Chapter Three

The Grants

Okay, you can do this. One small step at a time. Easier said than done with a mounting pile of books in his arms. Sam fleetingly wondered if anyone else from his school had been picked for the expedition. Even if Xavier Race High School was top notch, Sam doubted it. Fourteen people from all around the country had been selected. Two of them coming from the same school was stretching it.

But, even so, he'd searched for, picked and checked out every book on the Yucatan peninsula, Mayans and jungles he thought could be even remotely useful. Now he only had to make it to his locker and deposit them in a half an hour and then split to his exam. He'd think of a way to carry all of them out later.

"You missed a few," said a voice from behind.

Sam turned his head – seeing as the rest of his body was in precarious equilibrium – toward his best friend, Harry. Almost as tall as Sam, with the same black hair, but hazel eyes instead of green, Harry grinned, a lone book in one hand.

"Missed a few what?"

"Books. From the library." Awkward silence. "You didn't check them all out."

"Oh, you're making a geek joke," Sam said. "Not your best. What are you doing in the library?" Though far from stupid, Harry liked to stay away from all things geek, except for Sam.

"Picking up chicks. What does it look like I'm doing?" Harry held up the book Chemistry for Dummies.

"They made one of those?" Sam asked surprised. Was there Archeology for Dummies out there somewhere and he'd missed it? His arms shook from the weight of the books. "You could help, you know."

Harry tilted his head. "Nah, you need the workout. When's the last time you used a muscle other than your brain?"

"We move muscles every second," Sam said, giving the literal answer he knew Harry expected. But it was also obvious that his friend wasn't about to help, so Sam headed out the door, moving as carefully as possible toward his locker.

"What's with all the books?" Harry asked skipping beside Sam, as though to rub his mobility in.

Sam opened his mouth to tell Harry all about his day, but stopped. Even if Harry was his best friend, he wasn't sure if to go with the short study-camp version or the lengthy nut-job professor one.

"Never mind. That's just you." Harry stopped in front of Sam's locker and punched in the combination.

Ugh! They were friends and everything, and Sam could certainly take a joke, but geek-shaming-Harry was pretty darn annoying. Sam squatted and placed the pile of books on the floor. Harry finally decided to help and started cramming them inside the locker.

"If you need the extra space, you can put them in my locker, too," he offered.

"Survivor's guilt?"

"You got yourself into something big this time, didn't you?" Harry stopped with one volume in hand and read the title.

"You could say that." Sam grabbed the book before he got any ideas and stuffed it in the only available space left. He might just have to take Harry up on his offer, though he'd much rather stuff his things in Lisa's locker. Less of a chance of something sticky being in there.

Harry shrugged. "At least it's something you love and not advanced micro-biology or some other bogus class like that. Speaking of bogus, have you seen Lisa?"

"Nope." Sam shut the door. "I thought she'd be with you."

Harry mumbled something unintelligible. Even if the three of them had been best friends since their first days at X-Race, over the past couple of years, tension had been brewing between Harry and Lisa. Sam secretly hoped it was due to a denied attraction, but, unfortunately, Lisa had started flirting with him lately while Harry changed his girlfriends more often than he changed his socks. Chances of a romance between them were slim, but Sam still dreamed. It would mellow Harry out and get Lisa off his back. Not that Lisa wasn't pretty, smart and nice, but he liked her too much as a friend.

"Never mind." Harry waved his hand and turned to leave. "Chemistry remedial awaits."

"Wait a sec." This was actually interesting. "What'd you want with Lisa?"

"To ask her if she could introduce me to more of her awesome friends." The sarcasm in Harry's voice was obvious, but Sam chose to ignore it.

"Weren't you going out with What's-her-face?" he asked, feeling a little guilty that he had no idea what Harry's last girlfriend's name was. After he'd once mixed two of them up, he'd turned deaf whenever Harry mentioned names.

"Eh, she dumped me. Not that I blame her. She was way out of my league to start with."

"I'm sorry, Harry." Sam found the whole league system shallow and stupid, but Harry seemed to be going by it – just like the rest of high school inhabitants around the world.

"It's not like she was the love of my life." He waved Sam away, but the spite in his voice implied otherwise.

