Zoey 101: All Or Nothing ☑

Chapter 6

Chase POV Continued......

Maybe I was still living in the past. Maybe I hadn't realized that this move was permanent. Maybe it was time for me to start living in the present, to embrace my new school and my new classmates. Maybe I hadn't made enough of an effort.

I had to face the fact that I was now a Wisconsinite.

I stopped looking at everything, especially school, as temporary. I was going to have to find a way to get comfortable at school and with the guys.

But first I had the little matter of my date with Lola.

We were sitting across from each other like we did every day at school for lunch. But this was different. Not just because we were at a pizza place before the movie. This was a date. And it wasn't any date, it was a date with the hottest girl in school and Zoey's best friend. This was a big deal.

Lola always looked pretty at school, but she went all out that night. I almost didn't know what to do when I met her at the mall. She had on this flowery dress and her hair had one of those sparkly barrettes in it. And every time she smiled at me, I got a little nauseous. Not the I'm-gonna-hurl nauseous, the this-is-exciting one.

I took an extra big sip of my soda as Lola smiled at me while we waited for our pizza. It was like she was expecting something witty, something more than our usual dissection of the school day.

"So ..." She wrapped one of her loose strands of hair around her finger.

"So ..." was my witty reply.

She reached her other hand out to me. "I'm so glad we're doing this."

"Me too."

Ugh. I swore I knew how to talk to girls. I talked to Zoey all the time. But I became worried that I'd used up all my small talk with Lola at school.

"I'm thinking of having a Halloween party," Lola said as her finger kept twisting her hair. I wasn't the only one who was a little nervous.

"That could be fun."

She nodded. "Yeah, especially since I was thinking that I'd invite all the guys, like Vince, Michael and Logan."

"Michael's cool." And the only guy who really gave me the time of day.

"Yeah, I feel like it would be good for you to spend some time with the guys."

I hated that it was so obvious to everybody how I wasn't "one of the guys" here.

I swallowed my ever-shrinking pride. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it. Even I need to make sure to get in good with everybody."

That surprised me. Lola was one of the most popular girls in school.

She continued. "Especially Logan. Ever since we were little, he was always the one with the biggest circle of friends. He'd have the birthday parties everybody wanted to be invited to. That's not going to change for him. He'll have no problems fitting in next year. But the new school is going to be so big. I'm worried about getting lost." Her voice got quiet and she sank down in her seat a bit. Lola was usually so bright and bubbly, I felt like I was getting a deeper glance. "I don't know. I guess I'm thinking too much. I like the little circle we have now. And I feel things already changed so much with you moving here. I mean, I see Zoey less." Lola's eyes got wide, like she knew she shouldn't have said that.

Before I could say I didn't mean to take Zoey away from Lola, she jumped back in and said, "Not that I -" Then she fumbled for a second. "I like having you here. I hope you don't think it's that."