***Tay’s View***
	Of course, I had to live up to my name & call Sam in the morning. I
normally called about 20 minutes after I woke up so I could have time to wake
up before I made an ass of myself over the phone & said something I didn’t
mean to. Like the time I egged her on about the beauty sleep thing, if I would’ve
had more time to think, I would’ve known that I had a risk of getting my ass
kicked & backed off. 
	“Uhm, whaddya want Taylor?” Sam mumbled. “Well, I was considering
waking you up,” I told her. “Oh yeah. Well, I’m awake now.” “I can tell.” “So
like, we’ll be done in time by Friday so I can get to band, right?” she asked. “Of
course. We might even be done like a half hour before then in about a week.”
“So I’ll have plenty of time to get there, good. I gotta get ready, I’ll be over there
by about eight, OK?” “OK,” I said & hung up. 
		***Sam’s View***
	Right when I was about to walk over to Taylor’s house, the phone rang.
Troy & Kay were still getting ready in their rooms, so I headed back to the living
room & answered the phone. 
		***Tay’s View***
	At about ten after eight, Sam still hadn’t shown up. It really wasn’t like
her to be late, so I was a little worried. “Hey Ike, did Sam call while I was
getting ready to say she’d be late?” I asked him. “Nope, not that I heard. She is
kinda late, huh? That’s pretty weird.” 
		***Sam’s View***
	“Sure.... it’s OK.... yeah.... you too..... bye,” I said & hung up. I couldn’t
believe my ears. Unconsciously, I put the phone back on the jack. I stood up
slowly, then ran out the door. 
		***Tay’s View***
	A quarter after eight, Sam still hadn’t shown up, & hadn’t called either.
“Ike, did Sam say anything about her parents coming home this morning?” I
asked him. “Not to me. Hmm, I’ll call her & see what’s takin her so long,” he
said standing up. Just as he got to the phone, the door burst open. 
		***Sam’s View***
	I don’t have any idea how I got to the Hansons’s, but before I knew what
was going on I was in their living room. It took me a moment to get everything
in focus.
		***Tay’s View***
	Sam ran in the door, & I jumped up. I hadn’t even seen her walking up to
the porch. She appeared startled for a moment, then looked at me. She blinked,
then ran toward me. I got my arms out just in time as she ran into them, & I
wrapped my arms around her, partly to keep myself from falling over.
Carefully, I sat down while keeping my arms around her, as I saw Ike hurrying
to us. Only as I sat down did I realize that the was trembling. I looked at Ike &
saw the look on his face, & then came to the conclusion that she was crying. 
	For a few moments, we just sat there as I held Sam in my arms while she
silently sobbed. Finally, she lifted her head & looked at me. “Sorry,” she
muttered & sat back. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “I don’t mean to be snoopy or
anything-” “Car accident. Drunk driver...they didn’t.. seatbelts...last night... her
Mom...” Sam trailed off, then threw herself back into my arms. “Shhhh...it’ll be
all right. Go ahead, let it all out,” I tried to soothe her. 
	Just then, I saw Zac cautiously walk in. I nodded & he sat down on the
other side of me & Sam. Apparently, she noticed him sit down, because she
pulled back & sat down across from me. “My, my friend back home, Felicia, was
in a car accident last night. A drunk driver slammed into her car head-on & she
& her mom weren’t wearing seatbelts. Her mom died instantly... and Felicia...
died in the hospital early this morning,” she managed to get out. “Oh God,” Zac
whispered. Sam lunged herself back in my arms. “Well, would you rather skip
class today?” I asked her. “I probably shouldn’t get behind...” “It’s OK, it’s not
that hard to catch up. Besides, it looks like you won’t be able to concentrate
today anyway.” She sighed. “If you think I should...” Slowly, she released me.
“OK, I’ll go tell Mom & Dad, OK?” She nodded. I stood up & walked out to find
my parents. 
	“Hey, Dad,” I called to him in the kitchen. “Uh huh?” he answered,
putting away the cereal boxes. “Um, something just happened to Sam, & she’s
really upset about it...” “What happened? Or is it too personal?” Dad asked. “I
think one of her friends back home died in a car accident. But she’s really wound
up about it, & I was wondering if maybe she could miss class today. I don’t
think she’ll get much accomplished today anyway, she’s kind of distracted,” I
nervously babbled. “Hmm, well I think she’ll survive if we let her off this one
day. Don’t you think so, Diana?” he asked her, since she’d been standing in the
doorway & had heard the whole conversation. She silently nodded. “All right
then, you can tell her that she can have the day off. But you boys don’t, you can
still have class,” he insisted. “I know, Dad,” I answered. 
