A/N: Hi! I have nothing to say before you read this. So, begin.

By the time I slid into my seat in biology the tardy bell was trilling throughout the classroom. Liz was leaning impatiently over her desk, her toes bouncing excitedly. She had obviously been trying to eavesdrop but the eager expression on her face told me she was still waiting to hear the details from me.

"So?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows excitedly.

I pulled my bio binder out of my backpack and made a point not to look at her because I knew my face was flaming. "So," I began slowly, trying to keep my voice low as possible. "I have a date."

Liz jumped up, banging her knees on the bottom of her desk. "You have a date! Oh golly, that's so exciting! Yay Cam!"

I yanked her down, glancing around the classroom nervously. There was still a post-bell buzz, where everyone was wrapping up their conversations so no one seemed to be paying attention.

Still. Zach was sitting like, right next to me. He definitely had heard.

Against my will, my eyes veered in his direction. He was looking down at yesterday's notes with interest that I've never seen anyone have towards cell respiration. Had anyone ever furrowed their brow over metabolic reaction?

I felt the hot prickly sting of embarrassment crawl down my neck and turned back to Liz.

"Where are you going? When? And did you tell Macey? She will literally murder you if you don't."

Before I could answer, Dr. Fibbs scurried to the front of the classroom with the a clap of his hands. He pulled the expo marker from the front pocket of his lab coat and turned to the board.

"Who can tell me about oxidative phosphorilation?"

Liz took this opportunity to answer a question as bait and shot her hand up in the air, completely forgetting about her plan to interrogate me. I sighed in relief and watched her take the reins of classroom genius.

Even though things were going on as usual-Liz answering way more than Dr. Fibbs question had prompted, Rod Stewart asleep at his desk, the girls who sat in the front of the class scrolling on their phones uninterestedly,-things felt different.

I had a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that felt like someone was holding my insides in a MMA chokehold. There was definitely a thick sense of awkwardness just hanging in the air of classroom 1402 and I wanted it to stop.

I peeked another glance towards Zach who was being as quiet as I had ever seen him in my life. He hadn't talked in almost 6 whole minutes. It was some sort of world record, I think.

I contemplated starting a conversation, maybe asking to see his notes or something (romantic comedies had taught me this was an excellent way to get anyone's attention without being too obvious), but before I could people were hurrying out of their seats.

I glanced around. Um? What? There was absolutely no way class was already over. Had I really been that zoned out?

"Cam are you coming?" Liz was leaning over my desk, holding a pair of latex gloves. She snapped the elastic around her tiny wrists and dropped a pair in front of me. "Let's go."

I pushed my chair away from my desk and followed the classroom mass outside into the hall. "Where are we going?"

Liz looked at me in surprise and then broke out into a giggle, "Were you not paying any attention at all?" She nodded her head outside and added excitedly, "We're going outside to get plant samples for tomorrow's lab!"

We had made it down the hallway now and were pushing through the side doors into the courtyard.

"Ugh it's cold," I groaned, pulling the sleeves of my sweater over my hands as we stepped outside.

Liz ignored me, obviously too excited about plant samples to acknowledge my weather complaints.

She stood on her tiptoes and then pointed eagerly "Look! Zach's got something. Let's go see what it is!"

My eyes landed to where she was pointing at and the strange feeling of discomfort came over me again. Why was he off working without us? We always did everything together as a lab group.

I followed Liz (who was practically skipping) towards Zach. He was holding up a weird looking plant to a petri dish and snapping on the lid.

"Hey took y'all long enough," he grinned holding up the petri dish plant thingy. "I already got one."

"Sorry, Cammie was too busy daydreaming about Josh to pay attention," Liz said jokingly.

Kill me now.

My face burned red again and one glance at Zach made the MMA chokehold in my stomach turn into a straight up body slam.

He was looking at me with an expression I couldn't read-like he was trying to both figure me out and ask me something at the same time. It was making me nervous and squirmy and even sweaty in this stupid 60 degree weather.

But, the moment lasted like .005 seconds, and before I knew it he was looking back down at the petri dish plant with clear of his throat.

"This plant looks like a good candidate for the lab," he said gruffly, as if he hadn't just been turning my insides to mush.

I stared at him for a beat longer, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

Leave it to Zachary Goode to mess with my head just by looking at me.

