Title: Final Year Fireworks

Rating: Probably R

Author: Yannick

Disclaimer: Ha! You will take nothing from me, for this, tis a disclaimer! I do not own these characters/these settings/the chair I'm sitting on/a pizza…oh.

Zack skidded down the corridors of Bayside. First week of term, and he was already late! Praying he wouldn't run into any teachers who would, undoubtedly, be patrolling for him, he turned the corner and stopped in front of his locker. Panting, he threw his bag into it and grabbed what he needed for English class. Then, looking at his watch, he sighed and threw the books back in. No chance he could pretend the traffic was too bad by now. Instead, he closed the locker door, and slid to the floor.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Why now?" Zack asked to the ventilator above his head. "First day? I'd have appreciated the alarm going off. And there still being some hot water. And my car starting, perhaps? If that's not too much to ask..."

He went back to resting his head on his folded arms, waiting for the next period to start. After he'd spent the whole summer vacation stuck in a cabin with the rest of his family, he was looking forward to seeing the gang again, reminding everyone of his position as King of the Halls of Bayside (as he had crowned himself), and generally getting back into the swing of things. Final year, and he wanted to make it a good one.

Suddenly, footsteps echoed down the hall. Zack jumped up, then, recognising the sound, smiled and leaned back against the locker. 3 inch stilettos on the first day? Only one girl would try that...

Just as Zack had expected, Lisa rounded the corner in a typically fantastic outfit. Unfortunately, this often meant it didn't allow for running too easily, and Lisa was clearly exhausted. Going as fast as her shoes allowed her to, she ran over to her locker and opened it. Producing a make up bag from her cleavage, she proceeded to touch up her face that had got smudged in the exertion, then sighed, looked at her diamond encrusted watch, shook her hundred dollar hairstyle out of her eyes, and turned to face Zack.

"Well, at least I wasn't the only one late. Although I don't think that your reason was the inability to choose the right outfit to go with your highlights, right?" Lisa clearly hadn't changed a bit, thought Zack, smiling to himself.

"It's nice to see you too, Lisa. How's vacation been for you?"

She rolled her eyes at him, and whipped the make up out again. "Screech spent most evenings singing outside my room. I swear, since puberty hit that boy it's been like he doesn't need to sleep! Every night the walking erection stands in the yard under my window and shrieks out little love songs. At least now he's started doing ones that he didn't make up himself. You know, when I was twelve, I was actually going to kill myself if I heard 'Lisa' rhymed with 'pizza' again."

Zack laughed. "So I guess you and Screech still ain't happening. What about when he started liking that other girl, and you got all jealous?"

She gently slapped his shoulder. "I never said I didn't WANT him to pay that much attention to me..."

Before she could say anything else, the bell rang, and Zack heard doors opening all the way up and down school. In seconds the hall was swamped with other students. Zack waved goodbye to Lisa, and went off to the next class. Maybe here he would be able to see the rest of the gang.

Wandering into the room, he cast his eye about with the experience of one used to getting the best seats. He immediately spotted that Slater and Kelly had bagged him a seat just behind her and next to him. He grinned. He'd told them last year the best seats in this class, and they'd clearly remembered. He sauntered up to them.

"Hey guys! How's it going?" He wrapped an arm round Kelly, giving her a squeeze, and patted Slater on the back. Slater smiled back at him, and Kelly hugged him back.

"Oh, I've missed you all vacation, Zack! What have you been doing? I've been helping to free some endangered dolphins from fishing nets, I've been handing out soup in the ghettos" Kelly started counting on her fingers, "I ran a rally for donating to African orphans with mental disabilities..."

Zack sighed, and turned to Slater as Kelly continued naming all the charities she'd helped with, her nosed scrunched up in concentration so she looked like a rabbit. "Has she been like this all morning?"

Slater laughed. "Yep. Kelly's done more for the world over the holidays than Mother Teresa in her entire life. And it's really starting to annoy me. Didn't she ever do anything for herself, rather than the crippled Buddhist monks of China, or whoever her new pet charity at the moment..."

"Yeah. Hey, you weren't here for her fundraiser for the entire nation of Niger when she was eight. Now THAT was creepy."

They grinned at each other. Kelly was a nice girl, and no-one would ever say a bad word about her, but she was a little too saintly for anyone's comfort. You were always expecting her to pull out a donation box from somewhere.

Zack looked around, realising that there was someone missing. "Hey, dude, where's Jessie? Didn't you two spend the vacation together?"

Slater shifted, uncomfortably. "Yeeeeah...well, we did spend the summer together. It didn't go so well. There was a bit of shouting, and some swearing, and quite a lot of hitting. All of it directed at me. I don't think she'll be in school today."

"What? What happened, man? You two were not arguing the last time I heard. For once."

"No, it was just Jessie being hormonal or something. It's nothing."

