So I'm working on an update for Frog Snails, I am. It's just proving difficult. I keep losing track of my book and taking Zach's perspective is way trickier than one might think. It'll go up. Eventually.

For now, here's this update. Hope you like it. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Gallagher Girls series or its characters.

Chapter SIX

Over the next two weeks, I fell into a sort of routine. I'd get up at nine to get ready and eat breakfast before heading to the backyard to meet Zach by the woods. We would run all around town in those woods. The paths went all over. I showed him how to get to the park and the school and all the best places to hang out with friends. After that, we would sit out on my deck and drink lemonade. Sometimes, Bex or Macey would stop by and chat with us.

One day, about three weeks after Josh had left, we were sitting outside when Macey asked Zach why he'd moved to Roseville.

Zach's answer came easily so I knew he must not have had strong objections to the move. "Abby got a job offer. It was a big move but it was a pretty good offer. The timing of it was pretty good, too."

"Where did you live before?" I asked.

"Minneapolis. Abby did her graduate work at the U of M."

"Psychology, right?"

He nodded and gave me a wide grin. "My sophomore year she tried to get my principal to reenact the Zimbardo study with high school students. He did not take the advice well."

Macey laughed. "I can't imagine why."

I finished the last of my drink and stood up to get more from the kitchen. "Anyone want something to eat?"

"Yes," Macey exclaimed, "make me a sammich, woman!"

I rolled my eyes and went into the house. The air-conditioning was running and the cool air brought goose bumps to my skin. The hum of the ice-maker in the fridge was the only sound in the kitchen as I poured myself another glass of lemonade.

And then my phone rang on the counter by the sink, freaking the shit out of me and causing lemonade to go flying all over the kitchen.

"Holy shit." I gasped in shock as the cold drink drenched my clothes.

I grabbed a handful of paper towels on my way to my cell. I answered it with one hand as the other padded the particularly wet parts of me. "Hello?"

"Cam, hey." It was Josh.

I stood up straighter and my hand froze mid-pat. "Josh, oh my gosh. I wasn't expecting your call."

"Did I get you at a bad time?" He sounded worried, and I hurried to console him.

I shook my head as though he could see me. "No, no. I was just surprised is all. Happily surprised! What's up?"

I hopped up onto the counter behind me only to land in a wet spot. I grimaced and scooted over a little although that did nothing to make up for the fact that my ass was already soaked.

"Everything's going great here. We're getting ready to move on to Port-au-Prince. We'll be there until mid-July and then we'll go on to Havana and Kingston and Kingstown."

"Kingston and Kingstown?"

"Yeah, Jamaica and then St. Vincent and the Grenadines."

I sighed. "You sure are putting a lot of stamps on your passport."

"It's amazing, Cam. You really should have come." He said. "Everyone here is so great. I mean, I told you about DeeDee."

Ugh, DeeDee. Her name had been popping up every time we talked for the past two weeks. In the occasional email he'd send me, he would spend half three-fourths of it explaining some adventure DeeDee and he had taken. DeeDee was from South Carolina and was captain of the equestrian club at her school. DeeDee did over five hundred hours of community service last summer alone. DeeDee was this and Dee was that.

I wanted to punch DeeDee. She had completely captivated my boyfriend with her caring heart and all-around American sweetie-pie attitude. It made me nauseous.

Admittedly, she was a nice girl (which I knew first-hand because Josh had insisted on introducing us over the phone), and I doubted she was actually trying to steal the guy I loved. Still, it was hard not to feel insecure when she got to spend the whole summer with him and show-off how she was so much better suited for my nice-guy boyfriend than I was. I mean, I volunteered but only because Josh did, and I wanted us to do more things together as a couple.

I know, I had no compassion for the needy.

"Did you know," Josh said and I just knew he was going to say something else about how great DeeDee was, "that DeeDee plays the guitar and the banjo? The group had some rec time last night after I talked to you and we went into town and ate at this karaoke bar, and DeeDee got up and played this song called 'Hand in Hand' and wow. She's a really good musician!"

I swallowed back my irritation. "That's great."

"Yeah." He sighed. "So do you have any plans today? I don't have anywhere to go for the next hour or so."

I started to reply but the sound of my name cut me off. "Hold on a sec." I told Josh.

