The chilling wind that was gently hitting her face was calming, helping her to soothe her nerves and forget this morning's unlucky events.
When she woke up that morning, she found out the red mist was back and it was bigger, surrounding her entire bed like a dome. When Zoe said she couldn't get out of her bed (she said to herself, but still), she literally meant it. The somewhat transparent yet solid scarlet dome was blocking her, trapping her in for almost 20 minutes until it suddenly faded away.
She needed to find a way to stop whatever was happening to her.
With that determined thought in mind, Zoe pushed her skateboard with her back foot, moving forward and enjoying the soothing wind once again as she sped up.
She was so close to the school when there was a loud horn blaring behind her, almost making her lose her balance.
"Hey! Get out of the way, loser!"
Under any other circumstances, she probably would hear Cindy or Henry yell that as they would walk down the halls with linked arms, but it took her less than two seconds to realize it was actually Jake. He was laughing uncontrollably from inside his car at her scared reaction and she flipped him off.
"Come on, that was funny!" Jake insisted with a cheeky smile as they met at the school parking lot a few minutes later, "You should have seen your face!"
"That just costed you your precious Disney Marathon this weekend," The girl replied coldly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What? No! Come one, Z," Jake practically whined, leaping forwards to catch up with Zoe as she walked.
The girl rolled her eyes at him, but the young teens stopped bickering as they saw the destroyed front sign of the school. Half of it was completely gone and the other half seemed like it was almost melted somehow. They weren't the only ones who noticed, and a crowd of students began to form around the sign.
'What in the world happened to it?'
"Come on, we have Algebra," Jake tugged her away from the scene after a few moments, heading over towards the entrance.
The school halls were as just as crowded, students buzzing with excitement and showing off their talents for Regional Talent Competition. After shoving her skateboard and helmet into her locker, Jake and Zoe started to make their way to class.
"Go ahead and pick a card, any card." She heard someone say, and she turned around to see Joey Zarick dressed in his magician outfit, standing next to an unfamiliar girl. She had shoulder-length curly blonde hair and bright eyes.
She gave him a short laugh, "Okay. Uh..."
"Alright, take a look at it. Don't let me see it," Joey said as the girl picked her card, "Remember it, though. Okay?"
"That's the new girl," Jake noted, watching the two as well, "I think her name is Courtney,"
"Alright, put it anywhere back in the deck." Joey guided her, "Thanks for letting me practice on you, by the way. Today is the Regional Talent Competition. Cindy and Jenny always win, though.
"Speaking of the devil," Jake leaned closer to Zoe, as Cindy and Jenny broke through the crowd that had come to see Joey's magic trick. It was quite obvious that Jake, Artemis, and Zoe were not part of Cindy Burman's fan group.
The redhead scoffed and muttered under her breathe, "Because this town is the only place twerking is an award-winning talent."
"Now for the aforementioned mind-blowing." Joey announced proudly, "Courtney from California... Is this your card?"
Zoe watched as the seven of hearts card rose from the pile in Joey's hand. The curly-haired blonde paused, noticing the number of people who were watching them.
"Yes. The seven of hearts. Oh, my gosh. How did you do that?" Courtney said in amazement.
Zoe clapped loudly along with everyone, feeling impressed by the young magician. Maybe he had some other tricks up his sleeve to help to kick Cindy from the top.
Despite the success of his magic trick, Zoe could tell he was still slightly nervous. Joey had only ever been kind to her, he was probably the sweetest kid in Blue Valley, and right now it looked like he could use a few words of encouragement.
She quickly told Jake she'd catch up with him later and walked over to Joey.
"Nice trick, Joey."
"Thanks!" He enthusiastically said, tucking his cards into his jacket's pockets, "Are you coming to the Talent Competition?"
"I can't, I already have some plans. But your magic trick was really cool, and I bet you're going to amaze the judges,"
He squinted his eyes at her, taking a step closer and lowering his voice almost dramatically, "Zoe, do you believe in magic?"
She blinked in surprise. That had definitely caught her off guard for a second. "I – I guess?"
'What if magic really exists? The thought was crazy, but then again, so was the red mist and that was real. 'What if all the stuff that's happening to me is actually magic? What if that glowing stick from the other night was magical?'
Joey was the one to pull her out of her thoughts, as he leaned forward and reached his hand behind Zoe's head. Her eyes widened as she saw he was holding up a shiny coin.
"Wow," Zoe looked at him in surprise, a small laugh escaping, "what was that for?"
