Time Warp: Different Times - Sloane tags Sam C

[Sam Caraway]

‘Not much to know about me,’ Sam told Sloane with a shrug and a self-deprecating smile. The casual response hid just how quickly his mind was working – she wanted to know him better than she did? Did she mean that, or was she just saying it? Sam met Sloane’s eyes as she looked at him, trying to work out what was going on behind her gaze.

Then she started speaking again, and Sam’s smile slipped for a moment. His eyes were sharp as he regarded the girl in front of him, but he recovered himself as soon as he could – it would be another couple of years before he learned how to keep his expressions to himself, and he was still upsettingly likely to give himself away. He found an easy smile for Sloane, but there was something else there too if you looked for it, something chilly. ‘The Real Me?’ Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘This is who I am, Sloane,’ he told her, opening his hands as if laying himself bare. He gave her his signature cocky smile, warming to his theme. ‘Girls don’t want to stay with me for very long because they realise that this is me. There’s no cuddly bundle of nerves underneath the surface for them to fall in love with.’

That was all part of the problem. People wanted there to be something else, and there wasn’t. Seventeen-year-old Sam was all sharp edges and bright smiles. It would be a while before he had anything underneath.

Then he chuckled – a genuine laugh. ‘Maybe I do…’ he replied coyly, smirking at Sloane. ‘I like both, actually.’ He leaned further back in his chair, interlocking his hands behind his head and watching Sloane from this pose of supreme relaxation. ‘What do you want to be, then?’ he asked, genuinely curious. If she could try and put him on the spot, he could do the same to her.

[Sloane Deveraux]

There was definitely a lot about people Sloane would discover in a few more years that even she wouldn't want to read but right then, as she munched on her grease-laden fried potato snack, she wasn't exactly looking for anything on Sam's face beyond the smile.

She was much too absorbed in his explanation anyway. Could a person be that shallow yet so attractive? She supposed it spoke volumes of how the other girls who fell for Sam were actually like.

The revelation that Sam swung both ways did not surprise Sloane. Nor was she disturbed or uncomfortable by it. She had long since accepted that people were not attracted to gender and she welcomed that sentiment. It was not for her now, but she would be the last person to condemn that attraction.

Sam's segue had her laughing in surprise. "Well. Okay don't laugh. But I've always wanted to be in law enforcement." She grinned, a little embarassed of her admission. Realising she no longer had an option of shoving food into her mouth, she looked away from Sam with a little shy smile.

"So how long?" Sloane asked after a moment passed. She was referring to his preference since she was much more comfortable talking about other people than talking about herself, even at this age.

[Sam Caraway]

It would have made Sam’s day had he known that Sloane considered him in any way to be attractive – he would have danced all the way back to his dorm room like a character in a musical, and lorded it over Mason for a good week. Luckily for everyone’s sanity, Sam’s many skills did not include the ability to read minds. He didn’t know that she thought he looked good, and hopefully he never would.

Usually, he expected girls to find him attractive. But Sloane? Sloane was different. He’d worshipped her from afar since they were fifteen, and she was the only female in the school who could make him feel like the scrawny, fast-talking kid he’d been when they had first met.

‘Why would I laugh?’ Sam asked, genuinely curious – people didn’t usually find the idea of working for the police to be a funny one, after all. Maybe he was biased, but Sloane was clever, resourceful and honest – all characteristics he hoped would be prized by the law enforcement authorities. Sam watched her with interest, trying to work out if she was serious: did she really expect ridicule for her ambitions?

He could have played stupid, but that wasn’t in Sam’s nature. He knew what she was referring to when she asked him that question, and Sam shrugged his shoulders in reply, busying himself with unwrapping his sandwich. ‘Forever, I guess,’ he told her after a moment’s thoughtful pause, looking over to meet her eyes. ‘For as long as I’ve known I liked girls.’ Sam had never had a dawning moment of clarity – for a while, it had never really occurred to him that everyone else didn’t find both genders as attractive as he did. He had no problem with it. Still, that didn’t mean he wanted to talk about it to Sloane in any kind of depth. A change of subject was in order.

‘So,’ he leaned closer, amusement in his eyes. ‘How’s your love life? Anyone I need to pull a prank on?’

