Sam & Penny Short-Stories *English*

JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE - Fire in the laboratory

>Penny's POV<

"Today seems to be a completely normal day in Pontypandy," Sam sighed as we got out of the vehicles back at the station. We had just had to rescue Norman from the chimney because he had bet with the other children that he could fit through it. Of course he was stuck and only his head was sticking out.

"How do you think you want to slide down a chimney in the middle of summer?!" Ellie objected angrily. "I might still understand if it were winter and just before Christmas. But in summer?"

"You heard Norman. In the summer the chimney is out, so he didn't have to worry about the chimney being hot or smoky. At least in that regard, he showed a certain sense of safety." I got no response from either of them as I pulled the rescue ropes out of Venus to rewind them properly, so I turned around. I thought they'd both left without me noticing or not hearing me, but instead they looked at me like I was the 8th wonder of the world. "What is it?!"

"Do you actually see anything good in everything?" Sam asked me, smiling.

"You would find something positive about Norman killing someone, wouldn't you?" Ellie asked instead and I just shrugged my shoulders while Sam gave me that wonderful smile.

"She is how she is and that's a good thing. Let me help you," said Sam as he came to me and took one of the ropes out of my hand, but not without our eyes meeting. It felt like this was happening more and more often, but each time I enjoyed it with every fiber of my being. I could stare into his eyes for hours and lose myself in them. They were as deep and blue as the sea, as peaceful as the summer sky, and there was something in them that captivated me because only I could see it - he could look at whoever he wanted, I hadn't discovered it while he was looking at anyone else before. But I couldn't really tell what it was either.

"You're also biased when it comes to Penny. You wouldn't find anything bad about her even if she ignored you or treated you badly."

"Why should I ever do that?" I replied to Ellie, confused, while Sam said: "I'm sure she would have good reasons then for doing it." He turned to me and continued, a little nervously, "Well, I mean, only if you did. But I'm pretty sure we'd talk about it and then sort it out...right? "

"Of course we would. That's out of the question," I said with a reassuring smile.

"Of course you would. Just like you can always talk about anything, right?" Ellie grinned arrogantly and leaned against Jupiter with her arms crossed to watch us unwind the ropes, which we had both devoted ourselves to in the meantime. There was nothing I could do to stop myself from blushing. I felt it. Ellie always put us in situations like this and tried to get me to confess my feelings to Sam. She had become my best friend and had noticed without me being able to do anything about it. But it was more of a curse than a blessing because she was too focused on getting us together. She always claimed that Sam wanted more from me too, but if that was the case, I couldn't tell. No one plunged into danger as carelessly as he did. He should actually be brave enough to be able to tell me something so simple...if it were really like that...right?

"We can do that, Ellie. That's why we became such good friends," Sam's comment woke me up from my thoughts.

"But friends shouldn't keep secrets from each other. Especially not friends as good as you are. But you definitely do." She clicked her tongue in disapproval before pushing away from Jupiter and walking up to the kitchen, grinning. She had what she wanted. I felt Sam's questioning look on me as I put the ropes back away.

"It can't be a very bad secret if Ellie knows about it, can it?" Sam now objected and even though he smiled, he suddenly seemed confused to me.

"You know how Ellie is and it seemed to me that she meant both of us and not just me, right?" I replied teasingly, but that covered up my excitement because Sam was leaning against Venus and even a little awkwardly reached for the end of the rope that I still held in my hands.