Note: Chapter 10 edited! (July 18 04)

Chapter 10 - Jam Sessions

"Damnit!" Summer gave a frustrated sigh as she looked down helplessly at her combination lock. She had been distracted all day, barely paying attention in any of her classes, she had promised herself that she'd bug the notes off of Marta, once they had put up the audition posters.

She obviously still was distracted, though, seeing as she couldn't remember her combination. No posters are going up until I can remember this stupid thing! thought Summer desperately. Her, Marta and Katie had gotten together after practice the night before, much to Katie's burden, and together made twenty-five posters to stick up all over both the elementary and secondary wings of Horace Green. The band had decided that since they were only ten when they realized what rock was, there was a chance there were some other young children that were the same.

The posters, however, were all in the unopened locker.

"2-16-34," came a voice to Summer's right, which she automatically knew belonged to Alicia.

Summer looked confused. "How did you know?" she asked, fiddling with her lock.

Alicia shrugged as a smirk traced her lips. "Well, you're not very discreet when you unlock your locker most of the time, so I can usually see."

"Huh…" was all Summer could say to this as her lock clicked open.

"So," continued Alicia, "I hear you're auditioning new people…"

Summer couldn't bring herself to look at her ex-band mate as she replied. "Yeah, nothing special though… You know Dewey quit, right?"

"Through a friend of a friend," said Alicia. "What positions are you auditioning for?" she asked, seemingly trying to sound nonchalant.

This was the part Summer wasn't looking forward to. She swallowed hard, looking at the back of her open locker. "Oh, you know, nothing much, just a male vocalist and a guitar player."

Alicia waited to respond, as if anticipating more words from Summer's mouth. When she realized Summer was finished, her eyes narrowed and lips formed an angry sneer.

"Oh? Male vocalist? So it's a good thing I left then, because my position obviously wasn't important enough to replace."

Summer's eyes widened. "No, no, no, it's not like that!" When it came to thinking on her feet, Summer excelled. Come up with an outright lie, however, was a different story. "We thought that we could never really fill your position again, so we decided to just… leave it?" The end of the sentence came out as more of a question than a statement, cementing Alicia's assumption.

Alicia gave Summer a short, pointed look. "I'm not even going to grace that with a response. Bye."

Summer grabbed Alicia's retreating hand. She can hate Marta as much as she wants, but I don't want her to hate me too. "Listen Alicia, after Dewey quit, that was 3 people gone within a couple months… We couldn't carry on the way we had been going… We've decided to move in a bit of a different direction, with two lead singers, a girl and a guy, instead of a lead and three back-ups, get it?"

Alicia rolled her eyes and she pulled her hand out of Summer's grasp. "Whatever, Tink. Tell the band I say thanks for nothing." And with that, Alicia turned and walked away.

"Well she sure had something up her ass, eh?" Marta's voice came from behind Summer. Summer turned around to see the smirk on her friend's face as she walked up to her. "Whatever, she deserves it. 'Lead back-up' my butt."

Summer couldn't help but smile as well. "Where's Katie?"

Marta shrugged. "She's over by the chick's room. I told her I was going to get you at your locker, and she went all cold, saying she'd wait there. She's been a bit of a witch since school started."

Summer rolled her eyes at Marta's oblivious nature, and didn't answer her friend's inquisitive look. Instead, she began to head over to the girls' bathroom with the posters in her hand.

----

"Well it's not like I was paying attention, do you think I actually care about the Cell Theory, Tink?" Marta asked as her and Summer walked up the Hathaway's driveway.

Summer sighed. Stupid of me to assume she'd take notes, I guess. "Guess not, eh?" she answered as she unlocked the front door.

"I mean, if it had of been something interesting, like marine biology or something, I would have been all over it, but --" Marta stopped mid-sentence as she walked into the Hathaway's living room.

Summer followed Marta's eye line and realized exactly what had stopped her from talking. Sitting on the tan leather couch was Summer's mom… and Mrs. Mooneyham.

