#floq came in with the clutch with goth princess jnbhg

[q-gorgeous]

Falling Out

fanfiction

ao3

Sam and Paulina are assigned as partners for a school project.

word count: 2581

for @phandom-phriend

heyo bro

“I don’t get what the big deal is.”

Sam stared at Paulina, who was standing in the middle of the hallway twirling her hair between her fingers. 

“You don’t get what the big deal is? Your boyfriend literally just beat someone up!”

Paulina scoffs. “He’s not my boyfriend! And that kid was a loser anyway. His family is just a bunch of freaks.”

Sam looked at Danny who was still laying on the floor, his breath wheezing from when it was knocked out of him. “He’s not a loser.” Sam mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Paulina looked over her nails.

“He’s not a loser!” Sam stomped up to Paulina, her face inches from the other girl’s. “He’s really nice and actually likes hearing about things I want to talk about! Unlike you.”

Tossing her hair over her shoulder, Paulina turned her nose up into the air. “That’s because all you like is that spooky ooky goth stuff. No one wants to listen to you talk about ghosts and spiders and witches.”

“He does.”

“That’s because he’s a loser.” Paulina poked a finger into Sam’s chest. “Why don’t you just drop him and this freaky goth phase and come hang out with your real friends.”

“You are not my friend.”

Paulina froze. “What?”

“I don’t know what bug crawled it’s way up your ass Paulina, but if this is how you’re going to treat people now I don’t want to be your friend anymore.”

She watched as Sam walked away from her and helped Danny off the ground. Sam whispered a few things to him and he nodded. They began to limp their way to the nurses office. 

Paulina clenched her fists together and her throat tightened. That’s fine. She didn’t need Sam. She had plenty of other friends. What did one falling out matter? She turned around and stomped her way in the opposite direction towards the cafeteria.

She didn’t need Sam Manson. 

QQQQQ

“But Mr. Lancer!” Paulina whined, her hands resting on the top of her desk as she stood up in protest. 

“I’m sorry Ms. Sanchez, but you and Ms. Manson will be partners for this project.”

Sam raised her hand. “I’d rather do my project on my own than work with her.”

Lancer pinched the bridge of his nose. “You two are partners for this project, end of discussion.”

“But-” Both girls chorused. 

“That’s enough! Ms. Sanchez, take your seat.”

Paulina huffed and crossed her arms as she sat down. Why did Lancer have to assign her and Sam to work together? Hasn’t he figured out that they hate each other yet?

Her gaze flicked over to where Sam was sitting. She was angrily scratching something into her notebook. She paused and her eyes met Paulina’s. They stared at each other for a moment before Paulina sneered in her direction and looked away. 

Paulina sat angrily stewing in her seat until the bell rang. She grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, heading out of the classroom at a brisk pace. She was putting the combination into her locker and had just gotten it open when Sam walked up and pushed it closed. 

“What do you want, Manson?” Paulina snapped. 

Sam rolled her eyes. “We’re supposed to work on that project together, remember? When are we going to meet for it?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you just do it on your own and write my name on it.” Paulina twisted the dial on her locker again. 

“Nu uh. If we’re forced to be partners you’re gonna help with it.”

Paulina groaned and opened her locker again. “I guess we can start working on it today after school.”

“Great. I’ll meet you at your house when school is over then.”

“What?” Paulina squawked and turned towards Sam. “Why my house?”

“I don’t want my parents thinking we’re friends again.”

Paulina just stared at her but frowned when Sam pushed the locker closed again and started walking away. She clenched her fists. As if they would ever be friends again. 

The rest of the day passed by both too quick and slow at the same time. She dreaded having Sam come over and having to talk to her so much that even though the day dragged on and on, when she was at home and a knock sounded on the door it felt like she had just been standing at her locker. 

Paulina opened the front door, a bored look on her face when her eyes met Sam’s. They stood there for a moment before Paulina waved her in. Sam stepped in, looking around and Paulina closed the door behind her. 

“So what is this project we’re supposed to be doing anyways?” Paulina led the way to the kitchen where her backpack sat on the table.

Sam sighed. “You weren’t even paying attention when he went over it?”

“I was too busy being angry at Lancer.”

