"Sloppy!" Bucky shouted as he blew the whistle, watching as the squad went through their routine for the seventh time in a row.

"That broken T was atrocious, Anthony! And Zita, clean up that low V before moving into the back handspring." He lowered his megaphone, demonstrating the proper position to her as she and the rest of the squad panted from the exertion of the repeated drills. Zita nodded back determinedly, as she mimicked the gesture while remaining in her position. Jacey appeared at Bucky's side, silently handing Bucky his sports drink and patting at his forehead with a clean towel.

"Hold up," Addison announced in a much less angry tone, still refusing to use the personalized megaphone that he had ordered for her. She said the megaphone was too aggressive, though Bucky disagreed. It had robin's egg blue lettering, for crying out loud. One of the least aggressive colors around.

He rolled his eyes as she spoke to the group in a firm but friendly voice.

"Let's take five minutes, everyone." she continued. "You're doing great! Stretch out and drink some water. Then we'll take it from the top."

There was a collective groan of relief from the group as they all relaxed from their stance, wiping sweat from foreheads or shaking out sore limbs. The squad scattered, walking towards the bleachers to sit, or grabbing their water bottles to thirstily gulp from them.

Bucky watched as Addison smiled broadly before turning to walk towards him. Despite the grueling practice, she seemed to have an extra bounce in each step today. Actually, now that he thought about it, she had been smiling pretty much constantly the entire practice. It didn't make sense to him for her to be so cheerful, especially when he considered the fact that they were currently in a secret battle with an evil alien. And, more importantly, the fact that they needed to be perfect for by Friday for their performance at the Shore Day Festival.

Besides, people weren't just happy for no reason. In his experience, people were only happy when they accomplished something. Like winning a cheer competition, or perfectly nailing a stag split handstand before transitioning into a double full basket toss, for example. Happiness wasn't just something you got for no reason. It had to be achieved through blood, sweat, and excessive hard work. So why was his cousin walking around looking like a walking advertisement for their dentist's office?

Addison reached his side, offering him a light pat on the shoulder as she looked out at the squad.

"Why the long face, Buckster?" She said, grinning over to him as he took a long swig from his sports drink bottle. "Everyone is doing a great job. The performance this Friday is going to be excellent."

Bucky lowered his drink, leveling her with his most malicious glare.

"Baby Cuz, I told you already; my name is not 'Buckster.'"

Addison narrowed her eyes, but still seemed unable to completely lose the smirk on her face.

"Oh, really? Well keep using that megaphone, and I'll just call you by your real name instead, Buckeye."

She stuck out her tongue as he felt is cheeks heat up and his eyes widen.

It was not widely known, or known at all, that his full name was Buckeye Bueller Buchanan the Fourth. Actually, he came from a long, noble line of them. Buckeye Buchanan the Third, their grandfather, was a hero of Seabrook during the dark times. He was instrumental in fighting off the zombie hordes to build the barrier, and he even got his ear bitten off in battle. And his grandfather, Buckeye Buchanan the First, was amongst the first settlers to arrive in Seabrook. He had bravely fought off the evil monsters of the forest, in order to harness their precious energy source. At least, those were the stories they had been told as kids. Knowing what he knew now, that was probably not quite how everything had gone down.

But in any case, Bucky was proud of his lineage. Just... Not so proud of the stupid name. Why, oh why, did he have to be the only boy born in this generation of Buchanans? He had managed to make it almost his entire high school career without anyone finding out, and he wasn't about to change that.

Being the intimidating yet amazing person that he was, no one had ever had the guts to ask him what "Bucky" was short for. One of many reasons he had to keep up his reputation as the best.

"You wouldn't." He hissed, feeling his eyes narrowing further as he lowered his voice to a whisper.

She giggled, patting him again on the arm. "Okay, I wouldn't. But still, Bucky, lay off with the yelling. I'm the cheer captain, and my coaching style is different than yours. I know you believe in me, or you wouldn't have given me the position. Just trust me, please?"

He sighed. "I do trust you, Addison. But there's no shame in using that megaphone. I got it for you as a gift, you know." Bucky feigned hurt, giving her his best sad facial expression.

