"So what do you think of Rebecca then?"
Chase leant back in the arm chair by the window, his legs sprawled across the seat. Michael promptly sat in front of the Xbox, yanking the remote control from the table surface and unraveling the wire around it. Logan climbed up and sat on his bunk bed, staring at the point where the wall met the ceiling.
"H-O-T," Michael called, "that girl is smoking fine."
Logan wasn't listening to the conversation. His mind wandered back to the first time he saw Rebecca. Defenses Up. I guess that's the way it's going to be until graduation then, he thought, but truth be told, I don't need another Zoey/Nicole/Dana on my hands.
"She seems okay," Chase shrugged, "I haven't really seen her academically, or mentally, but if she could whip up an insult back to Logan like quickfire," a grin broke across his face, "then she seems promising."
"Who are you kidding?" Michael scoffed, "I'm talking about looks."
"Well, I suppose she was okay then."
"Okay!" Michael put his hands on his hips, mocking what he'd seen Nicole do the day before when Zoey didn't approve of Nate Williams' new hair style, "'Girl, are you even looking at the same person here?'"
Chase shrugged indifferently so Michael would return to his Xbox. He didn't want to talk about Rebecca. He wanted to think about Zoey, like he always did. 24/7. His obsession for her was bordering on painful. He had to something quick, before she went off with someone else…
"You still got it bad, the old love bug?" Michael asked. Chase took a long time to answer, because 1) he had to work out whether Michael was asking him or the TV because Michael had asked the question directly to the television screen and 2) Logan was sitting in the room, and whatever Chase said, Logan usually mimicked and ridiculed it until he fell asleep.
"Mmm…" he eventually decided on, sinking lower in his chair so his loose shirt covered the bottom half of his face.
"Are you going to visit Dana?" Michael asked to the television again. Chase knew the question wasn't directed to him this time, so he looked up expectantly at Logan.
"Why should I?" He said, "I see that mug around school enough."
Michael rolled his eyes, this time imitating the 'puh-lease' look Nicole had used some time the day before. Chase picked up on this.
"Nicole, you should know by now girls aren't allowed in the boys' dormitories at 9 o'clock," he said mockingly. Michael grinned.
"I can't help it," he explained, "the girl's damn funny."
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Zoey's eyes flickered open to a white mass. It took her a while to comprehend that this was the ceiling, before rolling off the bed and staring groggily around the room. She caught sight of Nicole's arm dangling off the top-bunk. She followed the arm down to it's fingers, her eyes then averting to a girl in t-shirts and shorts lying on the bed, covers askew and pillows on the floor.
Who the hell is that!
She let out a sigh when she remembered Rebecca had moved in the day before. She'd obviously stayed up and sorted out her clothes because now, the floor was spotless, and the wardrobe door was slightly open. Zoey padded through to the bathroom and began cleaning her teeth. It was a Saturday, so she knew Nicole and Dan- no, she corrected herself, Dana doesn't stay here anymore. Get used to saying Nicole and Savannah. She couldn't help but feel hurt in the fact that Dana had moved. The three had grown close, really close, planned revenge, funny sketches, sung mad songs when they were high on sugar, divulged secrets…her toothbrush fell with a clatter in the sink.
Secrets.
But surely…surely Dana wouldn't tell? She couldn't be sure, as much as she longed to be. If Dana didn't value their friendship enough to stay in the same room then she certainly wouldn't tell everyone about Zoey and –
"Morning!"
Zoey whipped around to see Nicole and Rebecca posing in the doorframe.
It's okay for Nicole, she never got on with Dana and now she's practically Rebecca's best friend.
She found herself gawping at her sudden epiphany. Was she, Zoey Brookes, jealous? Was the reason she was so upset about Dana leaving was that Dana got on well with Zoey, and not Nicole, and now with Rebecca in the room, she was worried Nicole and Rebecca would connect, leaving her out on the inside jokes like she had done with Nicole before Dana left?
Rebecca shuffled in beside Zoey at the sink, picking up her own sparkling pink electric toothbrush and gelling Colgate Whitening onto the bristles. Zoey continued to clean her teeth, occasionally stealing a glance at Rebecca in the mirror. Did she have some cunning plan to leave her out? Was she put up to his by her brother? After all, Art did have something to be mad about with Zoey…
Nicole sauntered down to the girl's lounge to find Michael already sitting on the sofa, watching Blue's Clues.
"I love this show!" She exclaimed, bagging the seat next to him and throwing herself into it.
"Are Zoey and Rebecca upstairs?" He asked distractedly, watching the blue dog jump about the screen.
"Yeah, Zoey's in the shower and Rebecca's beginning to pick out her outfit for today," Nicole told him.
"How far has she progressed?"
"Socks," she said simply, "which, you would think, come before shoes, then you walk out the door. Nu-uh. Socks/No socks are the first thing on Rebecca's outfit choice list, then it's underwear, shirt, pants/skirt depending on the shirt chosen, then shoes, depending on the socks chosen."
"So her whole days outfit," he frowned, "is orientated around –"
"Socks," she grinned.
"Gosh," he smiled sarcastically, "she's normal."
Rebecca waited until Zoey left the room (in a tasteful fringe skirt and pink over-sweater on top of a string vest) before shimmying on the rest of her outfit (finally deciding on the magenta pink Juicy Couture crop track-top, Miss Sixty black, silk thigh-lengthed pants and Stuart Weitzman flat pumps) and prowling about the room. She felt sneaky and odd, but she needed to know more about these girls.
Well, more about Zoey.
She tip-toed across to Zoey's photo area and inspected the people in every frame. Zoey and Nicole. Zoey and Michael. Nicole and Michael. Nicole and Chase. One of all the people she saw last night, one she assumed to be her little brother and her parents, and one of Zoey and Chase. Another of Zoey and Chase. And another of Zoey and Chase. And another one. And another one, and another, and another, and an –
She stepped back, her head spinning as she looked over smile upon smile of Zoey and Chase.
So Chase was Zoey's boyfriend then?
Odd couple, I saw her more with Logan, she scanned the pictures once again and found none with Zoey and Logan in it solely. There were two strips of photo booth pictures on the table. She picked up the first one.
Surprise, surprise, she thought dully, rolling her eyes at the sight of Chase's face again. She put it back down on the table. The second one, was a reel of her, Nicole and that moody girl that left yesterday, Dolly? Darla? Dana. That was it. Dana looked surly in every one. She prowled about a while longer, looking maybe to suss out what was going on between Zoey and Chase when her eyes found a Converse AllStars shoe box underneath Zoey's bed. Her heart speeding up, she bent down to get it. She slid her slim, tanned arm underneath the bed frame when suddenly, the door burst open.
"Uh, what are you doing on the floor?" Asked Nicole, staring curiously at Rebecca. Rebecca froze. Nicole followed her arm.
"Ah, trying to get that box out are you?" She nodded her head knowledgably, "I've been trying for donkeys," she rolled her eyes, "it gets jammed on the iron bit at the bottom. I don't see how I –" she raised her eyebrows at Rebecca, "well, now 'we' can get it outta there."
Rebecca stood up, self-consciously dusting down her pants, even though there wasn't any dust on them.
"Breakfast?" Nicole brandished a bottle of orange juice, "They're selling peach Snapple."
"I hate peach Snapple," said Rebecca, smoothing down her sleek, gelled ponytail, "and you are aware that you've got orange juice in your hand, right?"
Nicole looked down at the bottle.
"Damn!"