[Sloane Deveraux]

Were she to be aware of the ever growing feelings Sam had had for her the past few years, Sloane would have been supremely embarrassed. She probably would have also stopped him from having those feelings by trying to be with him and ending up either boring him or hurting his manpartshood. Either way, he would have easily gotten over her.

As it were, the sixteen year old power mimic was so completely oblivious to that fact. Or rather, she probably closed herself off from any kind of attention she got and would misinterpret people's intentions and debase herself for the sake of her own pride and feelings.

They would have made the oddest pairing Hammel had ever known anyway.

"W-well...I'm a girl." She explained, confused that he was even asking that question. Didn't people always find women cops ridiculous? She had always gotten the impression that boys and also men never think women could be in the police force because they'd end up saving the women more often than catching the actual bad guys. "I mean...you don't find the idea of a woman cop funny?" She looked at him, tilting her head a little to the side in curiosity.

"Ah." She answered simply to his response. It made sense. There wasn't much else to say on that subject so Sloane let it slide. And she really didn't want to offend Sam. Funnily enough, nothing she had said had been taken the wrong way by him. He was really laid-back about things, wasn't he?

When he leaned in close, Sloane laughed as she backed away from him, pushing away the temptation to palm his face away from her just because of that silly question. "Non-existent is what it is. I'd like to keep it that way." She said, possibly lying more to herself than she was to him. So maybe Sloane had issues. There was a part of her that yearned for what her roommates had. But she had too often seen the likes of Jenna come in and out of her room crying over heartbreak.

She was just confused.

"You going around to look for more...companionship after this?" Sloane asked with a smirk, though inside, she sort of hoped he would say no, simply so she could hold on to him longer as a friend.

[Sam Caraway]

‘You’re a girl?’ Sam stared at Sloane as if seeing her afresh, blue eyes wide and incredulous. ‘Really? No – really? I can’t believe I never noticed, before!’ It was strange to think that Sammy Caraway, of all people, could be the kind of guy to be the voice of reason: but here he was. If asked, he would have said that clearly Sloane brought out the best in him. He gave up the charade, looking at Sloane with a distinctly unimpressed expression. ‘Are you being serious?’ he asked. ‘Because if anyone else has laughed at you for wanting to be a cop, I’ll make sure they step in dogshit every day for a whole month.’

And they say romance is dead. This was Sam’s answer to being a knight in shining armour, and he sure knew how to charm the ladies. Sam sat back in his chair, regarding Sloane with a puzzled grin. ‘You need to start thinking positive if you’re going to make it, you know,’ he told her, aware that if any of his siblings had been present they would have laughed until they cried at the idea that he was giving sage advice. He smiled at her. ‘I’m pretty sure you could kick my ass. You’ll be great with the bad guys.’

Who knew? If Sam succeeded in his career ambitions, Sloane may yet have that opportunity. He didn’t exactly know what he wanted to do yet, but he did have the feeling that it was going to be less than legal.

‘Why?’ Sam sighed inwardly at the idea of Sloane wishing to keep her love life very much on the back burner. Why would someone as pretty as her want to hide herself away behind a pile of books? It was a waste, that was what it was. A waste of valuable natural resources.

At her mention of ‘companionship’, Sam grinned. ‘If by ‘after this’ you mean our lunch-with-discussion, I have math class in half an hour,’ he told her. ‘If you mean, ‘am I going to find a new girlfriend’, I think every girl in this school thinks I’m a complete dick and will run a mile whenever they see me.’ Sam didn’t seem very bothered by this, though, and offered Sloane a winning smile. ‘I’m surprised you’re willing to be seen with me in public, to be honest.’

[Sloane Deveraux]

Sloane moved her chair close to Sam and punched him playfully on his shoulder. "Don't be mean to me. You know what I mean." She grew quiet as he threatened to hurt everyone she had told her ambitions to. A small smile appeared at the end of his sentence as she propped her elbow on the table before placing her chin on her upturned palm. "You're awesome."

Uncomfortably squirming in her seat, Sloane shrugged at Sam's advice, if it could be called that. "I gue-" she started before chuckling at his words. "I could totally kick your ass. If I could find it. You have no shape, do you realise this?" She wriggled her eyebrows and made a show of checking out his behind.

