Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back from vacation. Thanks for all your reviews! Unfortunately, while I was away I didn't spend much time writing so I only have a chapter and a half done for now. So here's the chapter, and I'll work on the half. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Zoey 101 and all related characters are not my own.

Mango Peach: Nicole
Thursday, November 9th, 2006 ( 6:08 pm)

"…so then I said that I didn't actually order the mango pineapple, I ordered the mango peach and he was being a total jerk about it. I mean, how hard is it to hear peach? It doesn't sound like pineapple. Do you think it sounds like pineapple? Yeah, me neither. Anyways, so what kind of smoo–"

A sudden vibration in my pocket, accompanied by a cute little melody, nearly gives me a heart attack. Heartbeat racing, I pull my phone out of my pocket, glimpsing at the caller id.

"Sorry, I have to take this. Five minutes?" I explain to Liam Carlson, the very blonde, very cute boy sitting in front of me. He's in my English class, which I had this morning, and we happened to be put in the same group so we made plans for later. I think the meeting had something to do with our project, but who really knows.

"Sure thing. I'll just get you a smoothie… mango peach okay?" he teases, flashing me a grin.

I giggle and nod, holding up a finger and walking outside. He's sooooo cute. And he was listening! I have to remember to tell Zoey that… it might mean something.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh shoot, right. My phone. Wow, Dana must be getting really mad.

I flip it open and press Accept. "Hey!"

"What took you so long to answer?"

"Sorry Dana! I'm at the Smoothie Shack with Liam Carlson – do you remember him? – and we were talking about smoothies and I was telling him a story about this one time, when I ordered a smoothie and the guy behind the counter messed up my order and blamed me for it! Can you believe that?"

I hear her cough. "No. That's awful."

"I know, right? Anyways, so I was telling Liam this story when my phone rang – you almost gave me a heart attack by the way – and so I had to leave to take the call obviously, so I told him I'd be back and he said he'd buy me a mango peach smoothie. And the best part is that's my favourite kind!"

"…and?"

"And that means he was listening to me tell my story! 'Cos that was the kind that the stupid guy mixed up for mango pineapple. Ew, who drinks mango pineapple anyway. OHMIGOSH, do you know what it means if a guy listens to what you're saying?" I can't believe I hadn't thought to ask Dana until now. Pfft, why wait for Zoey?

"Uhh, I dunno. There are probably a lot of reasons."

Right, that's why I was waiting to ask Zoey.

"Oh, okay. I'll talk to you later, 'kay? BYYE DANA!"

"NICOLE, WAIT!"

What? But Liam's waiting for me… I can see him looking at me. I'm gonna wave at him. Hii Liam. Oh, he's so cute!

"What?"

"I called you, remember?" she says. I can picture her rolling her eyes right now.

"Oh, right. Okay, so why were you calling?"

"I'm with Zoey and she said to call you because we're all meeting at Sushi Rox at 6:30 for dinner."

"6:30? Okay, gotcha. Is that all?" I hope it is. I like Dana and all, but Liam's so... boyish. And cute.

"Yeah; see you in a half hour."

"Okay, bye! Oh and Dana, did something happen to you in Paris?"

"Uh, nothing extreme. Why?"

"Because you're being all nice to me."

"Give me a break here; it's my first day back. Trust me, it'll wear off by tomorrow." A click signals the end of the conversation.

Okay, that's better. It was getting a little freaky with her being nice and all. At least she didn't wish me luck with Liam; that would have meant the end of the universe was coming. An apoca-whatsit. Ohmygosh… she didn't wish me luck with Liam. That's so mean.

I close my phone and slip back inside the air-conditioned building. I scoot over to the counter and perch on the red-vinyl stool, smiling sheepishly at Liam.

"Sorry, that was probably more than five minutes," I apologize, twirling a strand of hair around my finger. "I feel so bad now. And you even ordered me a smoothie!"

He nods and pushes the orange fruit drink towards me, staring at my hair twisting. Oh no, does he think I'm weird because I do that? I should stop. I free my finger from my hair and pull the bright green straw towards me, taking a sip of the delicious frozen drink. Okay, good, he's looking at my face again. Oh no, is there something on my face now? Shoot, shoot…

Liam clears his throat and shakes his head – why?

"Uh, Nicole," he starts, rubbing his palm on his thigh. I follow his gaze and stare at his pants. His jeans are really nice; not baggy, not light wash. They're nice, normal boy pants. But they're better because they're his. I look back up at his face, the look on his face clearly pointing out that he wasn't just saying my name for the sake of it.

