Hi, I'm Zoe Nicole Merrick

Mr. Greene yelled at the 3 of us for talking 9 times in those 45 minutes. Well, he definitely knows my name now, so why look at the negatives?

“Zo.” Zack spoke to me in a way that said I-miss-you

“Zack!” I said, definitely excited to see him. I gave him a big hug and he hugged back, almost picking me up off the ground.

“Zoe, we got to get going to choir.” Alex said all the way down the hallway, so everybody could hear.

“’Kay!” I yelled back to him “see you later Zack.”

“Bye baby sis.” He smirked. We were freaking 47 seconds apart, come on now, not a big difference. I could feel the girls stare daggers into the back of my head, I guess it’s because Alex was talking to me, they can fuck off. I went to my locker and put my History things away, with a folder that I apparently needed for choir.

“C’mon hon., we have 1 minute to get upstairs to choir, let’s go!” He whisper-yelled at me. As soon as he saw I was done, he grabbed my wrist, and ran me upstairs to choir, we just made it in the doorway when the bell rang.

“Glad of you to join us Mr. Gaskarth, and friend, what’s you name sweetie?” Mrs. Lincoln directed towards me.

“Zoe Merrick.” I shyly smiled.

“Glad you could join us, now, since you’re a new student, I need to know if you’re an alto or a soprano honey, come join me by the piano.” she said to me.

I didn’t like singing in front of people, my body froze up, and apparently, Alex noticed, because he gave me a reassuring smile, and motioned for me to go over to Mrs. Lincoln, then he sat down in his seat.

I went next to Mrs. Lincoln and she whispered “I would like you to sing Somewhere Over The Rainbow please.”

Glad I knew that song, I started singing the lyrics “Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high, there’s a land that I learned of once in a lullaby.” then finished it off. Everyone in the room clapped, not one of those polite claps, one of those wow-good-job-claps.

“Very nice job, Miss. Merrick, take your seat next to Mr. Gaskarth, you are an alto.” she pointed at Alex and me and Alex both smiled.

Taking my seat next to Alex, a bunch of people whispered “Nice voice.” to me, which made me blush and smile.

“Good job Zo, you got a voice on you.” Alex said to me, with that charming grin of his.

Blushing I managed to speak out “Thank you.”

He smiled again as Mrs. Lincoln began to speak “Okay class, let’s stand for our warm ups.”

After our warm ups she spoke again “Today, we are going to do a crossword, I don’t really mind partners, but no big groups of people working together.”

About 4 pretty girls asked Alex the same exact question “Want to be partners?” he declined all of them.
Alex started talking and took me out of my thoughts “Partners?”

Inside, my stomach was full of butterflies “Why of course Mr. Gaskarth.” I attempted to say in the best British accent I had.

He chuckled “Why thank you for the honor, Miss. Merrick.” as he grabbed my hand gently and walked me over to a corner after we were passed out our crosswords.

We looked over it for a few minutes in silence until he broke it saying “Yeah, I don’t know shit Zo.”

“Get your book thingy, it says on the paper to use it.” I giggled out.

He looked at it and replied “Oh, hey, it does say that, hold on.”

He got it and came back, after us passing it back and forth for each question, so it would be fair, we actually got it all finished with 20 minutes to spare. Apparently, everyone in this class was NOT smart enough to figure out they needed the book. We turned in our papers, and went back to the corner we were at.

I thought it was going to be awkward, but conversation was flowing well between us. I started first “You have a really good British accent Alex.”

“I was born in Essex, we moved here when I was seven, you can’t tell usually, because kids used to make fun of me for it, so I taught myself to have an American accent.” He chuckled.

My eyes popped out in surprise “Wouldn’t of guessed that one Gaskarth.”

He laughed “Yeah, most people don’t.”

“Tell me more about when you were younger.” I said casually, then slapped myself mentally, I probably just sounded like a complete and total creeper just then.

Alex thought nothing of it and went on saying “Well, I went to a private school, until 8th grade, which is when I met Jack. We both didn’t like each other at first, but then I got kicked out of my old band.” he blushed at the last part and kept going “So, me and Jack started our own band, we used to go into my basement, I’d sing and he’d play guitar. Then we hit high school, when Jack harassed Rian until he came and played with us, he was really good, and we did all but get on our hands and knees and beg him to join us. He finally said yes, and we had our 3 person band.”

