Chapter 1
It was another beautiful day at PCA, Logan was sitting on the roof of the Guys dorm dividing his time between getting a tan and wearing out his mirror. Zoey Lola Nicole, were in the girls lounge. Chase was on the Job at Sushi Rocks and Michael was in the dorm room doing his homework.
Chase had just made a delivery at the dorm and was on his way out when a boy about his own age came in Carrying a couple of suitcases and a duffle bag slung across his shoulder. About the time Chase reached him the duffle bag slid off his shoulder and he dropped one of the suitcases to catch it.
"Checking in," said Chase with a chuckle, As he stopped to see if he could help.
"Yeah," said the boy.
"Name's Chase Matthews," said Chase, "Let me help you."
"Thanks," said the boy, "My name's Connor Matheson, in case you couldn't guess I'm the new kid."
"I sort of already guessed that," said Chase, "What room are you in?"
"432," answered Connor, "apparently since I'm coming in the middle of the semester I get the room to myself." Chase shook his head.
"If you've got room 432, that's not the reason. You've got that room to yourself because no one else wants that room if they can help it. you see that room is right next to Dutch Keller's room 434 and he and his buddies Bobby Tyler and Jake Walters party and run their boom boxes all hours of the day and nobody in that room can get any sleep."
"Hasn't anybody ever tried to talk to him about it?" asked Connor
"The last student that tried that got beat up."
"What about the Dean?"
"The Dean didn't see it happen and the guy that got beat up was too afraid to talk."
"Oh I see." Said Connor, "Thanks for the warning."
"No problem," said Chase, "I've got to get back on the job I'll see you later."
A few minutes and an elevator ride later Connor walked into his room. After pushing the door shut with his foot. He put everything he was carrying down.
"Now to get this stuff put away," he said to himself. Then he snapped his fingers, immediately there was a flash of light and his suitcases and duffle were both in the closed and all the clothes he brought with were hung up and put away in the closet and the dresser.
"Well that's that," said Connor, "now to explore a bit."
Connor stepped outside, turned and walked down the hallway. When he reached the elevator he stepped on and hit the button for the first floor. When he reached the first floor he stepped off and walked outside. The first person he saw was a girl with long straight dark hair that was dyed turquoise to match the knitted cap she was wearing. Suddenly a guy who was walking by grabbed the cap off her head. she turned to grab it back but he had already thrown it to a buddy and they began to play a game of keep away.
Connor scowled if there was one thing he hated it was a bullies. He looked around and saw something that made him smirk. Over leaning against hedge was a yard rake. After glancing around to make sure that no one was paying attention he turned back to the Rake, His eyes flashed, and the rake appeared on the ground in the path of one of the guys as he as running to catch a toss. About the time he turned to catch the hat he stepped on the rake and the handle flew up and hit him in the face. He fell to the ground holding his nose and the Hat kept going right into Connor's hands.
Connor walked up to the girl while the guys buddies were checking to make sure that he was okay.
"I believe this belongs to you." He said handing her the cap.
"Thank you," said the girl, "you're new here aren't you?"
"Yeah," said Connor, "I just arrived. By the way my name's Connor Matheson."
"Lola Martinez," said the girl, holding out her hand.
"Pleased to meet you," said Connor, as he shook her outstretched hand, "Why don't we get out of here before these guys get themselves together again."
Lola nodded and they hurried off toward the quad. As they were walking Connor looked around. There were banners and streamers with the Stingrays logo on them almost everywhere you looked.
"Is this spirit week or something?" said Connor, "What's with all the decorations?"
"Oh that," said Lola, "The PCA Stingrays are playing the Bayview Sharks tonight at 7 o'clock in the Gym. They've added extra displays and decorations up to keep peoples Morale up. This is the second game of four that we're supposed to play with them and they wiped the floor with us the last time, and that's a real disappointment considering up until we've been undefeated!"
"Hmm," said Connor, "Maybe I'll go to the game tonight. I'm a Stingray now so I might as well start rooting for the home team." Right about then, they reached the far end of the quad.
