"Summer Rain"
by: XdefyXgravityX
Chapter 1
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It was a Saturday afternoon, and the Pacific Coast Academy campus was alive and bustling with activity. Hundreds of students were running all over the place, getting an ice cream at the nearby kiosk, heading towards the campus movie theater or the dorm lounges, most of them discussing the newly-aired episode of Gender Defenders. All were happy and light-hearted; not a care in the world. All but one.
That person was Zoey Brooks. The tall, slim brunette stood by the PCA fountain, a frown on her round, tan face, looking down at the sodden remains of her hot pink TekMate. She hadn't noticed it was missing until halfway through the viewing party in the Girls' Lounge, and had spent the last twenty minutes or so retracing her steps, trying to remember where she'd left it. And now here it was, drenched from spending nearly three quarters of an hour in the fountain, completely fried, and looking quite irreparable. To top it all off, she still didn't know what everyone was hiding from her.
For the past few days, her best friend, Chase Matthews, had been acting really odd. First he'd stolen this very TekMate and refused to tell her why (which was strange in itself, since they'd told each other everything for all of the two years they'd known each other). Then, he acts all distant from her, seeming to watch her but always turning away when he saw her looking. And today, he'd tried to tell her what it was all about, but of course all the others had to turn up right at that moment and drag them both off. Zoey hadn't even seen him since Gender Defenders had ended.
And Chase wasn't the only one, either. The others had been acting strange around her lately, too. Michael, Lola, Nicole, Logan, even Quinn (though she, admittedly, was always strange, she was just being, well stranger). They all seemed to know something she didn't, but always feigned ignorance when she confronted them. It was unnerving.
Zoey sighed, her gaze returning to the dripping piece of machinery in her hands. Probably the most expensive device she would ever own, ruined. She sat on the fountain's edge, setting the destroyed TekMate beside her, lifting her shining blue eyes to the formerly sunny sky, where dark clouds were rapidly forming. And it looks like it's going to rain…
She had sat there for a good three minutes, lost in her thoughts, when two things hit her at the same time: a raindrop and an idea. She seized her TekMate, and leapt up, running in the direction of the Girls' Dorms. In her haste, she didn't even notice her bushy-haired friend approaching her from the opposite direction.
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Zoey bolted up the stairs to her floor, stopping outside one of the doors. Taking only a moment to collect herself, she knocked hastily on the door. It immediately swung open, a small cloud of opaque smoke accompanying it. Taking a deep breath, Zoey walked inside.
The room was full of beeping and whirring contraptions, the floor and desks littered with bits of wire, tools and spare parts. A few bright concoctions were bubbling rapidly in test tubes and beakers. To anyone else, this may have seemed intimidating, but to Zoey it was normal. She coughed a bit from the smoke, which still hung in the air (coming from a bit of dry ice in the corner, which was being used for Heaven knows what) and called into the whirring, beeping, smoky mass.
"Quinn?"
Quinn emerged from behind a set of beakers, sporting a pair of goggles that oddly magnified her eyes to make her look almost insect-like. She removed these and placed them on the top of her head, replacing them with her normal, thick-rimmed glasses.
"Hey, Zoey! The show was great, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, pretty cool. Hey, you think you can help me with something?"
"Well, sure! What is it?"
Zoey produced the wrecked TekMate. "It's my TekMate. I lost it before the show and I just found it…in the fountain."
"Here, let's see it."
Quinn headed towards Zoey, brushing one of her dark, feathery braids out of her face. She took the TekMate and examined it. Zoey watched anxiously.
"What do you think? Can you save it?"
Quinn looked thoughtfully at it. "I'm not sure. I'll do my best, but no guarantees. I'll let you know in a couple of hours if it's reparable or not."
Zoey squeaked excitedly and hugged her. "Thanks, Quinn! Thanks so much!"
Quinn giggled. "Glad to help. But remember, Zo, no guarantees!"
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Half an hour later, Zoey had returned to her dorm room. She was lying on her bed, sipping on a Blix and rifling through the pages of a magazine, listening to her two roommates gossip about the Gender Defenders episode.
"This show may have been my big break!" gasped Lola. "Maybe I'll finally be discovered, and win an Academy Award! How rad would that be?!"
