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Sammy remembered that her sister said she had Econ with Laticia.  Sammy and Sarah arranged to be there a little early to talk to her.  Laticia is a fairly pretty girl, but not a stunner.  She seems pleasant and outgoing.  When she walks you can barely notice her slight limp.

Sarah whispers to Sammy as Laticia approaches, "You have any idea of what to say?"

Sammy shoots back a swift and concise answer  "No!"

Thinking quickly, she says "How about the school newspaper path?  We want to take some pictures, set up an appointment to talk about how inspirational she is, not letting her disabilities keep her from doing whatever she wants to do -- is it true she tried out for cheerleading?  How's that sound?"

In her best Monty Burns, Sarah replies, "Excellent," adding, "Fast thinking Super Sammy."

She smiles and steps towards Laticia, "Hi.. Laticia?  I'm Sarah and this is Sammy.  We're with the paper.  I was wondering if we could interview you some time?  Maybe after school or something?  I hope this doesn't sound lame to you but we wanted to do an inspirational article on people in our school overcoming adversity.  With all the horrible events that have happened so far this year a lot of people are looking for something a little brighter to read about."

Laticia shurgs, "Sure.  I'd be glad to.  If you have some time today after last bell I'm free then."

Sammy turns to Sarah "I have an appointment with Preston Wilde after school, but maybe you and Sylvia or Colin can do this?  Unless you want to wait for me?"

Sarah nods, "I guess that would be up to our interviewee.  Laticia, what is your schedule after school like?  I can meet anytime you like."

"Well, I've got about an hour after last bell before I have anywhere to be.  We can meet somewhere on campus or anywhere close."

"Sounds like a trip to the Tasty is in order!" cheers Sarah.  "The least I can do is offer you some french fries for your contribution to the paper.  Does that sound okay?  If you can't make that Sammy I'll call Colin."   

"Sure, that sounds good."  Laticia says brightly.

"Uhm, sure... start without me though.  I'm already overbooked.  I'll get there when I can."

After school, Sarah makes her appointment at the tasty Dog.  Laticia arrives late, and Sammy arrives a nfew minutes later.

"Sorry, I'm late, I got hung up at the Principal's Office.  Someone broke into my locker."

Sarah looks startled, "Someone broke into your locker?  Did they take anything?"  She pushes an order of fries into the center of the table. 

"That's just it, nothing is missing.  The principal thinks it was vandalism, since they took the door and messed up the hunges with acid or something.  They got me a new one though, so it's no biggie."

"Acid?"  Sammy exchanges a quick look with Sarah.  "Have you made anybody jealous lately?  I knew somebody who had her locker messed up with... well,with dog mess.  She'd made some girls mad at her, and they weren't exactly creative types."

"I guess.  I'm not sure who though.  It's not important anyway, probably just someone being a jerk and I got to be the lucky victim."

Sammy gets excited.  "No, it is important!  It could be very important!  Did you know that the bleachers that collapsed were weakened by acid?  And that flagpole that came down at the football game -- that was weakened by acid too.  What if somebody is testing you before they try something really bad?  This is nothing to fool around with.  At least tell the campus cop..."

Sarah adds iout of context, "Hey can I get everybody some drinks?  Soda, water, milkshake, whatever you like." before offering, "Well, if you were talking to the principal about it, they may have made a connection or are at least looking into it.  If you like Laticia, Sammy and I know some people who could do a little poking around in an unofficial capacity."

"Well gee, I wasn't worried about it until you guys made such a fuss about it."  Laticia smiles.  "The Prinicpal had the campus police in, so I'm sure they're doing what needs to be done.  I appreciate the offer to help though, that's really nice."

Sarah blushes a little, "Uh you're welcome.  I don't want you hiding but with all the dangerous stuff that has happened this year a little paranoia is a good thing.  Could you tell us who might have a grudge against you?  I know you said it wasn't important but.. maybe it is?  I promise this isn't part of the interview, we'd never print this stuff.  Definitely not without your specific permission."

