The Great Vince Blake
It had been a few hours since Chase had reported Vince Blake for cheating on their history test and getting him suspended right before the state championship game, and right now it was just getting dark out and Chase was shooting hoops with Zoey. They had both decided it was probably better to skip the football game, plus they would both much rather just hang out alone together anyway.
"So, Mr. Toppin found the pics on his phone?" Zoey asked.
"Yep and Vince got academic suspension, so he can't play in the state final, so everyone at PCA hates me now." Chase passed the ball back to Zoey.
"Not everyone hates you." Zoey smiled at him.
"Do you think I did the right thing?"
"Tell you what, if I make this basket, you did the right thing." Zoey shot one more free throw that swished straight through the net.
"Excellent," Chase smiled as he grabbed the ball.
"I didn't doubt for a second you would do the right thing Chase, for one you're terrible at keeping secrets, if you tried to hide it, I know it would just eat you up inside." Zoey walked closer and hugged him.
Oh, I'm terrible at keeping secrets huh? If you only knew. Chase sighed, "So if you thought telling Vince was the right thing, why didn't you tell me so?"
"I don't know, I guess I just wanted you to do it yourself, and don't you feel better?" Zoey asked him.
Chase shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah I guess I do. But if you had told me what to do from the start, I wouldn't have even hesitated to tell Mr. Toppin right away."
"Maybe it was better this way though since if you told him before, he would have been caught before he took the test, that probably made the punishment worse."
"See, this is why I always listen to you, you're always full of good ideas."
"Yeah, yeah," Zoey checked her watch. "I have to get going. Stay safe tonight."
"OK, I think I'm going to hang out here, shoot some air balls." Chase joked.
"You're good at that." Zoey laughed at him. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight Zoey."
Zoey walked off into the night and Chase turned to shoot a few more baskets. "OK, if I make this, I will one day tell Zoey I love her," Chase whispered to himself.
Thankfully he made it, but when he turned around, suddenly the entire football team was in front of him, Vince in the lead.
"Uh, hi?" Chase asked, he couldn't stop his nervousness from creeping into his voice.
"I told you not to mess with me. You should have just kept your mouth shut." Vince glared at him.
Chase glanced around at all the players, but he wasn't going to give them what they wanted. "Fine, come on. Want to beat me up? Do it." Chase wasn't going to back down, he knew he made the right decision. "It's not going to change things."
"It'll change your face!" One of the other football players yelled at him.
"Touché." Chase admitted, they were probably right about that.
"Now just hold up!" Michael, Logan, and Mark all walked up behind Chase.
"Hey Reese, Barret! You guys gonna help us do a little dance on Mathews' face?" Vince grinned at them.
"Nope." Michael and Logan stood shoulder to shoulder with Chase, and Mark standing behind them.
"Wait, there's going to be a fight?" Mark asked, sounding panicked, "You guys said we were going to see a movie!"
"Now look, why don't you guys just go on back to your dorms," Logan suggested, ignoring Mark.
"I don't think so." Vince chuckled and crossed his arms.
The four guys just glanced at each other.
"OK," Michael said, "if you're going to mess with Chase, you have to mess with us too." Logan and Michael stepped protectively in front of Chase.
Vince glanced at the rest of the team around him before shrugging his shoulders, "OK then, those stupid Mighty Shrimp crushed us, so now we're going to crush you. Oh and Chase, after we're done here, I think I'll go pay Zolaroid a visit, I'm sure she'd appreciate a real man more than a goody-goody, scrawny little wimp like you."
Chase, Michael, Logan, and Mark all stood stoically. Waiting for the inevitable, even though Chase's eyes flashed with rage at Vince's mention of Zoey, but he still didn't react.
Vince moved first, he pushed his way through Logan and Michael and then socked Chase right in the jaw. Chase stayed standing but it quickly turned into a free for all. Chase did his best to keep his hands up and defend himself, but in all honesty, he only lasted a few seconds before being thrown to the ground, where the stomping and kicking continued. He couldn't even see or hear any of the rest of his friends over all the pain.
