Note: Chapter 1 edited! (July 18 04)


Chapter 1 - A Summer Reflection

Ring, ring. Ring ring. Summer heard the band cell phone ringing, and automatically reached to pick it up. "Summer Hathaway speaking."

"Tink, are you always such a tightwad on the phone?" A laughed crept across Summer's face - it was Dewey. He kept talking. "How's your summer been so far? Talked to the band lately?"

"It's been okay. I talked to Zack and Lawrence today, it's confirmed that we're getting together tomorrow." Summer heard Dewey sigh. "So it's settled now, right?" He asked. "I need to talk to you guys anyway, I have a little bulletin to bring up."

The tone of Dewey's voice was neither familiar nor reassuring, but Summer realized it wasn't the time to ask questions. "You bet, Dewey. Usual place, around 3:00, 'kay? See ya on the flip flop!"

Dewey laughed at the comment. "Lateeer!"

Summer sighed as she put the phone back down and fell back onto her bed. She wasn't sure why, but she really didn't want tomorrow to come anymore, not after that phone call. And it wasn't like she needed the extra worries: the fifteen-year-old had enough on her plate already.

These days it seemed like everyone in the band had other things to do. It had been torture to set a date for their first practise session of August, seeing as Zack had gone to visit his grandparents in Michigan, Lawrence was getting ready for some sort of summer camp, and Summer herself was in the middle of an extra-credit summer school program. And everyone has other things on their minds as well, Summer thought sarcastically.

The band had been together for five years now, and all that time together, as well as hitting puberty meant raging hormones throughout the eight chore characters in School of Rock. It was common knowledge that Katie liked Freddy, even though Summer was sure that Freddy had liked Marta for a while now. Everyone knew that Lawrence had worshipped Summer since the sixth grade, which was cute, Summer had to admit, but she had it in for someone else.

Zack Mooneyham was absolutely perfect in every way to Summer. He had the cutest hair, and he was an awesome guitarist without being bigheaded like Dewey. He was quiet, but when he did speak up, he was the funniest guy in the room. He was the only one that didn't routinely blow up at Summer for her insanely controlling ways, even though he did make fun of it from time to time. But Summer didn't really care - she was amazed that he even knew who she was, even if they had known each other since Kindergarten.

Zack was even the reason for Summer's immature distaste for their classmate, Eleni. It was so apparent to her that Zack loved the blonde-haired girl, as he always laughed at her lame "I'm part of the band - I made up the name!" line. Like, how is that funny? Summer felt like pulling her hair out as she thought about it.

Summer couldn't blame Zack though - Eleni was gorgeous. She had always been pretty, but at fifteen, was now blossoming into a blonde bombshell. A blonde BIMBO, more like… It always helped to somehow make it seem as though it was all Eleni's fault…

Only one person knew of Summer's crush: her best, best friend Marta Hale. After hating each other up until Dewey showed up, they grew more comfortable with each other, and the friendship was cemented when they turned twelve: it turned out Summer wasn't the only one not fond of Eleni. Marta was absolutely set on the fact that the blonde had it in for Freddy, the love of Marta's life. Summer and Marta would spend hours upon hours on the phone, not exactly listening to each other, but just venting on how much Eleni didn't deserve either of the two boys.

Marta's so blind… It was so obvious to Summer that Freddy absolutely adored her friend, and seeing as Marta liked him back, she thought things would work their way out. But no… she's got to make things difficult. Summer rolled her eyes at how oblivious to Freddy's inexperienced flirting techniques Marta was. And to boot, Marta was always accusing Summer of just "trying to be nice" when she would insist that the two were meant for each other.

She's too lucky for her own good: a great voice, awesome hair, a --

"Summer, phone!" The raven-haired girl's thoughts were interrupted by her father's call up the stairs. She was usually a telephone hound, and it was a household joke that the cordless was surgically attached to her hip, but once she got into her thoughts, she was out of it.

"Summer! Pick it up!" The call came again as Summer picked up the phone, hoping it was someone she could let loose on.

Alas, it was Katie. "Hey Tink! How's it hangin'?"

"Oh, you know…" Summer didn't finish her thought, which resulted in a short awkward pause in the conversation. Summer and the band's bassist had never been all that close.

"Oh, well… That's cool… Uh, well, I was just calling to see if you talked to Freddy to make sure about tomorrow… 'Cause, you know, it would be hard to rock without our drummer, right?" Katie finished hastily.

It was all Summer could do not to laugh at Katie's extreme obviousness. It seemed to Summer that sometimes, it was just so apparent that the group was a bunch of immature fifteen-year-olds. "Yes, don't worry, I talked to him. Make sure you're at the HQ at 3:00, or else we'll start without you. Punctuation continues into the summer, you know."

"I know, I know, I get it. See you later."

Summer shook her head as she, once again, put down the phone. I hope I'm not that obvious. If there was one thing Summer hated, it was giggly ditzes. She detested when girls sat there, drooling over a guy right in front of their face. She tried to make sure that, whenever she could remember, she was just as harsh with Zack as the rest of the group.