I mouth an 'oh' and sit quietly, sipping my drink. Mmm, peach…

"So, Nicole," he starts over, now tapping his fingers on the counter. I force myself to look into his eyes. It's not that hard actually, they're a really pretty hazel… Uh-oh, he's talking. Focus, Nicole; focus.

"…urday, like maybe a movie? I mean, if you want to and all. If you don't think of me that way then we can both just leave and pretend this never happened." Liam looks at me expectantly.

I just stare at him. Oh. My. God. Is he asking me out?

"Are you asking me out?"

He grins nervously, running a hand through his hair. His blonde, shiny hair…

"Uh,yeah, I guess I am," he laughs. I laugh along with him, not entirely sure why. Maybe he's crazy. Oh well, he's cute, it evens out.

"Okay, sure!" I say, grinning at him. I can't believe it; Liam Carlson just asked me out! And he bought me a smoothie. Wow, he's a keeper.

"Great, that's great," he exclaims, letting out a deep breath. We sit there looking at each other and smiling for… some time. Out of habit I look over his head at the clock mounted on the wall: 6:19.

"Oh shoot!" I yell (whoops) as I jump down from the stool, grabbing my purse off the counter.

"What? What's wrong?" Liam asks, looking around him nervously. "Did you mean to say no or something?"

"Oh, no, not that; I will go to a movie with you," I reassure him. He's so cute when he's nervous. "It's just that I'm supposed to be meeting my friends at Sushi Rox in, like, five minutes for dinner because my friend Dana is back from Paris. She came to PCA for eighth grade but went to Paris for freshman year but she didn't like it so she came back. And now I'm going to be late for dinner with her and – "

Liam interrupts me. "Chill out, Nicole. I'll take you there and we'll walk really fast, okay?"

I nod, out of breath.

"Okay, let's go." He slides off his own stool and grabs my hand, leading me out of the Smoothie Shack, my half-finished mango peach smoothie sitting abandoned on the counter. We race through the campus, whizzing by my dorm, the statue of PCA's founder and the basketball courts, me checking the time on my cellphone every few seconds.

Spotting Sushi Rox with two minutes to kill, Liam and I slow down. This is about when I realize that he's still holding my hand. I slowly look up at him, trying to maintain a steady breathing level to show that I'm in shape. He's the captain of the lacrosse team, so he's a jock, so obviously he'd want to think that I'm an athlete too, right? Then we could go on jogs on the beach in the morning, have races in the pool, play horseshoes…

"Oh, who am I kidding?" I proclaim, holding a hand to my forehead. I hope I'm not sweaty, that would be sooo gross. Oh my god, what if he can see me sweating? He probably wants to date an athlete, but not a sweaty athlete!

"Who are you kidding about what?" he asks me, looking into my eyes quizzically. Shoot, he heard that. I guess I deserve it; after all, I'm kind of lying because I never told him I don't do sports. Even thinking about them makes my stomach hurt.

"Well Liam, the thing is I… oh, I can't lie to you anymore; you're too cute. Okay, the truth is… I suck at sports!" I cringe, squeezing my eyes shut so I don't have to see the look on his face. Oh no, he's not answering! I knew it, I knew I should have—wait, he's not answering. What?

I open one eye to see him laughing silently to himself.

"Okay, that's just mean. I just told you the worst thing I could have possibly ever told you, and you're just laughing about it? How can you not take this seriously?" I demand angrily, tapping my shoe on the ground. My shoes are new and supercute: grape Jimmy Choo velvet sandals. I bought them in August at the outlet store with Zoey and Lola.

"Nicole," Liam says, stopping his laughing abruptly (almost insincerely). "I don't care that you don't play sports; truth is, lacrosse is the only sport I can play. I'm useless at everything else. I can't even throw a Frisbee straight."

Hey, me neither.

"I didn't ask you out because I thought we could play tennis together or work on our layups. I asked you out because I think you're amazing. You're gorgeous, funny, sweet and… I really like you, Nicole."

Aww, he's blushing! That is so cute! I think I'm in love.

"I really like you too, Liam," I say, smiling at him shyly and squeezing his hand.

He clears his throat, still blushing. "Okay, so I'll pick you up at 6 on Saturday."

"'Kay."

