The Ballerina and the Rocker

Quinn

A red and orange sunset backdrop paired with rows of white crosses and Metallica hovering in white lettering stared down at Quinn. She peeled her eyes away from the poster on the ceiling and looked around the rest of Zacky’s room -- you could barely tell the walls were painted white due to the array of music, movie, and sports posters that covered nearly every inch.

Her blue eyes wandered from a black and white poster of some unknown horror movie to the sleeping boy beside her.

Zacky was sprawled on his stomach, with one arm hanging off the bed and the other up on his pillow. His raven colored hair was disheveled and by his slightly agape mouth was just the smallest amount of drool. Quinn couldn’t help but giggle at how adorable he looked.

She hadn’t meant to sleep over, but after the two shared their New Year’s kiss they had proceeded to stay up talking for hours on end. It seemed like they had covered everything there was to talk about -- from favorite movies and pet peeves to familial relationships and why they loved their respective art forms so much. Quinn didn’t even remember falling asleep.

She had had crushes before, like every girl does, but this was different. Not only did her stomach tie up in knots and her heart pound like a bass drum every time she even so much as glanced at Zacky but she was able to open herself up and talk about anything with him, something she was never able to do with anyone else (save for her older siblings, but even that had limitations). It was a nice and new, and terrifying, experience.

Quinn repositioned herself from laying on her back to her laying on her side so she was face to face with Zacky. With a smirk, she reached her hand over and gently pushed some of that incredibly dark hair off of his forehead. Zacky stirred at her touch and slowly opened his sleepy eyes.

“Hey,” his raspy voice said.

“Hi,” Quinn replied in a soft whisper while her hand moved to rest on his neck. “I should probably go before someone realizes I’m not in my room.”

Zacky scooted closer to Quinn and enveloped her in his arms. She nestled her head on his shoulder and clung to the forearm draped across her torso. She closed her eyes and took in the scent of his cologne, trying to figure out what it smelt like.

“I’m glad you stayed over. It was nice.”

“Yeah, it really was.”

She felt Zacky place a kiss on the top of her head.

“What do you have to do today?” he asked as he held her closer.

“Well, we’re actually going to visit my grandparents in Connecticut. My dad doesn’t have to be back at the base until school starts up again, so they thought it would be good to get out there for a few days.”

“So I guess you really do have to go, huh?”

“Yeah. Our flight leaves at 4:30 and I haven’t even packed yet.” Reluctantly, Quinn pulled away from Zacky and sat up. “So I should go.”

She pushed the gray comforter off her body and scooted off of the bed. When she reached the window, she felt Zacky wrap his arms around her waist.

“Have a good trip,” he said softly into her ear. “And we’ll talk when you get back.”

“Sounds liked a plan.” Zacky planted a kiss on her cheek and let her climb out the window, across the tree branch, and back into her own room. When she stepped in through the bay window, Quinn turned around and waved at Zacky. He smiled and waved back.

As she was closing the window, Audrey slowly opened up the bedroom door while simultaneously knocking. She began to say something to Quinn but stopped and stared at her instead.

“What?” Quinn asked.

Her sister stepped into the room and looked from Quinn to the window, which had not been closed all the way. Audrey quickly rushed over and pushed Quinn aside so she could swing the window back open. She looked across and then looked back in at Quinn with a smug grin stretched across her face.

“What?!”

“You tell me,” Audrey said, proudly crossing her arms. Quinn rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on Quinn! I’m not stupid.”

“Good, then you can figure it out yourself!” Audrey looked heartbroken that her little sister wasn’t going to reveal any details. Quinn laughed. “Oh don’t worry, Audrey - we’ve got a five hour flight ahead of us.”

Zacky
“Who are you and what have you done with Zacky?” Matt joked. The guys had decided to spend their last day of Christmas break drinking in the park (alcohol courtesy of the Haner’s liquor cabinet) and everyone, including Zacky, noticed the change in his mood.

“Yeah, what happened to the pissed off, boring Zacky we all grew to care and love?” Jimmy added.

“Shut the fuck up,” Zacky shot back, unable to keep down his smile.

“Not complaining,” Brian added. “We’d all just like to thank whatever - or whoever - it is that has you back to your old self again.”

“Whoever?” Jimmy jumped in. “Is it Quinn? It is, isn’t it.” Zacky smirked and took a swig of his beer instead of answering. “It is! Called it. You guys each owe me twenty bucks.” He choked as the beer went down the wrong tube. The guys stared at Zacky as he coughed himself back to normal.

“Wait, what?” Zacky asked once he regained his breath.

“We had a pool going,” Matt explained.

“For what?”

“For you and Quinn getting together.”

Zacky glanced at his friends, each boy wearing his own signature smirk. He didn’t know what to say.

“I had my money on March,” Brian continued, ignoring the shock plastered on Zacky’s face. “So if you could have held off for two more months I would be forty dollars richer right now.”

