Just a little Saved by the Bell fic. Please review if you like it! Written for Arabella Cauwell ;)

Friday Night…

One had to wonder what exactly drove Zack Morris to do the things he did. It had been suggested by many teachers and counselors that perhaps some sort of emotional or behavioral illness was the source: borderline personality disorder, perhaps. Zack seemed to have a complete in ability to make sound choices. It had been suggested that perhaps he was seeking attention from under-involved parents, but anyone who knew the boy's parents knew them to be nurturing, caring and very average parents. Yes, they worked long hours, but it was necessary to cover the expenses their son frequently incurred by way of his complete irresponsibility. No, there was absolutely nothing wrong with Zack, Lisa thought. He was a perfectly average idiot with a propensity toward over-confidence and thrill-seeking.

The party raged on behind her; an argument was breaking out in the middle of the living room between Valley High's champion wrestler and the aforementioned idiot. Lisa casually made her way through the crowd, smiling politely at passersby. She played it cool until she reached the kitchen, and then ran for the phone mounted on the far wall.

Dialing a number she'd come to memorize, she tapped her nails impatiently on the counter, waiting for an answer. Finally, a casual 'Hey Lisa' was heard on the other end.

"Oh, thank God, Slater. How far are you?"

The static laden sound of his voice came through. "I'm about a minute away from your house, why? Do you need me to make an ice run?"

"No, I need you get your butt here now and keep your boyfriend's guts inside his body!"

"Huh?" the muffled voice questioned.

"Zack managed to piss off yet another one of Valley's goons and now their whole wrestling team wants to kill him, and destroy my house while they're at it!"

Lisa's eyes widened when she heard what sounded like a growl and something expensive breaking. The noises were soon followed by the jeers of the drunken teenagers in the house. "Just get here faster," she gritted through her teeth.

"I just parked, see you in a sec."

With her own frustrated growl, Lisa slammed the phone into the receiver and headed out of the kitchen.

She'd just set foot into the living room when the giant, angry wrestler named Rob literally ripped a table lamp from the electrical outlet and hurled it toward Zack. Fortunately for Zack, he ducked just in time. Unfortunately for Lisa, she was standing right in the path of the projectile.

She panicked. She shrieked and moved to cover her face. Thankfully (because that was a useless defensive maneuver), she felt herself being yanked out of the path of the flying lamp. The whole room seemed to go silent, and when the frightened girl managed to open her eyes, she was greeted by the sparkling gaze of Jessie Spano. 'When did Jessie get here?' she idly thought to herself. She also noted how Jessie's arms were wrapped protectively around her. She felt safe and warm and comfortable.

"Hey," Jessie said. She wore that smirk that seemed to say, 'Challenge me, I dare you!'

"Hey," Lisa replied breathlessly.

"Hey!" Slater yelled as he stepped into living room. With that—and with the sound of bone crunching as Rob landed a punch to Zack's pretty face—everything went back to real time.

Up until now, no one had come to Zack's aid. But when Slater stepped up to Rob shoving him off the blonde, the rest of the football team stood behind him in support of whatever he planned to do. Though, he didn't really need them.

Slater subtly flexed his bare muscles as he stood face to face with Rob. He looked him in the eyes and simply asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Yeah," Rob answered. "That little bitch behind you can't keep his hands to himself!" The wrestler tried to go through Slater to get to his prey.

"Whoa, whoa!" the footballer held him off. "What happened?" He managed to get Rob to calm down slightly, with the intimidating support of his teammates.

"Tell him to stay away from my girlfriend!" Rob yelled. His face was sweaty and red; it wasn't a pretty sight.

Slater briefly glanced back at Zack, who only returned his questioning look with a guilty one of his own. Turning back to Rob, Slater reasoned with the big guy.

"Rob, I hate to say this, but everyone knows your girlfriend is—not the most innocent…"

At first, Rob's face grew more red and he made to start his attack up all over again. But Slater, ever the peacemaker, managed to catch his eyes. Raising an eyebrow, he silently communicated to Rob that what he'd said was true. It worked.

The wrestler deflated quite a bit and nodded his head in acceptance. Lisa kind of wanted to hug him; it was a little sad to see a huge dude like that cry. Slater seemed to have it handled, though.

"Hey big guy, it's not the end of the world. I say go home, call her up, break up with her and find someone who appreciates you for you."

"Yeah," Rob sniffed, "you might be right."

"And Rob? I like you but if you ever lay a hand on Preppy again, I'll knock your teeth down your throat!"

With one last menacing glare toward Zack, Rob quietly walked out, the rest of his team following behind.

"God, Zack, you're gonna bleed all over my mother's rug. Come on." Lisa shoved him toward the back of the house. "And hold your head back!" she chastised.

