Disclaimer: I do not own Z-O-M-B-I-E-S, nor the characters and I do not make money from it.
Addison sat at the top of the bleachers in hopes that the coach would not notice that she had snuck into practice to watch her boyfriend play football. The plan could work as long as Zed did not wave to her or make any indications that his girlfriend was there. She sat as still as possible as she watched the boys below scramble around to catch the ball as it flew in the air. Someone caught the ball, she could not tell who but she knew it was not Zed. His green hair made it easy to spot him among all the other players. It was so nice to have someone like Zed, who stood out among all the cookie cutter looking boys with their bronze or charcoal colored locks. Zed also was happy to have a human girlfriend that did not have Barbie blonde hair or sun-kissed skin. She knew he felt that way because he hated when her mom forced her to wear her wig and he always told her that he liked how her white hair reminded him of fluffy clouds and swan feathers. And he sometimes joked that she was just as pale as him. That was true since his skin looked darker after hours of practice which made Addison look paler in contrast, especially since the sun never colored her skin due to her albinism. Honestly, she could care less about the color of their complexion. What matter was that they both embraced each other differences and saw each other as beautiful.
Addison remembered the first time Zed told her she was beautiful by accidentally calling her delicious. The image of his lips widening into a grin by enunciating the word "delicious" made her blush. That made her think of yesterday at lunch when Zed had walked over to the cheerleader's table while she was studying flashcards for the PSAT. He kissed her on her cheek and said, "My beautiful girlfriend is always studying." She remembered blushing so hard that Bucky offhandedly commented that he could almost see her cheeks reddening. Other people disagreed with him saying that Addison was pale as usual but Addison still covered her face as if it was obvious. The feeling of surprised coupled with sprinkles of embarrassment made Addison blush again. Although she was far away from the players on the field, she still bashfully lowered her head as her eyes fluttered shut.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed that all the players had stopped running and stood still. What happened? Did something happen with Zed's Z watch? No one was panicking so that could not be the case. Off in the distance, she noticed that two people were talking to the coach. Due to her poor eyesight, she could not exactly point out who was talking to the coach. Even with her contact lenses in, she still did not have perfect sight since her albinism affected her vision. She squinted her eyes, noticing the blonde hair of a girl and the dark-hair of a boy. As she strained her eyes more, she could see that both of them had on pink cheer uniforms. The girl was obviously Lacey and she was just standing near the guy, letting him do all the talking. There were only a few males on a squad but only one of them would have had the audacity to interrupt the football player's practice. It had to be Bucky. What was so important that he had to interrupt the coach during practice?
Addison watched as the coached waved a dismissal hand at her cousin and then signaled the team to continue playing. Her eyes widened when Bucky and Lacey took a seat on the bleachers. Maybe the coach informed him that he should have asked him a question after practice. That would have made sense until Bucky and Lacey left a few minutes before practice ended. Addison was sure her cousin had a reason for disrupting the team's practice and then leaving without talking to the coach. It probably had something to do with the cheerleaders so Addison was sure that she would hear about it tomorrow during practice.
Unfortunately, Addison only learned the reason for Bucky's and Lacey's visit when she was hanging out with Zed in his hometown a few weeks later. By then, Addison had forgotten all about the incident and had focused all her attention on studying for the PSAT. If it wasn't for Zed, she would have locked herself inside her room with her MacBook Pro and her favorite bag of gummy bears. Neither teens had expected to hang out with each other, especially on a school night. All she did was text her boyfriend, using emojis to express how she felt about her current study session, and then Zed offered to help her feel better by inviting her to explore the "forbidden" side of Zombietown. Addison, who was always intrigued by the zombie lifestyle, could not resist the offer. Before she knew it, she took an Uber to Zed's brownstone apartment and then the two began walking towards the abandoned sector of town.
As the blood orange sun was fading into the grayish blue sky, Zed decided to show her the first house he had ever lived in. While standing on the opposite side of the street, Zed pointed out his childhood home to her. It was a bright yellow rectangular shaped building with three uneven windows and a roof with pieces of wood missing from the center. As the sun shined one of its last rays of the day onto the house, Addison could see that the house had pieces of wood nailed on the sides to reinforce its structure. The house, if it could be considered a house, was near an abandoned factory that had specialized in making products with harmful chemicals. When the factory was opened, the fumes it released had covered the sky with a thick blanket of grayish-black smoke. Addison remembered hearing on the news that the humans that had to oversee the factory were later stricken with lung cancer. Zed mentioned that on most days the air was unbreathable and that his mom had suffered terrible asthma from it. Although it saddened Addison to see the conditions that Zed had suffered under, he happily gazed upon the shack.
