Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings are property of their lawful owners. This story is written for entertainment purposes only and no profit is made. No copyright infringement intended.

Rating: T

Genre: Friendship, Romance

Pairing: Jonathan O'Neill (Jack's clone)/OC (Sam's clone)

Length: 15k+

Summary: Clone!fic. There's a new girl in Jonathan's school and there's something very familiar about her. This is a story about how their relationship develops from awkward friendship to something more.

Timeline: This story takes place about a year after Fragile Balance (7x03)

Spoilers: Major ones for Fragile Balance, bits and pieces from there forward

A/N: Hi everyone! I'm working on a bigger writing project but found myself in a dead end and decided to write a oneshot which got out of hand like all my projects do and now this story consists of 12 chapters (1000-1900 words each) which are already written. As usual, I'm panicked that this story is not good enough so I think this time I'll do something new and update daily so I don't have time to rewrite everything.

This is a clone!fic so it's kindasorta Sam/Jack except not at all because it's actually Liz/Jonathan. There are tons of fics out there with the same base idea so this is nothing new but please give it a chance because I really love the way it flows.

I have to warn you, though, that this story is like a collection of all the things I know nothing about (including US school system) so there might be some errors with the facts.

Written in first person, from Jonathan's perspective.

CHAPTER 1

"Hey," comes a feminine voice next to me and I glance at her quickly.

"Hey," I reply and keep reading my book. I have a presentation tomorrow and I'm determined to get the best possible grade out of it. I'm not in the mood to start talking with strangers.

The girl sits down on the other side of the table and I wonder what the hell she's doing. I've never seen her before, I would remember if I had. She's hard to miss. She's dressed in a black skirt that is way too short, torn fishnet stockings, a corset style black top that has leather decorations, and a short black leather jacket. Her hair is short and black with bright pink and green highlights. Yeah, I would definitely remember if I'd seen her before.

"Advanced physics?" she asks and I mumble something incomprehensible. If she's here to pick up a fight, I'm not going to help her.

"You need help with that?" she asks instead of mocking me and I raise my eyes to really look at her. For the first time I look past the black and neon and the layer of make up. There's something familiar about her.

"Do I know you?" I ask with a little frown. Maybe I've seen her in a cafe or something, somewhere where she has worn a uniform instead of her own clothes. There's something so- And then she smiles.

"Shit!" I yelp and my pen drops on my notes, rolls to the table and falls on the floor.

"Hi," she says with that all too familiar smile and offers her hand to me. "I'm Liz."

"What the hell were you thinking!" I groan at her and see the laughter sparkling in her deep blue eyes.

"Technically it wasn't me but her," she replies.

"Technically you two were the same person at that point."

"Do you have a place where we could talk in private, Jonathan?" she raises her eyebrows and I shake my head to get rid of this nightmare slash daydream but she's still here.

"My apartment is around the corner," I sigh and pack the book and the notes in my backpack but I never remember to pick up the pen.

We walk in silence. A couple of my class mates whistle after us and for the first time I realize she's quite a looker. Not just the clothes but her body, too. And suddenly I feel like a pedophile again. That's the hardest part of this all, actually. My mind is almost fifty years old yet the body is seventeen and the people I hang out with expect me to be interested in seventeen year old girls but it just doesn't feel right.

"Do you have beer?" she asks as soon as I open the door and let her in.

"Yes, but I'm only serving coffee today."

I load the coffee maker, take out two clean cups and some milk. She's sitting on my couch when I turn around.

"What's with the outfit?" I ask when I finally sit down next to her.

She shrugs. "I figured I could have more fun the second time around."

"So what exactly are you planning to do, huh? Party hard and fail all your classes? I just can't see that."

"Nah... I'm planning to be the bitchy girl in the back of the class and still ace all my classes. Just to confuse the shit out of teachers."

"Well, good luck with that. I'm actually planning to be the good boy this time around. I'm not going to slip back to my trouble-maker role just to suit you."