“Are you guys serious?” Zacky finally spoke up. His initial shock upon hearing his friends betting on his relationship status with Quinn quickly turned into a state of amusement - of course they would do something like this.

“Fuck yeah we’re serious,” Matt answered.

“That’s messed up.”

“Maybe. But you know what’s not messed up?”

“What?”

“We didn’t start a pool if you and Quinn were going to get together - we started it for when. I don’t think you’ve ever gushed this hard over a girl before.”

As crazy as the whole notion was, Zacky looked at his best friends and couldn’t believe how lucky he was. They weren’t making fun of him for how hard his crush on Quinn was, but instead were being supportive of it in their own, twisted, genuine way.

“Yeah,” Brian continued. “We all knew it was gonna happen eventually.” Zacky laughed. “What?”

“You guys are assholes,” Zacky smirked. He raised his beer forward, to toast his friends. “Thanks.”

Quinn

The Hartford’s spent three freezing cold days in Connecticut. After having lived in warmer climates for the last few years, Quinn almost had a little trouble readjusting to the frigid Northeast winter.

“What happened to that hearty Scandinavian blood?” her grandmother joked of the Hartford kids constant complaining of the cold.

“I think Dan’s mild manner English side squashed out any bit of Swede these kids have left in them,” her mother joked.

Quinn spent a majority of her time in her grandparents’ living room choreographing her fast approaching audition for Juilliard. On the rare moment she wasn’t, Quinn found herself dealing with the awkwardness between her mother and sister.

“She thinks it’s hard on her?” Audrey would say. “Imagine how hard it is for me.”

“You told me I needed to talk to Zacky,” Quinn said. “And you were right. So maybe you should just talk to mom a bit more.”

It wasn’t until the moment when she was curled up under the covers and her head hit the goose feathered pillows that Quinn would think about Zacky. For three nights in a row, she went to bed with a giddy smile.

Zacky

And in the blink of an eye, Christmas break was over and Zacky was back in math class.

“Hey,” Val whispered from the seat behind him. “I heard you and Quinn got together over break.”

“Yeah,” he whispered back. Val smiled.

“Good, I’m happy for you both. Plus, I get ten bucks from Michelle.” She winked at Zacky and pulled back in her seat. Zacky chuckled and continued taking notes.

Quinn

“Hey, friend!” Brian called to Quinn as he took his usual seat across from her at lunch.

“Hey!”

“How was the rest of your vaycay?”

“Well, it was freezing cold - the weather and the interactions between my mom and sister.”

“Sounds shitty.” Quinn shrugged her shoulders. “And how about you and the Zack-man?”

“What?” Brian gave her a knowing glance. Quinn blushed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mm-hm.” She narrowed her eyes at Brian, who in turn mimicked the look back at her.

“What?”

“I just want to make sure I’m invited to the wedding.”

“Oh my god, you’re worse than my sister!” Brian let out a hearty laugh.

“Sorry. You’re just so fun to tease.” Quinn picked up a french fry from her lunch tray and threw it at Brian’s face.

Zacky

Zacky finished his homework in record time and spent most of the night after dinner in his room playing Tomorrow Never Dies on the Playstation. He paused the game when he had the craving to get some ice cream, but instead the light turning on in the bedroom across the way caught his eye. He went to his window and saw Quinn taking out a pair of ballet shoes from a black duffle bag. Her hair was thrown up in a messy ponytail and she wore gray sweatpants over a light pink leotard. She clearly wasted no time when it came to ballet.

Even though it had only been a few days, it felt like he hadn’t seen her in weeks.

Zacky opened his bedroom window and waved his arms in hopes of grabbing Quinn’s attention. When it didn’t seem to be working, he decided to take a page out of Quinn’s book and climb on to the tree that had quickly become a bridge between their rooms. He knocked on the bay window and Quinn immediately came over and opened it.

“Hi Zacky,” she said, sounding almost breathless. She sat on the window’s ledge while Zacky settled on the sturdy branch.

“Hey, welcome home.”

“Thanks.”

A silence followed where the two just stared into each others’ eyes and couldn’t help but smile like idiots.

“Um,” Zacky said, snapping out of his trance. “How was Connecticut?”

“Eh, it was ok.”

“Well… I’m glad you’re back.”

“Yeah, me too…”

“So, uh, I was thinking that maybe, if you’re free sometime, you’d want to go catch a movie or something?”

“As in a date?”

“Only if you want to.”

“I’d love that.”

“Ok, awesome! So, I guess I’ll go so you can finish whatever you were doing.”

As Zacky prepared himself to climb back over to his room, his felt Quinn’s hand on his knee. She was leaning out of her window just enough so that her face was directly level with Zacky’s. He lost himself once again in her kind, piercing blue eyes.

“Hey,” he smiled. Quinn giggled. With one hand grasped tightly on the tree, he brought his other up to her face and gently pulled her lips to his.