Summer got up and made her way across her impeccably organized room to her desk, where her summer school homework lay, waiting to be finished. She grabbed her Science textbook, and opened it up to start studying. Instinctively, Summer checked no one was around, and turned on her CD player. Immediately, Britney Spears started blaring. The band would KILL me… The idea of rebelling against the band's unwritten code of only listening to what Dewey suggested sent a shiver up her spine.

Summer's eyes drifted off of her work, and on to the picture of a Doberman hound on her monthly calendar. Zack has a Doberman… He loves her… Summer's eyes widened at the stupidity of her thoughts. Good God, anything to get away from homework, eh, Summer… She found it helped to blame her fuzzy thoughts about Zack on other things, even though she knew the truth.

To keep her mind off things, Summer kept her eyes moving around the room, where they lay to rest on her Ibook laptop she got from the band for her last birthday. She struggled with her morals for about 5 seconds, and then quickly got up and away from her homework, and sat in front of her computer.

Summer was a real computer nut. Not a techie, though; she had absolutely no idea how to tear one apart and build it up again, or anything like that. She just loved being on the computer, checking email, talking with the band on Instant Messenger, and on and on. The idea of not being face-to-face with the people she was talking to made her a lot more comfortable with herself. She would never lie, or anything stupid… She would just be herself.

Summer logged onto Messenger, but no one was on. She proceeded, then, to check her email. In her inbox was a forward from Marta, a practice schedule from Dewey… and an email from Zack.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…Summer didn't know whether to click it, or just stare at it. She had never received an email from Zack that wasn't a forward, and this one was definitely not a forward. The subject read "another plan for tomorrow," which made Summer's heart beat even faster. Almost dying from anticipation, she shut her eyes, clicked on the email, and read.

Hey gyus, its zack here. i was tihnking that maybe after practiz tomorow we cud all go and catch a movie or sumthin. my mom said she cud pick us up and maybe u cud all cum over for dinner or sumthin. theres a theater rite by deweys place so we cud probably just walk over there afer practiz. ummm so ya gimme a shout tonite or just talk to me tomorrow and we can see hoo can go. Ttyl

zack attack

Summer was finding it hard to breathe. Not only had he sent her, Summer Hathaway, an email (even if it had been addressed to all the other kids in the band as well), he had invited her to a movie. A real movie, where it was dark, and you shared a popcorn and a pop with someone. She had barely wrapped her head around the whole idea when she found herself calling down to her mom.

"MOMMY! After practice tomorrow, can I go to a movie with the band, and then dinner at one of their houses?"

"Whose house is dinner at?" Was the response.

"Zack's. Please?"

"'Kay, sure. Call him and find out when I should pick you up."

"Thanks mom!" But as ecstatic as Summer was at that very second, she felt as though her stomach had plummeted into her toes. Talking to Zack about the band was one thing, but to call him about something totally unrelated kind of scared the raven-haired girl.

Nevertheless, she told herself she had to do it, picked up the cordless, and dialled Zack's number, which she knew off by heart.

Riiiiiiing…Riiiiiiing… Riiiiiiing… "Hello?"

Summer found her voice. "Hello, is Zack there please?"

"Hey, Tinkerbell, it's me." Summer almost died as she realized she was talking to Zack way before she was ready. She had been anticipating those couple seconds where whoever picked up the phone had to go and find him. "Hey, Zack, how are things?"

"Oh, you know, they're okay. You?"

The forced conversation was killing Summer. "Pretty good. Kind of busy though, with all the extra school stuff."

"Oh, no joke, eh? School, the band, friends, you must be busy!"

Summer's heart hitched in her throat. Was Zack Mooneyham actually making an observation on her life? It seemed as though he actually cared about what was happening to her!

"Oh, well, not busy enough to miss the movie and dinner tomorrow! What time should my mom pick me up from your house?" Summer hoped she hadn't sounded too excited.

"Awesome, I'm glad this is working out! I'm not sure when we'll be done though, I was thinking we could all hang after supper for a while. Maybe you could just call your mom when you're ready?"

"Sounds awesome, Zack…" Summer felt as if she was a puddle of fifteen-year-old goo collecting on her bedroom floor, and she was sure her voice showed that, but at this point, she couldn't care less. "I'll see you tomorrow, then, 3:00?"

"You bet. See ya, Tinkerbell."

Summer didn't want to hang up the phone, but she knew that she was being absolutely ridiculous. She hung it up, dropped it onto the floor, and practically fainted onto her computer chair. At that exact moment, however, Marta had logged onto instant messenger, and the pair started talking instantly.

Tink says: hey!

BlOnDiE says: hey girl wazzap?

Tink says: not much, u?

BlOnDiE says: o same

Tink says: omg marta did u get the email?

BlOnDiE says: I havent checked it yet y?

Summer shook her head at the computer and started typing again frantically.

Tink says: no time for it now, be at my house in 10 min pleeeeeeze?????

Summer could have bitten her lower lip off waiting for Marta's response.

BlOnDiE says: how bout 5?


A/N - I hope that was okay, it's only the first chapter so it's kind of boring, just really introducing Summer's character. It'll get better I promise. Please review; is it a good length, shorter? Longer? Thanks!!