"My mom painted the house yellow so my dad and I could recognize which house was ours," he explained. "It used to be so dark all the time and when I was a little kid I would always accidentally go to Bonzo's house, thinking that it was mine. My dad thought I did it on purpose because I was so lonely at home. Zoey wasn't born yet, my dad was always working long hours in the factory and my mom was sick all the time. When I was home I watched reruns of football games since Zombies weren't allowed to have cable at the time. That's why I wanted to play football and that's what taught me everything I know."
Addison couldn't help but smile as she looked at the contrast of Zed's skin against the darkening sky. The streetlight above them had turned on and it made little orbs of light dance across his skin. There was something about Zed that made him look so handsome when he talked about his family and football. It was passion. Addison loved dating someone that really cared and valued simple thing that people took for granted. She was not sure how to convey that in words and she did not need to. Zed told her that the way she looked at him told him everything he needed to know.
"So that's how you and Bonzo became friends?" she asked as she shivered as the temperature began to drop. Automatically, Zed took off her favorite jacket and handed it to Addison. She slipped it on as Zed nodded. "What about Eliza? Did she live here?"
"No," he said as the cool Autumn air slightly ruffled his green hair and made tiny goose bumps appear on his skin. "She always lived in the same house. Back then, it used to be considered one of the wealthier parts of town. I didn't meet her until me, my dad and Zoey moved from this sector. Eliza's dad gave me my first football when as a moving gift. I guess he's the reason why I am Za-star as Bucky put it."
The two laughed as Addison pictured her cousin saying that to Zed. She turned away from Zed, glancing to her right at the small schoolhouse made of brick which was near a white cathedral with black stained spots. She noticed that none of the other streetlights had turned on yet which made her wondered how she and Zed were going to find their way back to his house in the dark. Before she could make any more observations, Zed interrupted her from her thoughts.
"By the way, I totally was not picking my nose," he laughed as he grabbed
Addison's hand to give it a friendly squeeze.
Normally, Zed's laugh alone would distract her from her thoughts. His laugh echoed through the empty sections of town, bouncing off the abandoned school house and signaling the other streetlights to turn on. Usually, the cheerleader would stop in her tracks and enjoy how Zed made even the bleakest areas look full of life. She would have started humming a beat from a song on the Top 40 charts and Zed would have sung along, making up lyrics to receive maximum laughter from his girl. Today, none of that happened. Instead, Addison twirled around to face him, half-expecting that Zed was going to start singing a "Not Picking My Nose" song.
"What?" she asked as her eyes widened under the glow of all the streetlights.
"You know," he said as she swung his and Addison's arm back and forth."On the video."
Addison immediately felt like she had missed something. Zed clearly assumed that she had seen the alleged video while the blonde had no idea what he was referring to. For a split second, insecurity crept into her mind and she felt like an awful girlfriend. He was always there for her and stayed updated on everything that she did. In fact, he did so much for her. He even dressed up like a human every time he came over for dinner at her parents' house since they were not comfortable with their daughter dating a Zombie. She felt guilty for not giving Zed the same amount of attention he gave her. If Zed was in a video, that probably meant that he was being congratulated for something huge. The fact that she didn't realize her boyfriend was honored made her feel terrible.
She could lie and laugh and tell him that she knew what he was talking about. One thing that Addison and Zed both appreciated was honesty and the last thing Addison wanted was for Zed to mistrust her if he caught her lying. She gulped, perhaps looking nervous since Zed began looking concerned.
"What video?" she finally asked as her nerves were starting to get the better of her.
Zed looked relieved for a second before giving her a confused look. "The one that Bucky made," he said, speaking a little slower than usual.
Did Bucky make a video? Addison had known Bucky all her life and he never seemed interested in cinematography. There was that one time that Bucky had bought a Canon EOS Rebel after the two had watched the original Bring It On with Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union. Addison had at first thought that Bucky used the camera to record the cheer routines with Stacey and Lacey but later found out that he was going to enemy school's games and recording their routines. Thankfully, Addison had convinced Bucky to stop filming other teams months before she joined the squad. The point was that Bucky was not into making little movies or short funny clips. Why would he make a video about the football team? Although the white-haired girl had many questions to ask, she decided to ask her boyfriend the first one that had come to her mind.
"My cousin made a video?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah," he agreed quickly. "Wait, he didn't show it to you during cheer practice?"
"No," she replied as she lowered her head at the realization that she and her cousin was not as close as she thought. "He didn't even tell me he made a video."
"That's weird," Zed began. He playfully rubbed his free hand over his arm as a gust of wind blew past them. "Because he asked the coach if he could make a video to help the team make cheers that involved ..." he stopped talking as he released Addison's hand. He spun around and said, "My signature moves." Then he jumped as he said "Go Zombies!"
