Zoey's Balloon
Zoey was sitting in her room working on homework when she heard a knock on her door. "It's open!" She called out.
Chase stepped in the room, holding a box of sushi in his hand. "Two-a spicy California rolls for one-a spicy Zoey Brooks!" He said in a terrible Italian accent that Zoey couldn't help but giggle at.
"Just put the sushi on the table." Zoey shook her head and tried to turn back to her homework.
Chase set down the sushi and cleared his throat pointedly.
Zoey reached down to grab her money and handed it over. "Here you go."
"Thank you. So whatcha doin? French homework?"
"Nah, psychology." Zoey answered.
"Ah." Chase crossed his arms and smiled his crooked smile at her. "Writing down your little secret are ya?"
"Maybe." Zoey smiled back at him.
Chase walked closer, head craned to try to peer at her notebook.
"Excuse me?" Zoey could tell what he was trying to do so she picked up her notebook and held it to her chest so he couldn't see anything even though she didn't have anything written yet.
"I wanna see."
"It's a secret." Zoey shook her head at him.
"Come on, I thought we were close friends?" Chase sat down on the edge of her bed. "We're tight, like road dogs." Chase tried to say in his best manly voice.
"Alright, do you really want to read my secret?"
Chase just nodded in response.
Zoey quickly wrote it down, tore out and folded the paper before handing it over to Chase. "Here, read it."
He eagerly took it and started unfolding it but Zoey stopped him. "Not in here!"
"Why not?"
"Cause, its embarrassing." Zoey made herself whine and smile nervously, "Read it in the hall."
"Ooh, alright, this must be good then." Chase smiled at her. He stood up and walked two steps outside the room and looked down at the paper in his hands. "I'm not telling you my secret." He read out loud. "Are you kidding?" Chase turned around to ask Zoey, just in time to watch her close her door and give him a wave goodbye with a cheeky grin on her face.
"I feel duped." Chase said to himself. Not that he really cared, he knew pretty much everything about Zoey already, she could have one secret to herself. He was of course a little bit curious but he would be fine. He actually had to think of a secret of his own to write. He knew he had plenty of embarrassing options just like Lola had revealed in class this morning, but there was of course his one big secret.
But that wasn't much of a secret since according to Michael and Logan everyone knew about it already except for the one person he could never tell. Chase shrugged his shoulders, he still had a couple more deliveries to make tonight. If he couldn't think of anything else he would use it. Maybe releasing it out into the world on purpose would make it easier for him to really say it someday.
Zoey laughed to herself seeing Chase's confused face when she closed the door. Then she moved back to her bed and dug into her sushi. She had been going back and forth for most of the day since they got the psychology assignment, and she had come up with two potential secrets she could use. One was just embarrassing and she absolutely didn't want anyone at PCA to ever know about it. But the other was something she had started to realize only recently, and Chase like always gave her a reminder that her secret was the truth no matter how much she tried to deny herself, and only grew stronger every day.
But she couldn't tell anyone, least of all him. He was her best friend, if he ever found out it could ruin their friendship. So she could never tell him out of anyone, but if she told anyone else at PCA it would probably spread like wildfire given the rumors and theories people already had if her roommates could be trusted.
Zoey made her decision and after taking a deep breath, wrote down her secret and folded up the paper. She made sure to hide it in her backpack before Quinn and Lola came back for the night. She couldn't let anyone ever see it.
The next day during psychology class, Mrs. Powers led them outside where they could overlook the track and football field below, holding up a bunch of balloons in her hand.
"Alright everyone, come around me. Come, come come. Now students, today nature is going to be our classroom." Mrs. Powers announced.
"Does that mean that tree is going to be our restroom? Ha Ha Ha!" Michael joked, but everyone just looked at him either blankly or slightly disgusted. "Um, please continue."
"Thank you, does everyone have their secret?"
All the students pulled their secrets out and held them up.
"Fabulous, now why am I holding these helium balloons?"
"We're gonna tie our secrets to the balloons and let them go?" Lola guessed.
"Yes, to lift your burdens off your shoulders and so you can be freer of spirit and clearer of mind. Questions?"
"May I go to the tree?" Chase asked, getting the whole class to crack up, including Zoey, he always knew how to make her laugh better than anyone.
"Oh come on! You people laugh at that? I set that joke up!" Michael complained.
"Alright, no more fribble, everyone come fetch a balloon."