	I walked back into the living room, where Sam, Ike, & Zac were still
sitting on the ground. Ike looked up expectantly, Zac glanced up, but Sam
seemed not to notice my presence. “Well, they said you could have this day off,”
I told her. She lifted her head a little, then, hardly above a whisper, said, “Thank
you.” Now that I could see her face a little better, I could see smeared black eye
makeup all down her face. “Hey, I got an idea,” I said, mainly to Ike & Zac.
“What?” Zac asked. I shook my head. “Sam? C’mon into the garage, I want to
show you something,” I told her. She looked up, then nodded. I stood up & then
offered her my hand, which she took. 
	Ike, Sam, Zac & I all walked into the garage, where I stepped behind my
keyboard. Sam sighed & leaned against Ike’s chest, & he wrapped her arms
around her. Her shoulders shook & she looked like she was about to break down
& sob again, but she held it back. 
	I turned the keyboard on & changed the volume so it would be just loud
enough for us to hear, but low enough so no one in the house would even know
I was playing. Then, without another word, I started ‘With You in Your Dreams’.

		***Sam’s View***
	I held my breath. The garage was in complete silence after
Taylor finished the last note of the song. “That was the most beautiful
song I’ve ever heard,” I whispered after a few more moments. Taylor
took a deep breath & turned the keyboard off. “We wrote it right
after our grandmother died.” I only nodded. “Well, I think it’s the
best-written song I’ve heard in my life. Those stupid record company
execs don’t know what they’re missing,” I told them. “Well, we put it
on ‘MMMBop’, so I guess they will soon,” Ike told me. “Oh, so that’s
what that was,” I mumbled. “What what was?” Zac asked. “Oh, I
heard the tape that you guys made before you had to go into that one
studio thing, & I remember hearing that song on it. It was real badly
recorded though,” I recalled. Everyone nodded. 
	We returned to the living room, where all the kids were. It was
about a quarter till nine, & I figured I should just go back home until
they were done. “Are you sure?” Ike asked, looking cautiously at me.
“Yeah, I’ll do OK. If I need anything, I can just call Jason or
something,” I assured them. “Well, OK then. We’ll call you when
we’re done, OK?” Taylor asked. I nodded. He looked at me intently.
“Look, I’ll be OK!” I cried, throwing my arms in the air. “OK, all
right, if you say so,” Ike told me. “I do say so. So I’ll hear from you
when you’re done?” Taylor nodded. “Sounds good. Bye,” I said,
walking out the door. “Bye,” Ike & Taylor chorused. 
	I was all alone at the house since Kay & Troy were at class.
There wasn’t too much to do, but I knew that everybody else should
still be home. I didn’t want to have too much time to myself to sit &
get depressed. 
	“Hey Amanda!” “Hi Sam! Wait a minute, ain’t you sposed to be
in class?” “Yeah, somewhat. It’s kinda difficult to explain over the
phone....”
		***Tay’s View***
	Directly after class I hurried over to Sam’s house. I wasn’t
exactly surprised to find that Amanda was already there, Sam wasn’t
one to want to dwell on things, make herself worse. Obviously, Sam
was still a little down about it, but I knew having me & Amanda by
her made it easier for her to handle. 
	After a little while of silence, since no one wanted to bring up
why we were really over at Sam’s, I blurted out, “The album’s gonna
be out on Fri.” “Man, that seems so quick,” came from Sam. “Yeah, it
kinda does. But the earlier we get it out, the sooner we can send it
out, right?” Amanda nodded. 
	Things continued on like that for a while; someone trying to
change the subject, but pretty soon everyone just stopped talking.
Finally, Sam spoke up. “OK, I get it, let’s not avoid the subject
anymore. I’ll talk about Felicia.” Amanda started to say something,
but stopped. I nodded. 
