Do You Really Want Me?

By Sakenichi

Chapter One – Nicole's Birthday

It was a warm summer morning at Pacific Coast Academy. Sunshine trickled through Zoey Brooks' dorm room window, shining in her eyes and causing her to awaken before the alarm her roommate, Nicole Bristow, had set the evening before. Carefully she opened one eye at a time, blinking as she looked up at the purple ceiling of their room.

It was then that she noticed someone was standing over her. She took a few moments to register what was going on and then she let out a high-pitched scream.

Lola Martinez leapt backwards at the loud scream and almost smacked into Nicole, who'd jumped out of bed in fright at all the commotion.

"Lola! What are you doing?" Zoey cried, rolling herself off her bed and stood beside the two startled brunettes.

"What am I doing?!" Lola replied, "What are you doing screaming like that?! I was just about to wake you up!"

Zoey looked confused for a moment and then she remembered. She and Lola had planned to wake up before Nicole and sneak out to bring in a surprise birthday cake for her birthday.

Nicole arched a perfectly plucked eyebrow, "But I set the alarm Lola. Why would you need to wake her up?"

Lola laughed nervously. She could act her way out of this, she was sure of it.

"Well you see," she started, "Zoey promised to help me with-"

Zoey cut her off, "Don't lie Lola," she sighed, "We were going surprise you with a cake, but I blew it."

Nicole's eyes widened and she broke out into a big grin. Her friends had remembered her birthday after all. She'd been anxious about turning 16 and not a single person had indicated that they even knew it had been approaching.

"You guys are the best," she said happily. She was going to continue when there was a knock on their door.

"Someone open the door for me!" Quinn Pensky's voice came from the other side.

"Logan! Move out of the way," Chase Matthews' voice floated through the door as well, followed by some banging sounds and a bit of shuffling.

The three girls inside the room looked at each other and then the door burst open, revealing Quinn, Chase, Logan Reese, Dustin Brooks and Michael Barret. In Quinn's arms was a large pink birthday cake in the shape of a shopping bag. It read, 'Happy 15th Nicole!' in bright blue letters.

"Happy birthday!" the five of them chorused in unison.

"Oh my gosh guys! You're the best!" Nicole cried, her voice extra perky.

"Do you like it?" Quinn asked proudly, placing the cake on a desk. "I made it myself."

"You made it yourself?" Logan asked incredulously, looking at the cake as though it as going to explode any moment.

The rest of the group were inclined to agree with Logan, looking at Quinn curiously.

"What's in it?" Zoey asked.

"Nothing much to worry about. It's a chocolate cake, but has zero fat and it actually better for you than those fad 'diet cakes'," Quinn replied, "And it tastes just like the real thing."

"Wow, that sounds good," Nicole concluded and stuck her finger in the icing and licking a blob of pink goop off the end. The others watched her to see if any weird was going to happen to her. "It tastes awesome!"

That cinched the deal for the rest of the group and they set about cutting the cake and passing pieces out.

Moments later they were all seated around room 101. Nicole sat at the desk, protecting what remained of her great tasting fat-free cake, Quinn and Dustin sat beside her cross-legged on the floor, Michael, Logan and Lola sat on Lola's lower bunk bed and Chase and Zoey sat side-by-side on Zoey's single bed.

"Quinn, you have to make everyone's birthday cake from now on," Lola said before taking another large bite.

"I can agree with that," Michael grinned, displaying a mess of mashed up brown cake and pink icing in his mouth.

Lola leaned past Logan and smacked him lightly on the arm, "Michael, that's gross."

"Sorry," he apologized, closing his mouth.

Chase chuckled at his friends; very conscious of the fact he was mere inches away from Zoey, on her bed, while she was still in her just-modest pajamas.

Zoey meanwhile, was thinking the same thing as Chase and wondering if it would look weird for her to grab a dressing gown when it was so warm out. She opted to stay put, feeling somewhat awkward as Chase's arm brushed against the bare skin of her own.

She knew how Chase felt about her. She tried to make it appear that she was oblivious to his feelings, as she didn't want to mess up their friendship by openly admitting she liked him back. And it appeared that everyone believed she didn't know, even though some of the things Chase said and did made it blatantly obvious.

Zoey carefully placed her fork on her plate after she'd finished her slice of cake. She smiled fondly as she watched her other friends babbling away about what Nicole was getting for her birthday and what they'd planned to do with her. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Chase was watching her, the look in his eyes making her heart skip a beat or two.

'Why does he always have to look at me like that when he thinks I don't notice?' she thought, turning her face to his and making him look the other way in a hurry.

"So guys, how about we get you boys out of here so the birthday girl can get dressed and then we can head to the amusement park?" Zoey asked, taking charge of the situation as per normal.

Logan winked at her, "What if we want to stay and watch?"

Zoey rolled her eyes at him and laughed as both Michael and Chase hooked an arm under each of Logan's and carted him out of the room.

"Aww come on! Guys!" Logan's voice trailed off as they disappeared down the hall. Dustin jumped up and ran out after them.

Quinn circled the room and collected all the plates and also bid them adieu as she took the plates to return them to the cafeteria. "I'll meet you at the school entrance!" she called and closed the door behind her.

The three girls looked at each other and then squealed, rushing around madly to get themselves ready.