He finally heard something besides the crunch of his bone when Vince kneeled down and pulled him up by his hair. "I get why you did it, Chase. You're just jealous of me, aren't you? I don't blame you, who wouldn't want to be me? I have a gift that I need to share with the world. You have nothing and you never will. Least of all Zoey. Why you think you even have a chance with a babe like her? You're completely delusional. Once I'm done with you, I'm sure she'll be happy to make me feel better after being forced to the bench for the game. If you know what I'm saying." Vince grinned cockily.
Vince then dropped him to the ground, and Chase was still too dazed to stop his head from hitting the ground, sending another burst of pain through his skull. He pulled himself up to his hands and knees. "Vince." Chase growled, "You can do whatever you want with me, but if you dare do anything to Zoey-"
"You'll what? Beat me up? I'd like to see you try." Vince laughed and kicked Chase in the face again.
Chase was pretty sure he blacked out for a bit, and when he came too, suddenly the football team started shouting and running away. There were a bunch of bright flashes of light and smoke blinding Chase. And there were also maybe some booms, but that could have just been the blood pounding in his head.
Once all the football players had run away the flashes and booms stopped abruptly. Chase glanced around, he could finally see Logan and Michael huddled on the ground, and Mark was stuck in the middle of the basketball hoop above them. Chase closed his eyes, wishing for the pain to go away.
"Chase, Chase." Someone was shaking his shoulder. Chase opened his eyes to see Zoey's beautiful face shining down at him in the half-light from the nearby lampposts.
"Chase, can you hear me?" She looked worried, and it could have been Chase's watery eyes, but it almost looked like she had tears running down her cheeks.
"Uh yuh yeah. Zo- Zoey." Chase croaked out.
"Are you OK? Sorry, stupid question. We have to get you out of here." Zoey glanced around and called out, "How are the other guys?"
"Mark Baby, are you OK?" Chase could hear Quinn's voice close by.
"Clint? I mean Quinn." Mark shook his head sounding dazed, "How did I get up here?"
"You were so brave, Mark. Can you get down?"
"Yeah, I think, maybe…." Mark shifted his shoulders and slipped through the hoop to the ground with a thud, "Yep that did it." Mark groaned while Quinn started her franticly nursing over every inch of him.
"Lola?" Zoey called out.
"Michael and Logan are both in rough shape," Lola said, sounding worried. "How's Chase?"
"He doesn't look good. What should we do with them?"
"Our lounge is closest, let's take them there! Plus I have a first aid kit in our room." Quinn ordered.
"Right." Zoey turned back to Chase. "Chase, can you stand up for me?"
"I, I'll do anything for you Zoey." Chase rasped out. He awkwardly pulled himself up into a sitting position and then Zoey helped to pull him up so he could stand, and then ducked beneath his shoulder with one arm wrapped around his torso.
"Are you still with me?"
"I'm always with you Zoe."
"I know Chase, and I'll always be with you too." Zoey nodded. "Do you guys need help?"
"Yes please!" Quinn said, together Quinn and Zoey pulled Mark up, and Lola had both Michael and Logan up, so then they all walked in line together, Chase, Zoey, Mark, Quinn, Logan, Lola, and Michael, the girls supporting the guys as best as they could.
When they finally made it back to the lounge, the guys all collapsed onto the couch. Quinn ran to Room 101 to grab her first aid kit. Lola followed her to help grab anything else they needed, but Zoey stayed behind.
She couldn't stop looking at the guys, all the bloody bruises and scrapes covering their arms and faces, and that was just what she could see on the surface. But mostly she couldn't look away from Chase. She felt like she couldn't leave his side even if she wanted to, and she didn't want to.
"I can't believe he did this to you guys over a stupid football game." Zoey sighed.
The guys just groaned in response.
Lola and Quinn came back with their arms full of first aid supplies along with their friend Lisa.
"Lisa, what are you doing here?"
"I ran into Quinn and Lola and they told me what's going on, so I'm here to help you guys out." Her eyes scanned over all the guys but fell on Michael.
"Thanks Lisa. Quinn, what do we do?" Zoey asked.
"Rule number one, glove up." Quinn ordered tossing all the girls safety cloves, "Bandage up all their bleeding cuts and scrapes, ice for bruising, also we should be checking them over for any signs of severe internal bleeding, and if they have severe pain, they could possibly have some broken bones."