I giggled, “Sounds like something you and Jack would do.”

He laughed “Yeah, good old Jack. Well, then of course Jack and Ben got to talking, and then you guys moved down here, and well you know the rest.” he continued “Your turn hon.” he said as he winked at me.

“Okay, well Zack and I are obviously twins, he’s 47 seconds older than I am. We used to go to a Christian school, so we had every single class together since kindergarten. We are extremely close, we know everything about each other practically. Moving away from Hatley was pretty hard. I had my best friend in the whole world there, her name is Isabella Wood. She is amazing, I’ve known her since 1st grade. My parents aren’t terribly strict, but we have family bonding nights every Tuesday. I have no idea why, but they want the family to be close or whatever.” I spoke, kind of rambling. He giggled at the last part, and I joined in with him. Then I continued “Zack is my only sibling, I have no pets, I’m a virgin, I spend most of my time with Zack. Well, that’s about it.”

*BRIIINNNGGG* the bell rang, signaling it was time for all of us to leave. Looking over, Alex huffed, he was disappointed.
“Well, better get you downstairs Merrick.” He said, finally grasping the fact that we did, in fact, have to leave.

“Damn.” I muttered to myself, he heard it and chuckled. I held my arm out for him to link his in mine. He smirked and linked our arms. We skipped down the Junior/Senior hallways like idiots, down the stairs and to my locker.

“See you at lunch Zo!” He yelled down the hallway, already heading to his locker, so he wouldn’t be late. I got my things I needed for science, and head towards room 132. Stepping in the doors, I saw a few students rustling through there things, because there was an assignment on the board.

I went up to the teacher and whispered, “Hello, I’m Zoe Merrick, I’m a new student.”

The teacher turned around, she had short brown hair and square glasses, with a slightly wrinkled face, she smiled “Hello Zoe, get out your notebook needed for this class and answer the question on the board please.”

Smiling in return, I nodded to her, and picked a seat out of the bunch, I sat next to a friendly looking girl, she smiled at me, and I returned it. Mrs. Lerson was taking attendance when the name Kara Diakolas was called, well, at least Kara would be in this class.

The rest of the class flew by relatively quickly, so did Math, the teacher was really boring though, and before I knew it, the bell rang, signaling lunch, meaning Zack was in the near future. I got my money out of my locker, and started walking to the cafeteria, when a long arm wrapped around my shoulders I jumped and looked to the person, I soon relaxed, realizing it was just Alex.

“Jumpy much Zo?” he asked, chuckling.

“Yes as a matter of fact.” I said, pretending to be mad at him, but he saw through it and laughed again.

Then, I saw Zack, “Zack!” I screamed.

He turned around and gave me a big toothy grin, as he ran up to me, picked me up, and gave me a big hug.

“Miss me?” he teased.

“Well of course I missed my favorite brother.” I said in a baby voice.

“I’m your only brother.” he plainly spoke.

“That’s exactly why you’re my favorite!” I cheered.

He chuckled, put me down, and led me to the cafeteria, it was filled with people, every freshman was in there, I stayed close to Zack’s side.

We got our lunches and looked around for an empty space, we found one, and just when we were about to sit down Jack yelled “Zack, Zoe sit with us!”

We both smiled and made our way over to the table. I sat in between Alex and Zack.

“How’d you do all alone today?” Zack asked me.

I replied “Well, Rian was in my homeroom; Alex was in my English class; Jack and Rian were in my History class; Alex was in my choir; and I won’t be alone for Science and Math, because Kara is in those.”

Each one of the boys smiled when I said their names.

“What about you?” I asked in return to Zack.

“Well, I had Rian in 1st and 3rd hour. Jack in 4th and homeroom. And Alex in 2nd and 5th. So, I was good; but I still missed you.” He said the last part like a baby and pinched my cheeks as I smacked his hand away.

“Girls were checkin’ him out the whole damn time too!” Jack decided to burst out.

I wiggled my eyebrow at Zack “They were now?”