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I had learned my lesson about not telling Macey something the minute it happened, so right after biology I had made a point to let her and Bex in on my date with Josh. I knew if I did it in between passing periods they would only be able to get a limited amount of comments in.

Sure enough, the minute bell was ringing by the time Macey was able to utter her opinion on me wearing heeled boots with my outfit ("he's not that much taller than you so we don't want to push it, but they would truly make your legs look killer").

Before Macey and Bex headed off in the direction of their sixth period class Bex turned to me, pointing one tanned finger at my face and narrowing her eyes.

"We're talking about this after school Cammie," she warned me, Macey nodding vigorously behind her.

So by 2:51 pm the school bell had long run and I was sitting shotgun in Bex's car while Macey's black Range Rover was purring in the parking spot next to us. I checked my watch and openly let out an overdramatic sigh. The stack of calculus homework in my backpack wasn't going to do itself-we needed to get going.

"What's the plan?" I asked, sticking my head out the passenger window towards Macey. She looked up from filing her nails as if she had totally forgotten we were there and raised her eyebrows.

"Bo's."

From the driver's seat Bex snorted.

"Bo's?" She repeated incredulously. "Macey. You want to go to Bo's?"

Being new to town, I wasn't exactly sure why Macey wanting to go to this place was such a big deal, but judging on the look on Bex's face this was totally uncharacteristic of her.

Macey on the other hand was acting like she wasn't being at all out of the ordinary. She dropped her nail file into her center console and slid enormous sunglasses onto her face. "Yes," she clarified behind her black frames, "and hurry up or we're gonna be late."

"Late?" I repeated. My eyes bounced from Macey to Bex hoping one of them would explain. Bex, looking just as lost as me, offered me a shrug while Macey slid her car into reverse and skidded out of the student parking lot.

Bex and I watched her car teeter out of sight for a second and then shared a disbelieving glance.

"Weird," Bex announced, yanking back the gear shift and peeling towards the street. She fiddled with the radio a bit and then settled back into her seat. Once comfortable and surrounded by the appropriate type of music, she pressed her foot on the pedal and we were travelling at a totally dangerous speed.

I held on to the car bar holding thingy (note to self- look up what the heck these are called later, if I survive Bex's driving and our trip to Bo's) for a moment mentally willing Bex to slow the hell down. Then, remembering the heap of homework in my backpack, let go.

I would literally rather die in a fiery car crash then have to do another assignment on derivatives.

Much to my dismay however, we were slowing to a stop before anyone could rid us of our calculus filled misery.

I looked up from my own personal pity party, just in time to see exactly why Bex had been so shocked by the fact that Macey had wanted to come here.

Bo's was a old fashioned, 60's style diner with fluorescent signs in the window that read STEAKS BURGERS & SHAKES and AWARD WINNIN' HOMEMADE APPLE PIE. As we got out of the car and stepped inside I saw that this was the absolute last place I would ever expect Macey to go. The waitresses were all in midi skirts and rollerskates, and there was a giant jukebox in the corner.

I whirled around towards Bex, who widened her eyes as if to say "I know right?" and shook her head.

We found Macey at the very back of the diner in a neon pink booth, her hands hovering over the table as someone wiped it down. She watched intently, making sure all the corners had been covered, and then placed a couple of napkins down and dropped her hands down ontop of them. "Hey," she grinned.

Bex and I slid into the spot across from her and eyed her suspiciously.

"Macey what are we doing here?" I asked as a waitress appeared at the end of our table. She was smacking on a piece of gum like it was the last meal she would be allowed to eat for the rest of her life and her hair was in a beehive. "Anything to drink?"

"We're eating, Cameron, " Macey informed me and then towards the waitress she smiled charmingly. "Water with lemon, hold the ice please."

Bex and I told the waitress-Shay according to her name tag-our drink orders and then turned back to Macey immediately.

"Why are we eating here though?" Bex interrogated. "You hate Bo's. I can't think of one possible reason why you would choose this place."

Macey's smile widened. She looked liked one of those little girls in horror movies that always knew some life threatening secret and refused to tell. She shrugged. "I'm into this place now. It's super vintage." Then, with a soft giggle she added. "But what we're really here to talk about is Cammie's love triangle."

I groaned, dropping my head into my hands and collapsing onto the table. "There is no love triangle!" My voice was on the verge of whining. "Zach and I are friends. Josh and I are...well, I don't know yet."

