Disclaimer: School of Rock and its characters do not belong to me.
Author's notes: Thank you all reviewers. This chapter is a bit of a zoom forward in time, simply because I struggled too much trying to write situations with the police and social workers. Anything important that happened during the time I'm skipping is explained though. A note I forgot in the grade/age explanation, the middle school grades for the purpose of this story are sixth and seventh. Simply because it works better than going to eighth grade. This means that eighth grade and up is high school. This chapter also contains the winner of the poll. It was a landslide. Who is with Freddy? Read to find out. The song I'm mentioning in this chapter isn't exactly the band, but it's an artist that they must have an inkling for respect for, and the lyrics, though I'm not typing them, fit Zack and Summer pretty well. The chorus does anyway.
Ch5
"Summer, if we're going to do this, you have to sit still." Katie groaned.
It had been three days since Summer and Zack had told of their problems, and it was now the night of the seventh grade semi-formal. Summer was living alone with her dad now, and Freddy had convinced his parents to get the social workers to let Zack stay with them. They were working on becoming his legal guardians. It was funny how things worked out. "What if I don't want to do this?" Summer crossed her arms.
"We're not letting you go to the last dance at the middle school with a black eye." Marta rolled her eyes. "We are going to make you look fabulous ."
Summer feigned surprise as Alicia grabbed a brush. "Now, close your eyes and rest until we are done making you one of the sexiest girls to show up at the dance." Reluctantly, Summer closed her eyes, and the girls of the band began to work. "Katie, you do make-up. Marta, clothes. Tomeka, accessorize her. I'll do hair."
It was 45 minutes later when Summer was sent into a room with all the mirrors removed to change while the others got ready. Marta began applying lip gloss. "She's going to look awesome."
Tomeka nodded. "Zack will be falling at her feet."
"He's already falling." Alicia smirked. "This'll just make him fall harder. Hopefully our other surprise will get em loosened up."
"Nothing loosens Zack up like a show." Katie assured. "And... well...nothing loosens Summer up. Unless she's really comfortable."
"We'll just have to make sure she is then." Marta grinned. "How do you think Freddy's doing prepping Zack?"
"Knowing Freddy? Badly." Katie began pulling her hair into the twist she had wore to every Battle of the Bands. "He probably didn't even give him the clothes we went out and found for him."
"If he didn't I'll go medieval on his ass." Alicia remarked. "Those clothes were perfect for Zack."
"If you have to go medieval, could you wait until I've gotten a slow dance and a kiss? I happen to enjoy boys who don't walk funny." Katie laughed. "We already know they like each other. All we have to do is make sure they're stuck together. They don't have to look perfect."
"But we want them to look perfect." Tomeka pointed out. "They need to blow each others minds."
"There's no doubt that won't happen. These outfits are hot. And we only left enough hair gel for exactly what Freddy loves doing to his hair and to make Zack's perfect. His mom helped clear it all out." Marta began combing pink into her blond locks. "This night will be perfect. They're going to look great, feel great, and since Summer taught him in sixth grade, they can both dance. What could go wrong?"
Famous last words.
§ § §
Zack pulled his ringing cell-phone from his pants pocket almost before it rang. "Hello?" Freddy gave him a look that said, 'how did you do that?' before turning back to the mirror.
"Is there anyone in the room with you?"
Zack smiled at Summer's voice. "Yeah, Dewey."
"The girls are planning on set us up."
"Really? That's great."
"They've done my hair, make-up, and jewelry, and given me clothes to wear. From what I've heard, the stuff Freddy gave you, they bought too. I have an idea though. Just to freak them out."
"I'm listening."
"Once we see each other, we're gonna stare for a minute, and then you're gonna kiss me. Passionately. Like that one time when we went to see that special airing of The Princess Bride at the park and it started raining at the very end."
Zack instantly remembered that kiss. "That'll definitely blow the audience away, Dewey."
"That's the point. After that we play clueless to their questioning for a while. If we want we could come clean. Or we could let them think it was their magic that brought us together."
"I gotcha. I think our first option is better overall. We might want to try out the second for a while though."
"Yeah. That'll really get em going. I'll see you in a about an hour. Great solo today."
"You had a great solo too Dewey." Zack hung up a grin on his face.
"Why the hell did Dewey just call you?" Freddy turned around. "And why do you have that goofy look on your face? You look like you just saw Keira Knightley naked or something."