Zack gave Jack a Thanks-a-lot-dude look and replied “A few girls gave me there numbers, no biggie.”

“Uh, yeah it’s a biggie, define a few.” I smirked.

“Umm, well, 4.” He said, while he messed with his hair, he was nervous about my reaction, he always messed with his hair when he was nervous.

“Are you going to call any of them?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Maybe, I don’t know, 3 of them were whores, but 1 seemed pretty nice, I’m not sure, you’ll have to check her out for me.” he exclaimed.

The boys looked at us weird when he said you’ll have to check her out for me.

I answered there questioning glances “Whenever I find a guy, or Zack finds a girl, we have to get each other’s approval first.”

They all laughed while Rian said “Dude, you’re such a pussy.”

“Oh, shut up.” Zack stuck out his tongue.

“That’s why I’ve had one boyfriend, and he was the nerdiest fucking kid on the planet.” I glared at Zack.

He just smirked “ Gotta keep my baby sister safe.”

“He’s really overprotective of you, isn’t he?” Alex spoke out of the blue.

“Yeah, really being the keyword in that sentence.” I smirked over at Zack, and he just grinned. He knew it was true, and he would admit it.

“Well, today I almost got a detention in History!” Jack voiced excitedly.

Rian and I both smirked while we kept eating. Zack and Alex laughed though.

“Nice going Jack, what’d you do this time?” Alex asked, still laughing.

“Well, Mr. Greene put Zoe in front of me. I talked to her and Rian the whole time.” He plainly said.

Zack looked over at me with a questioning gaze “He had to yell at us 9 times today.” I answered.

Everyone laughed, while Zack rolled his eyes.

Then, Rian decided to blurt out “Zack,” Zack looked at Rian as he finished “I saved your sister from a creeper this morning.”

Oh yeah, I remember that, he was a creeper. Zack looked really mad, I mean, really mad, “What happened?” He said through clenched teeth.

“Well, this guy was flirting with me, Rian told him to fuck off, and he never bothered me again, and I’ve had 2 classes with him in it today, it’s okay Zack, take a chill pill.” I reassured him.

His face got slightly less tense and whispered “Thank you.” to Rian.

Just then, a finger touched me lightly on the back, it was the weird guy from homeroom, gross “Hey babe.”

Zack heard, his fist clenched, and his face got red “Get the fuck away from her dammit!” he practically screamed.

“Dude, relax, I was just talking to her.” The guy said.

“Yeah, that’s my sister, ever call her babe again, and I’ll rip your fucking face off you prick.” Zack replied to his comment. Zack was usually a really sweet guy, but when it came to me, he got pissed so easily.

“Okay okay fine dude, jeez!” He exclaimed to him, then he winked at me and said “bye babe.”

Zack lost it, he got up from the table, grabbed the guy by the shirt, lifted him off the ground, and had his fist up to his face.

I ran up to Zack, touched his face and whispered “Relax, it’s okay.”

The guy in Zack’s grasp exclaimed “Yeah relax dude, it won’t ever happen again, I promise.”

By then a teacher walked up and yelled “PUT HIM DOWN!”

Zack let him drop, and apologized sincerely to the teacher. “You are very lucky your new here, and seem to be quite the nice young man, I’m letting you off with a warning, your only warning.” She spoke, emphasizing the only.

“Yes ma’am, thank you.” he spoke and gave her a smile. He could charm his way out of just about anything.

Jack, Rian, and Alex were all staring at Zack, with surprised looks on there faces

Zack chuckled out a “Sorry guys.” and kept eating.

Then they started to stare at me “I told you he was overprotective.” I told them, shrugging it off.

“Wow man.” Rian exclaimed.

“I am sorry, I don’t like when guys do that to her, my anger just builds up so fast.” He apologized.

“You can like practically see the anger go into your face.” Alex chuckled.

We all laughed with him, “But, it’s all good Zack, I’d probably do the same.” Jack said.

“Definitely.” Rian agreed.

“Yeah, if I would’ve heard what the douche said earlier, I would’ve been right there with you.” Alex explained. It made me blush.

“Why?” I asked curiously.

Looking completely and totally serious, Alex said “Because I care about you Zoe.”