Everyone grabbed a balloon, but Michael had a problem. "Wait I don't want the pink one!"
Chase tried to reassure him. "Dude its not even pink its more like a…like a salmon."
"Oh and that's supposed to make me feel better?"
"The salmon is the noblest of all fish."
"I heard that." Lola nodded.
"Look, I do not want a fish-colored balloon!"
Zoey rolled her eyes, "I'll take the pink one." Zoey held out her green balloon to Michael.
"Its salmon." Michael reminded her.
"OK young people, tie your secrets securely to your strings." Mrs. Powers announced.
Zoey started to tie her secret to her balloon when she noticed Chase trying to look over her shoulder, with it folded up it wasn't like he had a chance to see it anyway. "What are you doing?"
"Well, can you blame me for being curious? I want to know what my best friend's greatest secret is."
"Oh trust me, you don't want to know." Zoey laughed nervously, "its just something really boring that you don't want to know anyway."
"I always want to know everything about you Zoey."
"OK, are you going to tell me your secret then?" Zoey tried to change the subject, hoping her cheeks were just heating up from the sun and not because she was blushing.
"Oh, um yeah, I mean you don't want to know my secret trust me, its kind of…gross. Yeah gross. You don't want to know." Chase rushed out, with the tables turned, it was now Chase who suddenly looked nervous.
"But like you said, I want to know everything about my best friend."
"Well you don't want to know this. How about we call a truce then?"
"Alright truce. We'll agree to never bring this up again."
"Deal." Chase nodded.
Little did they know, even though told each other almost everything they had very similar reasons for not sharing this secret with each other.
"And now students, I will play some inspirational music to underscore this group cleansing!" Everyone released their balloons out into the sky, hopefully never to be seen by anyone ever again.
A few days later Zoey was still awake past midnight, not for any particular reason, she just didn't feel like going to sleep yet, so instead she was on her computer, typing up an email to send to her grandma. When she heard a knock on the door she saw something being slid underneath it into her room.
She walked over and picked up an envelope, inside was a piece of paper with a bunch of letters cut out of magazines on it, reading Go online to Zoeysballoondotcom
Zoey was confused, and a little freaked out. She quickly peeked outside her door, but the hallway was completely deserted. She closed and locked her door behind her and sat back down on her bed, pulling her laptop into her lap once again.
She typed in the address and it took her to a shady-looking website. All there was on it was a video that she clicked play on. The video only had a long text crawl that also spoke in an obviously disguised and distorted voice.
Hello Zoey. I'm glad you can follow instructions. Listen closely. I found your balloon and that means I know your secret.
Zoey's blood ran cold. She glanced up, Lola and Quinn were still sleeping soundly, still dead to the world. But she couldn't take any chances. She paused the video and stuck her earbuds in to keep listening.
Unless you do exactly as I say…I will tell your secret to everyone at PCA. Return to this website tomorrow morning for instructions. And if you tell anyone about this, your secret will be revealed to all…sweet dreams…Zoey. And just in case you don't believe me…
"No." Zoey said to herself. Whoever this was did know her secret. What was she going to do? If anyone found out, if he found out. She didn't know what to do.
The next morning, she followed the website's instructions to the letter. She spent the entire day walking around campus dressed as a giant banana. Everywhere she went people were laughing their heads off or taking pictures. Except for Chase and Michael, when they passed they acted like nothing was a miss, even though she was sure they of all people would have questions, and Lola who ran away screaming at the very sight of her.
Quinn though finally asked why she was doing this, so later that night, making sure the door was locked, Zoey revealed what was going on to her and Lola.
"So someone's blackmailing you and you have no idea who?" Quinn asked Zoey, while Lola was pacing around the room behind her.
"Zero! I don't know who he is or how he got his hands on my balloon!"
"Why even worry about it?" Lola asked her, "I mean even if he blabs your secret all over PCA would it really be that bad?"
"Yes! I would rather dress up like a banana every day for the rest of my life!"
"Wow, what's your secret?" Quinn chuckled at her.
"I'm not telling my secret!" Zoey shot down that line of thinking immediately, she didn't even want her roommates to know, because they would surely let it slip out to him, and she couldn't allow that to happen. "And no matter what, you two can't tell anyone else about the blackmailer, especially Chase…or the other guys."
"Alright, calm down. Where's the original note you got from the blackmailer?"
Zoey stood up to grab the note from her backpack and held it out to Quinn. "Here."
