Time Capsule

Zoey was busy setting up the video camera to record her video for the time capsule. It was pretty late at night, so the girls' lounge was completely deserted for once, except for Nicole who was carrying her laundry back to their room.

"Hey Zo, you coming up to bed?"

Zoey shook her head, "No, I'm working on my time capsule thing."

"OK Have fun." Nicole said as she left the room carrying her laundry basket.

"Goodnight."

Zoey sat down on the couch and turned the camera on. "Hi, I'm Zoey Brooks, if you're watching this it's probably twenty years from now. I've bet a lot of stuff has changed since I went to PCA. I hope you guys still have DVD players in the future, cause if not then I'm talking to no one. Anyway, for me, the best part about going to PCA is spending time with my friends. And I'm lucky cause I have awesome friends here. So, I'm gonna tell you all about them."

"But first some things about me. I'm fourteen years old, and currently a freshman. I started PCA last year, as part of the first-time girls were allowed in PCA. Yeah, believe it or not, PCA used to be boys only. And because of that, we had to make some changes. There weren't any girls' teams last year, so me and my friend Dana were on the basketball team with the guys, but this year there's a bunch of girls' sports too. I'm the captain of the girls' basketball team this year and also the Co-ed Disc golf team, hopefully, you've seen our trophies, Go Stingrays! I have a little brother Dustin, who I think is the cutest thing, but my friends all claim I mother him too much. I don't think so though, that's what older siblings are for, looking out for your little brothers. Let's see I'm also pretty creative, my friends come to me a lot to help fix their problems and I love helping other people out. But anyway enough about me, now I want to tell you about all my friends."

"Quinn Pensky, she was my temporary roommate last year for a few days, and that was for a good reason. She probably has an IQ higher than Albert Einstein, I can't even count how many times she's built something, melted something, or blown something up. She's a bit of a crazy girl, but her heart is always in the right place when you need a friend. But don't let her near your food, she'll want to dissolve it in acid, spray chemicals on it, test it for germs, or feel if it's sad. In case you haven't guessed, she's really into science. She probably knows more than some of our science teachers, and watch out, she's also really good at making lasers. So you don't want to get on her bad side."

"Next Lola Martinez, one of my roommates this year. Her dream is to be a famous actress so, if everything goes according to her plan, you probably know everything about her already. And sorry to burst the hopes of any fans she has, she doesn't want to put anything in the time capsule because everyone will already know everything about her. I don't know much about her yet, she's also a bit crazy sometimes. You know what, I think everyone here is a little crazy, there must be something in the water."

"Now it's time for Logan Reese, I guess I'd call him a friend but only barely. He's Michael and Chase's roommate, and he's the biggest jerk on campus. Logan tries to act like a ladies' man, but if he could marry himself he totally would. Yeah, he claims all the girls love him, but as long as I've been here he's never had a girlfriend or anything, probably because especially last year, he tried to go all macho man over all the ways guys are better than girls, but one thing Logan definitely doesn't have is the brains to back himself up. Oh and PS, you should probably check for a camera in whatever he puts in the time capsule. Let's just say I speak from experience."

"Moving on from Logan, Michael Barret is much more fun to hang around with. He's Chase's best friend and is always down to have a good time. He unfortunately also shares a room with Logan. He's usually pretty funny. I think he and Chase are writing a song together about PCA, I haven't heard it yet, but I'm sure it will be amazing, if Micheal's flute skills and Chase's writing prowess combine, it can only be greatness. His favorite food is potato chips, do you still have those in the future?"

"Nicole Bristow is my best girlfriend here at PCA, we've been roommates since last year. She likes to talk a lot and is mostly focused on all the boys. She's also really creative and artsy. She can easily talk about anything for hours and hours if I let her, especially her crush of the week. We've had lots of fun memories together though, like when she threw the disc that led us to victory in our first Disc Golf game so we could get out of running laps for PE. I hope in the future they do better things than running endless laps in the hot sun for PE. So having Nicole as my roommate is one of the best things about my life here at PCA."

