In Your Arms (3 page)

“Yeah, I guess. I mean he does have nice hair.”

“Hair? That’s all? Did you get a look at his muscles? He must work out. I mean, he doesn’t play on a team, does he? That would just add to the hotness.”

“Calm yourself,” Sam replied with a laugh. “I don’t know if he plays any sports. He didn’t ask about our sports teams though, so I doubt it.”

“Well, that’s okay. He’s still hot.”

“Okay, enough with all this talk about degrees of hotness. What did Ms. Hatchet assign for homework?”

“Ugh, a three page report on DNA vs. RNA.”

“Why does she do this to us?”

“She likes to see us fail, plain and simple. But I better start working on that paper. You know how slow I type.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sam said as she gathered her things. “I better head home and start on it too. It’s going to be hard trying to spread out so little information over three pages,”

“All right, see you tomorrow at school. I can’t wait to see him again.”

“Who? Michael? Man, you’ve got it bad.”

“Look who’s talking, Miss Can’t-Take-My-Eyes-Off-Of-Phillip, Miss Phillip-Said-A-Word-To-Me, Miss—”

“Okay, okay. I’m leaving before we can do anymore damage to each other,” Sam said as she got up from the bed. She put her backpack on her shoulder and walked toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school.”

“Bye, Sam.”

Sam walked across the stone pathway that lay between the two houses. She opened the front door and made her way to the stairs.

“Hi, honey!” Sam’s mom called from the kitchen. “How was your day?”

Since ninth grade, Sam would go to Alex’s house after school for an hour or two, come home and make her way toward the stairs, but before she could go up to her bedroom, her mother would always ask the same question.

Sam always answered the same way. “Fine, Mom, nothing really happened.”

“Well, go upstairs and finish the rest of your homework. I’ll call you when dinner is ready, and don’t forget to check on Benjamin. I just sent him up there, not too long ago.”

Sam made her way up the stairs as usual and dropped her backpack off in her room before going across the hall to check on her younger brother. Benjamin was thirteen years younger than Sam, but looked very much like his older sister with the same blond hair and green eyes. Sam had always wanted a baby brother so when her mother announced she was going to have a baby, Sam had been thrilled.

She tousled his hair as she entered his room. “Hey, Benny. What did you do today?”

His eyes lit up at the sight of her. “Hi, Sammy. We learned our numbers today, one to, um, one hundred.”

“Wow, Benny. That’s so good. You’re so smart. Smarter than Davy,” Sam said, referring to their older brother, causing Benny to give her a big grin. “Are you coloring a picture?” She sat down at Benjamin’s small red table in the middle of his room.

“Yeah, it’s for Davy,” he said, holding up the unfinished picture.

David had just entered his first year of college at Penn State. He chose to stay close to home so he could see his family while boarding for free at the house. David would drop Benjamin off at kindergarten before heading to classes, while their mom went to work. She worked as a nurse administrator at the local hospital.

“Benny, I’m going to be in my room working on homework. If you need me for anything, come get me, okay?”

“Okay, Sammy.”

Sam walked across the upstairs hall into her room. From her desk, she could easily see into Benjamin’s room and keep an eye on him. Sam could usually finish all her homework before dinner. Alex, on the other hand, wasn’t joking when she’d said that she typed slowly. It wasn’t just typing either. It normally took her twice as much time as Sam to finish most pieces of academic work.

Sam logged onto her computer and began flipping through her Pre-calculus book, finally settling on the assigned homework. Not too long after, Sam had finished her Pre-calculus, US History, and English assignments. She had finished everything but Ms. Hatchet’s three-page paper, and she still had an hour before dinner was ready. A chat window popped up on her computer.

AlexisCool: Hey, Sam.

SamIam: Hey. What’s up?

AlexisCool: What did you get for problem 28?

SamIam: Put the basket out, and I’ll send you my homework.

AlexisCool: You finished already???

SamIam: Yeah, but I still have the paper. Besides, you know I work fast.

AlexisCool: Yeah, I know…Okay, sending over the basket.