"Wait a minute." Quinn walked over to Zoey's bed and grabbed a silver briefcase which she opened up to reveal a bunch of complex-looking forensic equipment. She pulled on a pair of gloves and only then held out her hand. "Just give me the note."
"Hmm, Interesting." Quinn said as she scanned over both the envelope and the note inside.
"You think you can find out who made it?"
"I think so." Quinn said confidently. "We're going to run a fingerprint analysis, a paper thread diagnostic, and an adhesive polymer scan to test the matrix of the glue structure."
"Yes, I was going to suggest that." Lola nodded along, obviously, neither she nor Zoey had any real clue what Quinn was talking about.
Quinn was up all night doing her various tests, and Zoey and Lola tried to stay up with her, but they both crashed in Zoey's bed around 4 am but Quinn was still going strong the entire night.
Zoey's alarm started beeping, waking both her and Lola up.
"Woah its morning already?" Lola sat up from where she was cuddling with Zoey's stuffed octopus. Doc Ock.
"We've been up all night?" Zoey stretched her arms out
"No, I've been up all night, you guys crashed around four in the morning." Quinn corrected her roommates.
"Well, did you find out where that note came from?" Zoey asked her.
"No." Quinn frowned. "There are no fingerprints, no hairs, no DNA, no dandruff particles…this guy's good!"
Zoey just frowned back and grabbed her laptop.
"What are you doing?" Lola asked her.
"Checking the website to see what horrible thing this person wants me to do today." Zoey sighed.
Quinn walked over to sit on Zoey's other side as she opened up the website.
Hello Zoey, you looked adorable as a giant banana. But today you're going to do something different. At 6 pm you are to report to central campus, just west of the library. You will bring a boombox and a CD with the 1994 hit song The Macalana.
"What's the Macalana?" Lola asked, and Zoey paused the video, shrugging her shoulders.
"I read about it," Quinn said, "The Macalana was the most embarrassing song and dance of the twentieth century. It was like a big zit on the face of the 90's." Quinn grimaced in disgust.
"Shh." Zoey stopped her and hit PLAY on her computer again. At exactly 6:05 you will stand on a table and dance the Macalana at full volume.
"No." Zoey whined, so she had to embarrass herself even more.
If you fail to do this your balloon note secret will be emailed to every student at PCA. Have fun Zoey, I'll be watching you dance.
"Are you going to do it?" Lola asked her.
"What choice do I have?" Zoey sighed, grabbed her shoes and marched out the door.
"Zoey!" Lola called out.
She turned around to face her roommates for a moment. "I just want to be alone." She then continued on her way.
"I feel so bad for her". Lola sighed. "Aren't you curious what her big secret is? I mean, I'll admit mine's a little embarrassing but it isn't anything bad. I definitely wouldn't be acting as desperate as she is to keep it hidden."
"I don't know what to tell you, I'm just as confused as you are. And admittedly impressed, whoever this is knows what they're doing, I couldn't find anything on the note. When I…wait a minute, I'm so stupid!"
Quinn snapped her fingers, grabbed Zoey's laptop again, and started typing away.
"What is it?"
"Zoey's blackmailer is sending messages through a website."
"So?"
"With an IP address I might be able to pinpoint the exact location of whoever created the website."
"Well then, type things and push buttons!"
"I'm typing, I'm pushing." Quinn promised her, her fingers flying across the keys.
Zoey made her way out of the dorm hall, thankful that it was still early morning and she could be alone. She hated whoever this person was, why did they want to torture her? Whoever they were must truly hate her for some reason, but Zoey had no idea who. Even Logan wouldn't do something like this, if he was mad at her for something he would do something obvious and in public, not be so secretive that even Quinn couldn't figure out anything.
Yesterday had been horrible with literally every person she met laughing their butts off at the sight of her in her costume. And now she was going to have to do something even more embarrassing. She didn't want to, but she felt like she had no choice.
Why was she so scared of this? Part of her was saying she should just ignore the blackmailer and let everyone know, or get this secret off her chest herself so she had no reason to listen to them. But she couldn't, for one very specific reason. Chase, he would never look at her the same way again, and she couldn't do anything to risk losing him. She needed him in her life like no one she had ever known before, she couldn't risk scaring him away forever.
She couldn't imagine not seeing his bushy head or cute grin everyday. Listening to his corny jokes that made her laugh like no one else could, and how they helped each other with everything, but she couldn't get his help this time, she couldn't even let him know what was going on. It was just too dangerous to their friendship.
