The day that Sam met her counterpart felt like the eye of the storm. The day before, Sam had talked to Shane and Diana about the incident for the first time since the previous Wednesday. Neither of the other two had brought it up for nearly a week, for which she gave them massive props. She probably couldn't have fought curiosity for that long.

"So, you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I've got a question about that thing you told us about."

Sam had been getting her books out of her locker before first period when she heard Shane behind her. She finished filling her backpack with textbooks before turning around to face him. Diana was there too, messenger bag hanging by her side. She was looking around for something, searching the hallways.

Diana asked, "You guys want to skip first and then talk? It's just advisory. We can go to homeroom and sneak out once he 'leaves to go get something from his office'. Unless you particularly want to do nothing for an hour and half."

"No, that sounds fine. You can ask me after we leave, Shane. Too many people here," Sam warned.

"Actually, he was asking for me. I have a question for you," Diana said.

Shane scoffed. "Well I have a question too."

Sneaking out of Venerian's homeroom was pretty much the easiest thing in school. Sam had a likely true theory that one would sooner fail PE than get caught sneaking out. All they had to do was wait until the teacher took his daily trip to his office and then walk right out the door. Really, Venerian was not going to fetch anything. He just took a nap during the whole of first period, returning either just before class let out or not until they were all gone.

Though all the academic classes rotated on block schedule, they had advisory every day so the first bit of everyone's day was dedicated to figuring out how to spend the empty time. Sam, Shane, and Diana chose to spend this one talking about Sam.

There was a classroom next to the faculty bathrooms that went unused by nearly everyone but the trio. It wasn't that the room was beyond use or anything like that. Well, sort of. The lights to that particular room had been completely neglected. They had never been put in after the original construction of the building, and no one had gotten around to getting someone to come in and fix that.

That room was where Sam, Shane, and Diana went. They were all quite good at sneaking if Sam's completely late-night trips to the book store said anything. The classroom was considered storage, and there wasn't all that much to store except for a few carts of computers. Because of this, the room was continuously locked.

Being that Sam could get past the truly useless locks on class doors, this turned out to be a good thing for them. After all, no one checks the dark and locked room for kids ditching class. As soon as they got into the room, Diana tugged her friends over to the furthest back corner.

"Sammy, what happened to the little girl you found?" Diana asked, overlapped with Shane demanding, "Is that lady okay?"

"They're both fine. The girl, she was the woman's daughter. Gina and Macy. They both go to the same therapist that I do. The little girl, Gina, I passed her in the hall a couple weeks ago," Sam told them, nodding.

Diana gave a thumbs up. "Okay, so I have an idea. You should get them to go to your mom and tell her how you saved them."

Sam shook her head. "No, I can't. I just can't have my mom know. Besides, they're barely letting me see Gina, even when I ask. They said that talking to me would be part of her therapy to get over all of this, but later. The mom, she acts like I'm dangerous... but she also thanks me every time we pass. I don't know what to think."

"You saved her."

"I killed her husband."

"You saved her, Sam. I don't care who that guy was. He could be her goddamn clone and you still would have been the one to save her ass," Diana snapped at Sam, bringing her back from 'useless self-pity' as Di liked to call it.

Sam smiled after a moment. "Look, I meet my counterpart tomorrow. I don't need to tell my mom anything, I just need to show her whoever my counterpart is. Green said that she's a teacher for little kids. I can introduce her my mom and show her that I'll grow up fine."

"What does it matter if your mom trusts you if you're not telling the truth?" Diana asked, words barbed.

Shane scooted back just a bit at that, away from Sam and Diana's quickly escalating conversation.

"If this is about her not knowing about you, Di, I swear..." Sam hissed, glaring at her girlfriend.

"It's about nothing more than you're making it."

Sam shook her head. She whispered, "No, I need more time."

This wasn't the time. Whoever her counterpart was, she would hold a key to getting some trust back. Telling everything would throw away that key entirely. Evidence was so much less effective when it was being used after dropping a truth bomb like 'I killed a man' or 'yup, I'm queer'.

Shane was the one to pacify the situation this time, an unusual occurrence. He was generally on the other end of the equation.

"Do you know anything else about your CP then?" he asked, looking cautiously at the two girls before moving a bit closer to them. Sam didn't know why Diana always got so upset about things like this. It's not like Sam was the only one who told untruths.

"No, just that she's a teacher. I don't even know her name. She could be your mom, Di." Sam was joking, as Diana's mom had about as much in common with Sam as a porcupine did with a balloon. Sam had a fierce enough personality, but she tended to be the balloon in confrontations with Mrs. Midrose.

Diana rolled her eyes, saying dryly, "Ha ha. Very funny, Sam."

"When are you meeting her again?" Shane asked, leaning against the wall behind him. Sam glanced up at the clock on the wall, illuminated just enough to make out the numbers. They still had an hour.

"Tomorrow. I'm going down to the café near Mrs. Penelope's and she's meeting me there," Sam told them. Shane immediately looked suspicious.