"Please," Macey scoffed. "I've never seen so much sexual tension between two 'friends' in my life."

"True."

I raised my head from the table to see Bex raising her finger in the air in agreement. Was no one on my side?

I stared in between the two of them. "Sexual tension? Are you kidding? He gave me a ride home. Once."

Macey shrugged again, this time rolling her eyes. "Call 'em like I see 'em Cammie," she announced. She pushed the home button on her phone, studying the time and sighed.

"What are you waiting for?" Bex asked, stealing the words right out of my mouth. "You've checked that bloody phone like eight times like you're waiting for some-"

Bex was cut off by the sound of the door chime ringing. And then voices.

Guy voices.

I groaned with dread.

Macey McHenry was the absolute worst.

Before I even looked up from the table I knew who was sauntering into the diner. I could hear the hoots and howls from the front of the building and they were so loud and obnoxious I knew it had to be the football team.

"YO IS THAT BEX?"

It was Grant. He was screaming for some unknown reason.

Bex raised an eyebrow towards Macey, her face breaking out into a smile.

Macey, who despite being the sole purpose of us being there, had her back to the circus that was now trapezing through the diner doors. She was staring at me intensely, undoubtedly willing me to look towards the boys.

Nope. No thank you.

I stuck to my method of blending into my surroundings. I kept my eyes down on the table, and my hair covering my face. The last people I wanted to see right now were Zach and Josh and I would do everything possible to avoid them.

"I hate you," I hissed to Macey as I started sliding out of the booth. Grant was starting to make his way towards Bex and a gaggle of boys would inevitably follow. "I'll be outside if you need me."

Crouching low, like some sort of cheesy movie villain, I started making my way towards the back door of the diner. The bright red EXIT sign was my beacon of hope and I was almost there…

"Avoiding me?"

World-100,000. Cammie-0.

I turned on my heel slowly, still squatting uncomfortably low, to face Zach who, despite his awkwardness this morning, seemed to be back to his confident self. He was leaning against my previously vacated booth with a infuriating sideways smirk.

I stood up, willing my face to remain it's normal color even though I knew I already looked like the bottle of Heinz ketchup that was sitting on our table.

Did I mention how much I hated Macey?

"Nope. Just looking for the bathroom."

Zach raised his eyebrows in amusement for a moment then got a look of false concentration on his face. "Bathroom huh?" He repeated, as if he was also trying to find out where they were. He kept his eyes on me as he pointed to the corner of the diner behind him. "I wonder if they're over there under the giant RESTROOM sign?"

I mentally sucker punched myself in the face.

"Maybe," I mumbled, pushing past him. I didn't actually have to pee but if I didn't go now I would look like an idiot. More than I already did.

Walking down the aisle to the bathroom was like walking down a football player filled cat-walk. They were overstuffed into their booths and had basically taken over the entire restaurant. There was absolutely no chance for blending in now.

The diner bathroom was just as cute and old fashioned as the rest of the building. The bright pink and white checkered floors and postered walls were a good momentary distraction from the sheer sense of panic I was facing. I totally didn't feel like sitting through another meal with the entire football team. Why were they here anyways? Hell, why were we here?

I splashed some cold water on my still, bright red face, and studied my appearance in the mirror. I wasn't exactly looking super cute or anything which was yet another reason I wanted to hightail it out of there. Not that I was into the whole always looking perfect type of facade, but I definitely regretted the whole oversized sweater and leggings look I was sporting.

Sighing, I pushed off of the sink and swung open the bathroom door, ready to face whatever awkward situation was ahead of me. Macey would not be hearing the end of this any time soon.

Awkward Situations and How Poorly They Were Handled

A list by Cammie Morgan:

Situation #1: The minute I step out of the bathroom I'm faced by and oversized woman who is barreling towards a stall.

Handled: I do nothing and proceed to get run over.

Situation #2: As I walk by an unnecessary loud table of football players,Josh appears grinning at my side. "Hey Cammie."

Handled: "Hey Josh." We start walking together.

Situation #3: We make it back to our table, where Bex and Grant are seated on one end, and Macey and Zach are at the other. Zach's in the middle of some story, stops talking, and studies us when we walk up. Face=Unreadable.