"He just wanted to tell me that we're going to sing the new song for Battle of the Bands, and to ask my opinion on if we should have Summer sing it or get one of the girls to do it."
"Shouldn't he be asking Summer that question?" Zack shrugged. "That still does not explain your gaga face."
"Maybe you better check the dosage on your meds man. Your hallucinating. Why would I have a gaga face after talking to Dewey?"
"Maybe you're taking after Billy."
"Go back to your primping Freddy."
"I'm not primping. I am giving my hair mad style." Freddy grabbed a can of hairspray.
"And ruining the ozone layer at the same time. If I'm recalling this correctly, you're the man, Spazzy."
"Shut up, Zack Attack."
Zack sat down on Freddy's desk. "Whatever man."
§ § §
"Summer, you look fabulous." Marta grinned. "Once we go through those doors guys are going to be falling at your feet."
Summer had her hair in a messy bun, two sticks stuck through it. One pink, one black. Each had a skull on the top. Her earrings were two black dangling guitars. She had her black eye completely covered. Her only eye makeup was charcoal gray eyeliner. Her only other make up, was a plain vanilla gloss. Katie had decided that her lips were colorful enough. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a pink guitar hanging from it. She wore a black tank top and a short sleeved pink fishnet top. Her skirt was a black miniskirt with zippers on the pockets and two sections of pink polka dots. She also wore black knee high nylons with black wedge sandals.
"We're not going in until Zack and Freddy get here." Katie reminded. "But you do look awesome."
"There they are now." Tomeka pointed at a black Volvo. Zack and Freddy soon stepped out.
Summer had to admit, if she hadn't made the plan with Zack, she'd be fantasizing about kissing him seeing him now. He wore a black short sleeved shirt with vertical white pinstripes and fitted black pants. His hair had a tiny bit of gel in it, giving it small spikes. "Hey Zack, Freddy."
It was clear Zack was blown away. "Hey." Their plan quickly went into action. They were staring for about half a minute before he pulled her into a passionate kiss that she put no move to stop.
"Uh, is it me, or did that happen really quick?" Freddy asked standing next to Katie.
The entire group watched in fascination. "No, it happened pretty quick." Katie nodded. "I've never seen either of them act like this before. I don't think I've seen anyone act like that before. Even in movies."
Alicia shook her head. "Shouldn't they be coming up for air soon? I mean. Damn. Even my sister can't last this long."
It was a few more minutes before Zack and Summer broke apart. "Let's get in there." Zack smiled at Summer, slipping his arm around her shoulder and beginning to walk inside.
"Aren't you guys going to explain?" Marta asked, causing the two to stop and turn around.
"Explain what?" Summer replied, smiling.
Alicia looked pointedly at them. "Why you two just pounced on each other. You're acting like you've been dating since you were six."
Zack laughed shortly. "No. I'd say we started just about now. Are we going to go in there or not?"
The rest of the group looked at each other. Katie sighed. "Might as well."
Zack and Summer walked behind the rest of the group, exchanging a quick high five before going back into lovey-dovey mode. Inside, the two attracted much attention, sneaking kisses and staring at each other as they walked to the gym. At the gymnasium entrance, stood Dewey, to the surprise of Zack and Summer, jaw dropped in shock. "When did this happen?"
Freddy shook his head. "About three minutes ago. Sickening isn't it?"
Katie slapped his arm lightly. "It's romantic."
"And they're like that?" Dewey did a quick eyebrow wave. "Never mind, We've got a show to put on. Your instruments are on the stage. School of Rock is the song."
The group began walking but then Zack stopped. "Wait. What?"
"Oh yeah. Forgot to tell you two. We're opening up and then I'm DJ for the rest of this shindig." Dewey explained. "Now, pry yourself off of Summer and get to your guitar. Summer, introduce us, then join the backup singers. Let's rock guys."
§ § §
Summer and Zack walked, arms around each other towards the exit of the gym, listening to Katie and Freddy trying not to laugh.
"Do you think it's safe for us to be leaving them alone?" Freddy was asking. "They are all over each other."
In the hallway, Summer burst out laughing. "This is so much fun! Did you see the look on their faces? Talk about priceless!"
"I know. They're going to freak when we tell them the truth." They talked for a while about their plot before Zack asked the question. "How are things with your dad going?"
"Pretty good. He's trying his best at actually acting like a father. He even promised to make it to the graduation tomorrow. That'll be a first."