She eventually sat down by the fountain in the middle of campus, the place her and Chase always met each other to talk about anything and everything, but her head just kept going in circles, she still felt like she had no choice but to go through with it.
Soon enough the pathways around campus were gradually filling up with students headed to their first classes of the day and Zoey joined them, enjoying the anonymity while she still could.
A few hours later after school ended for the day, Zoey was walking alone through campus when Lola and Quinn ran up to her, screaming excitedly.
"Zoey!"
"There you are!"
"What?"
"We found out who's been blackmailing you!" Lola announced giddily.
"Get out!" Zoey couldn't believe it.
"We know!"
"Come on!" Quinn and Lola pulled her by her arms back towards the girls' dorm hall.
"OK hold up. Can you two at least tell me who we're looking for?" Zoey asked when they ran into the lounge, both Quinn and Lola rapidly scanning the space for her blackmailer.
"Ohh! There she is!" Lola pointed over to the pool table.
"Who?" Zoey followed her gaze until it landed on… "Rebecca? Are you sure?"
"Positive, Firewire confessed everything!" Lola revealed.
"Wait, Firewire? How is he involved?"
"I tracked the IP address from the website to his room and after some interrogation, he sang like a canary. Rebecca paid him fifty bucks and a mint condition Galaxy Wars action figure to make it and stay quiet about it."
"Then how did you guys get him to talk?"
"Lets just say we were very persuasive." Lola grinned devilishly for a moment, sharing a knowing look with Quinn.
"And you're sure he was telling the truth?"
"Oh trust us, he wouldn't dare lie to us, he knows what we're capable of." Quinn grinned right back.
"Alright then." Zoey scowled and marched over the pool table, catching the que ball as Rebecca shot it.
"I know its you Rebecca." Zoey said quietly.
"Huh, what do you mean Zoey?" Rebecca set down her pool stick and tried to act oblivious.
"That you're the one blackmailing me."
"Oh Zoey, what would make you think I'm the one that found your little pink balloon and your little secret note attached to it?" Rebecca smiled sweetly, but Zoey knew Rebecca enough by now that sweetness was only on the surface, just like a panda bear.
"Are you denying it?"
"No it was me." Rebecca shook her head.
"Why? What did I ever do to you?"
"You made Chase break up with me." She glared at Zoey.
"No she didn't." Lola defended Zoey.
"Chase broke up with you because you're a bucket of nuts!" Quinn added.
"Well, think what you want, but Zoey…" Rebecca pulled out her phone to check the time, "you better get going because you have to dance the Macalana on a table in central campus in less than twenty minutes."
"What?" Quinn was confused, logic demands she lost so she should give up now, right?
"Its over." Lola reminded her.
"You're busted."
"It doesn't matter, because I know your secret, and if you don't do what I say, I'm going to email the entire school and make sure everyone, including you know who knows your secret."
Rebecca walked up close to Zoey so only a few inches were separating them "You really think he'll want to still be friends with you if he were to find out? Now I'm going to go wait because I can't wait to see you act like an idiot in front of this whole school."
Rebecca marched away through the lounge. Lola and Quinn closed ranks around Zoey to watch her leave, all three of them glaring at the back of her head.
"Well now what?" Quinn asked.
"I better go get the boombox."
"Zoey..."
"If Rebecca tells the whole school my secret, I won't be able to stay at PCA because the most important thing in my life will be ruined!" Zoey revealed, she had been fighting them all day, but now, tears finally started to gather in her eyes.
"Is the secret really that bad?" Quinn asked her, again.
"And what was she talking about a you know who?" Lola joined in.
"I can't tell you guys, I'm sorry, but no one can know. So I guess its Macalana time." Zoey sighed and walked out of the lounge.
"We have to do something to help her out of this." Quinn turned to Lola.
"I know, or wait a minute, she won't listen to us, and I know she told us not to tell anyone else, but if anyone can help her….we need to go find Chase! He always knows what to do when it comes to Zoey."
"Good idea, we better hurry, we only have fifteen minutes left." Quinn and Lola started sprinting out the lounge to go find him.
Zoey was walking dejectedly through campus, boombox in hand just as ordered. When she heard someone loudly shouting her name behind her. "Zoey!"
She turned around and Chase had to stop himself from crashing into her. "There you are." He panted out for a few seconds, grabbing onto her shoulders for balance.
"What's wrong with you? Are you OK?"
