A/N: so this morning I decided I would write a zack fic about someone from his past, cuz zack needs an old friend to come screw up his future… I have the story in mind, so here goes… and I don't own Bones…
When Zack was 10- his first day of high school…
Zack stared at the front door of the school. He really didn't want to go in, but classes started in 20 minutes and he needed to get his schedule and find his first block.
He walked in and found himself in the huge cafeteria. There were students hanging out at the tables and buying breakfast, and a woman wearing big earphones staring at a security monitor at the far end of the room. There were no security people at the middle school, so that was a bit scary.
He quickly made his way across the room with the intent of asking the woman where the main office was, and was happy when he saw it was just around the corner behind her.
The lady behind the desk had to stand to see him over it, and she was confused as heck. "Are you looking for your sibling sweetie?"
"My name is Zackary Addy. I'm a new student here." He said quickly.
"Oh, you're Zack Addy?" He nodded. "Well, here is your schedule, a map of the school, the form your teachers need to sign, and the papers you need to bring in tomorrow once your parents fill them out."
Zack put the papers in his backpack, leaving his schedule in hand. There were A days and B days, the only difference being B days had Seminar after 1st block. "Is today an A day or a B day?" He asked the lady. She looked shocked.
"It takes most students a week to figure out the schedule, how did you get…" She trailed off when she saw Zack staring at her, waiting for the answer to his question. "Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are A days. Today is Tuesday so you have Seminar today."
Zack thanked the perplexed woman and walked out. It was very difficult finding his 1st class; the school was made up of two giant squares, two floors, plus the arts wing, the cafeteria, and the gym. He was looking for room 247, Honors Geometry with Mrs. Jameson.
A few of the students were giving him weird looks, but they mostly paid no attention to him. He was grateful for that, though he wished he could ask someone for help. The map was confusing even for him, considering the copy machine had smudged some of the typing.
He must have gone around the same square six times before he found the room. It was covered in math posters, and since the 5-minute warning bell had just rung, it was filled with students. There was no teacher in there at the moment, so Zack didn't know what to do.
All the other kids took their seats, and he went to the old couch at the back of the room. The girl and boy at the desks in front of him were laughing and talking loudly, pretty much insulting each other, but it seemed like they were friends.
"Who are you?" Zack's head shot toward the girl when he heard her speak to him.
"I'm, uh, Zack." Before bed last night, his brother, Joe, had warned him not to say too much to the high schoolers, because they didn't like brainiacs. On the other hand, his mom had told him to try and make friends, which he thought was a trivial request. He was at school to learn, not create a nonexistent social life.
"Are you supposed to be in this class?" He nodded, deciding against speaking. The girl grinned, and by now had the entire class' attention. "Oh my gosh, you're so cute!" She ruffled his hair, and he just flinched back a bit. "Kevin, move your butt, make room for the new kid!"
Kevin moved to a seat two rows up, and the girl, he'd heard Kevin call her Katie, grabbed Zack's backpack and dropped it at the desk. He reluctantly got up and sat next to her.
"So you're, like, insanely smart?" She flipped her wavy hair over her shoulder.
"Uh, I guess." He was suddenly missing being ignored.
"Oh, you're so adorable, you look scared to death." The class was still watching them. The bell had rung and Mrs. Jameson still wasn't there yet. Katie's attention strayed back to her friends until the teacher walked in, 15 minutes late for class.
"Morning guys. Sorry I'm late. But I have your tests graded," collective class groan, "so let's begin." She went around and passed back everyone's papers, stopping when she almost gave Zack one. "My Kevin, you sure have shrunk, and you cut and dyed your hair. What'd you change your name to?"
Zack couldn't decide if he liked this teacher, but it didn't matter. "Zack Addy."
"And does Zack Addy have a paper for me to sign?" Zack handed her the sheet, which she signed and handed back. "And now, Zack, you and Kevin need to switch." They did so.
Katie still hadn't lost interest in Zack yet, and she wouldn't stop bugging him while he tried to do the homework that was assigned. She didn't even call him by his name, just 'New Kid.'
Zack was happy when the bell rang. Next was Seminar in room 207. That block went fairly normal. No one talked; they just listened to their iPods and did homework.
2nd block- Civics- was back by Geometry, and was filled with people Zack did not want to be near. Most of the boys were seniors proud to have failed enough times to still be in the class. Most of the girls were juniors who wouldn't stop complaining about having to be there again. Mr. Green was short and stern and barely tolerated the sound of breathing.