"Cam?" Macey called as she turned the corner into the kitchen. She came to a halt as she noticed the dripping counter and the puddle I was sitting. A laugh escaped her. "Oh my god."

"I know."

She shook her head and said, "Zach and I were thinking about going to Bucky's for lunch. You in?"

I bit my lip. "Actually..."

For the first time, she noticed the phone in my hand. "Oh, don't say it."

"Say what?" Zach's voice called from the back door.

"She's going bail on us to make gooey eyes at her phone."

Zach came up behind Macey and quirked his head at me. "Is it true? Are you picking an inanimate object over us? Because if you are, I'm offended."

I made a face at him. "No. I'm picking my boyfriend over you two."

"Some might consider that dependency issues." Macey commented.

"Some might consider you a bitch but I pay no mind to that either."

Macey put her hands on her hips. "Ha ha. Real mature, Morgan."

"What can I say. I'm a classy lady. Now, shoo."

I brought the phone back up to my ear and turned away from the two of them. "Hey, Josh. I'm back."

He didn't respond but there were voices talking in the background so I knew we hadn't gotten disconnected. "Josh?"

"What? Oh, hey." He said, drawing out the end of his greeting. "Listen, I actually have to go now. I forgot that the group leader agreed to let DeeDee and me go to the beach with some of the others."

"Oh."

"I'll call you later, though. Okay?"

"Right." My voice was thick with sudden disappointment. "See you. Or not see you, I guess."

He laughed a little. "Hear you later, babe."

"Yeah, hear you -" He hung up and the other end was silent now. I brought the phone down from my ear and slouched my shoulders. My hands gripped the edge of the counter as I stared down at my lap. A shadow passed over my shoulder and then Macey was standing by my side, looking at me.

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry."

I shrugged and tried to brush off the fact that my boyfriend had chosen DeeDee over me as no big deal. "Why? Nothing's wrong. Josh had to go do some volunteering thing. He'll call later."

Macey's gaze shifted behind me. "What do you think, Zach? In your male opinion, is Cammie telling the truth or is she bullshitting all the way?"

"Oh, definitely bullshitting." Zach said. He came up on my other side and laid a hand on my shoulder. Even through the fabric of my jersey, I could feel a little spark through me. Did the boy drag his feet everywhere he went? "But we don't need her to tell us the truth."

"No?"

"Nope. Because we'll be here either way."

I looked up into Zach's face and he was looking back at me. For all his annoying tendencies (and there were plenty that I'd discovered over the past two weeks), Zach also had these moments of stunning sweetness. He was like a walking contradiction. He had the looks of a player but aside from the occasional suggestive comment he rarely flirted with any of my friends. He liked guacamole but hated avocado. He liked classic rock but not any other oldies music. He was a jackass but he was kind.

Zachary Goode expertly avoided definition.

And it was as I was looking at Zach that something switched in me and suddenly, I couldn't stop the words coming out of my mouth.

"My boyfriend is being inadvertently seduced by a well-meaning tramp! And I can't do anything except sit and listen to it happen. I can't even see it happen which almost makes it worse because if I could see it happening then that would mean that I would be there, physically, and able to stop it!" I said, whipping my head around to look at Macey. My voice was rising into a yell. "And I'm trying to be happy for him because he's off doing something that makes him feel good and feel like he's making a difference, but every time I imagine him there helping out, she's right next to him in all her bubbly blonde glory and I just want to punch someone!"

Zach scooted a little farther away from me so that he was out of arms reach. I guess his kindness only went so far. I couldn't blame him. I might be on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"Why didn't you tell us about any of this earlier?" Macey asked.

I shrugged and traced the countertop with my finger, suddenly feeling shy. "Maybe because I felt ashamed? Josh is off volunteering for people who are barely surviving and here I am whining because my boyfriend is out of town. Plus, I mean, part of me knows that I'm blowing the DeeDee thing out of proportion. She seems like a nice girl, really." I mumbled the last part, reluctant to say it but knowing I should.

"Nice girl or not, we totally would have taken your side and called her a homewrecker." Macey wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "That's what friends do when their friends go psychotic. They don't institutionalize them; they stick by them one hundred percent."

I laughed a little. "Thanks. That makes me feel so much better."

"It really, really should."

I took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. "This just isn't how I pictured the summer before senior year."