Summer was used to her parents having people over. They were both very sociable people, and often had little dinner parties with their friends and neighbours. They both also often had clients over, her mom being a psychiatrist, and her dad a high school councillor at a school over the bridge. But Summer, in this case, didn't know what to make of Zack's mom sitting on her living room couch.

"Hi mom… Mrs. Mooneyham." She forced out, as Marta also waved at the two.

Mrs. Hathaway smiled at Summer and Marta. "Good afternoon girls! There's a bit of a snack on the kitchen counter if you want." The girls nodded and slowly started to make their way to the kitchen. "Summer, if you'll please stay off of the main floor, Laura just came over for a bit of a talk."

Summer nodded her retreating head and she walked numbly in to the kitchen, grabbed the snack, and ran up to her room. Marta ran right after her, closing and locking the bedroom door behind them.

"Holy. Shit," was all Marta could say. "Has Mrs. Mooneyham every come over before?"

Summer slowly shook her head. "No… never. But it sounds like either my mom's good friends with her, or she's been a client for a while. My mom never calls new clients by their first names."

"Well, if they've been friends for a while, don't you think you'd've heard something about it?" Marta reasoned.

Summer shrugged. "I don't know." She shook her head, as if trying to rid herself of any thoughts. "This is too weird."

"Defini--" Marta was once again interrupted.

"Sum, come here for a sec, please," Mrs. Hathaway beckoned from the landing.

Summer sighed and lifted herself off of her bed to meet her mom's request. "Yeah, mommy?"

"Maybe, instead of you and Marta shutting yourselves up in your room, you guys could hang out with Zack? He's in the basement."

Summer tried to cover up the surprise obviously creeping across her facial features. "Sure thing. Just give us a sec."

Mrs. Hathaway smiled up at her daughter before leaving the landing.

Summer walked back into her bedroom and explained the situation to Marta. Her friend couldn't help but let out a squeal. "But I don't understand! Why's he here and not at home? Couldn't he take care of himself?"

Summer shrugged for the umpteenth time that day. "Who knows. This just gets more and more peculiar."

Marta immersed herself in thought for a moment before her lips formed a devilish grin. "Well, this is my cue to leave, then, isn't it?"

Summer felt her eyes practically pop out of her head. "You can't go! I can't be here alone with him! Who knows if I'll be able to hold myself back?!"

It was Marta's turn to shrug as she got up to leave the room. "You're right dude. Who does know? All I know, is that I'm leaving you two alone. Catcha later!"

Summer groaned and fell back on her bed. She stayed in that position for a good five minutes, before finally pulling herself up and forcing herself to travel down to the basement.

As she walked down the stairs, she began to hear a tune, and as Zack came into view, she saw he was sitting with one of his numerous guitars, this one a glossy black acoustic, trying to figure out a tune.

"Hi."

Zack looked up from his instrument. When he saw Summer, he smiled. "Hey Tinkerbell. Nice place."

Summer chuckled. Throughout the past week, she had almost convinced herself that there was no logical explanation as to why she had liked School of Rock's guitarist so much. What had made it so easy to believe is that he was never out of range of Eleni, and her slightly nasal voice was enough to turn anyone off.

But now, when it was just the two of them, the feelings began to rush back to Summer. As she walked towards him, she took in his appearance. His hair was at that perfect length, where it seemed to tease his eyelashes, and completely cover his ears. He had on a simple, slim-fitting black golf shirt, showing off his two silver chains he always wore around his neck. His blue jeans seemed to fit him perfectly, and the black Converse high-tops on his feet had his friends' writing all over them, giving them just enough personality.

Summer smiled as she looked at his shoes, finally finding her own writing right below the laces. Her smile quickly faltered as she realized she was still in her school uniform. As she sat down beside him, she tried to joke about it, saying, "Well, my fashion sense clearly exceeds yours."

It was Zack's turn to laugh. "Oh, by miles."

Summer tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "So… What are you doing here? Did you come with your mom?"

Zack nodded. "Yeah, she asked if I wanted to get out of the house, and I said yes. I didn't want to stay home alone with my --" He stopped himself. "I just wanted to get out of the house."