"You know, the nice thing about being part Lunite is that I can tell when people are faking emotions." She replied, still grinning.

Bucky shot her an exasperated look.

"Okay, fine, so I'm not offended." He took a step closer to her, still glancing suspiciously at her. "What's your deal today, anyway? You're all..." He waved a hand vaguely in the air. "Confident and happy and stuff. Like, even more than usual. There's something you aren't telling me."

Her expression didn't change, but he saw a faint, nervous blush flood her cheeks. Ah-ha!

"I don't know what you're talking about, Bucky. But if it makes you happy, I'll try using the megaphone this go-around, deal?"

He pointed a finger at her. "I'm gonna figure this out, Baby Cuz. You've got a secret. Don't think you can distract me by using your awesome, fantastic megaphone."

Addison shrugged, not meeting his eyes as she checked the time on her phone. "The five minutes is up; let's get back to it!"

She shot him another grin as she bounded back to her position in the squad, hastily grabbing up the blue megaphone as she went. His eyes followed her suspiciously, watching as she called the rest of their cheerleaders to return to their places. As he saw her raise the megaphone, he noticed a sparkling glint shine across her hand as she moved.

Wait.

Was that... A ring?

Bucky instantly grabbed up his own megaphone, quickly shouting over Addison's patient words of instruction to the squad.

"Five minute break! Again!" Bucky yelled, loud enough that an unpleasant feedback sound screeched out from the device. He lowered it, pointing to Addy as the other cheerleaders looked confused and unsure as to what to do.

"Addy," Bucky barked. "Captain's meeting in the gym office. Now."

She looked at him, slightly surprised, then glanced at the school clock.

"Okay, everyone. Co-Captain Bucky and I have some business to take care of. Let's call it an early day today, alright? Go home and rest, everyone! You did amazingly today!"

The squad all let out whoops of relief at getting out early. Bucky watched as they all began to march towards the locker room, grabbing their bottles and personal belongings as they went. Addison approached him, and he was now sure that she definitely looked nervous.

"What's wrong, Bucky?"

"I don't know, Baby Cuz," Bucky said, raising his eyebrows high as he pointedly held up his left hand, wiggling the ring finger for emphasis. "Why don't you tell me?"

She was fully blushing now, her face an odd combination of joy and embarrassment. She grabbed his hand, pulling him across the expansive gym towards the small office off the corner of the space. She practically threw him into the dimly lit room, closing the door behind her.

"You got engaged and you didn't even tell me? What the heck, Addison?" Bucky shouted, not sure why he was reacting to the ring so strongly. He liked Zed. Not that he'd ever tell the guy, but still. They were great together, even if her boyfriend was a zombie. No, it wasn't the engagement that hurt his feelings. It was the fact that she hadn't told him. He felt pain blossoming in his chest.

Bucky thought that they were close. Like brother and sister.

"We are close, Bucky," She said, clearly reading and interpreting his emotions correctly. "I just didn't want to tell anyone until after we find the moonstone tonight. I don't want to take attention away from the task at hand. Nobody knows, yet, besides mom and dad. I haven't even told Bree!"

She stared at him, wide eyed and as though she were focusing heavily on something.

"I just..." He sighed, feeling a sudden happy, contented feeling flowing over him. "I just... Ah, I'm sorry, I freaked out. You know I love Zed, and you guys are amazing together. It just really, really hurt my feelings that you didn't tell me right away."

What was he doing? Did he just admit to not hating Zed?

"Heyyyy," he said, trying to feel mad, but somehow only feeling a mild pleasantness. He let out a short giggle."Are you, ah, doing that emotion manipulating thing on me, Baby Cuz? Because that's not fair." He laughed as he grinned over to her ,quickly relaxing and sitting back into the coach's chair behind him.

Addison looked guilty as her mouth dropped open.

"I was just trying to keep you from blowing up at me," she admitted. "I just... You're right. That wasn't fair. I'm so sorry, Bucky."

Bucky giggled. "Well, do ya think you could stop, because I am feeling way too happy and nice right now." He sighed, leaning further back into the leather chair. This was a nice chair. He was glad that Coach had a good office, the guy sure deserved it.