"I just wanted to see you smile, I heard you had a rough day yesterday," He smiled brightly at her, "I know stage fright might be hard to deal with. I suffered from it too when I was younger,"
"No, I–" Zoe paused, about to correct him and tell him it wasn't a stage fright that caused her to faint in the middle of the classroom, but his gesture was so sweet, so she chose to keep the words to herself.
Unlike a lot of boys and girls from her school, Joey Zarick actually cared. He would listen, would make people laugh and encourage them. He wasn't doing it to impress anybody or be popular, that just who he was.
"Thank you. That's really thoughtful of you,"
Joey shrugged as if it was nothing and handed her the coin, "You can keep it. Maybe it'll be your lucky charm or something,"
She could only mirror his contagious smile.
~~~
I'm staying late at the medical center, the text had read, won't make it to dinner. dad's coming home later.
Zoe sighed and leaned back against her locker. To add to the list of the weird stuff that had been happening, Dr. Henry King was found unconscious outside the emergency entrance of the center just the night before. No one really knew what happened, only that he suffered a seizure and now seemed to be in some kind of coma.
She wanted to tell her parents about whatever was happening to her, but her mom was rushed in early in the morning to fill in Dr. King's place and her dad had yet to come back from Aunt Eliza's house. The only option left was to wait till her mom got back tonight and finally tell them.
Zoe hated hiding things from her parents. She'd always told them everything and they had always been there for her.
She also thought about telling Jake and Artemis, who already suspected something was going on after what had happened at Bio class. Their worried glances at her didn't go unnoticed, but every time she tried to even begin to tell them, it was like her mouth was stitched shut.
Not wanting to overthink anymore, Zoe focused her attention on a drawing of flowers that was painted across Yolanda Montez's locker. It was beautiful... and oddly familiar.
She grabbed her skateboard from her locker, eyebrows furrowed. Artemis and Jake had gotten it for her as a gift for her 14th birthday. In the beginning, it was just a dark blank plane, but now it was filled with colors, doodles and even signatures from all the students in Blue Valley High school.
Zoe couldn't forget the day it had happened even if she tried. What started out as a joke between her friends, turned up to be almost a school parade after Cindy thought it was funny to sign her name on Zoe's skateboard, and for some weird reason everyone wanted to leave a piece of memory on the plain surface as well.
It surprisingly ended up looking pretty cool.
One doodle stood out peculiarly, it was a bit bigger than the rest, but it wasn't sketched as harshly. A delicate drawing of a sunflower and flowers with purple petals she couldn't name.
It wasn't exactly the same as the floral mural on Yolanda's locker, but the patterns seemed similar and the more she observed and compared them, the more she realized it was done by the same person who had drawn it for her - Cameron Mahkent.
She let out a quiet "Huh," as the realization sank in, her fingers gently tracing the flowers, so wrapped in her own small investigation that she failed to notice the dark-haired boy that had walked towards her.
"Do you like it?" A soft voice asked, immediately startling her, "Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you."
And of course, it just had to be no other than the person she was just thinking about.
She couldn't recall the last time she had actually talked with Cameron, maybe it was on the day he had drawn the flowers and Zoe thanked him about three times for how pretty they were. However, even back then, he only gave her a tiny smile and murmured, "You're welcome,".
For as long as she knew him, Cameron had always been the quiet kid, not speaking unless being asked to and always sitting in one of the cafeteria's farthest corners. So, him approaching her left her a bit baffled.
"Yeah," Zoe said quickly once she regained her composure, "It's really pretty,"
The smile on his face was still a bit reserved, but it was certainly bigger than the last one, and Zoe could have sworn she had spotted his dimples showing as well, though it was too quick for her to be sure. Just as he was about to say something, the bell to the last class rang, snapping out both of them from what she could almost call a real conversation.
"I have History," Zoe reminded herself loudly, eyes widening as the redhead realized the classroom was at the other side of the building and she would have to run in order to get there in time. She shoved her skateboard back to her locker and slammed it shut before starting to rush down the hall.
She halted only a second later when she realized her mistake and turned around to the boy, "—Bye, Cameron!"
He looked at her with an amused look and waved her goodbye.
Yeah, he definitely had dimples.
~~~
"Come on, you're almost there!" Jake yelled, holding a stopwatch and looking up to see the brunette running towards him, "Run, run, run!"
"Yes!" Zoe cheered loudly as Artemis sprinted past them.