"Got it, Quinn." Everyone grabbed band-aids, bandages, dressings, and antibiotics and got to work. Quinn doted on Mark, Lola focused her attention on Logan, Lisa started taking care of Michael, and Zoey of course played nurse for Chase.
She did her best to be as gentle as possible, in her opinion he looked to be in the worst shape out of all of them, not really surprising since Vince and the others attacked him first. She winced in sympathy whenever Chase winced or groaned in pain, she kept on apologizing, but Chase kept saying he was so grateful that she was taking care of him. His arms and face were the bloodiest, and other than a few scrapes on his knee, his legs were bruised dark purple.
Once they got all the guys patched up as best they could Quinn went around to each of them to check their vitals and for any signs of broken bones or internal bleeding. This included making all the guys pull their shirts off for a few minutes for her exam, but they were still all so out of it, that not even Logan was in the mood to joke about the girls telling him to take his shirt off.
"You're good to go Chase," Quinn said, pulling her stethoscope out of her ears and handing him a new shirt that Lola and Lisa had grabbed from the guys' room.
"Thanks Quinn. Ow." Chase groaned as he pulled his shirt back on.
"He'll be ok, won't he Quinn?" Zoey was still refusing to leave his side, sitting right next to him on the arm of the sofa while Quinn had checked him over.
"No signs of broken bones, concussion, or severe internal bleeding. I think all of you guys should be OK in a week or two. But all the rest of those football Neanderthals aren't going to be." Quinn growled as her eyes once again rested on Mark's bruised face.
"You got that right Quinn," Lola nodded along. "but we have our plan remember? So no more explosions."
"No more? What are you guys talking about?" Lisa asked, she currently sitting next to Michael on the couch, gently tracing her fingers around his bandages.
"Actually yeah, what even happened? The team just ran away from us all of a sudden. And were there really explosions or something? I thought I was hallucinating." Chase asked.
"I'm sorry Chase, I wanted to stop them sooner, but I couldn't." Zoey couldn't stop the tears flowing from her eyes.
"What are you talking about? Why are you crying Zoe, what's wrong?"
Zoey started to explain, "So after I told you goodnight and headed back to the dorm, Lola and Quinn stopped me and we watched everything from above the science building. After they lost the game, Logan and Michael knew the team was out for your blood so they came to Quinn and Lola for help. Lola used one of Logan's cameras and made sure she got a picture of every guy's jersey and then video of the fight itself. Logan and Michael's plan was to stall them to make sure we got enough evidence, and maybe just maybe convince the team not to beat you up, but they were going to stand by you the entire time no matter what."
"Why'd you do that?" Chase was still in too much pain to follow whatever their plan was.
"So we can get all of them suspended if they actually tried to beat you up for being honest. After we got enough video, Quinn used her zap watch, and Lola and I threw a bunch of these tiny explosives she made at them to scare them away. And now here we are." Zoey said, thankfully her tears had stopped once again.
"It was our idea Chase," Michael groaned, "we couldn't let them beat you to a pulp without doing anything."
"The whole team was even more pissed when Seabrook creamed us, even though for the record, I doubt we could have won even if we had Vince," Logan admitted.
"Let's just say that rumor about their fullback being a monster football player? Totally true." Michael added.
"I know, I tried to tackle number 0, and he just kept running like I wasn't even there. And no one else on the team was any better."
"And then that linebacker 32 took Cal down like ten times before he could even take two steps."
"OK boys, I think that's enough talking about the football game, it doesn't even matter. Quinn, do they need anything else?" Zoey asked, her eyes still never leaving Chase's bandaged, but still bruised face.
"Well, I promise I don't think there is anything seriously wrong with them, but they should still go see the nurse tomorrow morning." Quinn finished packing up all her things.
"Good, then we'll do that." Zoey nodded along, "So what should we do now?"
"There's nothing else we can really do for them now. I say we take them to their dorms and let them rest."
"Sounds like a plan." Lola nodded.
So then all the girls each pulled one of the guys up and held them up around their torsos and got them to stumble their way back to the guys' dorm.
Zoey wrapped her arm tightly around Chase's chest like she was afraid to let go. All of the guys were more alert now, but Zoey wasn't going to be taking any chances. Chase was leaning most of his weight on her, but she didn't mind one bit. Being pressed so close to him admittedly felt nice, but she hated how the smell of the cologne he wore every day was covered by the smell of blood and the anti-sceptics Quinn had used.
