The Game of Love

By Chase 304

Chapter One

New Acquaintances

Another day at Pacific Coast Academy. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, Quinn poisoned everybody with another whack-job experiment. Yet everybody thought of it as the typical day.

Zoey was sitting at the lunch table, absentmindedly crunching an apple while staring at her magazine. Without realizing it, she bit into the core, only to hit a seed.

"Eww! Blech!" she said disgustedly, throwing it into the trash next to her, and continuing on like nothing happened at all.

"Hey Zoey," Chase said sitting down across from her.

"Oh," she said looking up and putting her magazine away. "Did you know that Quinn created a clone of herself?"

"No," Chase replied awkwardly. Zoey pointed and sure enough, an exact replica of Quinn was standing there next to its creator, blurting out words in what seemed to be Latin.

"Dammit!" she shouted angrily. "I still need to adjust her speech impediment." She stormed off to her dorm, the clone following behind blabbering so that nobody could understand it.

Chase looked with his eyes wide open. Usually Quinn never cussed. Looking back over at Zoey, he continued in discussion with her.

"So." He paused. There really was nothing to talk about. Except…

Chase liked Zoey Brooks ever since she had first arrived at PCA. Her witty sense of humor mixed with a smart and beautiful combined to form this seemingly flawless girl sitting in front of her, waiting for him to say something. He really did like her, but his nerves usually got the better of him. Countless times he had attempted to tell her but he always ended up saying something else. He knew he would have to tell her sometime, but he hoped she would like him back.

"How was your last class?" Chase blurted out. He screwed it up. Again!

"It was okay, I guess." Zoey looked at him questioningly. Why won't he tell! she thought to herself.

"Yeah, so was mine," Chase replied uneasily and anxiously. "Uhhh, I gotta go." He grabbed his backpack and ran off, leaving Zoey looking after him in awe. Jeez, she thought. He's got it bad for me. Of course, Zoey knew that Chase liked her. First, Nichole had told her, and second she could tell easily. He would stutter when he was about to tell her something, then he would say something odd and run off like he just had. Zoey picked her magazine and continued reading. Oh well. He'll tell me eventually she thought.

As she read, she failed to notice the person coming up to her.

"Hey Zoey."

Logan.

Oh crap, Zoey thought. "What do want, Logan?" She looked up at him to see him smirking as he always did.

"Nothing. Except to make out." He grinned. She always put on a disgusted face when he said that.

"No, not today," she said, looking back down at her magazine. "Or ever, for that matter."

"Oh well," he replied. He sat down and pushed Zoey's magazine out of her face. "Anyways," he continued. "I have a question to ask you."

Oh no, what's he gonna say? Zoey thought. "Yes?" she asked cautiously.

"I was wondering if you-"

"Yes?" Zoey asked, shrinking back, prepared to run for her life.

"-could help me with Dana."

"What?" Zoey said, sitting back up. "Oh, okay. What do you need?" she asked, taking a drink of water.

"Well-" he paused. Why was he asking her for help? Oh, yeah. She was the only one he could get advice from for a subject like this. "I want to ask her out on a date."

"What!" she yelled spitting water all over Logan. People all around looked up, and one kid tripped over a table, spilling spaghetti all over himself.

"Shh!" Logan whispered. "I don't want everybody to know that I like Dana." He looked her up and down. "Or that I'm getting help from you."

"Oh, fine," Zoey said, rolling her eyes. Then, she got an idea. "But first-" she looked around and then grinned at Logan.

"What," Logan said, not liking the look in her eye. That happened to be his look.

"Listen. I know Chase likes me." She paused, looking down and continued. "Why won't he tell me? I like him too, but I want him to-"

"Say it first," Logan finished. "I see. Well, I can help with that." He glanced around once more, just in case Dana was there. Unfortunately, she was headed right over to where they were. "Just help me with Dana, and we've got a deal." He stuck out his hand.

Zoey responded by shaking it. "It looks like we're working together this time, Mr. Reese," she said jokingly.

"Whatever," he said, rolling his eyes. He looked up, and Dana was five feet away, heading for the table. "Okay," he whispered. "See ya."

"Hey." Logan stopped. Dana had just said hi to him. He turned slowly and said hi back, then ran off. Zoey rolled her eyes.

He acted just like her Chase.