Zach had found Addison waiting for him outside of school. She wasn't alone, of course. Zed had his arm around her and Eliza and Bree and Bonzo were around her. The fact that all of them looked troubled made Zach nervous.

"My aunt texted me this morning saying that Bucky won't drive me to school anymore," Addison told him. "School's about to start and I haven't seen him."

Zach bit his lip and looked around. "My mom tried to go by but no one answered the door. And then Aunt Kitty called her and said she saw her on the cameras and they were out of town, which is bullshit because she told me Bucky was sick and wouldn't be at school."

"What?" Zach asked.

"I'm not supposed to say he's sick," Addison shrugged. "We aren't supposed to get sick. Not important. She's telling two different stories and something is up and I'm worried out of my fucking mind."

Zach had cried himself out the night before. Otherwise he would've broken down at her words.

"We'll try to look into it," Zed told them. He shook his head and said, "Try not to stress too much, Zach."

The bell rang and Zed said, "Let's reconvene at lunch."

They went inside the school and headed for their home rooms. Alonzo was the only one in Zach's home room but Eliza hung around them for a second.

"So, you and Bucky?" Eliza asked. "That's a surprise."

"He's not what you'd think," Zach said a little tiredly.

"I haven't said anything," Eliza said. "Just never thought I'd see the day. Not just when you actually got in a relationship, but when Bucky became so…"

She trailed off, then glanced up at the ceiling. "I'm gonna be late, see you guys."

Eliza turned back the way they had came. Zach looked at Alonzo who shrugged. "Eliza, man."

Zach was standing at his locker. He had gone to put his morning books away and lighten his backpack for lunch and had ended up staring at the picture of the cheer team from States. Bucky had given it to him; it was more zoomed in and was mostly focused on Bucky and Zach. It was the only picture of the two of them and it made his heart ache a little.

"…all morning and nothing. I'm getting worried." Zach perked up a little at the sound of Tracey.

"Do you think something could have happened?" Tracey asked. "His mom never responded to my text."

Zach didn't know what came over him, but he turned around and grabbed Tracey around the collar, turning back and slamming him into the lockers faster then he knew he could move. Zach was filled with sudden rage at the thought that Bucky's own friends might have had something to do with what had happened the night before.

Tracey had the wind knocked out of him as Zach held him inches off the ground. He looked completely terrified and Zach felt a sickeningly happy because of it. Still, he glowered at the cheerleader, nearly growling.

"What did you send Bucky's mom?" he spat out.

"I-Let's just relax!" Tracey said in a panicked, breathless voice.

"Oh I'm calm, I'm very calm. Answer the fucking question."

"Let him down!" Lacey shouted in a whiny, ineffective voice.

Zach just continued to glare at Tracey. He pulled him off the lockers and slammed him against the metal. Tracey whimpered a little, shaking a little.

"Just calm down," Stacey said in an annoyingly soothing voice, like trainers did to wild animals.

"Answer me!" Zach snapped. "It's your fault, isn't it?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

Zach growled and lifted Tracey up a little more. "Don't lie to me!"

Before it could advance any further, Zach was pulled away from Tracey and Zephyr materialized between the two of them. Alonzo and Roz and even Zed were at his side, moving him further away. The crowd that had formed backed up as they did.

Zed had pulled Zach's arms behind his back to restrain him while Alonzo and Roz and Zephyr worked to diffuse the situation. Zach was struggling to get out of Zed's grasp, growling as he just wanted to get his hands back on Tracey.

"Zach, relax," Alonzo told him. "Calm down, you're shorting out."

Zephyr looked over Zach's shoulder and asked, "You got him Zed?" Zach didn't need to turn to know Zed nodded. "Get him out of here before Principal Lee shows up."

Zed had taken Zach into the gym locker room. Once Zach got a good look at where they were, he flared with even more anger than he felt toward Tracey. There were so many memories of Bucky in the locker room it made his heartache. But by then, he wasn't thinking anymore. His Zombie had taken control and was taking any emotion Zach felt and turning it into pure rage.

Before anything could happen, Zed managed to wrestle Zach to the ground. Zach was growling and squirming to get out of his grasp.

"You're gonna hate me for this," Zed muttered. He managed to get his hands on Zach's Z-Band and hit the manual override, then pulled away as fast as he could.

Zach screamed as he was electrocuted for a solid ten seconds. He spazzed on the ground until the electrical shocks became more spaced out and finally returned to normal. Zed watched him cautiously, watched as he calmed his breathing down.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I know how terrible that feels."

Zed made a move to Zach, who didn't say or do anything. His left arm still twitched with the electric shocks from his Z-Band and Zed day down next to him.

"I know we aren't really close, but we're still friends. You can talk to me, Zach, because in all the years we've been friends I've never seen you get so mad. I've never seen you even get close to shorting out."

Zach pouted, looking both annoyed and disgruntled. It was kind of adorable and Zed had to fight the urge to laugh. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm not Alonzo. I'm not Roz or Zephyr or whoever the hell you're close with. But I'm probably the only person who understand a fraction of what you're going through. The biggest difference was that I wanted to kill your boyfriend, not his jockey."

Zach looked at him, the corner of his lip twitching in a slight smile. He frowned again though and looked back at the ground, at his hands in his lap, shaking. "Did I hurt him?"

Zed shook his head. "Just gave him a fright to last him a lifetime."

"I-I can't function without him, I just can't," Zach said shakily. "I've never felt like this. It's-I've never been so scared."

"I know it's scary, I know your worried out of your mind. Trust me, I know. But we're gonna figure this out together. We have your back." Zed told him reassuringly. "But you can't beat up people just because."

Zach frowned and clenched his fists at the thought of the incident. "I don't know how, but I know Tracey and Lacey and Stacey had something to do with all of this. They were talking about Tracey texting Bucky's mom."

Zed raised an eyebrow at that. "Really?"

Zach nodded.

"I may just have to beat the little shithead up too."

Zed had been Zach's personal escort to the cafeteria, where his friends were waiting were for him. Zephyr has told Zed that Addison was waiting for him in the library.

Addison and Eliza were in the back, eating their lunch even though they both knew they weren't supposed to. Zed sat down across from them and they both stopped their conversation when he arrived.

"How'd you guys keep Zach from getting into any trouble?" Zed asked.

"Tracey did it," Addison answered. "Said they were just messing around. Nothing to worry about."

"I just wanna know what Tracey did to make the nicest guy I know go insane."

Zed pulled out a phone and put it on the table. "Apparently he's been texting Bucky's mom," Zed explained. "Zach thinks that Tracey may have been behind everything. I managed to snag his phone without him noticing, but I don't have a password."

"Oh," Eliza said. "I would not have thought of that."

"Only one way to be sure." Addison picked up the phone and unlocked it.