	“She & I met last year in the beginning of middle school. We
had gym together, & she was an eighth grader. We got to be friends
through this girl who she was friends with who was really nice to
me. I can’t exactly remember the girl’s name anymore, but I think it
started with an A. Anyway, we talked a lot, & got to be pretty good
friends. Through the whole semester of gym, we & some other girls
just had our own little cliché. Then, the next semester, Stacey had
gym with Felicia, so we all got even closer. We didn’t have much
contact till I found out that we were moving, since her family didn’t
have a phone. So we all got together, because Amanda lived kinda
close to her. But, we all agreed that we’d keep writing when I moved,
so we did.” Sam stopped & sighed. “Then, this morning...” “Sam, you
don’t have to tell us about that,” I told her. “No, I want to. This
morning, Amanda stopped & called me to tell me that Felicia & her
mother were killed in a car accident because they weren’t wearing
their seatbelts. Some drunk driver smashed into them head-on going
like seventy. Her mom was killed instantly, but Felicia was brought
to the hospital. I don’t know all the details, she seemed in a hurry & I
couldn’t understand her too well, the connection sucked.” 
	“I have some pictures of her, if you guys would like to see
them,” she said. “Oh, sure,” Amanda agreed. We both followed Sam
downstairs, where she started searching through a box. Finally, she
came up with three pictures. “OK, here’s her seventh grade one she
gave me.” In the picture, sitting down, was a girl with
somewhat-frizzy brown chin length hair pulled back with a
headband. It was one of those pictures you get taken at school by the
company people, obviously. “And here’s her eighth grade one.”
There was the same girl with shoulder length hair, but this time with
glasses. “And here’s one that I took on the last day of school. She’s
the one in back in black.” She had her hair pulled up in a ponytail
this time, behind two other girls posing for the picture. It was
through a door, apparently on a step, because there were a few more
people behind them that were lower down. “That’s Shelby & Abby in
the front. We weren’t too close, but they were goofing off so I took a
picture. I would’ve made sure Felicia was in it better if I knew this
was going to happen.”

		***Sam’s View***
	I couldn’t go to Felicia’s funeral. It was on Friday, & my parents told
me that they were going to be gone & there was no way for me to get there or
back. Plus, that was my first day of band & they decided that was the most
important thing; to get a good start. 
	Of course, I was completely unprepared when Friday came. That night,
I remembered at last minute & practiced for about a half hour. I had
absolutely no patience for French Horn, I liked flute better. Since class was
getting over earlier, about a half hour before band started, Diana agreed with
my parents that she’d drive me to the middle school that I was getting classes
at. 
	That day, I was completely fidgety. Taylor kept telling me to relax, but
I just couldn’t. I spent a half hour that morning trying to decide what to wear,
when finally I had to call Amanda for advice. She was just about ready to
leave when I called, but told me to wear my good GX shorts & Indian shirt.
I’d gotten it from my parents a few days before: it was a bluish T-shirt with a
lifelike picture of a Native American girl holding a rainbow. 
	I got to the Hansons’s at about 8:30, & Taylor & Isaac nagged at me.
The whole time before class, I was persistently asking them if my hair looked
OK or if my lipstick was smeared. Pretty soon they just gave up & started
ignoring me. 
	After class, I couldn’t eat anything. I didn’t want to get food on my
teeth or anything. Taylor let me leave only after I promised I’d eat something
after I got back. I didn’t want to go up there by myself, either, so Taylor
agreed to go with his mom to drop me off. 
	The outside of the school seemed motionless except for a few leaves
blowing around. “Wish me luck,” I sighed as I hopped out of the van. “No!”
Taylor joked. “Just kidding. Good luck,” he assured me. He handed me my
French horn case & I slid the door shut. 
	I knew the way to my classroom; Amanda had given me directions.
She knew some of the people who would be in my class & told me that it
wouldn’t be all that bad. Most of the people, she said, were just a bunch of
clowns. They’d take opportunity of the chance that the teacher would be
involved in getting me adjusted & have their fun.
	I noticed that it must have been between classes because the halls were
full of students. I got into the classroom & saw a few other people in there
already. I saw a door at the front of the room, so I entered it. Inside sat a man
that looked in his mid-thirties and a woman that looked in her forties or
fifties. Immediately, the woman who had been standing by another door near
the walls greeted me. “Hello! You must be Samantha, right?” she asked. I
nodded. “And you’re a Frenchie, huh? Great! We’ve been running low on
French horns, & Tracy decided that she didn’t want to play in Rachel’s place,
so you’re just in time!” 
	“My name’s Mrs. Westerman, and his name is Mr. Fillmore,” she told
me, walking back out to the classroom. “The French horns sit right there,
almost in the middle of the classroom. Sierra’s the other French horn, so
she’ll help you out. We don’t have any music out yet, we won’t hand that out
for probably another week or so.” About twenty people were in the classroom
now, all putting together their instruments. “Since today’s the first day, most
of the class will be late, just because they can get away with it. Good, you
brought your horn. We’ll play a little bit today, but not much. I like your hair!