They made it back to the guys' room a few minutes later and they all helped them crawl into their beds, Logan being on the top bunk had the most trouble and Lola even had to support him to make sure he didn't fall down while trying to climb up. Meanwhile, Quinn took Mark to his room a little way down the hall.
Zoey tucked Chase's blankets around him and asked him once more. "Do you need anything Chase?"
"No," Chase groaned but did his best to smile at her, "I'll be fine Zoey. You've already been the greatest."
"I'm just doing what any friend would do. I know you would do the same for me."
"You're right, of course I would. But don't worry, you and Quinn and everyone else made sure I survived tonight. I don't know how I could ever thank you enough."
"You don't have to, as long as you promise to always be my Fuzzyhead." Zoey reached out and ran her hand through his hair.
"I'll always be your Fuzzyhead Zoey," Chase promised. "Goodnight Zoe."
"Goodnight Chase." Zoey stared at him for a long moment more as he closed his eyes, and surprisingly within a few moments, he drifted off into sleep.
Zoey stepped back to see Logan and Michael were both snoring already, while Quinn, Lola, and Lisa were all standing near the doorway ready to go.
As much as Zoey wanted to stay, she smiled tiredly at all the other girls, "Come on, let's go."
"Right behind you Zoey." Lola nodded.
Zoey opened the door and they all walked into the hallway, but almost immediately they ran into Vince Blake.
"What do we have here? Zolaroid, Quinnderella, Lolalicious, and Lisagna, Isn't it a little late for you girls to be in our dorm? Not that I'm complaining." Vince raised his eyebrows in what he probably thought was a charming smile.
"I think you know." Zoey crossed her arms and glared back at Vince the other girls following suit.
"Oh yeah, I heard Chase, Barret, and Reese all had an accident tonight. In fact, maybe I should check on them to make sure they don't need anything."
"I don't think so. You aren't allowed anywhere near him." Zoey said. Backing up to stand protectively in front of the door.
"Look Zolaroid, I just want to check on my teammates to make sure they're doing OK."
"We know what you did Vince, and you aren't going near him. Chase did the right thing, you cheated, and got punished. Boohoo if you lost a football game. You made your choice, and Chase made his. And unlike you he is the nicest, sweetest guy at this school, you have no idea how much he fought with himself over whether to tell or not, but he did. And we all know he did the right thing. And he, Mark, Logan, and Michael didn't deserve to be beaten up, just because you couldn't play your stupid game."
"Look, Zoey, how about you and me talk about this tomorrow? What do you say, you, me, dinner? I can show you how much manlier I am than wimpy Mathews. He was just jealous of me because he knows you like me, don't you?"
"Like you? Gross. I hate you, and do you want to know why Vince? Because you hurt four of my friends for no reason, and most of all, you hurt Chase, my best friend in the entire world, so I will never forgive you. Now leave, or else."
"Or else what? What could the four of you possibly do to me?" Vince turned at all of the girls' stony expressions.
"Quinn," Zoey ordered without missing a beat.
Quinn held up her wrist and started pressing a button on her watch repeatedly, each time a small red laser shot out right at Vince.
"OW! Stop that! Ow! Quit It!" Vince shouted for a few seconds before he gave up and ran down the hall.
"I can't believe him," Zoey growled out.
"Well, at least he's gone now. We should probably get back to our dorm." Lisa yawned.
The other three girls started to walk away before they noticed Zoey wasn't with them. They turned around to see Zoey staring at the guys' door.
"Zoey? What are you doing?" Lola asked.
"I can't leave. What if he comes back and hurts Chase again? Or even worse."
"Don't worry, I locked Mark's door behind me when I left, we can just lock Chase's door too," Quinn promised.
"But, I don't want to leave him alone. I'm staying here tonight. I'll sleep on their couch, just in case Vince or any of those other idiots come back." Zoey declared.
"Zoey, I think you're being a little paranoid." Lola tried to calm her down.
"No, I'm not! That, that, neanderthal almost killed Chase! I am not letting him near Chase ever again! I don't even want to think about what Vince would do if we weren't here right now. I'm not leaving Chase alone!"