Sam and Alex had devised a pulley system between their rooms when they were younger. They wanted to be able to send things between their houses easily without having to leave their bedrooms. Sam got up from her desk and placed her Pre-calculus book, her homework stored safely inside the pages, into the basket.

“Thanks, Sam!” Alex called from her window.

When they were younger, the girls wanted to easily go over to each other’s bedrooms, without having to leave the house. They had the brilliant idea to place a ladder between the two windows. It worked successfully for a while, but one night, when Alex was crawling across the ladder to her bedroom, the ladder slipped with Alex on it. She only broke her arm, but that didn’t stop their parents from making them take it down. It was a miracle they even let them keep the basket.

“See you tomorrow, Alex,” Sam called as she closed her window.

Sam sat back down at her desk. Across the hall, Benjamin was playing with his Legos. Sam looked down at her Biology book and realized the extent of their homework assignment. How was she going to stretch a couple of paragraphs on the difference between DNA and RNA into three pages? She was going to do what she normally did when Ms. Hatchet assigned something like this, she’d fudge it a little.

“Samantha! Dinner is ready!” Sam’s mom called up the stairs a short time later. “Don’t forget your brother!”

Sam had just printed her paper. She logged off and headed downstairs with her brother.

“Where’s Davy?” Sam asked.

“He called to say that he picked up an extra shift down at the pizza parlor,” her mom said as she set down the salad bowl on the table. “Now where is your father?”

“Hello, honey,” Sam’s father said as he walked through the front door into the dining room where they were sitting and gave his wife a kiss on the check before sitting down. “Sorry I’m a bit late.” Sam’s father was a lawyer working at one of the nearby firms. “The guys needed me to sign off on some paperwork for this upcoming case.”

“It’s fine, dear. You made it home in time for dinner.”

If there was one thing Sam’s mom was picky about, it was that everyone be home for dinner. If she spent the time to cook something for the family, then the family better respect her labor and be home to eat the meal. Sam’s mother passed the food around the table, looking at everyone’s plate to make sure they didn’t have too much or too little food.

“Samantha, don’t give Benjamin that much mashed potatoes. He won’t be able to finish my meatloaf,” she said, noticing Sam give Benjamin a couple of extra scoops of mashed potatoes.

“Okay,” Sam said as she scooped the excess mashed potatoes her mother deemed ‘too much’ off of Benjamin’s plate. “Even though you don’t even like meatloaf,” Sam whispered to her brother, which caused a fit of giggles.

* * *

The next morning, Sam unlocked her car and flung her backpack and purse on the passenger seat, then climbed into the car and set off for school. On average, it took Sam about ten minutes to get to school, but when she was pressed for time, she could get to school in about half the time, if she caught mostly green lights.

Today, she had no such luck. “What is with all the red lights?” she yelled over her blaring radio. “Come on! I’m going to be late!”

If only she was more organized, she wouldn’t be constantly running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Today, she’d been even more distracted, because she’d still been obsessing over her conversations with Phillip.

Sam finally pulled into the parking lot with a loud screech. She gathered her things quickly and made her way to the front entrance, pondering how she was going to get by the front office without being noticed. She could get another tardy, but that would mean another detention.

“Hey! Sam, wait up!” Phillip called out from behind her as she ran toward the front entrance.

Sam came to a stop and turned around. This couldn’t be happening. She was almost starting to believe he wanted to run into her. “Oh, hey, Phillip. What are you doing?”

“I’m late, which is something you are obviously familiar with,” Phillip said with a quick grin.

“Well, I, uh, I just overslept.”

“That’s everyone’s excuse,” he joked. “But I don’t really care what you did that made you late. All I know is that if you go in that way, you are definitely going to be caught.”

“Oh, so you’ve done this before?”

“Yes. I guess you could say that I’m sort of a pro. Follow me. I know of a secret entrance.”

“Where are we going?” Sam asked, both thrilled and confused when he guided her to the side of the school, skillfully dodging classroom windows by ducking below them.

“Here,” Phillip said as he reached a door labeled
Electrical
.

“The utility closet or whatever this thing is supposed to be isn’t an entrance,” she protested.

“Yes, it is. You just have to have the right tools,” Phillip said as he pulled out his keys. He flipped through a couple of them and finally found the one he was looking for, a broad gold key. “Here we go,” he said as he placed it in the keyhole.