Addison thought back to the time when Bucky interrupted the football team's practice last week. She would have noticed if he had a camera with him especially since Bucky would have used his Canon EOS Rebel to film. There was a chance she was too far away to see him holding it but Addison did not think that was the case.
"I didn't see him with a camera," she said, mostly to herself.
"Oh," Zed said, stopping for a moment to brush down his hair with his hand. "He used it the last couple of days he watched practiced. He said note-taking wasn't enough. He even asked me to show him all my moves. I am glad we are actually getting -"
Addison stared down as she tried to understand why Bucky would film the football team and not tell her. She could not listen to Zed since this whole situation was bothering her. There were so many thoughts going through her mind. Was she about to get kicked off the team? That's why Bucky decided not to tell her his plan to film the football players because she was going to be let go. Was Bucky waiting to tell the team once he finished getting the information he was looking for? Or did he have an ulterior motive? She looked back up at Zed to finish listening to him since she did not like ignoring him.
"He didn't even film anyone else since I am the Za-star player," Zed continued with a laugh.
All Addison could do was widen her eyes and stare. Why was Bucky only filming Zed? The idea that Bucky was documenting her boyfriend's every move worried her. Was Bucky planning on using the footage to hurt Zed? Even if Bucky did not approve of Zed, was he so willing to hurt Zed that he did not care how it affected her? Bucky was her cousin and was the closest thing she had to a brother growing up. She loved him and she didn't want to say anything that would make Zed no longer trust him. What if Addison's suspicious was wrong? Then, she would not only destroy her relationship with her cousin but the mutual respect that Bucky and Zed had for each other. As much as she loved Bucky, she loved Zed and could not let anything happen to him. She had to figure out what was going on for herself and she could not tell Zed about it. The fact that she was keeping a secret from him made her skin grow paler.
"Addison, are you okay?" Zed asked.
"Yeah," she lied. She leaned over and planted a kiss on Zed's cheek to let him know that she was alright.
The next day, she decided to go to the football practice to see what her cousin was up to. Once again, she sat at the top of the right section in the bleachers, watching the players chase down Zed as he held the football in his hand. She waited patiently until she saw Bucky come in and sit down in the mid-row of the left section of the bleachers. She pulled out her iPhone once she saw Bucky pull out his Canon EOS Rebel out of a black bag. As she used her phone to zoom in on her cousin, she noticed that Bucky was sitting all by himself, which was unusual since Bucky always was with Lacey or Stacey. Something must have been wrong.
The situation seemed odder knowing that Bucky was filming her boyfriend without having one of his friends next to him. It made him seem guilty of hiding something. At the same time, Addison wondered if Stacey or Lacey was supposed to have come and they decided not to. Through the lens of her camera, Bucky did seem quite sad. Maybe he needed a little cheering up and luckily for Bucky, his cousin had a talent for making other people feel better. Ever since she could remember, the best way to make Bucky feel better was to surprise him since the shock would immediately make him forget about his problems. Plus, the guise of cheering him up was a great way for Addison to find out exactly what he was doing.
The white-haired cheerleader walked down the bleachers, taking each step slowly to prevent her tennis shoes from making noise against the steps. She stood behind him, knowing that what she was about to do would get the attention of Zed. She knew he would ask her later about what she was doing. That was something she could not worry about it at the moment. Her main priorities were finding out Bucky's motive for filming her zombie boyfriend and scaring her cousin to help him forget about his problems.
"Boo!" she yelled while laughing, making Bucky nearly dropped his camera in shock.
From the corner of her eye, she could feel the coach's eyes on her. She just hoped that Zed was too busy trying to score a goal that he didn't notice her yelling.
"Addison!" Bucky yelled as he placed his hand on his heart. "What the heck girl?"
While chuckling, she sat next to him as he looked at his camera to make sure that it was not broken. He did not seem happy to see her at all. Then again, Bucky was never the type to make his feelings of pleasure obvious. The only times she remembered when he did seem happy to see her was when he was about to either prank her, trick her or ask for her help. The last time he had even smiled in her direction was last year when Addison's mom and he had conspired to force Addison to get a spray tan. The moment always stood out since that was the first time when she realized that she could not completely trust her cousin. Thinking about that made her realize that she was smart to be suspicious of his reasons for filming Zed. Although she knew in her heart that Bucky was doing something wrong, her mind kept hoping that she was wrong and that Bucky's intentions for filming Zed were pure. The only thing she knew for sure was that she needed to seize this opportunity to find out the truth.