"Lola…and Quinn…they just found me…and told me…you needed my help."
"They told you? How much did they tell you?" Instead of feeling relief, Zoey just felt even more scared.
"Just the basics, you have a blackmailer that found your balloon and they're making you do embarrassing stuff. That's why you wore that banana yesterday right?"
"Yeah it was so embarrassing."
"Well in my opinion you make a very a-peeling banana. I probably would have asked you about it before but we haven't hung out today or yesterday. But I'm here now, I'll do whatever you need me to do. Just say the word."
"Chase…I don't know what to do." Zoey felt tears gathering in her eyes, she knew what she wanted to do, but she was terrified of the potential consequences.
Noticing the tears in her eyes, Chase gently led her over to sit down on a nearby bench. "Is your secret really that bad?"
"Yes it is. I don't want to lose you."
"Me? How could you lose me because of your secret?"
"Its just if you knew, I'm scared we couldn't be friends anymore, and I don't want to give up my best friend."
"Zoey whatever it is, no matter how embarrassing your secret is, I would never stop being your best friend. Unless you murdered someone. You didn't murder anyone right?" Chase tried to lighten the mood.
"No of course not." Zoey did crack the tiniest of smiles, he always knew how to make her laugh, but it wasn't enough. "I'm just scared of what you'll say when you find out. I don't care what anyone else thinks, only you. Chase you're the most important person in my life. I don't want that to change."
"I promise Zoe, nothing will ever change between us, because I won't let it, and you won't let it. Nothing will ever break us apart. I promise."
"I promise that too."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I…I" Zoey closed her eyes and silently made her decision. She was done hiding, least of all from Chase, even if this was the worst mistake of her life, she refused to hide from her best friend.
"Chase," Zoey reached out and gently took his hand in hers. "My secret is…is that I'm in love with you."
"You're in love with me?" Chase asked incredulously.
"See, I knew this was a horrible idea. I knew we're best friends and nothing else, but I can't help it and-" Zoey turned away from him, tears falling freely.
"Zoey stop." Chase said, he gently squeezed her hand. "Do you want to know my secret?"
"Um sure?"
"My secret, that I put on my balloon, is that I'm in love with you too."
"You do?"
"Of course I do. You've been my best friend since the day we met, but I always wanted us to be more. Not that I had any problem with us being best friends. But I've been in love with you since the day we met."
"Chase I think I've felt that way too, I was just in denial for so long and everything with Rebecca convinced me we were only going to be friends and that was all."
"Totally honest, Rebecca was only ever an attempt to get over you so I could accept that you and me would only ever be friends, but I never felt how I feel when I'm with you whenever I spent time with her. Plus she made the fatal mistake of trying to keep me away from you. Which will never happen."
"I know it won't."
"Did you really think I would hate you for telling me you loved me for some reason? Oh my God!" Chase slapped his forehead in exasperation.
"What? What's wrong?"
"I suddenly understand why Michael and Logan have always been so annoyed with me, and telling me I should just tell you everything. I was always so scared of the worst case scenario, but now I did it, I don't know why I ever had any doubts. Plus saying that sentence out loud now just sounds completely ridiculous."
"Me neither, I was terrified of you finding out once I started admitting to myself how I felt but now…now I feel the happiest I have ever been."
"I feel the exact same way." Chase moved closer to Zoey to wrap her in a hug, and Zoey's heart felt the warmest and brightest she had felt all week. All her doubts and worries wholly disappeared. She never should have doubted Chase.
"So now that we've established we like each other, Can we be boyfriend and girlfriend? Want to go get Sushi Rox? I have the night off so I might as well go eat there tonight."
"Sure I would love to, boyfriend," Zoey smiled, "but there's something I have to do first."
"What's that?"
"Did Quinn and Lola tell you who the blackmailer is?"
"No, who? Please tell me it wasn't Logan."
"No, this time he isn't causing problems, for once." Zoey smiled, but then frowned again, "Its Rebecca."
"Rebecca? Oh man this was all my fault isn't it." Chase grimaced in what Zoey could recognize as Chase's beat myself up tone.
"No Chase its not your fault, Rebecca is the crazy one that wanted revenge on me for stealing you away from her. Even though I did no such thing."
"I have to admit, you pretty much did, but my heart already belonged to you years before I even met Rebecca. She really didn't help herself going crazy over you even though we were still friends. But yeah, you stole my heart Zoey Brooks."