"Who cares? All the cute boys are gonna be after us now that we've been on TV!" replied Nicole. She was looking out the window, and no sooner had she finished her sentence then she let out an excited squeal. "OOOOH! There's Sean Jameson! He was number four on my cute lip chart! EEEK! He's coming this way!" And without further adieu, she rushed out of the room, pausing only a moment to check her lip-gloss and hair in the mirror.
Lola watched her go, an incredulous expression on her face. She looked at Zoey and rolled her eyes. "Shortest attention span EVER, I swear." She picked up her purse from the top of the dresser. "A bunch of us were gonna meet down at Sushi Rox for dinner, you wanna come?"
Zoey idly flipped the page. "Nah, I'm not really in the mood to go out tonight. Bring me back a tempura roll?"
"You got it, babe. Later." And she was gone.
Zoey flipped to the back cover of the magazine, and, after skimming the ad for some perfume or other and taking a quick whiff of the free sample, tossed it aside. No sooner had she done this, than she heard a quiet knock on her door.
Looking up, she saw Chase standing outside. He was leaning against one side of the doorframe in a would-be-casual way, one hand combing through his dark, curly mop of hair. He was looking very uncomfortable. She wondered vaguely what was troubling her friend, but put it from her mind, telling herself that he was hiding enough from her already. There was no need to get herself worked up over another one of his secrets. She smiled at him.
"Hey Chase!"
"Can I come in?" he asked nervously.
"Sure, you don't have to ask, you know. Sit." She pulled herself into an upright position, patting the space on the bed next to her. He sat, but still avoided her eyes. Zoey noticed that Chase was playing with the hem of his t-shirt, twisting it up into a tiny knot. He only did that when he was under extreme pressure. It was no good; she had to ask him.
"Are...are you okay, Chase?"
"Who, me? Yeah sure, I'm fine. Just peachy." But he didn't look it. He cleared his throat. "So, did you, uh, get the…the text message?"
She blinked at him, puzzled. "What text message?"
"The one I sent to your TekMate about an hour and a half ago. Answering your…you know…your question." When she continued to look confused, he spoke again. "I sent you a message telling you what that first message said. The one you got by mistake."
Comprehension dawned on her face. "Oh…that. Yeah, my TekMate kind of…fell in the fountain. Quinn's trying to fix it now."
"Oh." He began playing with his shirt hem again. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, in which he continued avoiding her gaze. Finally, after a minute or two, Zoey finally broke the ice.
"So…are you going to tell me what it said or not?"
Chase finally looked up, and she noticed the hint of fear in his deep green eyes. "You'll find out…when Quinn fixes your TekMate."
"What?!" exclaimed Zoey. "That's not fair!" She slapped her hand on the mattress to emphasize her point.
"Zo, really. I'd rather you just read the message." So I can run and hide if I need to…
"But, Chase, Quinn said there were no guarantees!" she whined. "What happens if she can't fix the thing, huh? Will you just leave me hanging here?!"
He sighed. "Ok. I'll make you a deal. If Quinn can't fix your TekMate," he took a deep breath. "I promise I'll tell you what the message said, OK?"
Zoey held out her pinky finger. "Promise?"
"Promise." He said, interlocking his pinky with hers, sealing the pact.
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Chase had been gone barely twenty minutes when Quinn came rushing in to Zoey's empty dorm room, not even bothering to knock.
"Zoey?! Zo?! Are you here?"
Zoey came running in from the bathroom down the hall. "What? What happened?" She then noticed the TekMate in Quinn's hand. "Well? Is it fixed?"
Quinn held it out to her. "Not quite. It's about halfway there. Another hour or so should crack it."
But Zoey wasn't listening. The instant Quinn offered it to her, she had seized the TekMate and began flipping through it, checking for a new text message. She finally found and unread message from "PCAChase" and eagerly opened it. It said:
THE MESSAGE WAS…
I E O .
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A/N:
Hey guys!
Thanks to all my loyal reviewers! This is my first Zoey 101 fic, and my first try at a plot line in a few years. I'm still kind of scared about this one ending up like my last attempt at a plot line (heheh), so this will probably be very short. Right now it's looking like 2-3 chapters. The next one should be up within a week, along with a new episode of "The Random HP Talk Show of Randomness!".
Be sure to check out my other stories, "The Random HP Talk Show of Randomness!" and "Midnight"! REVIEWS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED FOR ALL THREE! Enjoy! And REVIEW!
As always,
XdefyXgravityX