Sam bit his lip, wishing he'd at least known this one's name. He hadn't even been aware that Harry was in love. Or had been, or whatever. He could be such a crappy, self-absorbed friend sometimes.

"Anyway, see you later."

Sam watched Harry stride away, wondering how he could be so lively and only seem mildly annoyed after a break-up. Yeah, he'd probably had a lot of them, but this one actually seemed to matter.

Shaking his head, he glanced at the remaining five books he didn't have where to stash. He couldn't take them to the examination, they were too close to the subject matter, and he had precisely seventeen minutes to deposit them.

"Hey, don't you have an exam in fifteen minutes?"

Sam jumped and turned toward Lisa who seemed to have teleported behind him. He had to work on the whole zoning-out thing. Not paying attention to his surrounding in the jungle could result in getting eaten by a jaguar or something.

"Yeah, but I need to deposit these books for a while." He picked them up so that Lisa could see them. He could barely see her over them. All he got a glimpse of was a head of blond hair and her light-blue eyes with an exasperated look in them.

"Okay, I'll hold on to them until you're done." She turned to her locker and punched in the combination.

"Thanks." He shoved the books inside, grateful that Lisa's locker didn't contain any leftover food. "What's up with you, Miss Grumpy Skirt?"

"Ah, some friend pissed me off," she mumbled, pulling on her uniform skirt as if Sam's comment reminded her that it was a little too short.

"Not much of a friend then, is he?"

"It's not a—"

"Hi, Lisa."

Sam whipped around to face the owner of that melodious voice. Gorgeous Girl stood behind him, a shy smile curving her full lips. He'd never seen her up close, but now he couldn't help drinking in every feature: the almond shaped amber eyes, her cute, small nose, those lips and her hair falling in a chocolate waterfall over her shoulders. Every feature was perfect and symmetrical; he couldn't find a flaw even if he tried. And her body...Stop staring at her like that. She sure had a way of picking her clothes to make all the important things stand out. She wore stilettos, low-rise, boot-cut jeans and a top so tight it would have looked indecent on anyone else, but she made it look sweet and innocent.

"Oh, hi. Sam, this is Christine. Christine, Sam." Lisa's voice sounded strangely distant.

"So nice to finally know your name." Gorgeous Girl — Christine's smile broadened.

Sam's stomach dropped to his knees.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't have time to chat right now. We have exams waiting. Coming?"

Sam shook his head, trying to snap out of his Christine-induced haze. "Yeah, sure."

"In most parts of the world, shaking your head means no." Lisa squinted at him and then at Christine. "We'll talk later."

"You really want to get rid of me, don't you?" Christine laughed. It was one of the most beautiful sounds Sam had ever heard. "I'm going. Don't want to mess up your plans." She waggled her perfect eyebrows at Sam, sending his stomach in his throat. Was this what roller-coasters felt like?

"You're not going to mess up my plans." Lisa laughed too, only it came out sarcastic. Sam knew her well enough to tell she wasn't kidding. She was warning Christine. Girls were so weird sometimes.

"Okay, we'll talk later, then. Bye, Lisa. Bye, Sam." Christine smiled at him, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. She pranced towards the exit, her hips swaying. Before she turned the corner, she stopped and waved at him.

"Yeah, we'll talk," Lisa mumbled, cramming books into her arms.

Sam stared at her for a few seconds while the effects of Christine wore off. "How d'you know her again?"

"Eh, we went to grade school together and sorta stayed friends afterwards. Weird that she decided to come here now. It's true that we do have unfinished business, I was just starting to tell you... Ugh, could you help me out."

"Oh, sorry." Sam reached out and relieved Lisa of her books. Which reminded him of his own books. "Ah crap, exam!" He had to get to the other side of campus in less than ten minutes. "You'll tell me another time. I think we have more important stuff going on now. Like getting your books to class."

Lisa smiled and rushed after him, the subject of Christine forgotten.

Sam has a crush, Sam has a crush, Sam has... okay, should probably stop being immature.

But yes, Sam has friends and goes to school and... what do you think about Christine? Is she up to something or just there by mere coincidence?

Thanks for reading and please consider leaving a vote or comment.

Also, if you're curious, Bonus #2 is happening right about now, so you could go have a look 😉