He leans down and kisses my cheek before letting go of my hand and strolling away, giving me a small wave. I wave back, grinning at his retreating back: bye Liam. I giggle, twirling around and flouncing into Sushi Rox. Everybody's sitting around the table already so I must be late, but I don't really care. If I had been on time, I would have kept all my feelings inside and broken up with Liam in a week because of my sports insecurity.

"Life is wonderful, isn't it?" I ask dreamily, sliding into a seat next to Logan who's stealing glances at Dana who's talking to Michael who's drinking Lola's drink who's glaring at Logan. If I wasn't up on Cloud Nine I'd be analyzing this situation right now.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Zoey says, putting down her menu. I don't know why she even bothers looking at the menu anymore; she's ordered the California roll ever since that time she'd ordered the tempura roll and Sushi Rox had burned down. "But why's it so fantastic tonight?"

"Liam," I respond, gazing up at the light and sighing. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Lola stop her glare-fest and open her mouth to (presumably) ask what happened with Liam. I also see Chase touching her arm and shaking his head. I'll have to remember to ignore him for a few days.

Liam. Mmmm. I can see it now: we'll have a mansion in Beverly Hills, we'll dine at the fanciest restaurants overlooking the city. We'll stargaze from the Hollywood sign. Wait, that's not illegal, is it? I hope not; that would definitely lower the romantic factor. On the other hand, most illegal stuff apparently gives you a thrill. But is a thrill romantic if it isn't a romance-induced thrill?

"..cole.. Nicole.."

Huh?

"Nicole!"

"What?" I ask, eyes wide; so much for my daydream.

"We've been calling you for at least a minute" Dana's face looms in front of my own. "Are you gonna order or should we let you starve?"

I look to my left and see Kazu looking at me expectantly from behind the counter.

"Oh, right, sorry about that." I pick up my menu and search for something that looks relatively tasty. "Uhhh, I'll have the avocado and shrimp salad." Kazu nods and starts up a new fryer for our sushi.

"So, like I was saying, the girls have their own basketball team now. Coach Gunn finally decided that there were too many talented girls who wanted to play, so he got Ms. Reynolds to start a girl's team," Zoey was explaining to Dana.

"Which is pointless," Logan interrupts, leaning back in his chair as usual. I recognize that tone of voice: he's baiting Dana, just like he used to. I doubt she'll take that one lying down.

"Excuse me?" One point for Nicole. "Why, exactly, is it so pointless for there to be a girl's basketball team? We needed our own team; you boys were slowing us down. The only reason we never won the state championships was because you missed the last shot, remember?"

"Ooh, sounds like I hit a nerve," Logan remarks, smirking. "I think it's pointless, sweetheart, because first of all, that whole thing about there being too many talented girls? Bull; there were six, tops. Secondly, they would have been better off to stay on our team, because despite what you say about us 'slowing you down', it's better to have a completely talented team rather than a half-and-half. And of course, we were this close to sharing a locker room."

He holds his fingers an inch apart and Dana rolls her eyes, leaning back in her chair.

"Whatever, pretty boy. No matter what you say or how confidently you say it, we both know I'm right. That much hasn't changed."

"Neither has the arguing," I add, sipping my ice water. "I mean, you guys have been separated for, what, one year? The first day back and you guys are already bickering. How many fights have you honestly had since you first saw each other today?"

Dana looks at Logan and vice verse. I can see their brains ticking as they stare at each other, picking through the day's events.

"Five," Logan says slowly, uncertainly.

"No, it was six; remember, we had one before Nicole came in?" Dana interjects, biting a fingernail.

"Right, right," Logan says, gazing at her a little too long before turning to Michael. "So, Mike, did you watch the game this afternoon? I missed it."

The sushi arrives, along with my salad, and everybody digs in, Logan and Michael continuing their sports conversation. I munch on a chunk of avocado thoughtfully, reviewing the recent conversation. Well, Dana's back, so that means superjerkboy Logan is back. Oh joy unbounded.

Oh well, if things get too heated I always have Liam.

That reminds me; if today is Thursday, that means our one week anniversary is next Thursday. Only seven days, I'm so excited! Ohmygosh, is he going to get me a present? Should I get him one? If I'm going to, I should probably shop around on Saturday… no, wait, that's our date! Oh no, do I need to get him something for Saturday? That only leaves tomorrow and Lola's scheduled to give me a manicure at four! Maybe I can work around it...

Oh. My. God – what am I going to wear?

Author's Note: Okay, so there's Nicole's two cents. I'm trying to get through everybody's point of view at least once to make the story more interesting. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, the next chapter belongs to none other than Zoey Brooks.