Zack frowned. Unlike Lisa and him, who could tell lies at the drop of a hat with no one the wiser, Slater shared the same honest flaw as Kelly, and it was written all over his face that there was more to this story than Slater was letting on. However, he'd known Slater for years now, and if he didn't want to tell him, Zack wasn't gonna push him into it. Anyway, it could always be that Jessie WAS just being hormonal, and Slater didn't want her to hear that he'd been a 'chauvinist pig', as such.

Whatever. He sat down, just as the professor entered, closely followed by fifth of Zack's friends. Screech glanced about, eyes bugging out of his head under the unruly mop of hair that was only footsteps away from being an Afro. Spotting Zack and the others over in the corner, he waved, and searched for an easy route across the crowded class to them. Spotting none, he thought for a moment, before dropping to the floor, and crawling snakelike to the empty desk next to Kelly. Bursting up from the floor, he hissed at the professor, who ignored him, brushed himself down, and fell into his seat. Turning around, he waved at Zack and Slater, then leant across to whisper something to Kelly. Zack smiled to himself. Only seconds from when Screech had entered, and already he was being his usual self. Zack could already see this was going to be an entertaining year.

That evening, Zack and the gang were chilling out at the Max. First day had been a bit of a shock to the system. The endless hours of just chilling of the summer had been replaced by the sudden workload. Of course, Zack hadn't been doing much of that, instead checking out the fresh meat. After his time at Bayside, he was now able to pick out exactly what each freshman would be in the social standing. It was a special talent of his, and as usual he could see the usual groups of cheerleaders, geeks, and jocks. There were a couple who he could see a little of himself in, too. Zack grinned to himself. He wanted to leave something at this school, apart from some broken hearts. What better than another Zack, Mark 2? It would certainly keep Belding on his toes.

Anyway, it wasn't time to be thinking about the fact that this was the last year. He looked about, glancing at his friends. Kelly had cornered a freshman, and was speaking at her in a loud urgent voice. She was only steps away from rattling the collecting tin at her. Lisa was reapplying her make up for the third time since they had got there, and Screech was blowing bubbles into his drink, with an expression of deep concentration. Slater was staring into the distance, looking very pensive. Zack frowned to himself. Jessie hadn't even turned up here to say hello, or anything all day. Unless the fight with Slater had been bad enough to scare her away for ever, she should have at least tried to see them today. He leant forward.

"Slater."

Slater sat there, staring into space. Zack sighed, and waved a hand in front of his eyes. He jumped, and looked at the blonde with surprise. "What's your problem, preppy?"

Zack shrugged. "Just wanted to be introduced to whatever's so interesting on the ceiling. What's up? You don't seem yourself."

Slater put his face in his hands, and rubbed his eyes with his fingertips. "Oh, I dunno. It's just all so difficult right now." Then he stood up, and grabbed his coat from the back of the chair. "I'm going. I got things to do. Homework."

He strode towards the door, pushing another boy out of the way with a determination Zack saw him use only in wrestling matches, usually. He stood up, and yelled after Slater's retreating back "On the first day?" But the other boy didn't turn around, just walked out of the door and down the street.

Zack looked around at his friends, who were shrugging, and going back to what they had been doing. He sighed. Although he didn't want to be the one who went after Slater, due to this goddam laziness, he knew if he didn't, they'd never know where he was going. Of course, if he WAS going home to do homework, then Zack would be kicking himself all the way back to the Max. He considered for a moment, then picked up his coat, and ran out of the door to follow Slater.

He looked about, and saw Slater turn a corner down the road. He walked after him, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Slater walked quickly, head down. Zack suspected that, even if he'd yelled, nothing was going to wake Slater up. Still, he didn't want to take any chances.

They walked for a while, heading away from the centre of town, towards where Zack had a vague idea Slater lived. It was looking as though he had been telling the truth. Then , Slater turned down a road, and Zack realised that this was Jessie's street. They'd got there in a roundabout way, but this sure was Jessie's house on the right. Slater marched determinedly up to the door, knocked, and then opened the door and walked in.

Zack scuffed a foot. This wasn't making any sense. Why would Slater not have told them he was going to see his girlfriend? How come he had to make up excuses to get away from them. Zack knew that, had Slater said he was going to see Jessie, Zack for one would have wanted to go with him. Maybe that was why Slater had done it, because he had something to say to her alone.

Suddenly, there was a shriek from one of the upstairs windows, and Zack heard the shatter of glass. Slater's voice could be heard yelling apologies, and the thump of things being thrown, along with shouted threats that all faded away into sobs. He stared at the window.

Then, something flew out, clearly a misdirected shot. Without thinking, Zack walked out onto the lawn, and picked it up. It was a photo frame of the gang, but Jessie had torn off the half with her and Slater in it. Zack touched the glass, and sighed. Suddenly he became aware that the shouting had stopped. He looked up, and saw Slater's face staring at him in horror from the upper window. Zack dropped the picture, and turned tail. Not sure why, he had as good a reason as anyone for being there, but it was something about the circumstances that suggested Slater wouldn't have let him just walk away from there. Distracted, his foot caught the side of the pavement, and he went flying across the concrete. Landing, the breath was pushed out of him, and he lay gasping for a minute. A man came up, and offered him a hand. Zack took it, with a sigh. Slater pulled him to his feet, and for a moment just looked at him. The horror that had been there before was gone, and his eyes showed pity. For a moment Zack thought he saw something else, in the way Slater had reached out, but it was gone, if it had ever been there before.