She raised an eyebrow in confusion when he asked why. Why what? Why she would choose things that had no way of hurting her? That was a no brainer if she ever saw one. "Uh...well, because...uh...I dunno. I'll go with cheesy and say the right guy hasn't asked me yet." She nodded decidedly, crossing her leg under the table before wiping her greasy hand on a napkin.

Running her fingers through her almost drying hair, she rubbed the towel against the wet areas as Sam answered her question. She laughed and shrugged at his ending statement. "I don't have a reputation to uphold. So I'm safe hanging out with the dredges of the social hierarchy." Sloane chuckled, reaching one hand out and patting his cheek affectionately. "And I'm sure someone would meet your fancy again soon. And hopefully she...or he doesn't know your dickish ways." She teased.

"Dude. I'm still hungry." She rubbed her belly and scrunched her nose up. "I may need to get out of this place and get something substantial. Wanna come with? Later I mean. After school."

[Sam Caraway]

If Sloane had produced an enormous fish from her schoolbag and hit him round the head with it, Sam would not have been more surprised. He was awesome? She thought he was awesome? She, Sloane Devereaux, thought that he, Sam Caraway, was awesome? He tried not to let his shock at her statement* show, but he knew he probably wasn’t doing a very good job. So he allowed himself a moment of looking surprised while he let her words sink in, and then he gave her an ironic grin. ‘I aim to please,’ he told her with a chuckle. ‘If I’d known it was this easy to get you to like me, I’d have offered the dogshit thing a long time ago.’ Not bad cover, all things considered.

‘Ah,’ Sam nodded sagely at Sloane’s reason for not going out with anyone. ‘A woman of taste. I get it.’ He wasn’t poking fun at her, not really – there was a smile on his face to prove it. Sam finished his sandwich while Sloane dried her hair, trying not to stare. That was what he liked the most about girls – the way they could make any gesture seem private, even while they were in a public place. You never saw a guy fixing his hair outside the privacy of the bathroom, but girls could do their makeup while sitting at a table in a café as easily as if they were in their own bedrooms at home.

He laughed – wanting to tell her that she had an excellent reputation, but aware that she probably wouldn’t believe him. ‘Sad but true. You’re scraping the barrel by being here with me,’ he agreed, nodding mock-sorrowfully. Sam made a face when she patted his cheek (though inwardly all he could think was: she touched me!). ‘Maybe they will,’ he told her. ‘Or maybe they’ll just regard me as a cautionary tale.’

Sam’s blue eyes lit up when Sloane mentioned her idea, and he gave her a wide grin. ‘Good idea. In fact….you know what?’ he couldn’t quite believe he was going to suggest this. ‘Sloane Devereaux, I will take you out on your first ever date. Sound good?’ He reached a hand over the table for her to shake, a challenge in his eyes.

*Of course, Sam knew that he was pretty darn awesome. He just hadn’t expected Sloane to notice him enough to realise the truth.

[Sloane Deveraux]

Unaware of Sam's inner spastic moment, Sloane only reacted to Sam's verbal gold. "What?" She laughed, closing her mouth while her whole body vibrated in laughter. A few snorts escaped her nose, which made her laugh even harder. "Oh gosh. Sam!" Sloane shook her head in sheer amusement. "I already like you, what are you even talking about?" She wiped the few tears that leaked from her eyes, unaware of the impact her words had on Sam.

She was still laughing as she shrugged at Sam's next statement. "I don't know about taste but...well yeah." She shrugged once more, still shaking her head every now and then in amusement. Were she aware of Sam's observations, Sloane would have been thoroughly embarrassed of it. She hadn't realised drying her hair was anything but drying her hair.

Sloane chuckled at Sam's debasement, shrugging pleasantly.

"Oh psh, come on Sam. You're not actually that bad." The French tilted her head a little and regarded Sam with a small smile. "I think once the right guy or girl comes along for you, those girls who thought you were a cautionary tale would think twice about the man they're with." It was really too bad Sloane's wonderment got lost on her way to adulthood.