"And now…" Zoey paused the recording. She had planned out what she was going to talk about everyone in advance, but what she had written for Chase didn't seem like enough, or at least honest enough for her. "No one's going to see this for twenty years, maybe I should be honest with myself for once. Just speak what comes to mind when I think of Chase." She told herself. She took a swig of Blix to quench her throat before pressing record again.

"And now I want to tell you about one of the most special people I have ever met. His name is Chase Mathews, and he is one of the funniest, coolest, nicest guys in the world. And sometimes I kinda think he has a little crush on me. But other times I kinda think he just wants to be friends. All I know for sure is that Chase is really special to me. And who knows, maybe he's even my soulmate."

"I can tell you a million stories about all the fun things Chase and I have done together. He was the first person I met at PCA and gave me my first tour of where everything is. He's a really great writer, by any chance is Alien Love a movie yet? I know he'll always drop anything to help me out, like I hope he knows I always will for him. He's my best friend, and I don't know, maybe I do like him. We just always click together perfectly. But I don't know, over the summer we talked over the phone almost every day. But that wasn't enough, I missed seeing his cute bushy head every day."

"So anyway, that's my life, in the olden days of September 2005. I can't wait to see you in twenty years. One last thing, we better have a woman president by now, maybe it will even be me? Zoey Brooks signing off from the past."

Zoey stopped the camera and made sure everything was transferred to her laptop. She did watch over everything one more time and it looked great but seeing herself really talk about Chase for the first time, she knew in her heart, that she was finally speaking the truth to herself. But she had no idea what to do about it.

Yawning, she packed all her stuff up and headed back to Room 101 for a good night's sleep. She was so thankful her dad packed earplugs for her on nights like tonight that Quinn was sawing logs in the next room.

The next day Chase and Zoey were walking together to their first class after breakfast. Chase was explaining the song he and Michael were writing together.

"It's pretty cool, you know Michael laid down this awesome keyboard track and I should have the lyrics done by tomorrow night."

"Mmm," Zoey said, swallowing a grape. "So do I get to hear this song before you guys put it in the time capsule?"

"I don't know, what's it worth to ya?"

"Hmm, about fifteen grapes?"

Chase thought the proposal over for a few moments. "Deal." Chase said, taking half of Zoey's grapes.

"So what about you? Did you finish your time capsule DVD?"

"Yep, last night."

"Cool, so what'd you talk about?"

"You know…just about my life here at PCA, my thoughts, my friends, what I like to do for fun." You. She thought, with a slight sigh.

"You, your friends?" Chase asked.

"Mmhmm." Zoey nodded.

"So you talked about Nicole, and Lola, and Quinn?"

"Yeah, and you, and Michael, I even talked about Logan for a little bit."

"Oh, so what kind of stuff did you say about everybody?"

"You know, different stuff for different people."

"Right of course, because if you were talking about Logan you probably mention he was an egomaniac."

"Right."

"But if you were talking about me, you might say…what?"

"I'm not telling you what I said." Definitely not, no way. I can't risk making things weird between us. I can't risk losing my best friend over a stupid crush.

"Oh, I think you are."

"Sorry, I gotta go to class." Zoey walked away from Chase

"Aww, come on. Tell me what you said about me." Chase called out.

"You'll find out in twenty years." Zoey waved back at him with a smile on her face, I hope he bought that act.

The next day was the day it was time to bury the time capsule. Zoey had her DVD in hand already, she didn't understand why Lola was so adamant about not putting anything in, so she finally walked up to Mr. Bender herself.

"Got any room in there?"

Mr. Bender nodded. "Yep, just toss it in."

"Got it."

Twenty years. Zoey thought to herself as she looked around at her friends, Nicole, who put one of her favorite dresses in, Logan who gave a picture of himself, Chase and Michael's song. It was pretty good when she listened to it. I wonder where we'll all be in twenty years? She glanced over at Chase, he looked like something was bothering him. He was so cute when he pouted.

Hold on, where did that come from? It felt like now that Zoey had admitted to herself how she felt, she couldn't stop looking at Chase differently, had he always been so cute? And she always loved spending time with Chase, but now she felt warm and fuzzy inside when she looked at him, almost as fuzzy as his head. His cute, bushy head. Stop thinking like that, he's your best friend, nothing more.

