"I don't think you'll be that tall when you're an adult."

Sam whirled around and almost fell out of her chair when a voice spoke from just inches behind her. Standing there were Diana and Shane, Shane laughing his head off at Sam's near-concussion. Diana rolled her eyes and elbowed Shane in the side.

She sighed. "Sorry, Sam, he thinks he's hilarious."

"Of course you were watching. What else would you do? Of-freaking-course." Sam swung back around to face across the table again and waited for her friends to sit down in the chairs across from her.

"I'm sorry, Sammy—" Diana started, and was promptly cut off by Shane.

"She's not sorry."

"As I was saying, Shane, I'm sorry Sam. But we just had to see what your mentor looked like and there was a bench perfectly behind those flowers," Diana said, pointing back to where a line of tall flower pots were sitting a ways behind Sam. "Why was that lady acting so weird at the end?"

"More like why was she acting weird this whole time. Her name's Lilla Wren, apparently, and she seems to have a whole lot more faith in this crap than I do." Sam shook her head. She pushed away the parallels between her and her counterpart. "I think it's junk."

Shane laughed. "Why 'apparently' she's Lilla Wren? Someone's name isn't exactly something I would usually doubt."

"I don't know, I just don't trust her. She's trying to prove to me that we're the same, but we're not. I mean, kind of. But nothing that she couldn't pretend to be," Sam told them, though both of her friends looked dubious.

"She's an elementary school teacher, from what you told us. What has someone who cleans up little kids' messes got to hide? Maybe you just don't like her because she is like you. I know that's a thing." Shane decided, apparently, that this was the moment to start being smart about things.

Diana backed him up. "Yeah, like when you're super close, but have one trait that's different and you butt heads about it."

"Maybe your difference is that she's taller than you'll ever be," Shane suggested, snorting at his own joke.

"Ha, ha, ha," Sam shot back, reaching across the table to flick Shane's arm.

"She doesn't really matter either way, Sam. You have to meet her what? Three times? Just put up with her for a few hours and you're done," Diana suggested. "Use her as a pawn like they're using you. Get your mom to think you're a good kid again by using Lilla's 'perfect kindergarten teacher' thing then never talk to her again."

Sam shrugged. "Sure."

At this point, Sam had no clue what to think. She had been conflicted about the Counterparts Program from the start and she continued to be confused about this. On one hand, she could buy into the matching and try to learn from Lilla a bit. She could introduce the young teacher to her mom and maybe take a step back towards that perfect image in her mom's eye from when she was younger. Or, oppositely and far riskier, she could trust in her own mistrust and see what the program was hiding from her. Diana and Shane would help her either way.

Diana seemed equally torn between the two ideas as well. Sam knew that her girlfriend wanted to find out what was going as much as she did, though that was a large portion because of the whole conspiracy theory thing she had going on. Still, it would be a lot safer to just play into whatever plot that the program was planning and get it over with. It was probably nothing.

The second meeting would be in three days.

"Do either of you guys think that she was acting a bit fishy?" Sam asked. Shane nodded, but Diana gave a non noncommittal noise.

Shane rolled his eyes at Di and said, "Yeah, she was lying to you, no doubt about it. Dunno specifically about what, but I got major bull vibes from her."

"Shane, no need to be rude. I never said you should trust her. But she's not the one that's messing with you, I mean, probably. It's the organization." Diana shook her head slowly. "She might be lying, but we don't know about what or why."

"Maybe she's a spoooooky gen-warfare operator," Shane said, waving his fingers dramatically and making ghost noises afterward.

If they built up to really fighting, it wouldn't be good. Today was not the day for that.

"Shane, quit being a jerk. Some of the articles that Di sent me are perfectly valid. Diana, don't rise to the occasion. Be the better person."

"Um, I'm a fine person, excuse you," Shane butted in.

Di snorted, "Yeah, you would be if you were human, demon-spawn."

"Rude!"

"Yep."

"At least I'm not on a goose chase for the end of the world, you... you, conspiracy theorist!"

Sam groaned and leaned back in her chair. Now that they had started this ridiculousness, she would just have to wait it out. While her friends were trying to make each other cry or go completely mad, Sam had an idea. It made her more than a little scared, but nothing great wasn't a little scary.

"Wait, guys, stop. I have an idea, how about you both shut up?" Sam suggested, and both of the them rounded on her. Before they had a chance to break into her train of thought, Sam continued. "Diana, I need you to follow after me on Saturday when I go to meet with Lilla again."

"I mean, Shane and I were already planning on stalking you guys, but sure. Why do you need me to follow though?" Diana tilted her head. Shane still looked upset at being interrupted from his argument with Diana.

"You'll see. But I just need to know you'll be there."

Diana rolled her eyes. "That's so random, Sam, but I'll bite. Can Shane still come?"

Sam groaned and looked at Shane for a couple seconds before nodding. "Just don't follow Di too close."

"So she gets to meet your non-clone but I don't? No fair!" Shane had not sounded so much like a little kid throwing a fit since he actually was one. Sam shrugged him off.

"I don't know. She might get to meet Lilla, she might not. It's not a pleasure, though, and I'm rather sorry if either of you has to meet her."

Actually, Shane and Diana might get along with Lilla fine. However, Sam did not want to believe that she was like Lilla in more ways than the ones already proven to be true. Thus, she saw herself as quite separate from Lilla, who her friends definitely would not like. Certainly. And if they did happen to not hate Lilla, they would keep quiet about it.

"You could just let me join the stalker party you're making," Shane whined. "I mean, not just following after you, but really meeting your teacher-double."