Oblivious to the cogs turning in Sam's head, Sloane was caught completely off guard when Sam asked her out. On a date. She looked like a fish out of water, gazing at his hand and up to his bright blue eyes and down again to his hand. A million thoughts buzzed in her head in that moment and unfortunately, her pause could have made Sam think it had been a bad idea to ask her. "I'll bore you." She blurted out, blinking oh so innocently up at him. "I...are you sure about this?" She asked, still eyeing his hand suspiciously. "Because...because if you are then...y-yeah. A date...sounds good." She took a small breath and placed her hand in Sam's, giving it a firm shake, despite the inner turmoil bubbling.

She could do this. It was just a date. With Sam Caraway. Her good friend. No big deal.

Then why was she suddenly so nervous?

[Sam Caraway]

Sam grinned at Sloane’s assurance that he would eventually meet the right person. ‘I don’t know – if the best you can say about me is that I’m ‘not actually that bad’…’ he was teasing, and his smile showed it. To tell the truth, he didn’t really know if there was a ‘right person’ out there for anyone, let alone someone as fussy as he was. But now was probably not the time to have this discussion, and so he would let the matter rest. Sam had never been the romantic type, and he wasn’t about to start now. Love was all very well, but personally he wasn’t sure he’d ever experience it.

There was an awful moment when Sloane paused, staring at him – Sam couldn’t work out if she was gaping in horror or surprise (he was forced to admit that it looked like a little of both), and he wished he could withdraw the offer. She was probably just working out how she could turn him down without hurting his feelings. It had been a tactical mistake, clearly – but then she spoke, and Sam couldn’t hide a grin. ‘Of course I’m sure!’ he told her, immensely relieved that she wasn’t refusing him. ‘I never talk to anyone if I think they’re boring,’ he added.

If she thought about it for long enough, she’d know it was true. Sam devoted a lot of time to avoiding people who he didn’t want to speak to, and he was getting very good at inventing reasons for avoiding several of his fellow students.

When Sloane shook his hand, Sam’s grin widened. ‘It’s a deal,’ he replied, squeezing her hand before he released it (what? A boy could get his kicks, couldn’t he?). It seemed that his offer had caught her off-guard – Sam still suspected that she felt trapped into answering ‘yes’. Still, she had agreed and he was going to make the most of it. Sam’s smile was bright as he asked: ‘Lady’s choice: Where do you want to go?’

[Sloane Deveraux]

It was funny that while Sloane was terrified that Sam was only kidding around about the date, Sam was mulling over her potential rejection. She honestly didn't mean to give him any doubt about his prowess so when he grinned and reassured her of the reality, she blew out a sigh of relief.

At the back of her head, Sloane felt that this could potentially be emotionally distressing, this dating thing. But it was with a friend, it couldn't be that bad...could it?

Sloane had no intentions of backing out of this deal no matter what. She was not the type to anyway. So with a decisive grin, she let Sam squeeze her hand and thought about where to go.

"There's this pastry shop that just opened a few blocks from here. We could go there this Saturday?" Sloane gave Sam a lopsided smile, her hand still in his.

[Sam Caraway]

A pastry shop? This truly was a woman after his own heart. Sam gave Sloane one of his blinding smiles, the kind which made people smile back in spite of themselves, and allowed himself to squeeze Sloane’s hand once more before withdrawing his (he wasn’t going to push his luck with that one – demonstrative as Sam was, he knew that a lot of people didn’t appreciate that kind of thing).

‘That sounds perfect,’ he told her. He didn’t seriously think that Sloane was considering this to be a real date – not really – but he would take what he could get. And even if they both knew that it was a meeting of friends rather than a romantic experience (and Sam was pretty sure that he could abandon any hope of romance when it came to Sloane), it would be the highlight of his week.

Not to mention the bragging rights he would have over Mason, after this one.

Sam checked his watch and made a face. ‘I should go to class,’ he told her (after careful observation he had noted that she liked boys who made some show of attempting their schoolwork). He picked up his half-full bottle of coke and looked over at Sloane with a grin. ‘Guess I’ll see you on Saturday,’ he said. ‘Twelve okay for you? I’ll come and find you.’ Sam never bothered setting locations – luckily, he could always find out where people were.

He gave her one last bright smile before leaving the canteen, and walked a respectable distance down the corridor before he started breathing again.

He was going on a date with Sloane Devereaux!

As soon as he was round the corner and out of sight, Sam leaped up to punch the air in triumph.

[Event !]

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