"Well then I can't see where I'm going." His voice was muffled from holding his hands over his face in a poor attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Don't be such a baby…"

Later That Night…

The four of them had straightened out the house and cleaned up all evidence of the party, including the stray Solo cups on the front lawn. Of course, Lisa wouldn't be able to hide the broken lamp and elephant statue from her mother. To keep from getting into too much trouble, they'd all agreed to stay until her mother got home. Lisa would say that she was lonely and invited Zack, Slater and Jessie over. The boys were goofing around and accidentally fell into the end table, which would explain the broken objects and Zack's swollen face. If they were lucky, they'd get away with a stern, 'I told you all no horseplay in the house!' and then a concerned 'I hope you're alright, Zack.' That would be the best case scenario.

Lisa stood quietly by the door that led to the backyard. Of course she should give the boys some privacy, but there was no way she was about to miss this juicy conversation. Because of Zack, she could be facing a minimum of two weeks grounding—he owed her this. So she quietly listened.

"Come on Slater, I wouldn't do that to you, you know that!"

"The only thing I know is you always seem to get yourself into a situation you can't get out of. That worries me. Why does everything you do end in disaster?" Slater almost laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. "What did you do with his girlfriend?"

Zack looked as if he were debating telling the truth.

"Look, it wasn't like you think," the blonde said. "Do you remember that prank you guys played on Valley's football team last month?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, how do you think I was able to get their locker combinations for you?" he smirked.

Slater, however, was not smirking. "What did you do?"

"I just flirted with her a bit," Zack moved in closer. He tried to get Slater to look at him, but Slater avoided him. "I may have led her to believe I'd go on a date with her. I've been avoiding her but then she threatened to tell the football team who it was if I didn't go out with her. So I took her out for a burger last night—"

"Last night when you told me you couldn't go out because you were grounded?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I took her out planning to make it the worst date ever so she'd leave me alone. But I think Rob saw us. Then he showed up here tonight."

"And he would have beaten you to a pulp if I hadn't shown up in time."

Zack looked down, feeling horribly for getting his boyfriend into yet another of his messes. He flinched when the other boy touched the bruised half of his face.

"You need to go put something on that or you'll look like 'the other guy' in the morning."

"Do you forgive me?" The pathetic pout on Zack's lips only managed to make Slater laugh rather than coddle him as he'd hoped.

Slowly backing them toward the side wall of the house, Slater said seriously, "When are you going to stop getting into trouble?"

"If I did that, then I wouldn't be me."

"No."

"And if I weren't me, you wouldn't love me."

"No."

"So shut up and kiss me," the blonde flashed his signature grin. When Slater raised an unimpressed eyebrow, he amended, "Please?"

"Fine, but only because I earned it…" He pressed Zack against the side of the house, both sinking into the shadows.

Their lips met and Lisa felt this was a good time to walk away; she didn't want a full show, after all.

"Macho pig," Jessie muttered.

Lisa startled a bit, not having realized the taller girl was standing right behind her. It was absolutely deserved when she slapped Jessie on the arm.

"Don't scare me like that! Don't you know it's rude to sneak up on people?"

They walked into the kitchen; Jessie turned a chair around to sit on it backward and watched as Lisa prepared a bag of popcorn.

The tiny diva could feel she was being watched; she loved every bit of the attention. "What part of earning a kiss makes Slater a 'macho pig'?"

"For starters, you don't defend the guy you love just to earn kisses. Where's the chivalry in that?"

"He'd have done it regardless."

"Second, you can't earn a kiss," Jessie replied as though she were about to go into a well thought out thesis. Her back straightened a bit and she leaned forward. "Kisses are given and taken freely; they're an expression of how you feel about someone."

Lisa turned and smiled. "I think that's sweet."

The smell of the undoubtedly expensive popcorn that Mrs. Turtle stocked the house with filled their senses, and the microwaved dinged indicating it was done. Lisa split the bag into two bowls, picking them both up to take out to the backyard.

"So," she looked intently at the taller girl, "if you heroically saved someone you cared about from imminent danger, you wouldn't believe yourself entitled to at least one kiss?"

Blushing, Jessie replied a bit unsurely. "Well I wouldn't be so arrogant to claim that I earned it."

"Hmm," Lisa acknowledged simply as she headed out of the kitchen. Almost fully out of the door, she stopped and called over her shoulder. "Maybe you should…"

The fragrance of freshly popped corn followed her out of the room, leaving a stunned silent, curly-haired girl in its wake.

Even Later That Night…

"Are you sure it's okay?"

"Babe, my parents won't be home until Monday. Besides, they did say I could invite one friend over, as long as it's not a girl," Zack smirked.

"If only they knew…"

"Come on." Finally managing to unlock the door in the darkness of the night (he'd forgotten to leave the porch light on before leaving for the party), Zack grabbed Slater's hand and led him into the house.

"You making me breakfast in the morning?"

"Macho pig," the blonde muttered before closing the door. Despite the epic fail of a Friday night, it seemed the weekend was not yet done with young Zack Morris.