Handled: I rock back on my heels awkwardly and say, "Mind if Josh sits with us?"

Situation #4: There isn't enough room for Josh and I to sit next to each other. Things are uncomfortable for .009 seconds.

Handled: Josh offers to sit across from me. He chooses the seat next to Grant. I'm stuck next to Zach.

Okay so things could literally not be any more uncomfortable.

I don't know why things felt so off-it wasn't like I should be embarrassed about having Josh around-but being with both him and Zach at the same time? It was way too Hallmark movie for me.

Not that we really did have a love triangle or anything. No way. But still: things were weird.

From across the table Josh smiled at me, his teeth shining under the fluorescent lights. He seemed so utterly clueless to the weirdness at the table I wanted to scoop him up and take him far, far away.

Luckily Bex, who was totally immune to all uncomfortableness, finally spoke up. "So what are you all even doing here?"

Shay the waitress had reappeared at the end of the table with a tray full of drinks. She distributed them around as Grant answered.

"It's milkshake Monday," he declared, as if the answer was totally obvious. Then, noticing our look of confusion, "$1 milkshakes? All day?" Nothing. "You guys seriously don't know about milkshake monday? Come on!"

"Coach lets us off of practice early to come here," Josh informed us. "3PM on the dot."

"So I'm guessin' y'all want milkshakes?"

I had forgotten Shay was at the end of the table and her voice made me jump. I looked up to see her chomping away at her gum and clicking her pen against her notepad.

We told her our orders-I hadn't realized how hungry I had been until I caught a glimpse of the menu-and she was soon rollerskating her way towards the kitchen, leaving the table to fall (yet again) into an awkward silence.

"So."

This time it was Macey to break the silence. "Joshua. What are you planning on doing for your date with Cammie on Friday?"

Whoop, there it was again. The MMA chokehold around my stomach was back and stronger than ever. I was going to kill her.

Next to me Zach shifted away from me a little, so subtly I doubted anyone but me would notice. One moment our arms had been touching and the next he was leaning into Macey, putting an inch or so in between us.

My stomach did another grand slam.

Across the table Josh was grinning at me underneath his curls. He finally broke my gaze long enough to meet Macey's eyes and say, "It's a surprise so, I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you."

Macey groaned, going off into some tangent about the sanctity of friendship and how Josh was walking on thin ice.

The more time I spent at this table, the more I actually craved the calculus homework in my backpack.

The conversation progressed from Josh's betrayal to the latest gossip about some sophomore cheerleader. I tried to pay attention but my mind was working a mile a minute, and I couldn't focus on why Bethany Stronghold was being "such a mega-bitch".

I reached over across the table and grabbed the salt shaker, needing something to fumble with. I played around with the handle, screwing and unscrewing it.

"What do you think Cam?"

Bex's question was enough to startle me back into reality. I looked up confused. "About what?"

"About the new teacher."

Ah, so the conversation had taken another turn. This group was impossible to keep up with. I ran my finger along the smooth metal surface of the salt shaker, "I still haven't seen him."

Grant clasped his hands together under his chin and bat his eyelashes dramatically. "Well," he cooed in a high pitched voice. "I have him sixth period and he's just soooooo hot!"

It was at that moment that Shay decided to appear holding a tray that was so full of food it was tipping unsteadily to one end. She paused for a moment, glancing at Grant in surprise-I could only imagine how weird it must've been to see a 200+ football player confess his love for his teacher-before dropping the food onto our table.

My burger and chocolate milkshake landed in front of me and my stomach let out an involuntary growl. Madame Dabney would be shaken if she saw how fast I was about to devour this meal.

"This looks amazing," I breathed, literally staring at my burger in awe. Oh yeah, I was about to eat the heck out of that food.

"Sure fucking does," Grant hooted, taking a monstrous bite of his burger. "Can someone hand me the ketchup?"

"And the salt and pepper?" Josh added, dropping a fry into his mouth.

Suddenly, Zach's hand was on my leg, trailing extremely close to my inner thigh. His fingers traced along my skin for a moment, causing shivers to run straight through me. I looked at him confused, (my eyes were probably screaming "?!"), but he only smirked in response.

"Salt, Gallagher Girl." His hands curled around the salt shaker I hadn't realized I was still holding in my lap. "Your boyfriend wants the salt."