Rolling her eyes, Sam set her backpack on the table and pulled some papers out. “He wants us to find a screenplay to go over. We have to read it and analyze it like we would for a book in class but he wants us to perform part of it in class.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know Paulina!” Sam threw her hands up in the air. “Why do they make us do anything? Now pick one from this list.” She threw a piece of paper at Paulina. “This is a list of plays I thought we would both be interested in.”

Paulina stared at Sam, stunned that she’d even consider Paulina’s interests when they clearly hated each other. Slowly, she looked down at the paper, her eyes scanning over the list. One popped out to her.

“Isn’t this one a musical? Does that count?”

Sam peered around at the paper. “I would think so. They’re basically plays, just with songs. I can’t see why it wouldn’t count.”

“Hm.” Paulina pursed her lips. “If we do this one are we gonna perform a song or a different part of the musical?” She looked over at Sam. She had a dangerous, determined look on her face.

“Only if we want to blow everyone else out of the water.”

Paulina stared for a few seconds, her cheeks heating up. Then she coughed and looked back at the paper.

“Yeah, okay. Let’s do that one.”

QQQQQ

“Why are they all named Heather anyways?”

Sam shrugged as Paulina squinted at her copy of the script. 

They sat in the middle of the stage in the empty auditorium. The rest of their class was in the library, but Mr. Lancer had given them permission to go over their own project in the auditorium. 

“What I wanna know is why there’s always so much drama in musicals set in high schools.” Sam wrinkled her nose. “Like I know we have the A-Listers and everything but this in here is so excessive.”

“What, you don’t like drama?” Paulina rested her chin on her hand, shooting Sam a smile.

“I don’t like high schoolers killing other high schoolers.”

Paulina’s smile fell. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Sam looked down and away. She took a deep breath and stood up with her script in her hand. “Anyways. Let’s figure out which part we want to perform for the class.”

Paulina took a look at the list of songs they had. “What about Seventeen or Shine a Light? I listened to those a couple times and they both have different tones but they seem like they’d be fun to sing.”

Sam nodded. “And there’s not much about sex in either of those. That’s another thing, why do musicals about high schoolers talk so much about sex?” She faked a gag. “I think those are good choices because some of those songs would be so embarrassing to perform in front of the class.”

Paulina frowned. “If this one has stuff in it that makes you uncomfortable why’d you include it on the list?”

Sam shrugged. “I figured it’d make Lancer squirm. He didn’t actually give any specifications on what we could pick anyways. Now let’s get started. Which part do you want?”

“Oh oh! Can I have the lead part? That is, if you didn’t want it?” Paulina started standing up from where she sat on the floor.

Sam shook her head. “You can have it if you want. Want to practice Seventeen first?”

“Sure.”

The music started playing after Sam hit a button on her phone and it filled up the room.

Paulina took a deep breath. 

“Fine, we're damaged

Really damaged.

But that does not make us wise.

We're not special.

We're not different.

We don't choose who lives or dies.”

Paulina looked up at Sam as she sung the lyrics.

“Let’s be normal. See bad movies

Sneak a beer and watch TV.

We'll bake brownies, 

or go bowling --

Don't you want a life with me?

Can't we be seventeen?

That's all I want to do

If you could let me in.

I could be good with you.”

Paulina’s cheeks flushed but she continued singing.

“People hurt us.”

“Or they vanish…”

Goosebumps traveled over Paulina’s arms as Sam’s voice rang out towards her. 

“And you're right that really blows.

But we let go…”

Sam looked up and met Paulina’s eyes and it felt like Paulina was electrocuted. She pulled her eyes away and looked back down at her paper. They finished up the song and Paulina kept staring at her paper until Sam left out a breathless laugh.

“That was so cool! I’ve never really thought about doing theater or anything because it’s not very, you know, goth. But that was exhilarating!” 

Paulina watched as Sam laughed and smiled. She could feel herself falling in and laughed herself. 

QQQQQ

Paulina and Sam laughed as they walked out of the school together. Their project was due in two days and they were heading to Sam’s house to practice their song a bit more. 

“I can’t wait to see Lancer’s face when we discuss what the musical is about. Do you think he’ll-”

BOOM! 

Sam got cut off as something exploded ahead of them, sending both girls sprawling to the ground. 

