My friend is super mad because the guy she likes is into her cousin. Which means...jealousy! I'm sure you can see the inspiration for this really short oneshot.
The title is French for "Green with Envy".
1. The Classmate
She's walking down the halls with Zach when it happens. His arm is slung around her shoulders, and she can feel a rumble in his chest as he laughs about her tale of Bex accidentally dyeing her hair purple when they were seventh graders. Cammie looks away from his face for a second because she doesn't want to run into a pole as they chortle about her friend when she sees Tina, and Tina sees Zach, and she immediately begins talking to him.
Zach does not remove his arm from around her shoulders, and does not lose himself in his conversation with the blonde bigmouth, but she can't help but look at Tina and see how pretty she is, and how Cammie is plain enough to be…well, a chameleon.
A strange feeling rises up in her stomach as her boyfriend and her classmate fall into an easy banter, and she tries not to feel like maybe she's too plain for him.
At lunch, Tina comes over to talk to him again, but she leaves once she notices him lean in and kiss his girlfriend, and Cammie smiles slightly into the kiss. Zach turns around a minute later, and leans in to whisper in her ear.
"I hope she realizes that I really don't care what Zooey Deschanel did the other weekend."
2. The Waitress
It's town day, and he's dragged her off to a restaurant. She's trying to decide between ordering a smoothie or a cappuccino to drink when the waitress arrives. She decides on the cappuccino when she looks up and is confronted with two facts:
1. The waitress is a beautiful redhead whom Cammie instantly feels ugly next to.
2. Said waitress is eyeing Zach in a way that makes Cammie want to punch her.
The waitress asks if she can help them (and she's facing Zach and smiling so hard that her face looks about ready to crack) and Zach orders a root beer, and the waitress unwillingly turns to Cammie and the smile is replaced with a scowl, followed by a sneer when she realizes that the girl he's on a date with is not a supermodel.
Cammie tries to ignore the self-consciousness bubbling within her and orders her drink, and then the waitress flashes one last smile at Zach, and she has that urge, once again, to smack her in the face.
After they are done eating lunch, the waitress shows up with a check that she hands to Zach (and she brushes her hand against his). Cammie's boyfriend doesn't even look at the business card that oh-so-conveniently has the waitress's number on it and simply places a wad of cash in it, and they leave. She turns to see the waitress glaring at her, and feels a sense of smugness as she takes Zach's hand and he kisses her on the forehead, and isn't sure if she's imagining the smirk on his face as he turns slightly, just enough to catch the waitress's glare at the edge of his vision.
She's sure she didn't when he tells her later, "I think redheads are overrated."
3. The Target
They're on a mission (well, a fake one, courtesy of Joe Solomon) and Zach's job is to distract a girl (who happens to be blonde and beautiful) while Cammie finds out what the target's best friend's favorite color is. It's simple enough.
So while Zach talks to the girl, she's blending in and figuring it out. When she finally has the answer, she goes back to find him. The girl is still talking a mile a minute, and Zach looks interested enough and interjects sentences here and there, but there's something strange in his eyes that Cammie cannot read. It bothers Cammie more than it should, and she's struck for the umpteenth time that she is extraordinarily plain when compared to girls like the one her boyfriend is pretty much honeypotting.
She makes sure he sees her from afar (and that the other girl does not) and heads for the movie theater, knowing that he will follow.
When he walks into the darkened theater, he finds her, and somehow reads the unhappiness in her face. She tries to hide the feelings of plainness, but then he leans in, kisses her, and whispers in her ear.
"Dear God," he moans, "that girl talks way too much about different tampon brands."
4. The Agent
Interpol recruiters are at Gallagher, and they are even more enthusiastic than usual because the Blackthorne boys are there, too, and this means more opportunities to get another person onto the bandwagon.
They have lost Cammie—she's dead set on the CIA—but they think that if they can get Zach to join, maybe Cammie will agree.
A woman named June Summers, who has black hair and hazel eyes and, of course, model-like looks, begins to try and convince him to join. Cammie can see his interest, and it's disheartening to know that she can't tell if the interest is in Interpol or the woman talking about it, and she tries not to watch as the boy she loves talks to another woman who happens to be gorgeous. When the discussion is finally over, he has an application form in his hands.
Before dinner, he meets her in her room, the application in his hands. She glances down at it and can't help the slight frown when she sees it.
He walks over to her desk and asks if she has a pen. She pulls one out and gives it to him, and waits for him to sign his name (the rest is already filled out) and officially separate them, career-wise. It's hard not to look away, but she resists the urge and watches as he uncaps her black pen and—
Begins stabbing holes all over the paper, destroying the form and looking like he's having way too much fun doing so. She stands there, mouth open, and then takes the pen from him and demands to know what he's doing.
He looks at her with the most serious expression on his face and says, "I'm going to the CIA with you."
She looks at him disbelievingly, still unable to process the fact that he has just destroyed an application to a prestigious organization.
He gives her a tiny smile. "Besides," he says with a straight face, "'Interpol' takes too long to spell out."
5. The Stranger
They're at a fair. Cammie's clutching the giant giraffe Zach won for her, and Zach's sharing his cotton candy with her when she notices a group of girls eyeing Zach. She knows that their position—her holding a stuffed animal, him allowing her to eat his food, his arm wrapped tightly around her—indicates that they are clearly together, but the gaggle of hormonal teenage girls with too much makeup on does not seem to care.
One of them—a tall brunette who could pass for Jessica Alba—breaks away from the group and walks up to them, swinging her hips.
"Hi, I'm Megan," she says.
Megan begins hitting on Zach, and Cammie excuses herself to go to the bathroom. There's a mix of anger and sadness brewing inside her, and she wants, more than anything, to pour a drink on top of Megan and her friends. Instead, she walks out to meet them again. When she sees them, she catches Megan and Zach exchanging numbers, and then the bimbo leaves. Cammie slips back into Zach's arms, and tries to mask her displeasure. Zach notices anyway.
"Don't worry," he murmurs, smirking. "I gave her the rejection hotline number."
1. The Ex
They're in Roseville one last time before they graduate—it's the last town day for them—and they're wandering around when they accidentally walk in front of the pharmacy and run into Josh.
Josh sees them first, and says, "Cammie!" and both the pavement artist and the assassin look up, shaken out of the little bubble of privacy they had lost themselves in.
"Oh, hi, Josh," she says, smiling and trying to act normal and not as awkward as she feels. "You remember Zach, right?"
"Hey, Jimmy," Zach says brightly, trying not look annoyed that her clueless ex is interrupting their last town day.
"It's Josh."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
"So how's it going?" Cammie attempts to break the tension.
Josh smiles and tells her how he's doing, and seems far too happy that she's speaking to him.
And then he asks her: "So, are you going to the Roseville High School graduation party this weekend?"
Zach tightens his hold on Cammie's hand before he can help it, and she nudges him just a tiny bit in an effort to get him to relax.
"I don't know, but I'll think about it," she says with a kind smile, but both she and Zach know that she won't. And then, to Zach's eternal relief, she bids him goodbye.
When they're out of sight, she looks at the dark look on his face and laughs before pulling him in for a kiss. When she pulls back, she laughs once again, and says—
"Jaloux beaucoup, Zach?"
He glares at her, and then mutters, "Tais-toi, Cammie!" and then pulls her in for another kiss.
Fin.
Translations:
1. Jealous much, Zach?
2. Shut up, Cammie!