Dane and Zion

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

~Zion~

       "I need all of your opinion on something," I said as I sat down at the cafeteria table my three best friends were sitting at. I opened my backpack and took out my laptop, setting it on the table.

       As I was opening the file for what I wanted to show them, Divya asked, "Did you get detention yet?"

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "What? No. Why would I get detention?"

       "Why wouldn't you get detention is the real question," Miguel said. "But my guess would have to be because you're not wearing your tie, and you know how strict the school is with the uniforms."

       "Exactly," Divya said.

       I shrugged. "The teachers probably got annoyed with having to tell me to wear my tie. And it's not my fault I forgot to wear it. I was working on this thing all weekend and all night. I ended up sleeping in. Anyway, I need you to listen to this and give me your opinion."

       Marjani sighed. "Please don't tell me it's another song. No offence, but..."

       "I'm not the best at writing songs," I finished. "Yeah, I know."

       "You're an amazing singer, at least," Marjani said.

       "Don't worry, I really didn't take any offence when you guys told me I couldn't write any songs. But still, listen to this." I made sure the volume was only loud enough for the four of us to hear before pressing play.

       Honestly, I was expecting them to tell me to stop playing the song right away because I tortured them too much with my horrible songwriting, but they were willing to give it a listen. And as the song went on, I could tell that they were actually enjoying the song.

       When the song ended, I asked, "So what do you think?"

       "I take back everything I've ever said about your songwriting," Marjani said. "That was amazing."

       "Amazing is an understatement," Miguel said. "Seriously, Zion, that song is just... I can't even describe it."

       "Yeah, how did you go from writing, and I mean no offence, trash to this?" Divya asked.

       "Oh, I'm still a trash writer," I said. "I didn't write this. Dane did."

       All three of my friends furrowed my eyebrows, confused at the mention of Dane, like they didn't know who he was. That only made me feel a bit insulted, to be honest. How dare they not know about my favourite co-worker? The only one who was willing to put up with my flooding the concession stand with popcorn? And accidentally jammed the nacho cheese machine? 

       "Dane?" Miguel asked. "Who's Dane?"

       "My co-worker," I said.

       "Your co-worker..." Marjani said, trying to think of which co-worker I could be referring to.

       "The cute one," I said.

       "Nope, still have no idea who you're talking about," Divya said. "Does he go to this school or something? Maybe we'd know him from here."

       "Uh, yeah," I said. "You guys seriously have no idea who I'm talking about? He's our age. Very cute. Works at the movie theatre with me. He's the only one my age who works at the theatre." They still have clueless looks on their face, so I sighed. "Einstein?"

       "Oh, Einstein," Marjani said. "You just should have said so from the beginning."

       "Einstein's name is Dane?" Miguel said. "Huh. You learn something new everyday."