As she looked at her cousin, who was impatiently waiting for her to tell him the reason that she scared him, she simply replied, "You seemed lonely." That was not a complete lie since Addison did not like that he was all alone.
"Well, " mumbled Zed as he stared at his cousin through his peripheral vision. He kept his eyes on his camera as he adjusted the lens. "I'm not. You can go now."
Addison had expected that Bucky would seem annoyed by her. That was her cousin. He was the type of person who did not like when others did something that he would not have done. He was rarely open-minded and would refuse to consider anyone else's point of view if it differed from his.
That is one of the reasons that she disregarded his instructions when it came to cheering for Zombies or other things. She knew her cousin would never listen to her. She was surprised that he began to tolerate Zed. Even after the Zombies helped win the cheerleading tournament, Zed still was not as accepting of zombies as he should have been.
That was similar to the town as well. Zombies were still mistreated at Seabrook High by many students and faculty members despite Zed's best efforts to change that. Besides Zed, most of the Zombies were treated exactly the same. Yes, they had classes with humans but they were forced to sit in the back of the classroom. Yes, they could try out for sports but they never made the team. As Zed's dad had told Addison once, it would take generations for Zombies to have equal rights with humans and that it was unrealistic to think that one Zombie alone could change everything. However, Zed did change a lot. The government ended the legal segregation of humans and Zombies and that Zombies could be entitled to have the same privileges as humans. Yet, they did not make it easier for Zombies to assimilate with humans or to obtains those things. There had been increasing restrictions on things to prevent Zombies from getting high paying jobs, moving into Seabrook and even owning a pet. In order to adopt a dog, Zed's dad would have to buy insurance for the animal and since he could not afford it, Zoey still could not have a pet.
Changes could not happen overnight and Addison knew that from her own experience. Her mom still did not approve of Addison wearing her natural hair and still spoke very harshly about Zombies. It hurt Addison hearing her father, who was a police officer, talk about how officers immediately do routine checks on any Zombies that come to Seabrook. She wished she could help make things better for Zombies. Maybe that's why she did not feel right with her cousin filming Zed. The last thing she wanted was her cousin making a film that encouraged anti-zombiest to expel all Zombies from Seabrook. Humans needed to help make things fairer for Zombies and Addison was going to use her power to stop any human who tried to undo everything that Zed risked his life to put in place. She would even destroy the footage along with her cousin's camera if that meant protecting her boyfriend and their mutual friends.
As Bucky focused on filming, Addison knew that her best approach was to come across as innocent and playful.
"Wait," she started which made her cousin angle his head in her direction. "Are you filming? Can I see?"
She reached for the camera but Bucky completely pulled it away.
"No way honey!" he said as he shook his head. Why don't you go talk to a zombie or something? I'm trying to focus."
"Oh. What are you filming for?"
"I am working on a documentary to use to apply to a performing arts schools."
A documentary on Zombies? This was not good at all. From Addison's understanding, Bucky wanted to show his new school that a Zombie was on the football team. What was the purpose of that and how was that going to help Bucky at all? Then again, since when did Bucky want to leave Seabrook? He loved Seabrook. The more she learned, the more she felt like her cousin and she was not that close after all. Naturally, Addison had to ask him why he refused to share any details of his life with her. They were family after all
"You want to switch schools?" she asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"
He lowered his camera to look at her. His eyes soften and there was a sense of hesitation in his ears. It looked like he wanted to tell her the truth. She had never seen him look so vulnerable before and for a split second, it felt like this was not about the film. Was Bucky about to tell her something extremely personal? Was everything alright at home? She felt concern and her facial expression must have told Bucky she was worried because he immediately rolled his eyes. He cocked his head in his usual way, his eyes resumed emitting conceit and his lips formed back into a snarl.
"Yeah," he said in his usual high pitched tone. "I am not having a freaking zombie fest school on my application to go to college."
Addison's eyes widened and her mouth opened to say something but he immediately resumed talking and this time, with a snarky tone.
"Addy," he snarled. "Seriously, can you like skedaddle?"
Addison did not want to cause an argument with her cousin so she rose to her feet and started walking down the rest of the bleachers. As she left the field, she felt that Bucky was not being completely honest was her and perhaps not being completely honest with himself. She knew that the best way to find out exactly what Bucky was doing was to see his footage. It was unrealistic to assume that he would show his zombie-loving cousin the film. At that moment, Addison knew exactly what she had to do and it involved Eliza's help.
A/N: Thank you for reading my story! Please favorite, follow and review since it encourages me to continue writing. Feel free to follow me discreetkitty on Instagram and DiscreetKitty96 for story updates, nostalgia show posts, and request.