"Ok, ok. We understand." Lola and Lisa both walked forward to hug Zoey. "You do whatever you want, and we'll meet you again in the morning to take the guys to the nurse."
"Thanks you guys."
"And here, take my watch. I really doubt you'll need it, but just in case." Quinn smiled.
"Thanks, so I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Goodnight Zoey." They all chorused and then Zoey opened the door, and then closed and locked it behind her. She glanced around the dark room, all the guys were still sleeping peacefully, Zoey walked over to Chase, she hated seeing all the bloody cuts and scrapes marring his face.
"I'll protect you Chase." Zoey said, and she didn't know why, but she knelt down to lightly press a soft kiss to his forehead. She then grabbed an extra blanket from the foot of Chase's bed and laid down on the couch. She got as comfortable as she could, but still stayed up for a while, just watching the gentle rise and fall of Chase's chest as he dreamed, mostly to tell herself that he would be alright.
Now that she wasn't actively worrying about Chase, she finally admitted just how scared she was, she had wanted to fight Vince herself when he attacked him. Quinn had had to physically hold her back until Lola collected enough evidence, but if one thing was for sure, none of those football idiots would ever touch Chase again. Because she knew, she couldn't bear to live without him in her life. She didn't even want to think about Chase being so hurt, this was more than just beating up, she was lucky Chase wasn't hurt worse than he was if Quinn was right, and she usually was.
Zoey let a few tears quietly fall, and she didn't try to stop them, the idea of no Chase, of Chase being hurt. Forget that horror movie the guys had traumatized Dustin with, Chase hurt was her worst nightmare. And she would do anything to make sure it never happened again.
The next morning Chase woke up with a groan. As much as he wished he didn't remember last night, his entire body was covered with reminders. Everything was sore from his head to his toes. He sat himself up in bed and glanced around the room, he could see Michael still lightly snoring away in his bed, and then he turned his head some more and he froze. Zoey was sitting up on the couch and watching him.
"Zoey? What are you doing here?"
Zoey quietly walked over and sat on the edge of his bed beside him. "Last night, I couldn't leave you alone. When we were about to leave, Vince came back and we had to scare him away again. I couldn't risk anything else happening to you. Are you feeling ok?" Zoey reached out and gently caressed his cheek, while closely studying his face.
Chase couldn't help himself from leaning into her and felt his face heating up. "Honestly now, I feel like everything hurts still, but I can pull through. I promise I'll be fine as long as I have you with me."
"You don't have to worry about that. I'm not going anywhere." Zoey promised him.
"I know you wouldn't, if our roles were reversed for some reason, I wouldn't want to leave you alone either."
"Well, as long as we're in agreement, that sounds just fine with me." Zoey's phone buzzed in her pocket. "The girls are all up, and Quinn has all our video evidence compiled and ready to show Dean Rivers. So if you want to wake up the other guys, I'll let you change so we can report all the football idiots and then take you to the nurse." Zoey reported.
"Ugh, sounds good Zoe." Chase pulled himself up. "Thank you though, for everything."
"Of course Chase." Zoey smiled at him, and they both froze for a minute until they both shook it off Zoey escaped out the door while Chase stood up to gently shake Logan awake above him.
Zoey unlocked the door, stepped into the hall, closed it behind her, and then stood in front of the door protectively with her arms crossed. No one was going to even look at Chase funny until he was better again, much less try anything else. Of course she cared about Michael and Logan too, but she could admit, only to herself at least, that Chase was the one who had her so worried. She trusted Quinn, but she wouldn't be able to relax until the nurse checked him out, and all the football players were suspended, or preferably even better, expelled.
A few minutes later, Chase opened the door to invite her back inside and Mark and the other girls soon joined them, so they all made their way over to Dean Rivers' office. The guys were all in a bit better shape and could walk fine without help, but Zoey was still refusing to leave Chase's side.
Chase could tell what she was doing, she always felt like he could read her like a book. "Don't worry Zoe, I promise, I'm not going to break."
"I know, I just don't want anything else to happen to you." Zoey finally gave in to the urge to throw her arm around him, whether he really needed her support or not.