Zach snorted behind me. I turned to glare at him. "What?"

He shook his head and said, "Nothing. It's just the idea that you had plans for this summer."

"Yeah, so? Plans are good."

"For some maybe." He paused to think for a second. "Like accountants. Or the OCD."

"Well, that's a little offensive."

"Most of life is offensive," he said, "that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you let yourself get hung up on all the crap that happens in your life, you'll miss the great moments."

"Get to your point, Goode."

"Alright, then." He grabbed my shoulders and turned so that we faced each other fully. "Cameron Morgan, you need to stop looking at life like a series of steps. It's not some logical equation that you can solve by punching a few numbers into your calculator. It's far more simple than that which makes it all the more complicated."

I tilted my head. "What?"

"I'm saying you're seventeen! What the hell are you doing settling down already?"

I rolled my eyes at him, understanding what he was trying to tell me. "I'm not going to dump my boyfriend, Zach. I love him."

He held his hands up in defense. "I'm not saying dump the guy. I'm just advising you not to tie all your strings to him."

"I'm not." I said quickly. But then a little voice inside my head said, Aren't you?

I had been with Josh so long that I was having trouble keeping myself together without him. It's one thing to be part of a couple - it's fun and exhilarating and hopefully, full of love - but when being in a couple becomes what you center your life around, you're crossing into dangerous territory. Was I unable to be myself without being with Josh anymore?

Could I find myself again without him?

I shook my head. "I don't know, guys. I don't even really know what it is you want from me."

It was Macey who spoke this time. "We want to have conversations with you that don't lead back to Josh. We want you to smile at us and not at something Josh told you earlier. We want just Cammie."

Zach nodded. "Because guess what. Just Cammie is kind of just a blast."

"You think I'm a blast?" I covered my cheeks with my palms like I was blushing and giggled. "Well, isn't that just super."

"Many parts of me are."

"Yeah, like your engorged head."

He smirked at me, and now I blushed for real. "Ew! No, not that kind of head. Gross, gross mental image!"

He and Macey laughed at my faux pas, and I hung my head in shame. I felt a smile lurking around the corners of my lips and realized that yet again, my friends had managed to pull me out of my funk. In the next second, I was stunned to realize that in the past two weeks, Zach had morphed from my cocky new neighbor into my cocky new friend who tried to cheer me up and twisted my words into dirty thoughts.

Years of reading Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul had prepared me for a lot of things - loss of a pet, a friend, a family member - but they had forgotten to teach me how to combat a boy with quick wit and a girl with hawk eyes. I was outnumbered with these two and if I wasn't careful, they might just take over my life and run it better than I did.

And what do you when you can't beat the enemy? You join them.

I sighed. "Fine, enlighten me, oh wise ones. How do I become 'just Cammie?'"

"Well, for one," Macey said, "you go out to lunch with us."

"And two," Zach said, facing his hand palm up in front of me, "you hand over the mobile device. No calls, no texting, and certainly no more hanky panky from Mr. Nice Guy."

I gave him a glare to let him know that his joke was falling flat on this audience but begrudgingly handed him the phone anyways. He deftly popped open the back and slipped out the battery. He smiled at me cherubically. "Thank you, madam. You'll get this back once you've earned it."

"Why are you talking to me like a kindergartener who's just gotten in trouble for drawing on the walls with permanent marker?" I asked as I was led out of the kitchen toward the front door.

"Probably because in a way you are a kindergartener." Macey said. "You're starting from square one, Cam. All these years of being with Josh have left you naive to the life a single person. And let me tell you, it's no easy world to live in."

"Macey, guys ask you out all the time."

She shrugged indifferently. "None that are up to scratch."

We headed outside and across the grass to Zach's car. I felt like I was a sheep being shepherded by these two ranchers who, in fact, weren't taking me back to the barn like I thought but to the butcher. I quickly discarded that thought. Zach and Macey weren't serial killers.

Or were they?

The two of them exchanged a smile as we loaded into Zach's car with me in the back. They looked so pleased with themselves, like they'd just run a marathon or outdone Einstein's Theory of Relativity and reshaped modern science.

No, they were most definitely not serial killers.

Just serially awesome.

Haha! Did you like all my silly word twists? I did. But that's my kind of humor.

Hugs and kisses from Zach to all you lovely readers!