What’s it called?” “Uh, fire red,” I answered. “Awesome! Do you think it’d
look good on me?” she asked. “Hmm, I’m not sure. I like the black on you a
lot, I think that should stay.” “OK. Well, you might as well go up to your
seat, it’s right there next to Sierra,” she said, pointing to a girl with long
brown hair. 
	I walked put to the seat next to her. “Hey, you a French horn too?” she
asked. I nodded. “Well, that’s good. I heard that Tracy quit & Westerman &
Fillmore don’t have much patience for Terry. So I see you met Westerman,”
she commented. “Yeah, I guess. She asked me how I got my hair this color. I
guess it isn’t too natural looking,” I told her. “Nope, pretty unnuetral. She’s
kind of a talker. So what did you do before the horn?” she asked as I opened
my case. “Flute. I got kind of forced into French horn by my parents.”
“Really? Almost all of the people here who wanted to play horn were flutes
too. Guess it’s just natural instinct.” I nodded again. 
	By the time we had our horns together, the bell rang & the class was
full. By the size of it, it looked like there were more than 50 people in the
classroom. That was pretty surprising to me, because in the band class I had
been in before had only been made up of about 30 people. 
	“OK, since I see that most people don’t have a play book, some don’t
even have their instruments, even though I left SPECIFIC instructions that
everyone bring them at the end of the year last year,” Fillmore said, standing
in the front of the class. “Hey, it’s the beginning of the year, cut us some
slack!” a girl in the second row in the flute section called out. “Yes, Terry,
I’m cutting you slack. For today. Monday, you’d better have your flute here,
or else be prepared to sort music for the whole hour.”  Terry muttered
something & the girls around her stiffled giggles. 
	Fillmore assigned play books to people who didn’t have them, myself
included. We played for about 20 minutes before he wanted to talk to the
class some more. “Since we only have two French horns & Chris moved, we
need to have auditions for new French horns and Bari saxes. I’ll have a sign
up sheet up some time next week, & tryouts the week after. Remember your
books on Monday, we’ll hand out music sometime probably Wednesday or
Thursday. You can put your instruments away now.” 

		***Sam’s View***
	That weekend was pretty normal. Jason, Mat, Amanda, Taylor, & I
just hung out all week pretty much. On Friday, Taylor gave us each a copy of
MMMBop. He had to give me two because I forced him to, & because he
knew that I would have to make a copy of mine to send to Snazzy if he
didn’t. The album was really awesome, we convinced them to send it in to
some recording companies. Reluctantly, they agreed. 
	Monday, class at the Hansons’ was pretty much the same. I wasn’t
quite as nervous as I had been Friday, plus we had a little more time now
between when we finished & when I had to go to the middle school. Walker
told us that he had to start going to work at different hours, so Diana would
have to teach us most of the time. She told us that she wasn’t really that good
with math, so they’d have to get a math tutor to help us with that. With a few
arrangements, they told us that on next Monday things would be different. 
	That day at class, everyone had their instruments. Those who still
didn’t have a book got one from Fillmore, & we played for about forty
minutes, just on some basic exercises. Then, he told us that from now on,
when the bell rang, everyone was to have their instruments together & be
ready to play. No big problem for me, I was always ready anyway. Fillmore
decided that the music he was going to hand out to us was going to be some
Christmas music, because we had a Christmas concert in December. Also, we
had marching music. We had to march at the high school football game in a
month, & Fillmore was getting everything prepared. 
	Fillmore was pretty much the instructor of the class, but Westerman
was a big part too. She led tryouts, I found out later from Sierra, & was the
seventh grade band teacher. Plus, when we had time at the end of the day, she
played a weird song on the piano. It was about the days of the week or
something, I wasn’t sure, I couldn’t understand what everyone was saying.
Thursday after we got our music, I went home & practiced a little. Halfway
through one of the songs, I was interrupted. 