"That's great." Zack smiled. "I'm glad he's turning his act around."
"So am I. What about you? Is life with Freddy all it's cracked up to be?"
"It's not that bad. If he's not around adults. He just acts up around his parents for the sake of acting up."
They exited and began walking to where the side of the gym was. "I kinda miss not seeing you everyday in the tree house." Summer remarked. "It was nice being able to just go there and talk, without any expectations of how to act around the band."
"I know. But, maybe it's for the better we don't. We'll start acting like a normal couple. And I'm sure once they learn we've been dating since we were eleven, they'll give us a bit more space."
"I don't think we're ever going to be a normal couple Zack."
"I don't think I wanna be." He paused. "This isn't the best time to ask you this, but I never got a chance to. Are you really OK with what happened with my dad? I know you said you are to the band but you never have been known to say how you really feel with them."
Summer paused for a moment. Listening to the music coming through the gym wall. It was Tiny Dancer by Elton John. If she wasn't mistaken, the very beginning. "I promise, I really am fine. Dance with me?" Zack didn't answer but grabbed her hand pulling her in close, and they slowly began swaying to the music, her head on his shoulder. He didn't notice the solitary tear leaking out of her eye. On the bridge of the song she looked up. "Zack, when I complimented you on the solo on the phone today, I wanted to say something else."
"What is it?" The two kept dancing.
"What I really wanted to say was that I loved you. I know we discussed that for now, we were just going to use the solo code because love was a big step, but after everything that's happened at that moment all I wanted to do was tell you that I really did love you, not that you had a nice solo. I'll understand if you want to stick with the code, but--,"
"Summer." Zack interrupted putting I finger to her lips. "I love you too. If you don't want to, there's no more code."
Summer hugged him a bit tighter. "Thank you." She leaned in for a quick kiss, and then put her head back on his shoulder, savoring the moment.
That's all for this chapter. The next chapter will be more of the dance. Please give me feedback on the song I used, and a suggestion for a song to be played next chapter. Or feedback in general. Take your pick.
Random Quote of the Day: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."—Groucho Marx
And a final thanks to all reviewers.
Xo Miss Riley Xo
Swimmerkitti
Nanners-77
firefairy6655
Author's notes: Thank you all reviewers. This chapter is a bit of a zoom forward in time, simply because I struggled too much trying to write situations with the police and social workers. Anything important that happened during the time I'm skipping is explained though. A note I forgot in the grade/age explanation, the middle school grades for the purpose of this story are sixth and seventh. Simply because it works better than going to eighth grade. This means that eighth grade and up is high school. This chapter also contains the winner of the poll. It was a landslide. Who is with Freddy? Read to find out. The song I'm mentioning in this chapter isn't exactly the band, but it's an artist that they must have an inkling for respect for, and the lyrics, though I'm not typing them, fit Zack and Summer pretty well. The chorus does anyway.
Ch5
"Summer, if we're going to do this, you have to sit still." Katie groaned.
It had been three days since Summer and Zack had told of their problems, and it was now the night of the seventh grade semi-formal. Summer was living alone with her dad now, and Freddy had convinced his parents to get the social workers to let Zack stay with them. They were working on becoming his legal guardians. It was funny how things worked out. "What if I don't want to do this?" Summer crossed her arms.
"We're not letting you go to the last dance at the middle school with a black eye." Marta rolled her eyes. "We are going to make you look fabulous ."
Summer feigned surprise as Alicia grabbed a brush. "Now, close your eyes and rest until we are done making you one of the sexiest girls to show up at the dance." Reluctantly, Summer closed her eyes, and the girls of the band began to work. "Katie, you do make-up. Marta, clothes. Tomeka, accessorize her. I'll do hair."
It was 45 minutes later when Summer was sent into a room with all the mirrors removed to change while the others got ready. Marta began applying lip gloss. "She's going to look awesome."
Tomeka nodded. "Zack will be falling at her feet."
"He's already falling." Alicia smirked. "This'll just make him fall harder. Hopefully our other surprise will get em loosened up."
"Nothing loosens Zack up like a show." Katie assured. "And... well...nothing loosens Summer up. Unless she's really comfortable."
"We'll just have to make sure she is then." Marta grinned. "How do you think Freddy's doing prepping Zack?"
"Knowing Freddy? Badly." Katie began pulling her hair into the twist she had wore to every Battle of the Bands. "He probably didn't even give him the clothes we went out and found for him."