"I'll see you around Lola I don't have anything until tomorrow so I think I'll do a little exploring."
"Okay," said Lola, "I've got a drama club meeting to get to anyway." Lola hurried off up the hill to the science building.
Connor spent the next hour or so wandering around campus. Connor was a bit of a people watcher so he sat down on a bench and watched his fellow students go by for a while. After a few minutes he noticed something interesting. The guy he had met in the dormitory Chase was coming around the corner of a building apparent making a delivery from the sushi bar. Suddenly something stopped him in his tracks. When Connor turned to see what Chase was looking at across the lawn from where he was standing there was a pretty brown eyed blonde who was obviously flirting with a tall sandy haired boy.
"Ah," said Connor to himself, "Chase likes this girl and she likes someone else."
Just then another boy came around the corner and he was not happy to see the guy that this girl was with. He stormed up to them. Connor's curiosity got the better of him and after making sure no one was looking he suddenly vanished from the bench and re-materialized on a branch in the tree they were half way under.
From this position he was sure that he could hear what was being said. Turns out transporting himself up there was a waste of time because and loud as this guy was yelling he could have heard him from the bench anyway.
"What the Chizz is he doing here, Zoey?!" snapped the boy
"Not that it's any of your business, Logan," retorted Zoey, "But Bryce is here to see me."
"He's the Captain of the Sharks! He's the enemy!" snapped Logan
"Only on basketball Court, Logan, now get lost," snapped Zoey. She grabbed Bryce by the hand and pulled him off down the path with her.
"I don't believe this," said Logan fuming to himself
"Can't believe what," said another boy walking up to Logan
"Zoey, Michael, I can't believe Zoey," snapped Logan, "Where in the middle of a game series with our biggest rival, and Zoey running around with Captain of the other team."
"I know but what can we do," said Michael, "Zoey's old enough to make her own decisions."
Logan grunted and stalked away still in a huff.
"Well," said Connor to himself, "I know one thing, PCA won't be boring."
An hour later Zoey, Nicole and Quinn walked into Zoey's room to find Lola Lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. Nicole immediately noticed the glassy eyed expression on her face.
"I know that look," said Nicole excitedly, "She met a guy,"
"Okay," said Zoey, "Who is he, Spill."
"His name is Connor Matheson," said Lola, "He just arrived today. He's got dark brown hair and dark blue eyes."
"and," said Nicole urgently
"And, that's all I know," said Lola suddenly frowning and sitting up, "We walked from the front of Maxwell hall all the way to the quad together and he didn't say anything about himself other than his name. I don't even know what room he's in!"
Lola flopped back on her bed with an exasperated growl.
"Wait," she said, "he was thinking about going to the game tonight I'll find him there I bet."
Happy again, Lola jumped up and began to rummage in her closet.
"I haven't got a thing to wear." She said
Zoey rolled her eyes as she watched. Only Lola would be that worried about what to wear to a Basketball game.
The Game was half over and to put it mildly it was a Slaughter! Bryce and the Sharks were picking the Stingrays apart. The Score was 75 to 20.
Connor sat in his seat in the bleachers really feeling sorry for the Stingrays. He had arrived in time to see them warming up and that they were all really good players. Now they were out there being so badly beaten.
As the game went on and the point spread got more and more painful to see. Connor began to notice that the Sharks scoring really increased when ever Bryce or one of his two buddies were in the game.
He spotted the two boys he had eavesdropped on earlier. Logan and Michael were their names. Every time the Sharks stole the ball or intercepted a pass they seemed to look more and more discouraged. Finally a merciful whistle called an end to the first half.
While most of the people made runs to the restroom or to the snack bar, Connor didn't move. He was lost in thought.
"There's something weird going on here. Those Sharks intercepted no less than eight passes in the first quarter alone. Now there's lucky and then there's too lucky. How could a person cheat in a Basketball game?"