Sam shook her head and resisted flicking Shane again. "Di isn't definitely meeting Lilla anyway, and as much as I am starting to wish my counterpart on you, Shane, no. You can't. I'm being nice by not swearing you off coming at all."

Shane grumbled in response, shrugging and rolling his eyes after he was done complaining.

They agreed on what would happen, though Shane still acted like it involved pulling out most of his teeth. Sam had received an email from Miss Green to meet up at the same cafe with Lilla. Sam didn't intend to change these plans. She would meet up with Lilla as before, but then she would leave and both of them would walk back to Sam's house.

Mom desperately wanted to meet the person who she was completely and genuinely convinced was exactly like her daughter would be all grown up. Shane and Diana would follow from a safe distance where neither Lilla nor Sam's mom would notice them. It was a plan.

Plus, Shane would watch Lilla while they were still in the cafe, and he would try to figure out what she was lying about. Sam would help, too, but Shane was actually quite good at that sort of thing. Together they would figure the teacher out.

"I don't know why you aren't willing to trust her a little bit, Sam," Diana said when the trio finally left the cafe.

They headed through the streets back toward Shane's house. His family was in, but they never minded the kids staying there for a bit.

It wouldn't be long once they were there that both Sam and Diana would need to leave again to head home. It was growing late and the last thing Sam wanted was to get busted for breaking curfew. Dad wouldn't mind as much as Mom would, but Sam wanted to be in their best books come Saturday.

"That's quite something coming from you, Diana," Shane said.

Sam shushed him. "I just can't, Di. She knows stuff about me, and I don't know jack about her. It's not a combination that I like, and trusting her just puts all the more power in her hands."

"Yeah, whatever, well, if you're going to be all suspicious, at least try to figure out what's really up with her. There's no point in being clueless and worried at the same time."

"I'll figure something out after the next meeting. I'll admit that I don't want to trust her, but I'm still going to give her a chance to prove she's not lying." Sam would figure something out.

"What'll that be, then?" Shane asked, and Sam sighed. She didn't actually have a good answer.

She shrugged. "I... I dunno. Maybe one of you could follow her afterward and see?"

"Why don't you just ask her if you could visit her classroom. That way, if you go there then you could confirm that she really is a teacher. Wham bam thank you ma'am, 'cause someone can't fake a class of thirty kids," Diana suggested.

That was actually a decent plan. And it was way less rash than to sic Shane to trail Lilla. And, on top of all that, Sam knew that a little bit of her worry had to be pointless paranoia. Not the "all our presidents have been aliens" type, just a little paranoid.

There was a logical part of her mind that said that the Counterparts Program was just some government figure's baby and they really, really wanted it to be put into action. They wanted it so much they were willing to low-key blackmail people into getting it done. It wasn't like she had been targeted, as there was no benefit of having Sam specifically in the project. She had been chosen randomly and was being threatened because she seemed like the type to not go along willingly with whatever was handed to her.

There was a different part of Sam, though, who occasionally reminded her of Diana, and wanted to believe that this was all a huge trick. It was the same part that convinced her to read the articles Diana sent to her. It then was able to convince the logical part to entertain the idea that maybe.

"Yeah, okay, sounds good."

Diana looked a little shocked that Sam agreed without another word, but Sam gave her a thumbs up. It would work, probably, so she would try it.

"Do you really think Lilla might be in on the blackmail going down in the program?" Shane asked.

Sam waited until Shane had unlocked the front door of his house to answer. They all dropped their voices as they walked in, even though it was only about six thirty. The only reason they had ever been kicked out of Shane's house was for being too loud.

"I don't know, really. I mean, she very well could be. But maybe she's being played just like we are. Green said that the people who were older CPs in the match are all government employees, but that could have been just to scare me or something." Sam shook her head.

All three kids went silent when they heard scuffling footsteps coming towards the living room where they were sitting. Shane  sighed and leaned back again when his younger sister came toddling into the room. It wasn't his mom or dad coming to say something or possibly hear what they were talking about, so Sam relaxed too.

""Hi, Maya, what are you doing?" Diana asked, holding out her arms for the child to come over, which she did. Maya didn't say anything, just plopping herself down on Diana's lap and sucking her thumb.

Sam smiled and reached over to mess with Maya's hair. Not all babies or toddlers were cute, no matter what adults like to say, but Maya was adorable. The two year old looked quite like Shane, though there were some key differences.

While both of the sibling's Indian heritage was clear, Shane's skin was littered with pimples. Their hair was the same dark brown, give or take a few shades, but Maya always had a few braids running through hers from her mom or Diana or Sam playing with it. Shane liked to wear a sloppy haircut that often looked like he had never in his life run a comb through it. Overall, Maya was a cuter, younger, nicer, female Shane.

This is all to say that really, as Sam thought about it, Maya was really not like Shane at all. She wasn't like Sam, either, who knew that she had cursing problems which she had been working on lately and had hair that puffed out unpleasantly like a pom pom if she didn't take good care of it.

Maya wasn't even like Diana, who looked just about the opposite of the little girl. Of the people in the living room, Maya and Diana looked about the furthest from being related. All of Maya's dark features were opposed to Diana, who wore blonde hair framed around her white skin and blue eyes.

"I have to go soon, Shane. Di, you wanna walk back with me?" Sam asked.

"I would, but I'm staying past when I know your curfew is, so I'll opt out." Diana separated another strand of Maya's hair to braid, only looking up for a moment to give Sam a 'what can you do?' look.

Sam nodded. "Okay, well, I'm gonna go right now, actually. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah, see ya. We'll be ready for your faux-espionage and sneaking around Saturday," Diana promised. Shane just waved.

As Sam closed the front door, she heard one last voice behind her. She smiled as she heard Maya shout, "Bye-bye!"