They stayed silent for a minute, Zack suddenly finding his feet very interesting. Then Slater said quietly "Why did you follow me?" It wasn't an accusation, as Zack had expected, and there wasn't even any anger in it. It was as if Slater was making a statement, like "The sky is blue", or "The grass is green".

Momentarily, Zack thought about spouting some bullshit about getting lost or that he just ran up to see Jessie. But after looking at Slater's face, he just decided to give him the truth. "I wanted to follow you. I wanted to find out what was wrong."

Slater nodded, as though that was what he'd been expecting. "There's nothing wrong that you need to worry about."

Zack was shocked. "Man, only minutes ago you were throwing things at each other! I could hear from across the road. Hell, they could probably hear you in China! Now you tell me I don't need to worry? That really sucks, man!"

Slater looked at him again, still without any anger in his eyes. "It's between me and Jessie. It's none of your business."

Zack grabbed him by the shoulder. "Jessie's my friend, dude. Anything that's going to affect her is going to affect me too. I make it my business." When Slater refused to say anything, Zack sighed. "You're my friend, too, you know."

Suddenly, Slater turned to him, and the emotion hit Zack like Slater's fist, which unfortunately followed it closely. For a moment Slater stood over him, rubbing his hand, face hidden in shadow. Zack propped himself up on his elbows, and glared accusingly at the boy, rubbing one side of his jaw. They both stayed there, each challenging the other to go first.

Then Slater sighed, and his shoulders drooped. He started to walk away. "Go home, Zack. Just, don't try to get involved."

"You just hit me Slater! Even if I didn't want to be involved, I am now. You took care of that quite well yourself!" Zack snarled at his back, wiping a trickle of blood that had just started from his lip.

Slater stopped. "I'm sorry about hitting you. I didn't want to. But don't…try. Just leave." And with that, Slater took off at the same pace he'd arrived at, head down, as fast as he could.

Zack stayed on the floor for a couple more moments, then slowly got up, more determined than ever to find out what was going on. Just before Slater had socked him one, Zack had spotted so many conflicting emotions in his face. He'd thought it wasn't possible for the wrestler to have more than one at a time, let alone that many…He checked himself. He was falling back into the old trap. When they'd first met, he and Slater had been rivals in most things, and it was only over the years as they went through more and more, that they'd actually managed to form a friendship. It was moments like this, when Slater had hurt him in some way, or done something stupid, that Zack went back into the old mind frame that Slater was just a big stupid wrestler. He knew enough to know that wasn't true. There must be something wrong.

Pulling a tissue from his pocket, he held it to his split lip. It was bleeding badly now. Even if he didn't want to go to Jessie's, he had to unless he wanted to turn up at home looking like an extra from 'Night of the Living Dead'. He walked up to Jessie's door, and pushed it open. It was still unlocked. For a girl who was so intelligent in class, it never failed to amuse Zack that she was forever forgetting to shut the door when her parents were out. He looked in, and heard music from upstairs.

He walked up, and poked his head round Jessie's door. For a moment, he couldn't see her, then he heard a sob from the corner of the room. She was sitting on the floor, eyes red from crying, staring into nowhere. He walked over, and sat down next to her. She looked over and smiled gently, before it dropped off the side of her face and her eyes began to fill with tears again.

He put an arm around her, and she leant into him slightly. Zack grinned down at the top of her head. "Heh. You're really bad, aren't you?" She looked up quizzically. He shrugged. "If you were your usual self, I'd be getting whacked for condescension-towards-women."

She laughed through the sobs, and wrapped her arms round his waist. "Sometimes I can let it go. Today is one of those days. I don't think Slater will be coming back now."

He patted her back. "You did throw most of your room at him. You didn't happen to find that CD I lent you when you were chucking stuff, did you?"

She punched him lightly on the arm. "That's not what I meant. I meant about what happened over summer. What did you say when he told you?"

Zack looked down. "When he told me what?"

Jessie suddenly sat back up, shock on her face. "He hasn't told you yet? How about Kelly? Or Screech?" She covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh no…"

"Tell us what, Jessie?" Zack took her hands in his, and gently pulled them away. She shut her mouth tight, and shook her head.

"Even if I'm angry at him at the moment, I can't tell you why. It's his to tell."

Zack sighed, and let her hands go. "Fine, we'll wait for him to tell us." They sat back down, and Jessie leant onto his shoulder. Zack grinned as something came to mind. "Hell, you made me nervous for a minute. The way you were acting, I was worried it was gonna be something weird, like he's only got 24 hours to live, or he's gay or something."

Jessie stiffened.

Momentarily, Zack thought (or perhaps hoped) that she was going to laugh, and it would all pass. Then as they both just sat there, Jessie staring straight at the floor, Zack looked over.

"You've GOT to be kidding me."