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“Uh, guys? Could you come down here?” Cam asked loudly after running up the steps in the room.

It didn’t take long, but Spence and Sam returned their eyes widening at the sight of Zack whom was still dancing.

“Um, what’s with you?” Spence asked wrinkling his brows as they went down the steps to Zack.

“I-I put on Danseur’s old shoes since he said I should, but now I can’t stop dancing!” Zack answered now taking Sam by the hand and they began doing the tango.

Sam, surprised by this, decided to speak finally.

“What are we going to do? The dance is in 3 days. How are we going to make Zack stop long enough to at least function throughout the day?” she asked.

Suddenly, at her words, Zack’s dancing ceased. All eyes landed on the two before Spence spoke.

“You stopped dancing!” he exclaimed in awe.

But after Spence spoke, Zack started up again, Sam pulling away from him.

“Stop!” she ordered and indeed Zack stopped dancing.

“I think I see it now; only Sam has the ability to make Zack stop-,” he began, but Cam covered Spence’s mouth.

“When someone else says ‘that’ word, he begins, but when Sam orders ‘stop’, he stops,” Cam explained.

“So I have to monitor Zack to make sure he doesn’t start again?” Sam asked in a worried tone.

“It seems that way,” Spencer answered as they all stared at Zack. Footsteps sounded and Jeffrey soon appeared at the top of the steps.

“Ms. Calloway, the boys’ parents have all called asking where they were,” Jeffrey said.

Cam looked at his watch and his eyes widened.

“It’s after 6. We should probably head home,” he said, but his tone said otherwise.

The three friends stared at Zack and began filing out with Sam staying behind. As the boys walked off, she hoped that everything would be alright at least for that night.

-Meanwhile-

The night soon approached and Zack had so far kept himself and his dad from mentioning the dance-at least until dinner time.

They were sitting down at the table getting ready to eat when Mr. Greenburg spoke.

“So, Zack, have you decided what you’re going to wear to the dance Friday night or at least whom you’re going with?” he asked.

Immediately, Zack had started dancing since he forgot to take off the shoes after he got home. His dad began to get worried, but thought it was all a practical joke.

“You seem to be excited about it. And look, you’ve finished your plate. I’ll get you some more leftovers,” he said before going into the kitchen.

Somehow, Zack danced to the phone which was in the living room and dialed Sam’s number, but not without knocking things over in the process.

Please pick up. he thought as the phone rung just before he heard Sam’s voice.

“Zack? Is everything alright?” she asked in a frantic tone.

“My-my dad said the word and now I can’t stop dancing,” Zack answered successfully knocking more things over.

“Everything alright in there, Zack?” Mr. Greenburg’s voice rang from the kitchen.

“Yeah, Dad! Everything’s OK!” Zack lied.

“Stop!” Sam ordered through the phone and thankfully her order worked.

“Sheesh! Make sure you take the shoes off this time so ‘it’ doesn’t start up again,” she said in a scolding tone.

Out of breath, Zack managed to get out four words.

“Thanks, Sam. You’re awesome,” he said breathlessly.

Silence filled between them before she actually responded.

“It’s no problem, Zack. Get back to whatever it was you were doing,” she got out with a slight laugh.

“OK, and thanks again,” he said before hanging up.

Needless to say, the rest of the night wasn’t as bad as those few minutes of dancing.

-The Next Day-

The following morning arrived and Zack awoke feeling refreshed and content. The morning went normally until he realized his sneakers were nowhere to be seen.

Frantic, he searched his room to no avail and quickly began searching the house. Just as he started on the living room, his dad entered from the front door and saw Zack’s motions.

“Are you OK?” he asked startling Zack.

“Dad, where are my sneakers? I looked for them after I got up, but couldn’t find them,” Zack explained.

“Oh, those things? I put them in the wash. They should be done after you get home today. Don’t you have those dress shoes you could wear for the day?” Mr. Greenburg asked his son.

“Dad, I can’t go to school wearing those!” Zack exclaimed incredulously.

“Well, it’s either that or nothing and you know I refuse to let you go outside in socks,” his dad concluded walking into another room.

Sighing deeply, Zack grudgingly walked back to his room and stared at the shoes.

“It’s you and me, shoes. I have to get through today and if I have to do that with you, don’t make me do ‘that’, OK?” he said to the shoes knowing they wouldn’t talk back.

He put on the shoes and continued his morning.

…

He successfully met up with Cam and Spence the walk to school and were greeted with a semi-worried Sam.

“What’s wrong?” Spence asked before the other two could.

“I think I know why Zack and I are connected the way we have been when weird things happen,” she said biting her lip afterwards.

“Why?” Cam asked interested in the answer.

“Well, you see-,” she began, but the bell rung for class to start. She sighed and shook her head before heading inside.

“What was she going to say?” Zack asked, but Spence responded.

“Something important. Whatever it is may be a major paranormal breakthrough,” he said entirely interested and followed after Sam.

“Idiot. Can’t he think of anything except that in a time like this?” Cam asked out loud to Zack.

“You know Spence, but honestly I feel as though there’s more to what he actually said,” Zack replied reading between the lines.

….

First period blew past with great speed and it wasn’t until during lunch was when the subject of Sam’s unfinished statement was brought back up within the group.

This time, the four sat in the cafeteria away from everyone else, but in one of the corners of the room.

“What were you going to say earlier before the bell interrupted you?” Zack asked sticking his straw into his milk carton.

Sam’s eyes widened slightly, but she took a sip of her juice before answering.

“I did some thinking and when I compared the experiences we’ve shared together since day one and came to the conclusion that we experience these things together because I, too have experienced paranormal things my whole life,” Sam admitted.

The boys’ jaws dropped. Cam dropped a fry back on his plate. Spence merely stared at Sam as Zack did the same.

“Could you stop staring at me like that? You’re freaking me out,” she said frowning and looking away from the trio.

“S-sorry, Sam, but Zack is the only person we’ve known who has experienced weird stuff happening to him his whole life,” Spence got out.

“It’s not like I planned anything. I thought moving here would finally change things for me, but it didn’t. It’s just made things worse and affected more people,” she said in an upset tone.

“Affected more people?” Cam asked finally.

“Yeah… when I was in middle school, I didn’t have any friends because freaky things would happen whenever I was around. I never knew why, but each time something happened it only made people become weary to even be in the same room as me,” Sam answered sadly.

It soon filled the others as they began to feel sorry for Sam and her past.

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore, Sam,” Zack said.

“Yeah, you have us now,” Spencer chipped in.

Sam’s eyes looked at each boy while Cam merely nodded his head in agreement. She quickly did something they didn’t expect her to; she hugged them all together and they soon heard sniffing. It didn’t take long for the boys to realize she was crying.

“Thank you, guys,” she got out.

Each boy felt something different. Zack was happy and although she wasn’t Gwen, he was glad to have met her. Spence wanted more than ever to be the one who would hug her back since he cared so much about her. Cam being the silent one this time thought of nothing, but how his heart ached for Sam; he wanted her to never, ever be alone as long as he remained friends with her.