you, Sam. Your name popped out of the random algorithm when we told it to make sure we had a wide range of kids. You matched one of our older participants, so we went with it. You're very contrary to this program, but that is not my concern."

"Not your concern? You're director!"

"I am in charge of making sure that we get accurate results from our participants. The older members are all government employees in some form or another, so they are not a problem. The teenagers... well, the man who is organizing everything is named Urik Kreik and he is what you think of as director. I am only the director of the children."

"What, you shoot me in the head if I don't help you with your beta test of the stalker program?"

Sam was only a bit worried that the answer she got would be a yes. This whole thing was looking less optional and more mandatory by the second, and she was not becoming any more friendly to the idea of this Miss Green having been in all of her files. Sam couldn't even figure out why this counterparts thing was even being made.

Miss Green said, "No, but I think you'll want to participate. Your other option will be to tell your mother why you said no, and we'll simply have to explain that we cannot show her what was in these confidential files."

"What do I care?"

"Curious people have a way of finding out what they are curious of. This test run must go perfectly, because we much build this program and have it running soon, and that means full participation from all of our participants."

Sam scoffed, closing her eyes in disbelief. "You're making me do this because you need to have your little project done on time? You have to prove that the test works on juvie kids too or something?"

"So you'll be meeting up with your Counterpart soon, then? I'll arrange a meeting."

Miss Green didn't answer her questions, of course she didn't. What kind of ridiculously cryptic and pressuring meeting would it be if Sam actual got a few good answers. "Your mother is waiting in the hall, still. I'm sure she'll be curious how the meeting went. You can tell her that your counterpart is an elementary school teacher, specifically english."

Sam didn't answer her, just stood up again and left the room. This was absurd. First blackmail, then her match was some little kids teacher. She had been hoping for her counterpart to have a job that wasn't 'professional convict', but this was too nice. Sam didn't hate children, but she didn't like them either. Some of them were okay, like Gina.

Maybe this was the opposite side of blackmail. Participate in out fast track program to occupy the country and then you can convince your mom you'll grow up to be a passive, nice little babies teacher. Sam couldn't tell why this program had to get put into action so fast, and was starting to think that Diana had the right idea. Maybe this was all something to keep everyone occupied, busy being angry about or loving this new thing. Maybe.

"Samantha, how did it go?"

Sam was highly tempted to just walk out of the room, straight past her mom, and out the door. She didn't, though, smiling as convincingly as she could and gave her a thumbs up. "Great, Mom. She said that my counterpart is an elementary teacher."

"Oh, that sounds lovely! Your counterpart is like you, right? So she's a teacher, that's nice. I bet she's married to a nice young man and has a little girl or a little boy. Oh, lovely, I can't wait to meet her. She sounds like a good role model for you, Samantha," Mom said, and Sam couldn't quite decide whether she was glad or annoyed that her mom had fallen so easily for the lie.

Well, that wasn't quite true. It wasn't a lie precisely, but it was not even close to the whole truth. But she couldn't tell the whole truth, so it was for the best that Mom believed the lie.

Maybe Shane and Diana would have some actually helpful insight on this whole thing. Sam was finding herself at a point where believing in Diana's warfare ideas would be easier than understanding what was going on with the counterparts craziness. She couldn't tell what was going on, and it wasn't fun.

All Sam knew was that there was reason for this woman to blackmail her, and probably other kids, to stay in her new program. There was something to prove, and it needed to be done through perfection and no drop-outs. So Sam couldn't leave this thing, and she also couldn't do much else. Her plan remained the same as before the bomb that all of her secrets were subject to be revealed—Sam would watch and wait and protect herself and her secrets. That was what she always did.