She looked a little alarmed as he continued to talk.

"You know, Addison, I don't tell you this enough, or ever for that matter, but I love you. You're the best cousin a guy could ask for, and one of the most talented cheerleaders I've ever seen. I'm so proud of you."

She smiled, still looking nervous, but reached out to hold his hand.

"Aww," Addison, said gently patting his hand as she looked at him with a stare of deep concentration. "Um, hey, Bucky, can you do me a favor?"

He smiled broadly. "Of course, Addy! You're like my sister; I'd do anything for you. You'll make a beautiful bride, by the way." He giggled again. Man, he felt great.

Addison quickly grabbed her backpack, pulling out the pink and green binder that held all of their cheer routine positions and instructions. She held it out to him, smiling back nervously.

"Bucky, do you think you could, um, read through the routines for me? I want your opinion on them, and I have to run and see someone really quickly. I'll be back in ten minutes."

"I would love to!" He replied enthusiastically, happily taking the binder from her. "But I won't find anything wrong. I'd never admit it, but you're an incredible captain and coach. Oh, I guess I just did admit it. Haha!" He shook his head at his own silliness, then quickly opened the binder to read.

"You go on and go see whoever. I'll stay right here and read it over for you." He smiled up at her, patting her hand back.

Addison laughed nervously, grabbing up her backpack and opening the door.

"You're the best, Bucky!" She said, shooting him another guilty look.

"Nah, Baby Cuz, YOU are the best." He shot her a wink, then placed his feet up onto the desk in front of him, getting comfortable as he heard her quietly shut the door.

What a great day this was turning out to be.

ZzZzZzZ

Crap, crap, crap!

Addison stood on the other side of the closed door, bracing her arms against it as though Bucky might try to escape. But as she looked through the small window, she could see that he was wholly concentrating on the task she had given him, reading her binder with his feet on Coach's desk.

What had she done?

When he'd started yelling at her, she had panicked. She had suddenly remembered that she should be able to manipulate emotions, and had spontaneously decided to give it a shot. Then, maybe she'd actually have a chance to explain herself. He had gotten so freaked out so fast, and she'd just wanted to diffuse the situation. It wasn't until she had already put the whammy on him that she realized she had no idea how to undo it.

Oh my gosh, she thought, horrified. I broke Bucky!

She heard him laugh again from inside the office, for no apparent reason.

Well, at least he was happy. And until she figured out how to fix it, that was the only thing he was going to be. She couldn't let him be stuck like this!

Even if it was a pleasant change from his normal demeanor, she knew he'd be furious if he could be. After glancing in the window once again, she took off, running out of the gym and towards the barrier entry. Her sister would be there; she'd be able to help fix him!

Addison zoomed down the hall, not even realizing how fast she was going until she saw the shocked faces of her fellow students as she flew past. She was going fast. Too fast for a human. She purposefully slowed to a normal jog, hoping she hadn't drawn too much attention to herself.

Right, she thought. Lunite speed. She vaguely wondered if she was stronger now, too.

But now wasn't the time to dwell on it. She needed to get her friends to help fix her ridiculous mistake.

Rounding the corner, she rushed down the stairs and out the front entrance. To her left, she could see that the zombies and Lunites were already standing at the old barrier wall, which was now almost purely decorative. Flowerpots and beautiful street art now adorned the disjointed sections of concrete.

Zed smiled at her, but his smile immediately fell as she approached, once he saw the expression on her face. Addison instantly felt his trepidation sliding up her back, which only increased her worry.

"What's wrong?" He asked, pulling her into a loose hug.

"Oh, Zed, I did something terrible!" Addison yelped, guilt and concern bubbling up inside her.

Bree, Bonzo and Eliza were all staring at her, as were the three Lunites. She turned to Mayar, mentally recounting her actions to them. She was too ashamed to say it out loud just yet.

To her shock, Qamar stifled a snort of laughter. Mayar was also attempting to smother a grin, as she looked back to her sister with understanding and amusement in her eyes.

"Oh." Mayar said, unable to completely stop the chuckle that escaped as she placed a hand over her mouth. "Oh, my."