The Pros and Cons of Zachary Goode Knowing I Exist:
Pro: I get to know him better
Con: He is absolutely perfect
Pro: I get to see him a lot more then I used to
Con: I can barely breath when around him
Pro: Zach seems to want to get to know me as much as I want to know him
Con: I'm really not interesting enough for Zachary Goode
"Hey Cammie!" Zach called as Cammie began to walk to her next class. Her eyes lowered to the ground and she shivered.
"Hey Zach!" Cammie said turning around and putting on a small smile. He smirked at her, and it was probably the hottest thing Cammie had ever seen in her entire life.
"So.. How long have you known Jonas?" He asked conversationally, as they began to walk down the hall. Cammie shrugged a bit, looking down at the books in her hands. She was trying to place her thoughts when she noticed that he was looking other places, and she began to wonder if he even cared to hear the answer.
"I was out on a robbery. I got in and out of the bank clean until Jonas caught me. But he promised not to tell anyone, so we became pretty tight," Cammie replied with a half shrug. Zach didn't reply for a second.
"You mean you let yourself get caught? Rookie move," Zach commented seriously. Cammie chuckled, looking over at him with a small smile.
"I met him Freshmen year, we had a class together," she replied, honestly this time, her cheeks tinged red. "I didn't think you were listening before."
"I would never not listen to you," Zach said seriously, before suddenly sprouting a grin again. Cammie looked down, shaking her head a little, feeling undeniably embarrassed.
"So uh-" She cleared her throat. "What's your next class?"
He shrugged, looking down at his schedule.
"Computer class," he replied. "You?"
"Art," Cammie replied. Zach grinned.
"I would give anything to see you draw," he replied. "I bet you are amazing."
Cammie looked down at the text books in her hands.
"You have to stop that compliment thing," she muttered softly. Zach laughed.
"What's wrong Gallagher Girl? Don't like it when your cheeks turn red?" He teased. Cammie looked up at him in surprised.
Gallagher Girl. He had just called her Gallagher Girl. Which was either coincidence or he knew about..
"Gallagher Girl?" She questioned slowly. Zach's cheeks got a little pink.
"Since you go to that mansion during the summer that everyone calls the Gallagher Academy."
Cammie's mouth was gaping a bit.
"How do you know..." Her question was lost in the air, and Zach shrugged.
"Kids talk about you you know," he said. "And I listened. I'm the most popular guy in school, I have to know about people."
Cammie felt herself breathe again and she couldn't even remember when she stopped breathing. That made sense. She nodded in understanding, and looked at the classrooms.
"I've got to go. This is my stop," Cammie said. Zach nodded.
"Yeah. See you later, Cammie," Zach said in farewell. He waved a small goodbye, and disappeared back into the hall.
Cammie smiled a bit to herself, and then sat down in the classroom, quickly joined by someone else. She looked in surprise at the new person, and then rolled her eyes when she saw it was Joshua Abrams.
Her exboyfriend.
"Hi Josh," she said plainly, putting her sketchbook on the table and opening it to a blank page. She picked up her pencil, and absent mindedly started sketching.
Zach she was going to draw Zach.
"Were you talking to Zachary Goode?" Josh asked, hissing Zach's name like it was a secret. Cammie shrugged, and drew the circle that was going to be Zach's face, beginnging to sketch an outline of what she was going to draw.
"Yeah, so?"
"Are you guys.." He trailed off and gosh did he do this a lot.
Josh had been a nice enough boy, but he too easily jumped to conclusions. He was jumpy, and didn't trust Cammie, and saying he never got jealous was an understatement.
"No Josh. Just because a boy talks to me, doesn't mean we are dating," she assured. He swallowed, and nodded, watching Cammie as she continued her sketch. He didn't say anything the rest of the class, but his thoughts were loud, clouding Cammie's and she found it hard to concentrate, so she was glad when the bell rang and he had to leave.
"Bye Cammie," Josh called after her. She smiled softly at him.
"Good bye Josh." She took one step out of the classroom and smashed into a sturdy body. Her eyes widened.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so-" Her words died in her mouth when she saw who was standing there. "Zach?"
"What's your next class?" Zach asked, grinning back at her. Cammie gaped for a moment, and then looked back down at her schedule.
"It's uh. Latin 2 Advanced Placement."
Zach grinned, taking Cammie's hand, causing sparks to run up her arm and through her body.
"Perfect," he said. At first, Cammie just let herself be dragged through the halls. Then she was suddenly snapped back into her senses, and pulled her hands from his, walking next to him.
"You take AP Latin 2?" She asked, bewildered that after so many past Latin classes this was the first, and only one she would have with Zachary Goode. He nodded, looking a tad embarrassed.
"What? Do you not think I'm smart enough for one?" He asked, his tone joking but judging by his sudden flinting eyes he was really asking that.