"If he didn't I'll go medieval on his ass." Alicia remarked. "Those clothes were perfect for Zack."
"If you have to go medieval, could you wait until I've gotten a slow dance and a kiss? I happen to enjoy boys who don't walk funny." Katie laughed. "We already know they like each other. All we have to do is make sure they're stuck together. They don't have to look perfect."
"But we want them to look perfect." Tomeka pointed out. "They need to blow each others minds."
"There's no doubt that won't happen. These outfits are hot. And we only left enough hair gel for exactly what Freddy loves doing to his hair and to make Zack's perfect. His mom helped clear it all out." Marta began combing pink into her blond locks. "This night will be perfect. They're going to look great, feel great, and since Summer taught him in sixth grade, they can both dance. What could go wrong?"
Famous last words.
§ § §
Zack pulled his ringing cell-phone from his pants pocket almost before it rang. "Hello?" Freddy gave him a look that said, 'how did you do that?' before turning back to the mirror.
"Is there anyone in the room with you?"
Zack smiled at Summer's voice. "Yeah, Dewey."
"The girls are planning on set us up."
"Really? That's great."
"They've done my hair, make-up, and jewelry, and given me clothes to wear. From what I've heard, the stuff Freddy gave you, they bought too. I have an idea though. Just to freak them out."
"I'm listening."
"Once we see each other, we're gonna stare for a minute, and then you're gonna kiss me. Passionately. Like that one time when we went to see that special airing of The Princess Bride at the park and it started raining at the very end."
Zack instantly remembered that kiss. "That'll definitely blow the audience away, Dewey."
"That's the point. After that we play clueless to their questioning for a while. If we want we could come clean. Or we could let them think it was their magic that brought us together."
"I gotcha. I think our first option is better overall. We might want to try out the second for a while though."
"Yeah. That'll really get em going. I'll see you in a about an hour. Great solo today."
"You had a great solo too Dewey." Zack hung up a grin on his face.
"Why the hell did Dewey just call you?" Freddy turned around. "And why do you have that goofy look on your face? You look like you just saw Keira Knightley naked or something."
"He just wanted to tell me that we're going to sing the new song for Battle of the Bands, and to ask my opinion on if we should have Summer sing it or get one of the girls to do it."
"Shouldn't he be asking Summer that question?" Zack shrugged. "That still does not explain your gaga face."
"Maybe you better check the dosage on your meds man. Your hallucinating. Why would I have a gaga face after talking to Dewey?"
"Maybe you're taking after Billy."
"Go back to your primping Freddy."
"I'm not primping. I am giving my hair mad style." Freddy grabbed a can of hairspray.
"And ruining the ozone layer at the same time. If I'm recalling this correctly, you're the man, Spazzy."
"Shut up, Zack Attack."
Zack sat down on Freddy's desk. "Whatever man."
§ § §
"Summer, you look fabulous." Marta grinned. "Once we go through those doors guys are going to be falling at your feet."
Summer had her hair in a messy bun, two sticks stuck through it. One pink, one black. Each had a skull on the top. Her earrings were two black dangling guitars. She had her black eye completely covered. Her only eye makeup was charcoal gray eyeliner. Her only other make up, was a plain vanilla gloss. Katie had decided that her lips were colorful enough. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a pink guitar hanging from it. She wore a black tank top and a short sleeved pink fishnet top. Her skirt was a black miniskirt with zippers on the pockets and two sections of pink polka dots. She also wore black knee high nylons with black wedge sandals.
"We're not going in until Zack and Freddy get here." Katie reminded. "But you do look awesome."
"There they are now." Tomeka pointed at a black Volvo. Zack and Freddy soon stepped out.
Summer had to admit, if she hadn't made the plan with Zack, she'd be fantasizing about kissing him seeing him now. He wore a black short sleeved shirt with vertical white pinstripes and fitted black pants. His hair had a tiny bit of gel in it, giving it small spikes. "Hey Zack, Freddy."
It was clear Zack was blown away. "Hey." Their plan quickly went into action. They were staring for about half a minute before he pulled her into a passionate kiss that she put no move to stop.
"Uh, is it me, or did that happen really quick?" Freddy asked standing next to Katie.
The entire group watched in fascination. "No, it happened pretty quick." Katie nodded. "I've never seen either of them act like this before. I don't think I've seen anyone act like that before. Even in movies."