"Puh-leeze! You think I'm doing this to fit in what I thought to be your world? No. First time around... My Dad was quite strict. Oh, I did a few things here and there but mostly I was just the good, quiet girl who did everything right. This time I'm doing things my way. I'm not gonna throw away my education but I think I know enough already that I can get away with having some fun on the side."

"And your idea of fun consists of..."

"Oh, I was planning to steal the principal's car and sleep with everyone on the football team."

"Not at the same time, I hope," I ask and get up to get us our coffees.

"Oh, that depends," she says with an icky sweet voice that tells me she's just joking. I'm pretty sure the thought about sex in a teenager body scares her as much as it scares me. I really hate the thought of losing my virginity for the second time. Wasn't one embarrassing enough?

I bring her the coffee, two sugars and a splash of milk, just the way she likes it. The smile she gives me is warm and familiar, far from the rebelling teenager she pretends to be.

"Where are you staying?" I ask.

"I have a truck. Nice and comfy. Spacious. And I joined the gym so I shower there."

"You live in your car?" I raise my eyebrows, asking if she's serious.

"Yeah," she replies with a little shrug. "We've had worse."

"Right," I sigh and scratch my head for a moment. "You're staying here tonight," I tell her. "I don't know if that was your plan all along but you're staying here."

"No," she shakes hear head with a smile. "I won't. I'm not here to... to seduce you. I'm not trying to jump into your life. I just... Hell, I don't know. I just wanted to introduce myself."

"Then why the hell did you let yourself be cloned and roll into the same high school with me if it wasn't for me, huh?" I raise my voice a little, still pissed that she would do something like that. Carter is supposed to be much smarter than that. Much smarter.

"It was for you," she answers, calm and collected and I can sense an explanation coming again. But at least this time it won't be technobabble. Even though I kinda miss her technobabble.

"It killed her, to think you're here alone. She thought it would be easier if you have someone who's in the same situation, someone who understands the problems you face. But I'm not here to... to fulfill her dream, I'm not here to be the chance they never got. I'm here to make my own life, just like you're trying to make yours. I'm here as a friend. If me being here is too much of a reminder of the past, I can just leave."

"No," I shake my head. "She was right. It would help to have someone in the same situation. I never would have asked them, asked her, to do it, but in a way... I appreciate the gesture."

She nods and continues. "I loved him," she gets straight to the point and I flinch a little. "She still does. It's confusing. But I'm not her anymore. And you're not him. You've made your own life here for the past year and I've made my own, too."

"How long?"

"How long have I existed?" she asks and I nod. "Six months. She bought me the truck. I took a road trip from Springs to here."

"It doesn't take six months to drive through the states."

"I had some thinking to do. Life to build. I knew it would be a mess if I just beam in here right away."

"So we'll start with a clean slate?"

"As much as it's possible, yes," she nods.

"Alright," I sigh and close my eyes for a moment, wondering what my next move will be. "Friends?" I ask and offer my hand to her.

"Friends," she confirms with a brilliant smile and a firm handshake.

"Here's my spare key," I say as I pick the thing from the chaos basket on the coffee table. "If you want to shower when the gym's closed, if you want to cook something other than MREs, if you need a place to store your things. Mi casa es su casa, huh? I'm actually paying for two parking spots so number eighteen is all yours if you need it. I used it for the trailer but it's in a warehouse now."

She raises her eyebrows at me and hesitates to take the key.

"You don't have to take it," I reassure her. "But I think friends are supposed to help homeless friends, huh?"

"Alright," she finally sighs and takes the key. "No promises but I can keep the key. And I do have money to get my own place, I just haven't gotten to that part yet."

"Sure."

"I should go. I have a class in fifteen minutes."

"Which class?"

"Advanced math."

"Yeah, I'll walk with you."

She raises her eyebrows at me but all I can do is shrug. I'm not him. I don't pretend to be stupid, I am who I am. It's so funny that this time around she's the one who's playing a role. Except in a way she's not. At least she's not pretending anything to me, and that's good. But I do have a hunch she's gonna get me in some serious trouble at some point.

A/N: That's chapter 1 for you! Let me know what you think.