Why WASN'T Zay in Rules? His rebellious nature would have fit right in.

Chapter 3- A stomach in knots

The tennis ball banged against the wall over and over again. There was nothing more boring than the rhythmic thud thud thud of the ball hitting the wall. He glanced again at the clock a bit anxiously. If Lucas was going to visit he should have been there by now.

Of course, Lucas didn't visit every day. Only sometimes did his old best friend think to check on him when he was "sick". The days Lucas didn't come actually did make him feel sick. His stomach would twist up and he'd get sad and scared and his hands would shake so bad he couldn't even throw the ball. It was way too late for Lucas now, he was probably at home eating dinner. Zay's dad would be home soon, his mom was downstairs preparing their own dinner, but with the knot in his stomach he doubted he'd be able to eat it.

The tennis ball rolled out of his shaky fingers, it was ridiculous how sad this made him, and thudded against the door. He didn't have anything else to do, so he went over to go get it, bending down by the door to pick it up. Suddenly the door swung open, hitting him in the head.

"Ow!" He complained, looking up to see who it was. Lucas.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be home?" He asked, rubbing his head, which was acquiring a bump.

"I would be except I really wanted to visit you today and my mom said she'd take me, I would have been here earlier but I had detention." Zay laughed out loud.

"You? In Detention? But I thought you'd changed."

"I didn't do anything ridiculous... But everyone else was going to get detention and Mr. Matthews called me Lucas the Good and Maya would have never let me live that down so I HAD to get detention just once."

"What did you do, Lucas the Good?"

"I texted Mr. Matthews that his daughter was looking sexy today." He muttered quietly, a blush consuming his face. Zay laughed.

"So why'd everyone else get detention?"

"Maya led the class in a confiscated items drawer raid when Mr. Matthews wasn't here. I was kind of bummed you weren't there, you would have had a lot of fun. And you would have gotten to see me as Mad Dog. Farkle was Batman. Maya was Maya and..." Lucas frowned a little.

"What?"

"Two things. Riley was good. Riley was perfect. She has so much control, she only ever does anything wrong around Maya and I wish I could be like that. I wish I could actually be good but... You know me."

"I like you, whichever you you are."

"But this me feels fake, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, a little. But they believe in it."

"But you don't."

"What was the second thing, that made you frown?" Zay asked to change the subject.

"Every single second of my little rebellion I kept thinking, man Zay should be here."

"Sorry, I had a stomachache." It was still hard to swallow the knot in his stomach, or to get his hands to stop shaking.

"You're getting sick a lot. Please tell me if you're faking it. You're gonna have to repeat eighth grade if you miss too many days." Zay nodded and sighed.

"I might have faked some of them. But sometimes I end up actually feeling sick anyway."

"Why?"

'Because I'm sad and scared?"

"Why, of what?"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there today and I'm sorry you had to miss me." I miss you, a lot, he thought to himself.

"What are you scared of?" Lucas asked.

"You should go. I need some rest. I have a headache now since you hit me with a door."

"Sorry about that. Bye Zay. We'll talk more later."

"Yeah okay, Bye Lucas. See you tomorrow. At school."