Alicia shook her head. "Shouldn't they be coming up for air soon? I mean. Damn. Even my sister can't last this long."
It was a few more minutes before Zack and Summer broke apart. "Let's get in there." Zack smiled at Summer, slipping his arm around her shoulder and beginning to walk inside.
"Aren't you guys going to explain?" Marta asked, causing the two to stop and turn around.
"Explain what?" Summer replied, smiling.
Alicia looked pointedly at them. "Why you two just pounced on each other. You're acting like you've been dating since you were six."
Zack laughed shortly. "No. I'd say we started just about now. Are we going to go in there or not?"
The rest of the group looked at each other. Katie sighed. "Might as well."
Zack and Summer walked behind the rest of the group, exchanging a quick high five before going back into lovey-dovey mode. Inside, the two attracted much attention, sneaking kisses and staring at each other as they walked to the gym. At the gymnasium entrance, stood Dewey, to the surprise of Zack and Summer, jaw dropped in shock. "When did this happen?"
Freddy shook his head. "About three minutes ago. Sickening isn't it?"
Katie slapped his arm lightly. "It's romantic."
"And they're like that?" Dewey did a quick eyebrow wave. "Never mind, We've got a show to put on. Your instruments are on the stage. School of Rock is the song."
The group began walking but then Zack stopped. "Wait. What?"
"Oh yeah. Forgot to tell you two. We're opening up and then I'm DJ for the rest of this shindig." Dewey explained. "Now, pry yourself off of Summer and get to your guitar. Summer, introduce us, then join the backup singers. Let's rock guys."
§ § §
Summer and Zack walked, arms around each other towards the exit of the gym, listening to Katie and Freddy trying not to laugh.
"Do you think it's safe for us to be leaving them alone?" Freddy was asking. "They are all over each other."
In the hallway, Summer burst out laughing. "This is so much fun! Did you see the look on their faces? Talk about priceless!"
"I know. They're going to freak when we tell them the truth." They talked for a while about their plot before Zack asked the question. "How are things with your dad going?"
"Pretty good. He's trying his best at actually acting like a father. He even promised to make it to the graduation tomorrow. That'll be a first."
"That's great." Zack smiled. "I'm glad he's turning his act around."
"So am I. What about you? Is life with Freddy all it's cracked up to be?"
"It's not that bad. If he's not around adults. He just acts up around his parents for the sake of acting up."
They exited and began walking to where the side of the gym was. "I kinda miss not seeing you everyday in the tree house." Summer remarked. "It was nice being able to just go there and talk, without any expectations of how to act around the band."
"I know. But, maybe it's for the better we don't. We'll start acting like a normal couple. And I'm sure once they learn we've been dating since we were eleven, they'll give us a bit more space."
"I don't think we're ever going to be a normal couple Zack."
"I don't think I wanna be." He paused. "This isn't the best time to ask you this, but I never got a chance to. Are you really OK with what happened with my dad? I know you said you are to the band but you never have been known to say how you really feel with them."
Summer paused for a moment. Listening to the music coming through the gym wall. It was Tiny Dancer by Elton John. If she wasn't mistaken, the very beginning. "I promise, I really am fine. Dance with me?" Zack didn't answer but grabbed her hand pulling her in close, and they slowly began swaying to the music, her head on his shoulder. He didn't notice the solitary tear leaking out of her eye. On the bridge of the song she looked up. "Zack, when I complimented you on the solo on the phone today, I wanted to say something else."
"What is it?" The two kept dancing.
"What I really wanted to say was that I loved you. I know we discussed that for now, we were just going to use the solo code because love was a big step, but after everything that's happened at that moment all I wanted to do was tell you that I really did love you, not that you had a nice solo. I'll understand if you want to stick with the code, but--,"
"Summer." Zack interrupted putting I finger to her lips. "I love you too. If you don't want to, there's no more code."
Summer hugged him a bit tighter. "Thank you." She leaned in for a quick kiss, and then put her head back on his shoulder, savoring the moment.
That's all for this chapter. The next chapter will be more of the dance. Please give me feedback on the song I used, and a suggestion for a song to be played next chapter. Or feedback in general. Take your pick.
Random Quote of the Day: "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."—Groucho Marx
And a final thanks to all reviewers.
Xo Miss Riley Xo
Swimmerkitti
Nanners-77
firefairy6655