Looking behind them from where she was on the ground, Paulina saw a giant animalistic ghost. It looked somewhere between a cross of a snake and a cat and it looked like it was about to shoot another blast off from it’s fangs. 

Just as the blast was launched towards Paulina, something crashed into the side of the ghost's head, sending the shot soaring into the sky instead. 

“Run! Get out of here!” Phantom shouted as he shot back at the ghost.

She stood up shakily but didn’t run away. She looked around the front of the school for Sam, where she saw the other girl in the middle of the sidewalk holding a...lipstick? With a determined look on her face. 

What was she planning to do with a tube of lipstick?

Paulina had begun inching her way over to Sam when a green blast came out of the lipstick she was holding onto. It shot into the ghost a couple of times, distracting it from Phantom’s attacks for a moment. 

It bared its teeth at Sam but Phantom punched it in the side of the head. Snarling, it batted Phantom away, sending it flying across the parking lot and it faced back towards Sam. 

Paulina felt like everything was happening in slow motion. When the ghost bared its teeth again, when another ball of ectoplasm started dripping from its fangs, when Paulina ran desperately across the parking lot and barreled Sam out of the way and onto the ground just before the blast created a crater in the ground where she stood a moment before. The ghost started snarling at them again.

“Hey ugly!” 

Phantom viciously threw another ectoblast at the ghost, stunning it before finally pulling it into his thermos. 

Paulina gasped and turned back to where Sam was still laying underneath her. 

“Sam! Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m-” Sam paused, frowning and her face flushing before she spoke again, looking over Paulina’s shoulder. “Shut up.”

“What?” 

Sam groaned. “That dip is making faces over there.”

Paulina turned around to see Phantom making kissy faces at them. She raised an eyebrow at him and he paused to give her a grin.

“Okay well, my job is done. Have fun you two!”

And he jumped into the air and flew away. 

“Seriously though.” Paulina crawled off of Sam and helped her up. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Why’d you do that anyways?” Her brows furrowed. “I would’ve been okay. You didn’t have to do anything.”

Paulina gaped at her. “It was about to attack you! It tried! It left a crater in the ground where you were standing! Why wouldn’t I have done anything?”

Sam looked away. “I didn’t think you cared.” She said softly.

Paulina’s stomach plummeted. “I wouldn’t have two weeks ago.” She whispered. “But then we got paired up for this project, and I realized that you’re actually very cool and that I was just really dumb in middle school.”

Sam looked at her. 

“And I think I’ve always sort of missed you. But I decided to never stop being mad so I never figured that out.”

“I guess I did the same thing too.” Sam said. “I could’ve decided to talk to you on my own and talk things out after a while but I just didn’t want to.”

“But it was my fault. I was the one being a terrible person.”

“Are you going to continue being a terrible person though?”

Paulina’s mind went back to the first time Sam’s rage had been bestowed upon her, when one of Paulina’s friends beat up one of Sam’s friends. She didn’t want to be the cause of that again. 

“No.”

“Well.” Sam smiled. “That’s the important part. That you’re capable of change.” She picked up her bag from where she had dropped it during the attack. “Now come on, my mom was gonna make cookies when we got home.”

Paulina smiled back at her and held up her arm to the other girl. Sam looked at it and linked her own arm with Paulina’s. Together they walked away from the school.

QQQQQ

Sam and Paulina’s chests rose up and down as they held their arms up into the air after performing the piece they picked from their musical. The class clapped for them and they lowered their arms and bowed.

“Very nice, Ms. Sanchez and Ms. Manson. Though, I wish you had picked something more appropriate than.” He squinted at the sheet they handed him. “Heathers the musical.”

Sam snickered. “Of course, Mr. Lancer. We’ll try to keep that in mind next time.”

Lancer gave her a look. “Yes, be sure that you do. Alright up next we have-”

Sam and Paulina walked back to their desks and sat down. Paulina shot a look to where Sam was sitting with Danny and Tucker, who were both making kissy faces at her while she swatted at them. Sam’s gaze met hers and Paulina waved at her before blowing a kiss to her across the room.

Sam’s face turned the brightest shade of red Paulina had ever seen it and she opened a folder and stuck her face inside it. Danny and Tucker were both teasing her even more, seemingly losing their mind about it. Paulina giggled at them and turned her focus back to the front of the classroom.