Only one boy, some punk named Chris, decided to give Zack a hard time. Zack ignored him, and was happy again when the bell rang. 3rd block was Biology- aka 30 freshmen and sophomores caught up in each other, and him being able to sit quietly in the back and listen to his teacher.
After Biology came lunch, which was more of a problem. He walked slowly and got shoved around in the giant crowd running to get to the cafeteria. He got in a line to buy his lunch, only to find that he needed a pin code to pay. The lunch mom took pity and let him get a free lunch that day, but he would have to pay it back later.
He looked around for a place to sit and saw one empty table near the exit. While he ate his sandwich he read his Bio textbook. He had almost completely zoned out when he heard someone a few tables over.
"I heard he's some super genius kid, with an IQ of 300."
"I heard he won't talk to anybody because he thinks he's better than us."
"I heard you guys would stop being so 'Gracie' and would go over and talk to the kid. Come on, give him a break, it's his first day here, he's probably nervous." A pause. "I'll prove it." In a few seconds, Zack heard the voice right next to him. "Is it ok if I sit down?"
Without waiting for an answer, she took a seat next to Zack. "I'm Lynne. Aren't you in my first block?" Zack didn't answer; he didn't recognize her. "Honors Geometry with Jameson?"
"Yeah, I'm Zack."
"When were you born, and what grade are you in?" This question was a little strange; most people just asked how old he was.
"November 25, and 9th grade."
"Yes!" Lynne's hands shot in the air. "Finally someone in my grade who's younger than me! Sorry if I'm scaring you, but my birthday's in October and pretty much everyone is older than me." Zack didn't know how to respond. "Hey do you wanna come sit over at my table? We've got plenty of room."
"No thank you, I'm fine."
"Aw, come on, we don't bite." Lynne grabbed Zack's backpack, he wished people would stop doing that, and carried it over to where she was before. He had no choice but to follow and drop down next to her. "So that's Jason," a stick-thin Asian boy with glasses and 3 giant pizza rolls on the tray in front of him, "that's Danny," short hair, button-up polo, and a tin of fruit salad, "and that's Sam," dirty blonde hair fell in his eyes as he was poring over some homework. "So how's your first day going?"
Zack tried to stay focused on the Bio book. "Fine."
"Just a word of advice, don't let Katie bug you too much. She'll grow tired of annoying you eventually, it's just the way she is. Trust me, I know. She did the same thing when I moved here two years ago." Lynne laughed and took a bite of her burger. "What she won't stop is calling you 'new kid.' The only person she calls by name is Kevin."
The table talked for a while. Sam only input when it was about video games, Jason only talked about band, and sophomore Danny liked to correct junior Sam's Physics work. Lynne tried including Zack, but Zack tried hard to stay out.
"So what's your fourth block?" She asked him. He looked at his schedule.
"Concert Choir with Tannen." It was his mom's idea. Lynne laughed again.
"That's where I'm going too. But how are you in Concert? It's all girls." Zack didn't know, so he shrugged.
When the bell rang to release them from lunch, Lynne led Zack down to the end of the arts wing hallway, where the choir room was.
Concert Choir was made up of girls from all the grades, plus Mr. Tannen, the 40-something teacher. Getting him to sign the paper took all the time until the bell rang. When it did, the class took their seats on the risers. Mr. Tannen took Zack to the front of the room.
"Everybody, this is our new student, Zack. He just came back from the world tour of 'Toy Story' on ice." Zack gave his new teacher a confused look; what was he talking about? "So now we need to voice place you. Are you a soprano, alto or tenor?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't you try reading this?" Mr. Tannen handed Zack a song to read. "Ms. Sone, can you play his part with him?" The accompanist sat down at the piano and played Zack's first note.
He began to sing.
"Some say love, it is a river,
that drowns, the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor,
that leaves, your soul to bleed."
The whole class was gawking at him. He had an amazing voice. "Zack, can you sing the soprano 1 part at the top of page 5 please?"
"When the night, has been too lonely,
and the road, has been too long,
and you think, that love is only,
for the lucky, and the strong."
The gawking got worse. Zack could hit some notes the actual girl sopranos had trouble with. He blushed and ducked his head. "Well I think you can have a seat in the soprano 1 section." Even Mr. Tannen was shocked. "You can go in the top row, between Lynne and Michelle."