Connor sat there turning these thoughts over and over in his head. he was so lost in thought that didn't notice that Lola had spotted him from the stairs as she and her friends were on their way to get something to drink.
"There he is," she said excitedly
"He is Cute!" said Nicole her face changing into a glassy smile.
"I saw him first!" Snapped Lola causing Nicole to let out a scared screech loud enough to jar Connor out of his thoughts.
Connor jumped and looked around. Then he spotted Lola. She waved and came over to him.
"Hi," she said, "how are you?"
"Fine," said Connor, "nice to see you again."
Zoey and Nicole cleared their throats loudly.
"Oh sorry," said Lola, "These are my friends Zoey and Nicole."
"Hello," said Connor nodding to the girls and flashing a million dollar smile, "Nice to meet you!"
"Ooh," said Nicole in Zoey's ear, "Nice voice."
"Nice to meet you too." Said Zoey, "I heard you're new at PCA."
"Yeah, I just arrived," said Connor, "but I sure hate to see my new team getting their butts handed to them like this."
"Why don't you tell us about yourself." Said Zoey, she began to twirl a lock of her blonde hair in her fingers.
Lola saw this and immediately started pushing her friends up the steps.
"You guys better hurry if you want to get those Snacks the next half is about ready to start!" she said through a clenched teeth smile.
Zoey and Nicole took the hint and hurried on up the stairs. Lola turned around again to talk to Connor only to discover that the people who were sitting in the chairs next to Connor had come back.
Disappointed she went back to her seat and flopped down.
The second half of the game started and unfortunately went pretty much like the first. The Stingrays ended up losing 120 to 25. There were a whole lot of dejected Stingray fans making their way out the stairs and out of the gym. Connor was standing there waiting for a chance to get out when he happen to glance down onto the floor. There he saw something interesting. Zoey was walking over to talk to Bryce he noticed her coming and quickly stuffed something down further in his duffle bag like he was trying to make sure that she didn't see it. shoving the bag under his seat he turned and smiled at Zoey
Connor's eyes flashed with that white light again and suddenly everything and everyone except for Connor was frozen. Time itself had stopped. Connor teleported down to where Bryce was standing frozen in time. Pulling the duffle out from under the chair he unzipped it.
"What were you trying to hide, Bryce," he said as he rummaged in the bag. Suddenly he found what he was looking for. It was a leather Binder with a Stingray mascot symbol on it. opening it up he saw pages and pages of basketball plays!
"What is the Captain of the Sharks doing with the Stingrays play book?!" he said
Grabbing a towel and wiping his prints off the Play book he stuffed back down into the Duffle bag and teleported back to his spot. His eyes flashed again and time resumed.
When he finally got outside he turned and raced for Maxwell hall at a dead sprint.
When he got there he found out where Logan's room was. He raced up the stairs and was soon knocking on the door. Chase answered the door.
"Hey Connor," said Chase, "What's up?"
"I need to talk to you guys," Said Connor spotting the other two boys in the room behind Chase.
"Okay," Said Chase, "Come on in."
Connor stepped inside and sat down.
"Listen," Connor Said, "This losing streak isn't a fluke or a slump. The Sharks walked all over you out there because Bryce has a copy of the Stingrays playbook!"
"What?!" said all three boys in unison
"How do you know that?" said Chase
"I saw him hiding something in his gym bag after the game tonight," said Connor, "I uh managed to get a closer look and it was a copy of the Stingray playbook!"
"But how did he get it?" said Michael Jumping up and pacing the back and forth. "Only the coach and the players have access to the play book!"
"Who makes the copies of the playbook to pass out to the team members?" asked Connor.
Chase suddenly sat up straight and his face turned pale. He half whispered one word.
"Zoey!"
TO BE COUNTINUED….
AN: well there it is folks the first chapter of my first ZOEY 101 chapter story. If you like it hit the old review button and drop me a line. I thrive on feedback.
In the next Chapter…What is the truth about Zoey, Bryce and the Playbook…. And the Secret of Connor's powers is explained.