	“What’s that song?” Taylor asked, walking into my room. “It’s a song
we’re marching to in band. How’d you get in here?” “The side door was
unlocked, I have good memory,” he reminded me. “Well, since you obviously
aren’t planning on leaving me alone any time soon, I might as well put this
away,” I said, opening my French horn case. “No, wait! Can I try that?” he
asked. “Well, OK I guess. First, here,” I said, taking the mouthpiece off the
horn. “You know how to play brass?” He shook his head. “OK, you make a
buzzing sound, like this,” I said, demonstrating how to do the buzz thing. He
copied off of me. “Then, you just use the mouthpiece & try to get a steady
note,” I said, then did it. I wiped the mouthpiece off & gave it to him. For a
few seconds, he didn’t get out anything but air, but then he did get a buzz out
of it. “Now,” I said, taking the mouthpiece, “you try in the horn. Not that
way. Damn you Mat! OK, like this.” I played a low C into the horn, then
jumped up to a high C. “Don’t try to do that yet, though. Just try to hold a
steady note, don’t use the keys yet.” I handed the horn over to him & he tried
it. It took him about 20 seconds to find a note & stay on it. But when he did,
he played a great G. “Now try to go lower,” I instructed. He dropped down to
a C. Then, knowing what I was going to say next, he tried to hit a high C. He
had it for a second or two, then dropped back down to a G. “That’s OK, high
C’s pretty hard, er, difficult, to hit. I still have to warm up a while before I
can.” “I think that’s enough French horn for today,” Taylor said, handing it
back to me. I put it back in the case & followed him upstairs. 
	“So, why’d you decide to just barge into my room?” I asked him when
we were lounged in the living room. “Cause I was bored. That enough?”
“Good enough reason for me.” I flipped on the TV. “So, I talked to Ashley
yesterday,” he told me. He was silent for a few second, & I knew that he
wouldn’t tell me more unless I asked. “Oh really? About what?” “Well, he
knew it was us who did that, & he kind of understood why. I told him what
all Axa & Brad said, & that all of what they said wasn’t true.” “What did he
say, then?” I asked. “He said he did Melly that something had happened, but
that was because she found out from her little sister that something had
happened between you two. Her sister’s one of Jessie’s friends. Apparently,
& I asked Jessie about it, she had been about to get a glass of water when she
saw you two. Then, when you two jumped apart, she hurried away before you
saw her. And she knew that Ashley was going out with her friend’s sister, so
she thought it was just best that she tell her. So then Melly found out &
confronted Ashley, & he fessed up & told her he was sorry. According to
him, she took him back, but is holding that blackmail against him. Since she’s
so close to Axa, she said that all she had to do was tell her to & Axa could
really mess up your rep up at the middle school. And Ashley doesn’t want all
that to happen, since it wasn’t your fault, so he’s been bending over
backwards, not that way, to please her.” I bit my lip & nodded. “He said now
he understands why we did that to his house, but is still hurt cause we didn’t
go to him first. I should’ve known with Brad & Axa,” Taylor sighed. I
nodded again. “But he still wants to be friends, but he’ll have to talk to Melly.
A lot.” “I wouldn’t want her to get mad at him & dump him or anything,
because it seems like he likes her a lot...” “No, she wouldn’t dump him. Her
rep depends on it, without him she’s not the popular cheerleader going out
with the football player. Plus, then all the cheerleaders would be all over
Ashley, so he needs to stay with one person so that they’ll stay off his back,”
he told me. 
	“So, like, is that all?” I asked when he was finished. “Well, he said he
wanted to talk to you, that’s all. He hasn’t talked to you since the party, & he
wants to get things straightened out.” I sighed. “Now that I’ve heard all this, I
guess it couldn’t really hurt to talk to him. Why don’t we get this over with
now?” I asked him. “Now? Um, OK I guess. Do you want to call him to tell
him we’re on our way?” “No, let’s just surprise him. Come on.”
	We walked over to Ashley’s after I left a note to Troy & Kay in case
they came home. When we got there, I was just about to chicken out, but I
figured that if I didn’t get this over with now, the whole thing would get
dragged out even worse. I rang the doorbell. 
		***Tay’s View***
	I was almost afraid at first that Sam would decide that she didn’t want
to go through with it after we reached Ashley’s house. But when she rang the
doorbell, I knew that she was going to have to go through with it. She wasn’t
going to run away now. 
	Ashley answered the door. He looked a little startled to see us, but
barely missed a beat. “Hi you guys. Uh, come on in, you want something to
drink?” he asked. “Um, no thanks,” Sam replied. “Have any DP?” I asked.
“But of course! That sounds pretty good, think I’ll get one too. You guys can
go on up to my room, no one else is home. I’ll be up there in a few minutes,
I’ll just get our drinks.” 
	Ashley left for the kitchen, while I led Sam up to his room. “Nervous?”
I asked when we got there. “If I said no I’d be lying. But it helps that I have
somebody else here, not just one-on-one.” “Hey, I’m here to help,” I offered.
She nodded in thanks as the door opened & Ashley walked in.