"And it won't, because of all my friends, and even more importantly, I have you." Chase happily leaned into her side, just enough to comfort her, but not worry her that he was actually about to fall. Feeling Chase so close to her, made her feel more secure.
They made it to Dean Rivers' office, and when they walked in, he was once again playing with his tiny pool table. He glanced up after shooting the tiny que ball.
"Oh hey Zoey, by the way, can you order some more Moon Bars? they're so good! What can I do for you kids? Woah, what happened to you four?" He asked, eyes widening as he took in the boys' conditions.
Zoey spoke up. "We'll tell you exactly what happened, and we have plenty of evidence to prove it." Behind Zoey, Quinn held up a DVD that held all their video.
"Well then, just start from the beginning." Dean Rivers set down his tiny pool cue and pulled a Moon Bar out of his desk.
"Chase?" Zoey pulled him forward and once again threw her arm around him.
"Well Dean Rivers, you know how I was the one who busted Vince for cheating…"
So for the next hour or so Dean Rivers listened attentively and asked plenty of questions as the whole gang relayed everything that had happened last night, and showed him their video which plainly identified the entire football team. When they finally finished, he sent them on to the infirmary and promised the entire team would be dealt with harshly and appropriately.
So after another couple of hours in the infirmary, the boys were all cleared to go back to their rooms. Logan and Michael both crashed out in their beds almost immediately, but Chase and Zoey spent some time just talking about random things like usual, they both knew why, but they kept it unspoken that Zoey didn't want to leave Chase alone yet.
They had drifted off into companionable silence for a moment when Zoey spoke up again. "Um, Chase…?" She asked quietly.
"What is it Zoe?" Chase glanced down at her, it wasn't like he would ever complain about holding her beneath this shoulder, no matter how bruised his arm was.
"Have I told you how brave you were last night?"
"Um, I don't think you did, but I wouldn't expect you to, I was on the ground after like five seconds."
"Yeah, I know, but just how you did the right thing reporting Vince no matter what everyone else was telling you. And then you didn't back down from him."
"To be perfectly honest, I knew what the right thing to do was, and then I asked myself what would Zoey tell me to do, and I did that."
"I'm flattered Chase, but there's a reason I always come to you for help and a reason why I trust you more than anything. Because you will always be the sweetest, nicest, most amazing guy I've ever met."
"And that goes double for you, except you know being a girl and all." Chase grinned.
"It's OK, I've been a girl my whole life." Zoey smiled back for a moment before her face turned serious again. "I've never been so terrified of anything ever, well, except for the whole Rebecca thing."
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere Zoey, you can't get rid of me that easily," Chase promised her.
"I would never want to get rid of you, you're too important to me. And honestly, more important than I ever realized. Chase, I can't imagine my life without you in it. And I know I might be crazy, but I have to ask you something." Zoey paused and took a deep breath in, but never looked away from his beautiful green eyes. "Chase, have you ever thought about us being more than friends?"
She could tell when Chase completely froze, and her heart plummeted that she had just made the worst mistake of her life, but to her surprise, she felt Chase's arm pull her in closer.
"Yes Zoey. I have thought about us being more than just friends. More than you could ever know. I love you, Zoey." Chase said after pausing for breath one final time.
"I love you too Chase." Zoey leaned forward to surround him in a hug. Last night made me realize just how much. "I love you, Chase, from the bottom of my heart, and I promise I'll always protect you."
"I'll always protect you too Zoey." Chase sighed in happiness and then he leaned forward to capture her lips, and Zoey felt like she was melting from the inside out.
When they separated, Zoey opened her eyes, but to her dismay, Chase looked like he was grimacing in pain. "Chase, what's wrong?" She asked already starting to panic.
"No, no. Nothing's wrong. Trust me, that kiss was the greatest thing ever, but I think we need to wait until my busted lip heals. I'm sorry." Chase grinned sheepishly.
"There's nothing you need to be sorry about. I promise I'll take care of you until you're back in fighting shape."
"Fighting shape?" Chase laughed, "You've seen my fighting shape."
"Then let's call it your Chase shape because you are absolutely perfect."
"And so are you Zoe. I don't know what I would ever do without you."
"You will never have to find out," Zoey promised and hugged him tighter. Eventually, they dozed off on the couch in happiness, both dreaming with smiles on their faces.