Laticia shrugs, "If I have any enemies they're keeping it to themselves.  I beat about a thousand people out for a summer internship at the university.  I'm probably going to get several scholarships, that's pretty competitive.  Nothing that makes me think someone might want to hurt me."

Sarah nods, "Okay.  If you can't think of anyone that got really upset when you won that stuff or complained then I'll drop it.  It's not what we dragged you out here for anyway right?"

She pulls out a notebook from her bag and her pen.  After a little preliminary scribbling she looks up.

Looking at Laticia she asks, "Let's try and do this in order.  Have you always been a good student?  I mean, straight A's and loads of extras since kindergarten?"

Sarah works through a list of easy questions quickly working up to the time of the accident.  "Do you feel comfortable talking about your accident?  Can you tell us what happened that day?"

Sammy sits back and listens, letting Sarah take the interviewing lead.  She's watching the crowd around the three of them, wondering if anybody is paying more attention to a table full of girls than might normally be expected.

"Yeah, sure.  I tell the story to the kids in my church group all the time.  I had been out at a party with friends, and I got pretty drunk.  It was a Friday night and my folks were out of town, so I thought I owned the world.  On the ride home I felt sick, so I had the guy driving pull over.  I got out and crawled to the ditch to puke.  I passed out, and my friend drove off without me.  He was pretty hammered too, so it's no suprise.  Early Saturday morning the highway department started mowing with one of those huge mowers.  Next thing I remember I was in the back of an ambulance.  The guy didn't see me until the spray of blood got his attention.  It threw me up in the air and away from the mower.  I was lucky to just have lost the lower part of my leg."  She pulls up the leg of her sweat pants to show you her prosthetic leg.  "This is when all the little kids turn green and stuff."  she says with a smile.

OOC: Is it a spring prosthetic (one that can be used for running) or just a leg-shaped prosthetic?

Sammy leans over and takes a good look at it.  "Wow.  You tried out for the cheerleading squad with that!  How long did it take you to learn to walk again?"

Sarah scribbles all this down. 

spring model (with comic book advanced alloy construction)

"I was in physical therapy for about a year, and it took me a while before I could actually run.  I thought that trying out for the team might be fun.  They seemed a bit insulor, and when they announced the tryouts I thought it would be a good thing to try.  My sister was a cheerleader when she was in high school, and I wanted to be."

Sammy spots an opening.  "Do you think the auditions were fair?  I mean, giving a fair chance to you, and to anybody else not already on the squad or friends of the squad?  Were there any obvious biases? Was there any reason to complain about the process?"

"No, it all seemed pretty fair.  That one girl that's always trying to get cheerleading banned was there too, she even tried out."  Laticia looks like she's trying to recall somthing for a moment, then it hits her, "Candince something.  She takes a petition around every year for people to sig protesting the squad.  She tried out, probably to see if they were gonna be fair.  She didn't get picked, but they didn't tell her she would be allowed to try out either."

Sarah gets everyone a drink.  It makes her feel less guilty about sipping a milkshake. 

Laticia remembers Candice trying out?  So why doesn't Lisa?  Maybe something else happened that day?


"The way cheerleading is going this year you are probably better off out of it."

The major question was out of the way but Sarah continues, "Are there one or two accomplishments that you are particularly proud of?  Something that you achieved despite your injury or that you might not have even thought about trying before the injury?"

Sarah will go on asking about her mindset during the recovery of the injury and ask for advice for kids in similar situations. 

Laticia answers all the questions that Sarah has.  Eventually you finish and she heads off home.

After farewells Sarah pulls out a refrigerator freezer bag and carefully tucks Laticia's cup into it after a quick glance around to make sure no one is looking. 

She looks at Sammy and shrugs.  "I don't think she could have done it either but this just eliminates her right?"

Sammy gives Sarah an admiring look   "Slick!  I wouldn't have thought of that!" 

She pulls out her notebook and pretends to be going over a page.

"I'm pretty sure she's innocent too.  Besides, the prosthetic wasn't etched with acid either.  Nobody's that careful; if she's been oozing acid, there would have been at least a little damage to the metal spring of her leg.  It was clean.  But it looks like Pinky is going after anybody who was at the first set of tryouts.  Sylvia joined later, right?  Or am I getting things jumbled up?  It might not even matter whether they were there the same day." 