He slid the shaker across the table to Josh who was dumping pepper on his fries, completely oblivious to what had just happened.

What had just happened?

I stared at Zach in shock for a moment-what the hell did he think he was doing?-but he had already moved on and was too busy laughing at something Macey had said to pick up on my confusion. As I tried to bring myself back to the present, my shock turned into annoyance.

Deep breaths Cammie, I told myself, do not stab him with your fork right now. It is not the time nor the place.

Instead, I focused my attention on the food in front of me, food that looked incredibly good. I grabbed a piping hot french fry and dipped it into the ketchup before dropping it into my mouth. There was always one cure for my bad mood, and that was food.

And for a while Bo's mushroom swiss burger and chocolate milkshake did a heck of a job in making me feel better. It was hands down the best burger I had ever had in my life. And the milkshake? Don't even get me started on the milkshake.

Heavenly.

I glanced around, my mood definitely improved, and couldn't help but smile. Zach and Josh were talking sports teams, Grant and Bex were in an argument over who got the last cheese stick on their "shared" plate, and Macey was giving me a satisfied smirk. I guess things had worked according to her plan.

"What's with the smile Bowler Champ?" Josh asked, now staring at me instead of Zach. I hadn't realized I was still grinning, I must've looked crazy.

"Nothing really," I admitted. "I just like it here."

Bex, who had won the battle of the cheese stick, finished chewing and asked, "Where? Bo's or Roseville?"

"Both I guess."

I had answered just as Shay appeared at the table again holding our checks. She distributed them across the table and, in reference to my comment, chirped, "If you liked your experience at Bo's make sure to fill out our online survey and tip generously! We appreciate your business!"

As she roller skated away, we looked at each other and burst out laughing. She was certainly an opportunist.

I dropped my money into the check envelope and slid out of the booth, eager to give my legs a good stretch. Now that I had eaten, my calculus homework didn't seem too bad anymore. Everything always seems better after a milkshake.

Once everyone had paid, we started making our way out the backdoor and towards our cars. I came to a halt at the passenger side door of Bex's car and waited for her to wrap up her conversation with Grant.

"Cammie," Josh said, fiddling around with his car keys. He ran his hands through his curly mop of hair and smiled at me nervously. "I can drive you home if you want?"

As nervous as I was at the thought of having to make small talk with a cute boy for an entire car ride, I liked the idea of Josh driving me home. I nodded, hopefully not too eagerly and said, "Yeah I'd like that."

Zach, who had been talking with another football player that had been in the parking lot looked up and met my eyes. He offered me a surprised smirk, raising his eyebrow. "I can drive her Josh," he announced, still looking at me. "She lives in my neighborhood."

In his neighborhood? Yeah, more like 'literally at each other's doorstep'

Josh turned towards Zach with a shrug. "Nah don't worry about it dude, I don't mind."

It was at that moment, Bex choose to unlock her car and I dove into the passenger side seat and grabbed my bag. I wanted to get out of that conversation and into Josh's car more than ever.

I hurried around to Josh's truck and jumped in. "Bye you guys," I called out the window, while he hit reverse. He waved towards my friends and then pulled out of the parking lot, leaning back into his seat and dropping one hand outside his window.

"That was fun!"

I laughed, because even though it was totally weird and awkward, it was sort of fun. Josh's innocence was super cute, I couldn't help but want to agree with him.

"It was. I'm glad Macey made us go."

Now it was Josh's turn to laugh. He pulled back on the gear shift-he drove stick-and turned to look at me. "Macey is the one who wanted to eat at Bo's?" he repeated incredulously. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Well," I reasoned, grinning back. "She wanted us to go because she knew I'd see you. So I'm not complaining, really."

Woah. Did I just successfully manage to say something flirty? Way to go me!

In the driver's seat Josh was beaming. He grabbed my hand a moment and squeezed it, but then his car began to grind and it jumped back to the gear shift.

"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly. "Hard to do both things at once."

I was quiet for a moment, then thought WWMD?

As I dropped my hand on top of his, I didn't feel any sparks or shivers, but it was comfortable, and I knew Macey would be proud of this new, flirt-tastic me.

A/N: Hahaha okay well I hoped you liked this chapter! Is it obvious I have absolutely no clue where to go with this anymore? Someone give me a plotline omg. Chapter 10's coming like (super) soon pinky promise, scout's honor.