Zack walked quickly to the seat Lynne made vacant. She was ecstatic. Michelle, on the other hand, was not so content.
"You must think you're all that, don't you?" Michelle glowered.
"All what?" He didn't get it.
"Just don't think that by coming in here and singing some high notes that you can become the star, ok?" Zack sat quietly with his head bowed the rest of the block. He was a bit afraid to sing since Michelle wouldn't stop glaring at him when he did.
When the bell rang to signal the end of school, Michelle decided to corner Zack in the hallway. "Hey new kid." Most of the kids had taken off to their lockers. "You better just keep your mouth shut for the rest of the year, or that cute little face ain't gonna be so cute anymore." Zack stared at her, but kept his mouth shut.
"Hey Michelle." There was no mistaking Lynne's voice. "If you don't stop being a jerk you're gonna get a black eye to match that black shirt."
"My shirt is green you dimwit."
"Is it really?" Lynne lifted an oilcan, Zack couldn't even guess why she had it, and she splashed the contents all over the older girl. Michelle screamed, while Lynne grabbed Zack's hand and sprinted off.
They ran down the hall, past the gym, out the cafeteria doors, and into the student parking lot. In the grass surrounding the lot Lynne collapsed. "Well that was fun."
Zack couldn't respond. He couldn't breathe. He had never run that fast or that far in his life.
When they had both caught their breath, Lynne sat up. "Sorry if I made you miss your bus."
"I don't ride the bus. But Joe said if I take too long I'll have to walk home." He turned and began to head off.
"Woah, no. You ain't walking home. You can ride with me and Andy." She ran over to a silver jeep in the back of the lot and banged on the window. When she opened the back door she called to Zack, "well are you coming?"
He ran over and got in the back beside Lynne. "So Lynne," a teenager with flat black hair, an earring, and a guitar-designed t-shirt turned around from the front seat. Zack figured this was Andy. "Where am I going with the tyke?"
"He's not a tyke, and I don't know. Zack where do you live?" They were all yelling over the rock music blaring from the front speakers.
"53652 Turner Ct., Whispering Willow Estates."
Lynne gasped. "Get out!" Zack was confused, but he opened the door. "Woah, where are you going?" She yelled.
"You told me to get out." Andy laughed, very loudly.
"That's not what she meant, tyke. She meant that's where we're headed. Same sub."
"That's not what she said." Zack was back to normal volume, so nobody heard him.
When Andy pulled into the driveway at Zack's house, Zack climbed out, thanked him, and walked up to the front door. Not having a key, he knocked and waited for someone to let him in. He was really hoping that Andy would drive away. Mrs. Addy would not react well to Zack's ride home or its driver.
Luckily, Zack's little sister, Nicole, swung the door open for him. He went up to the room he shared with Joe and got on his bed to start his homework. Joe came in a few minutes later. "Dang, you walk fast dude."
"I didn't walk home. Someone drove me home in their car."
"Who would give you a ride?"
"A girl named Lynne's brother Andy."
"Wait a minute, you mean Lynne and Andy Wethers?" Joe fell back on his bed laughing. "Leave it to you to make friends with the only people weirder than you in the school!"
"You made friends?" Mrs. Addy's head popped up in the doorway. "Oh, that's great honey." She went over to hug her son.
"We aren't friends, her brother just drove me home."
"Oh." Mrs. Addy walked out of the room.
But despite Zack's statement, him and Lynne became just like friends. Over the next two years they hung out quite a bit. He always carpooled with her and Andy, who always called him 'tyke.' She kept Michelle from beating him up, and he kept he from failing Biology. And though he'd never admit it, he liked having someone around who accepted him exactly as he was (and didn't call him a weirdo).
The summer before Zack's junior year, the year he graduated, Lynne moved away. He didn't know where she went or how to contact her, and he didn't see her again.
His parents were way sadder about this than he was. Not that he didn't care, he just didn't see 'any logical point in feeling sad about a person he had only known for two years, and he had no personal attachment to.' That's what he told everyone.
He didn't think much about her after that. At least, not until June 15, 2006. The day Andy Wethers came to visit.
So whatcha guys think, this sound interesting?... btw, the story takes place during season 2, before the whole weird Gormogon thing… just so you know----- 5 reviews= an update… =)
~Chocochino