"Hey, what's up?" Zoey asked.

"Oh you know, just thinking about the future. Where do you think we'll all be in twenty years?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about that too. Wherever we are, I hope we're still best friends."

"Me too. So I really can't see your video before then?"

"Afraid not, I only made one copy and then deleted it off my laptop. You'll just have to be patient." Zoey lightly elbowed him in the ribs.

"Well in that case, can we make a pact to come dig it up exactly twenty years from today?"

"Sure Chase, I don't know what you're expecting." It was taking everything Zoey had to play it cool. She didn't regret her decision, but she was really glad the DVD was now buried 2 feet deep for twenty years.

"How can I not, you not telling me is what builds the suspense. Besides, I let you listen to my song."

"I paid you grapes, and you agreed to it. I don't have to show you anything, and even I wanted to, it's too late now." Zoey said as Mr. Bender was already shoveling dirt over the time capsule.

"You're killing me Zoey, but fine, I'm already counting down the days. Chase pulled a calculator out of his pocket. Let's see 20 years is only… seven thousand, three hundred and five days. Wow, that is a lot longer than I thought."

"I'll let you keep track of that then. See you later." Zoey walked off with Nicole and Lola.

That night Zoey was kept awake by a massive thunderstorm howling outside her dorm. And also because of Chase, she had been thinking about him all the time since the time capsule was buried. When Chase was so mad about the play when Logan was the lead instead of him, could that have been because they were supposed to kiss? And there were plenty of times where Chase seemed like he was about to tell her something very important, like when she was almost expelled by Mr. Bradford, or wait a minute, when Chase stole her quiz answers for the dance, and then he was so mad when she picked Glen, how could she not see it?

But what if she was wrong? She couldn't risk it. She couldn't lose him if he said no, or even worse they date for like a week but then break up. She needed Chase in her life, and it doesn't have to be romantic. Zoey can be happy as friends. But she never felt like anyone understood her as well as he did. Or maybe Chase is just an amazing friend to everyone he meets because that's the kind of perfectly sweet guy he is. She didn't know what to do. Well, maybe there was one thing, if nothing else it would probably be a good laugh.

A few days later, Zoey was riding her Jet X through campus when she saw Chase lying down underneath some trees. She pulled over and walked over to check him out. She could see he was completely dead to the world, so to have some fun, she tied his shoelaces together before she laid down on the grass in front of him.

"Hey."

Chase shook his head into wakefulness, and his eyes grew wider seeing Zoey right in front of him. "Hello."

"Whatcha doing?"

"Resting."

"Why?"

"Well, I haven't gotten much sleep the last couple days."

"How come?"

"Oh, I've just been busy. Doing stuff." Chase said evasively.

"Yeah, stuff can keep you busy." In truth, Zoey hadn't gotten much sleep the past few days either, all her thoughts were filled with Chase. "So listen."

"OK?"

"You know how you asked me what I said about you on my DVD?"

"Yeah?"

"And I said you'll find out in twenty years?"

"Right."

"Well, I decided that was a little mean."

"You did?" Chase showed his excited smile, which Zoey could admit to just herself, she really loved seeing every day.

"Mmhmm." Zoey nodded.

"So?"

"I'm gonna tell ya."

"You're gonna tell me?"

"Yep. In ten years." Zoey smiled.

Chase paused for a few moments, trying to process her words. "What?"

"Bye." Zoey picked herself off the ground and jogged over to her Jet X.

"Oh, you're dead."

"Ooo I'm scared." Zoey shot back.

Chase picked himself up and tried to run after her but immediately fell on his face.

Why do I fall for him, even more, every time he falls? Zoey asked herself silently as she laughed at his shocked face.

"What the?" Chase looked down at his shoes and found his laces tied together. "OK, now you're really dead."

"Gotta catch me to kill me." Zoey shot back.

"Zoey! Zoey Wait! Zoey!" Chase yelled after her as she drove away, she turned back once to see him trying to hop along and catch up to her.

Zoey smiled to herself, a girl needed to have some secrets, if she and Chase were still just friends in ten years, or something more, she would be fine with him telling him then, but for now, she would wait and see what the future has in store.