"No, we've just never had Latin together before," she replied quickly. "Latin isn't like Spanish you know? You have the same people in your class for as long as you take it."
Zach smiled kookily.
"Actually I wouldn't know," he admitted. "I took classes online up until now."
Suddenly Cammie felt very apologetic, but before she could even get a word out they were sitting together in the Latin classroom. He was swamped with a handle of the students in the class almost immediately, and he began to speak to them earnestly.
Cammie watched them talk, but her eyes were really just on Zach.
She didn't know how he seemed so relaxed when under the scrutinization of so many students. All they wanted to hear about was him and what he did over the summer and if he was dating anyone. All of these things were answered easily by Zach who would then cleverly turn the conversation to some other topic. Say the beach or the mountains.
When class began he so easily switched his focus to the teacher and learning that it surprised Cammie. She even noticed during class that he was really good at Latin, and had no trouble answering any of the teachers questions.
He really was amazing.
Cammie had always enjoyed teasing herself with the idea that she had a crush on a perfect guy but it was clear to her that though not perfect Zach had to be the closest there was to perfect.
At the end of class Zach waited for Cammie as she collected her things, him having already packed everything away like some organized pro. He noticed her sneaking glances at him as she packed and he raised an eyebrow towards her.
"What? Amazed by my perfection?"
Cammie's cheeks reddened enough to make her self-conscious of the color, and it took her mind a moment to form a response. Along with that came a delay on actually speaking.
"You're just an interesting person Goode."
The cocky look on his face softened into a more delicate, sincere smile.
"Well, you are interesting as well Morgan. Tell me, how come we've never really spoken before huh? I've always known who you are, but we've never spoken."
Cammie shrugged and brushed a strand of hair from her face as she began to walk with him to their next class.
"I suppose our groups have never mingled before."
Zach nodded thoughtfully.
"People don't talk about you much either you know. You are kind of a chameleon… All I know about you is-" He interrupted himself again and frowned deeply. "Your mom is the head of this school, and you dated Joshua Abrams freshmen year."
Cammie wrinkled her nose.
"Let's forget about that Josh thing thanks… Do people actually know that about me?" She asked, a little annoyed over the fact. She didn't like people knowing her personal life but she recognized that it was something teenagers enjoyed learning about.
"Josh sort of showed you too off while you were dating," Zach pointed out. Cammie thought back on her time with Josh. The hand holding, the excessive PDA, the introducing Cammie as his girlfriend…
"Fair point. We broke up for good reason," she commented. They stopped off by their lockers, which happened to be close by one another's.
"Why did you break up? You both seemed happy," Zach stated. There was a mini bite in his tone of voice but Cammie paid no attention to it. By the minute she was getting more and more comfortable with him, and that was a double win in Cammie's book.
"Differing personalities. I like to keep to myself and Josh likes to be in the spotlight. He went out of his way to get us more attention and in the end he simply pushed me out of my comfort zone too hard."
Cammie quickly realized that this entire time she had been talking about herself. As she had been talking Zach she really didn't like talking about herself. She closed her locker, things all stuffed away and turned to look at Zach who was leaning against his own locker watching her.
"But enough about me. That is all behind me. I've heard just about everything there is to know about you. You are incredibly popular you know."
"Yeah but I'm like you," Zach admitted. "I don't like people to know the real personal stuff. Going to the beach and such is all superficial. It doesn't really mean anything. My favorite color, my favorite food, what I really enjoy doing in my free time. Only my real friends know that."
"Green, m&m's even though they aren't actually food, and videogames. Though you don't mind going about and playing sports every now and then," Cammie rattled off. Zach stared at her wordlessly. "I've been observing you for a while now. I don't stalk you, I just notice I guess."
"Your favorite color is green as well," Zach responded. "Your favorite food is hot dogs and you enjoying watching baseball games."
Cammie smiled at Zach and he smiled back.
"My dad used to take me to baseball games when I was a kid. That and the circus," Cammie stated warmly. Zach grabbed Cammie's hand.
"We should go their sometime! A circus or a baseball game. I love circuses and baseball games!"
Cammie sucked in a sharp breath and stared at Zach's hand. Zach flushed and pulled his hand away, rubbing the back of his neck.
"You know, if you want to."
"Maybe," Cammie replied. "I should get home. Lots of homework."
Zach nodded.
"Yes of course! See you tomorrow Gallagher Girl."
Cammie didn't know what to think about Zach, and the one simple fact made it incredibly difficult for her to focus on her Latin homework.
Author's Note:
I apologize a million times for the delay! Believe it or not my computer broke and for a few weeks I was like "man oh well, so much for my summer writing schedule" and then I got a comment on... Well actually I think it is this story and I got this surge of "oh my god I have to write I can't let the people who actually read my crappy stories down" and so I went out as soon as I could, bought a two hundred dollar laptop and am now three weeks behind on my summer writing schedule (: I hope I can catch up, and I hope everyone enjoys this story!