He asked, "So, what, are they going to send spy cameras after you to watch?"

"Um, no, Shane. I don't think that would be very practical. They probably want us to write in a journal or something stupid like that. I don't know. I'll find out eventually."

That was all they had to say about that, and Sam was a bit glad, because she didn't know much else to tell them. Once she met this anonymous elementary-school teacher she might have something to say, but not now.

Sam spent the remaining hour of their time out of advisory trying to fend off Diana and the absurd articles that she kept trying to show her. They snuck back into Mr. Venerian's class without causing a blip on the radar.

It was the next day before Sam felt like she could blink, and then she was at the café.

There was a woman sitting across from Sam, hands folded on the table and giving Sam a small but apparently genuine smile. The woman paused a moment, waiting for Sam to say something, before giving up and introducing herself.

"Hello, Sam, my name is Lilla Wren, but you can call me Lilla. I'm your counterpart," Lilla told her, and Sam nodded.

"Yeah, I know. So, you already know my name. You must have talked to Miss Green," Sam said, watching Lilla's face to judge her reaction. She didn't have one.

"Your name was in the letter I got. It's in your records as well."

"No, the name Samantha is in my records. You talked to Miss Green, because no one but she and my friends are willing to call me that, and my friends would tell me if some random adult started talking to them about me," Sam argued, leaning back in her chair.

Lilla grinned widely at that, smile just a bit crooked. "You're right. I did talk to Miss Green. And you're clever. I like you."

Sam didn't answer, just raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

"You have to be careful about your expressions, though. You give away a lot," Lilla told her, scanning Sam's face. "Why do you not want to trust me? I understand why you might not trust yet, but why do you really not want to?"

"Green said you were a teacher. Elementary school." Though she wasn't sure what Lilla was trying to do, Sam found herself doubting everything she 'knew' about the woman in front of her.

No change in Lilla's expression. Then she laughed. "Well, yeah, but you have to be able to understand people to work with kids."

"Sure. Whatever you say." This lady was not that much like Sam at all. She was quick and clever but she seemed a little bit conniving, and there was something she was hiding, and... well, crap. "Oh."

Sam closed her eyes and set her face into her hands, groaning. Great. The trickster teacher was her counterpart. That was hilarious, in a this-is-the-worst-thing-ever sort of way. Minus the part where her counterpart taught babies how to spell, this might actually be a match. This was terrible.

"So, Sam, I'm going to make a way out-there guess that we're closer than you thought?" Lilla asked, and Sam didn't answer. "Let's go down a list of things about us. I bet you we'll find some of the same. Miss Green said that she matched up almost every factor."

No answer.

"Juvie?" Lilla asked, tilting her head.

"Kinda," Sam said, rolling her eyes.

"Overprotective mom?"

"Yep."

"Gay?"

"Not exactly."

"I'll take that as close enough. STEM kid?"

"Maybe if I was better at school."

"We look the same."

"Your hair is shorter."

Lilla laughed at that, running a hand through her dark hair. Sam bit her lip and glared down at the table between them. So what that they had some basic things the same? Though... they even looked like they could be related, probably cousins or something like that. They shared dark brown hair and skin that was darker than even a heavy tan would give a white person. Sam even saw the glint of analysis in her counterpart's eyes.

The look was what was most disarming. Sam didn't like it. "So you're like me, then? How does an ex-juvie girl who can hardly pass an english test get into your position?"

"Which part, the working with kids or the english bit?"

"Either." It just didn't make sense. Sam could hardly sit still all day at school, so unless she underwent a massive change, how could she possibly keep thirty kids in check?

"You like kids," Lilla told her.

So now she was trying to tell Sam about herself. "I like some kids. Odds are I wouldn't like all of a class."

"Well, you grow to like children, and you get better at english."

Sam outright laughed at that. "Oh, okay. Sure. I just decide one day not to be dyslexic?"

There it was! Sam saw something run across Lilla's face, a look that Sam could only describe as 'oh shit'. She had gotten through. There was something. That was a look that Sam knew the meaning of. It meant that somebody had been caught in a lie, and this time it wasn't Sam doing the lying.

"We have a lot in common, Sam, and I'm sure you'll find out more about all of this as we continue," Lilla said, face back to the robotic, emotionless slate from before.

"You're leaving then?" Sam asked, raising her eyebrows. She had been expecting Lilla to stick around and try to convince her that they were actually clones or something. Apparently not. "Well, maybe I can come see who the kids that you don't hate are next time."

Lilla smiled, but it was void of real meaning. "Maybe."

Then she left, never having removed the messenger bag from her shoulder. It was canvas, with a pin on it from Juniper Elementary, the school next to Sam's high school.

Sam watched her go, closing her eyes and resting her forehead on the table once Lilla was out of sight. This whole program was growing to be the biggest piece of work that Sam had been sent to, and that included several nature camps during elementary school that were nothing more than complete bull.

So Lilla Wren thought they were the same person, and yet was still lying to Sam about... well, possibly everything.