Without warning, not even a halfhearted hand signal, she switches topics.  "Hey, do you think its a bad idea for me to go out with a guy who's 3 or 4 years older than I am?  I heard some whispers today at school, and some people were looking at me differently, you know?, and it made me feel kind of weird.  It didn't help I got through the whole day without seeing him once, so I don't even know if he's bugged by it or just laughing at it." 

Sarah was pretty pleased with herself about the cup. 

"I don't have a problem with it but..."  she looks down a little embarrassed.  "Well, from a totally non emotional commitment angle you two are worlds apart in age.  I've heard some older guys referring to freshman as jail-bait.  I mean in a total juvenille mindset if a freshman is dating a cute senior guy there's usually a reason."  Sarah blushes a little. 

"I don't know what your relationship is like but that is what some people are probably thinking.  But thats not such a bad thing.  I mean... I've heard a lot of girls talking about hooking up with guys.  One night they're hooking up with Jerry and then next week they're hooking up with Tom.  Whether they're having sex or just making out doesn't seem to matter.  They just glaze over it and say they hooked up.  I mean it's like actually dating someone is going out of style.  It's too sad.  I mean like I want to get some nasty disease just to be fashionable."

Sarah shrugs, "Maybe that's why they're looking at you funny.  You two didn't just hook up."

After a pause she adds, "Did you?"

Sammy seems surprised by the question.  "No, this isn't just a hook-up, not so far.  We've known each other for a couple of weeks now.  Before I knew you guys, when I thought I was alone with all of this, I got really upset one day and snuck out of here at lunchtime.  He caught me at it, but helped me get past the door monitor and bought me some lunch.  Then he found reasons to invite me to come play music with him different times, so while we weren't exactly best friends, we weren't strangers anymore either.  Then he asked if I wanted him to take me to Homecoming; that was so weird, I thought maybe it was a joke, or a pity date or something, but it wasn't.  Our date was fun, no pressure at all, and we're supposed to find each other at his Halloween party.  My dad even gave him the 3rd degree before we went out, and he passed that.  Dad's still worried about him being older, but...   I don't know.  Its just weird.  You and Colin make more sense.  Even Sylvia and Donnie make more sense."

"If you two are friends, and your happy then it makes sense.  I never knew how you two got together.  I'm glad for you.  It sounds nice.  Just being the same age doesn't mean it makes sense.  Sylvia and Donnie."  Sarah just looks a little blank.  "I just don't know what to think about those two."  After a shrug, "As for me and Colin.  Well I like him.  I admire his good nature and his capacity to take people at face value and not immediately make judgment calls about them.  He's really sweet but he... sometimes it feels like he wants to be married.  A part of me is really happy to be in this relationship but.  I mean this is my first relationship!  I've never really dated anyone before and I don't know if I should be all serious or just try and keep it light." 

She drinks from her milkshake.  "Do you remember him at that first party?  He was all, 'Sarah I love you!' when he was worried that the lizard might squish him.  I don't know about that stuff yet."

Sammy nods in agreement.  "I know exactly what you mean.  It seems way too soon for 'forever and ever, amen.'"  She drains her glass dry and looks at the time.  "Guess its time to go do homework.  Blech!  I haven't heard you complaining about math lately; is it getting better?"

Oh crap! Sarah looks blank for a heartbeat before replying, "Yeah... um... it's okay.  I'm doing a little better this week.  Maybe the stuff we're covering right now makes more sense or something.  You are probably right about that homework thing.  I'm running over to Megan's first.  Maybe I'll have a little more info on the cheerleader mysteries tomorrow."

"Good!  That's one less thing for you to worry about then!"  Sammy grabs her coat and puts it on.  "Ha. The Cheerleader Mysteries.  That sounds like an after school special or something.  OK, bye!  Have fun!"  She makes her way to the exit.

Sarah waves goodbye to Sammy and gathers up her stuff before heading out the door.