Boseman High School Shenanigans: Episode 1

When Zach and Lily join the others, they all notice that Zach is in an uncharacteristically good mood that he hadn't been in before lunch. He's a bit more thoughtful than he was before his talk with Lily, but for the usually so reserved boy who's always hiding in his hoodies, the smile and nice button-up are a pretty big change.

He takes his place next to Aaron, though there is definitely no touching between them and not much more than a quick look exchanged.
"We could knock," Zach suggests in response to his question. "But it doesn't look like anyone's there." He turns to Freddie, who also appears to be having a pretty good day. "Were you also called to the office?" he asks the boy. He hadn't been there earlier. "Any crazy teachers trying to kidnap you as well?"

"Yeah! Yeah. Fine!" Lily says, with a smile, but there’s a stillness in her eyes when they meet Wendy’s that says ‘I’ll tell you later".

And then she moves on.

"I heard that if they don’t show up after 15 minutes, you’re allowed to leave. Is that true?" she asks the group.

"Let’s just knock." she says then. She felt both brave and sick to her stomach. She knew the knock would go unanswered, for the same reason her favorite teacher wasn’t in school today. And… she suddenly realized, she was responsible for that.


Whatever the hell that is…

"Hey there mi compadres, que pasa?" he says in a friendly voice. He suddenly realizes he's been leaving Norm and the rest of student council with all the Homecoming organization. Bah, I'm sure they like it.

He claps Zach on the shoulder and waves at Emily as she approaches. He winks at Lily and Wendy. "Aaron, you're looking splendid in these lights. What's your secret?"

"You’re chipper!" Lily says, not returning the wink.

"Maybe we ought to check the school for a gas leak?" she teases back at the boy!

Freddie takes the bait willingly. "It's turned into a wonderful day. The best part is you still haven't handed our asses to us in Caracasone."

He sniffs the air. "Gas leak? Maybe that's Melman, he eats sourkraut for breakfast, I swear to God Almighty!"

Emily feels a little disheveled even if she doesn't quite look that way. She's sullen from the tongue-lashing at home and pissed off at her brother. Since she doesn't want to be a total buzz kill she decides to adjust her attitude and at least pretend to be someone the others might like to hang around with.

"Hey guys. What's going on? There's a gas leak?" she asks, feigning a laugh.

"The day has turned out pretty nice," Zach agrees with Fred. He throws quick, almost conspiratorial glances to Aaron and Lily.

When Emily arrives, he greets her and then explains, "No gas leak, at least as far as we know. Though with the janitor gone mad, who knows? Lily is just being Lily." He smiles at a joke in his own head. "Which is awesome."

"What the hell?" Freddie's popular kid, know-everybody demeanor falls away and his eyes blaze. His worst trait is his vengeful streak, especially when coupled with his protective nature.

He turns to Emily as she comes up. "Emily, my God, are you okay? What did the police say?"

"Oh yeah, we took care of business!" Lily says, faux-cracking her knuckles.

"I’m trying out for quarterback after this! I slammed Romanov pretty good! Didn’t I?" she says, with some genuine pride. She looks to Wendy to back up her brag!

"I’d show you a picture but… it’s in there." Lily says, pointing to the door of the principal’s office.

"Speaking of in there," Zach says, stepping up to the door. "I mean, just because we think nobody's home, doesn't mean we can't at least try, right?"
He pauses just a brief moment, then knocks at the door.

"I'm just peachy Freddie." Didn't Emily just get done telling herself to be nice. "It's fine, I'm fine. Really. Just got a thorough yelling at which was mostly directed at my idiot brother. There were no cops. So how's everyone? What did I miss?"

"Nothing here," Zach replies to Emily's question. "I just went home and got changed." He can't stop himself from throwing another big smile at Aaron, hoping nobody notices. Then he turns his attention back to Emily. "Why were your parents yelling at Steve? He didn't do anything wrong!"

Freddie is baffled by this, and waits to get the whole story. "Here I was worried about you getting a ride with Marco when we should have been worried about the faculty. Mind-blowing," he says, and makes the trite explosion gesture from his head.

"Oh come on with the drama llama already. We were fine." Emily doubted that Freddie was really worried and now he was just annoying.

Be nice Emily. Be nice.

She does.notice Zach's smile aimed at Aaron and wonders briefly about it. "They're always mad at Steve," she says shrugging.

"Well, that's dumb," Zach says to Emily. "Steve seems like a good guy. And he really didn't do anything wrong. It was just an accident, and I doubt it had anything to do with why you were attacked."

He shrugs, then, as he's still standing close to the door, leans past Wendy into the office. He hits the light switch. "Weird," he says. "Where could he be?" An idea occurs to him and he throws a look at his friends. "You don't think those two attacked him after we left, right?"

Lily gives Wendy a disapproving look for being so brave/foolish.

"After what we say yesterday!" she reminds the girl.

"It could have been the three of them this time!" she scolds, and then makes a disgusted face!

"Let’s just grab my SD card and get out of here! I bet they did, Zach. Creeps!"

"Eww," Zach exclaims with a frown. He takes a step into the room, careful to avoid stepping into the liquid, and squats down to take a closer look at it. "What is that?"