Summer was incredibly curious at Zack's unfinished sentence, but didn't pry. "Cool." After a few awkward, silent moments, Zack took up his guitar and began strumming again. After playing around with a few chords, he sighed. "I've been trying to write a tune for this song I wrote for a couple weeks now, but I can't seem to come up with anything."

"Can I hear it?" Summer asked.

Zack shrugged. "Sure, but it sounds like ass." And with that, he began playing an obviously unfinished tune. When he stopped, obvious frustration on his face, Summer decided to finally speak up.

"There's a couple spots where you could try different things."

Zack looked at her curiously. "Oh? Where?"

Summer took in a deep breath. Please, don't let me sound like a dumbass, please don't let me sound like a dumbass… PLEASE… "Well, there was one part near the beginning… I think you played a C chord… An A minor might sound better."

Zack's look of curiosity only grew more intense. "Where?"

Summer shrugged. "Near the beginning…" She still didn't know how to explain what she meant. "In the first… Thirty seconds?"

Zack nodded and started playing the tune again, until he realized he knew what Summer was talking about, and replaced the offending C with an A minor. Much to Summer's relief and avail, it sounded a lot better.

Zack smiled, but still looked rather inquisitive. "How did you know…?"

Summer looked out the window, at the stairs, anywhere but directly at Zack. "Oh, well, I play guitar a bit… I've been taking lessons from my uncle."

Summer had imagined what his reaction might be like, but it wasn't anything like what came out. "Summer! That's amazing! Why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me?"

Summer fought back a huge grin. "I haven't told anyone… I'm not that good, there was no point in saying anything."

Zack handed Summer the guitar, a determined look on his face. "Play me something."

Summer tried not to panic. She turned to Zack, saying, "No, no, no thanks, I'll just embarrass myself."

"Summer," Zack began pointedly, looking straight into the girl's eyes. "Look who you're talking to. You don't need to try and impress me. I'm sure you're just totally exaggerating, anyway, as always," he said, finishing with, "and if you do screw up, well, I won't tell."

Summer tried her hardest not to slip off of her chair at his sincere words. She nodded. "What should I play?"

Zack looked thoughtful for a moment. "Do you know 'School of Rock?'"

"Yup."

"Then let's hear it."

Summer took in a large breath, trying desperately to relax herself. This was the one song she practiced the most, and she began inwardly praying to the heavens above that she wouldn't fall flat on her face.

As she played, Zack's face showed amazement, then contentment, then sheer happiness, and he jumped up and started singing the chorus, looking like a total fool.

When Summer stopped playing, Zack turned around hastily to face her. "Holy shit, Summer, that was amazing. I can't believe you didn't tell me!"

Summer felt herself turning red. "I'm not that good, believe me --"

"We can jam! We can have sessions! It'll be awesome!"

Summer couldn't help but smile. "Don't tell anyone, 'kay?"

Zack looked at the girl incredulously. "Are you joking?"

Summer shook her head. "No. Please, Zack, don't, alright? If you want me to jam with you…"

Zack groaned, but complied. "Fine, I won't tell. But I'm telling you, Tinkerbell, if and when the band finds out, they'll be pissed to know we had to find a new guitarist when there was an awesome one right here."

Summer bit her lip in an attempt to hold back her giddiness. "Shut up!" Neither of them said anything for a moment, until Summer broke the silence.

"You know, you weren't lying way back when - you really aren't that much of a singer, are you?"

Zack smirked. "Don't get me started, princess 'Memory'…"

A/N - Hopefully you guys liked that fairly lengthy Summer/Zack scene there... I sure did wink wink ... Okay, I really need y'all to review, 'cause I need to know now: is anyone interested in a sequel to this story? I know it's fairly early, as this story's still going to have another 7 or 8 chapters, but I've decided that I'm going in a different direction if there's going to be a sequel than if this is just going to stay as one story... So please, review, tell me what you thought of this chapter, and if you want to see more after "You Never Know." Thanks guys!!

Also, quickly, the last line in the chapter is a reference to the song "Memory" by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's sung by Summer in SoR, of course!