"And I don't plan on ever giving it back."
"So what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to show Rebecca that she doesn't have any power over me."
"Do you have a plan?"
"Oh yeah." Zoey whispered in his ear and Chase couldn't stop his grin. "Are you in?"
"Oh yeah, I'm in. Let's go, girlfriend!" Chase pulled Zoey up from the bench and they marched over to central campus swinging their arms with an extra spring in their steps. Both were over the moon with happiness but also equally determined to show Rebecca you don't mess with Chase and Zoey.
Zoey walked up to Central Campus, boom box still in hand. Chase following behind her a short distance away. Zoey turned around one last time to wink at him as he walked over to stand with the rest of their friends. Quinn and Lola still looked worried for her while Logan and Michael just seemed confused at what was going on.
Zoey set the boombox on the table and climbed up beside it. But she stood tall and looked right into Rebecca's leering eyes. "I'm not going to do it! You hear me Rebecca? I'm not doing it!"
"OK," Rebecca shrugged her shoulders and climbed on top of her own table. "Then I'm going to do this! Everyone, if I could have your attention please? Thank you. Most of us here at PCA know Zoey Brooks? Well I know a little secret about Zoey you might be interested in."
"You're right Rebecca. I did have a secret, but I don't care, I'm happy to let you tell everyone at PCA!"
"Oh really? Are you sure about that? Even him?"
"Especially him. Chase!"
"Yeah Zoey?" Chase feigned surprise.
"Come over here."
"Sure!"
Chase walked over to Zoey and climbed on the table beside her. Smiling the whole way, except for a moment when he locked eyes with Rebecca, if looks could kill….no one messed with Zoey.
"What do you think you're doing Chase?" Rebecca practically growled, shooting daggers at both of them.
Zoey interrupted her, "Chase I love you. That's the big secret! I love Chase Matthews!"
"And I love Zoey Brooks!" Chase announced beside her, then they took each other's hands and Chase pulled Zoey close to him, leaned down and kissed her right on the lips in front of everyone.
Everyone was silent for a moment before they started clapping, cheering and wolf whistling at them. When they broke away both had a blush staining their cheeks, but nothing but happiness shining in their eyes.
"Rebecca, I have nothing to hide, you can stop your little game now. In fact I should thank you."
"Thank me?" Rebecca growled.
"If it wasn't for you, I may have never revealed my secret, but as you can see I had nothing to fear, I just didn't realize it. So thank you."
"Huh!" Rebecca muttered under her breath as she got down from the table and marched away while everyone else was still cheering.
Chase and Zoey got down from the table only to be surrounded by all their friends , each asking a million questions a minute.
"Slow down, one at a time you guys." Zoey smiled at them.
"Zoey! Was that your big secret? That you love Chase?" Lola demanded.
"And you couldn't let anyone at PCA know or you would have to leave PCA?" Quinn asked.
"Yes."
"Are you crazy, did you really think that was a secret?" Lola asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Literally everyone except for Chase already knew that months if not years ago."
"They did?" Chase and Zoey both looked equally shocked.
"Yes, just like everyone knows Chase has been in love with you since 8th grade but he's always been too chicken to tell you too." Logan added.
"Oh my God you two really are perfect for each other." Michael groaned. "Do you have any idea how long we've been waiting for this Drippin day?"
"No?" Zoey asked confused.
"For us since the day you two met and Chase has been so annoying ever since." Michael pointed between himself and Logan.
"I could tell within like a week you two had something going on. Why do you think I asked you first before I asked out Chase last year? But then Chase had to bring little Miss nutter butter to PCA to try to deny his feelings even more." Lola rolled her eyes playfully at him.
"OK we get it. "Chase blushed. "I think we can all agree this has been a long time coming and that both Zoey and I were a little bit stupid. Or in my case a whole lot of stupid. But the important thing now is that there are no more secrets between us, right?"
"Exactly." Zoey reached out and squeezed his hand. "So now that we have the little skunk bag taken care of, how about we celebrate with the Macalana?"
"Why not?" Chase grinned back at her.
Zoey pressed PLAY on the boombox and Chase and Zoey started dancing together, now normally Chase couldn't dance at all, but it seems like he found one song that he didn't look worse than anyone else doing.
After a few moments, the rest of their friends shrugged their shoulders and joined in, dancing the evening away. Chase and Zoey couldn't stop smiling at each other. It looks like Mrs. Powers was right, the truth really does set you free.