“Is that a key to this door?”

“Yes, I have connections.”

“Wow, you never cease to amaze me,” Sam said.

“I amaze you, huh?” Phillip said, hiding a grin as he opened the door.

Sam blushed. “Are we going in?”

“Let me go first. It’s full of obstacles in here,” Phillip said, holding out his hand for Sam to take.

He was correct about the room being full of obstacles. After the outside door shut, it became pitch black. Phillip had to guide her through. It was hard for Sam to concentrate, though. Phillip’s hand was warm in hers. She could hardly believe she was holding hands with Phillip. Granted, they were walking through the utilities room, trying to sneak into class without getting caught, but it still sent chills up and down Sam’s spine. She momentarily lost control of her senses and tripped over a large box, bringing Phillip down with her.

“Are you ok?” Phillip asked, his warm breath tickling her ear.

Neither moved. He had fallen flat on his back. She had landed on top of him, cushioning her fall with his body. They were face to face, body to body. They couldn't see each other, but the intensity of being so physically close made her catch her breath.

For a moment, Sam was lost in the moment, but finally managed to regain her composure and get back on her feet. “Yeah, I'm okay.”

“You have Pre-calculus with Mr. Stevens, right?” Phillip asked as they approached the door leading to the hallway.

“Yeah, how do you know that?” Sam couldn’t believe Phillip knew what class she had first period.

“Tracy. You two are in the same classes,” he said.

That was it, she realized, deflated. He’d only noticed because he’d seen her when he’d been with Tracy.

She cleared her throat, feeling like an idiot. “Oh, um, how am I going to sneak into class without him noticing?”

“Just follow my lead,” Phillip said as he opened the door and motioned for Sam to follow him. They were in one of the school corridors not too far from her classroom, only a couple of rooms down the hall. They managed to sneak past the other classrooms without being seen.

“Ok, now sneak through the back while I distract Mr. Stevens,” he told her in a whisper as they reached the door.

Sam headed toward the back door to the classroom, and then turned around to face Phillip. “Thanks, Phillip. You saved my butt back there. It was also fun.”

“No problem, Sam. I had fun too. We’ll have to do it again, when we’re, um, late again, I mean.”

Sam smiled, waiting for Phillip to distract Mr. Stevens. Perhaps he did like her a little bit.

“Mr. Stevens?” Phillip asked as he stepped into the classroom.

Mr. Stevens was writing out the answers to the previous night’s homework on the chalkboard.

“Mr. Corinodi, what a pleasure. What do you need?” the teacher asked as he walked over to Phillip, who turned his back to the chalkboard so Mr. Steven’s back was facing the back of the class.

Once Mr. Steven’s was distracted—who knew what Phillip was talking about—she quietly made her way into the classroom unnoticed.

Phillip glanced back to make sure she'd made it. “Well, that was about it, Mr. Stevens,” he said.

“I’m glad you came to talk to me, Phillip. I’ll be glad to help, but next time, ask me after class.”

“Sorry,” he said. Phillip left the classroom, giving Sam a wink on the way out.

Sam’s heart did a couple of flips as Mr. Stevens turned back to the class. She couldn’t believe Phillip had made himself late so that she could sneak into her class. She knew that he was just being nice, that he was still with Tracy, but she couldn’t help being blown away by what he’d done. As Mr. Stevens continued his lecture, Sam started texting Alex.

Sam, why were you late? ~AB

I woke up late. Barely got here without being noticed. ~SB

How did you get in without Ms. Kelly seeing you? She patrols those halls with her life. And do you know why Phillip was here? He winked at you, don’t deny it, I saw it! ~AB

Well, Phillip caught me in the parking lot and got me in, undetected. That’s why he was here, creating a distraction for me to get to my seat. And yes, I think he winked at me. Did he? I mean, what do you think that means? ~SB

Sam, he’s winking at you. That has to mean something, right? ~AB

I mean, I don’t even know if we’re friends. We just talked once in detention, and this morning he held my hand and we kind of had an intimate moment but, other than that, we haven’t talked since junior high! ~SB