The Asian girl was practically done with her practice, but before they were about to leave, she had insisted to run a few extra laps and both Jake and Zoe knew better than to argue with her. Zoe grabbed the water bottle beside her and tossed it to Artemis, who caught it with ease.
"Now can we finally get off this field?" Zoe said, nudging her best friend.
Artemis looked up, shooting a quick yet tired smile at her, the exhaustion of the day finally taking over. They quickly turned to the boy on their left side, and Artemis asked, "How did I do?"
Jake's mouth fell open, "I – uh-" his expression suddenly appearing lost, "I forgot to stop the stopwatch."
"What?!" The dark-haired girl snapped at him, eyes narrowed into dark slits that almost reminded Zoe the look of a tiger ready to attack.
Jake looked terrified for a second before a crooked grin broke into his face, "I'm just messing with you, you broke a new record."
Every trace of rage left Artemis' body, confusion taking its place. She stilled in her place before asking tentatively, "What?"
"56.45 seconds, baby!" He held the stopwatch high, proudly, and the girls looked at the numbers before the trio burst into a fit of excited cheers.
"Did you see that? I'm the best!" The athlete shouted in triumph, a boastful expression taking over her face, "Just wait 'till the homecoming game, I'm going to kick our rivals' asses until they beg for mercy!"
"Sometimes you scare me." The brunet boy admitted, seeming mortified by Artemis' overconfident reaction.
It was almost as if the sun had decided to set in early that day, and Zoe mentioned they should really start heading back to their homes. They walked over towards the benches, ready to take their stuff and leave.
"Hey, listen," Jake started tentatively, which surprised Zoe as he was never shy in front of either of them. "I need to tell you something,"
"Woah, you okay?" Zoe asked when he stopped to look at them and almost bumped into her.
"Maybe it's better if I showed you," The boy sighed, oddly distrait. He took his phone out of his bag when Artemis' phone started ringing. She gave Jake an apologetic look, saying it was her mom, knowing she couldn't miss a call from her parents.
As Artemis picked up, Jake's attention got back to his phone. There was an immediate shift in his posture, the nervousness was replaced by something the redhead girl couldn't understand until he looked up.
His eyes connected with Artemis', who had gone quiet on the phone call, their expressions matching, and Zoe knew what it was.
"Oh, no," Jake breathed out.
It was confusion, sadness but most of all it was grief.
"What? What happened?" Zoe asked, gaze switching frantically between the two.
"There was an accident. They are saying Joey Zarick died."
"What?" She couldn't explain why it felt like the air itself was knocked out of her lungs, because there was no it was possible. "N-no. I just talked to him today. Are you sure?"
It was a prank, a horrible messed-up prank. It must have been. She stared at Jake, waiting for him to just grin like a Cheshire cat, laughing at her for falling once again for one of his stupid mischief games. But he didn't, and when Artemis squeezed her shoulder, Zoe felt her heart skip a beat and tears stinging at the corner of her eyes.
It didn't take long until Artemis suggested they should get home. Jake took Zoe's hand in his, trying to offer some sort of comfort to the girl. "Come on, I'll drive you home. Arti, you need a ride?"
She shook her head, "No, my parents will be here soon." She noticed the redhead was still frozen in her spot. "Hey, we can talk later if you want."
"Yeah." Zoe nodded numbly. But how could they talk about this? How could anyone?
The drive to her house was short and quiet, or maybe Zoe just blocked everything else. She didn't even notice Jake had parked in front of her house until he called her name.
"He can't be gone." She softly let out. There was a salty taste in her mouth, and she was suddenly aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks. Jake wasted no time and leaned over to her, grabbing the end of his sleeves and gently wiping the tears away.
"I know, I can't believe it either. He was always so nice to everyone,"
He asked if she wanted him to come over or stay with him in the car, but Zoe turned down both offers.
The lights inside her house were on, the temperature in her house warmed her from the evening chilling winds of Blue Valley. She stood at the entrance after unlocking the door, probably for too long.
Because she kept thinking that while she was home, Joey would never come back to his.
"Zoe?" A voice she had missed so much. Her father rushed towards her, alarmed by his daughter's somber look. His arms wrapped around her, muttering comforting words, as he little by little pulled her into the house.
There was a heavy weight in her pocket, a token of good luck. A coin. A reminder of a person who only wanted to see her smile.
She held onto it tightly.
~~~~~~~~~~
I know, I know. Wayyy overdue with this update. But season 2 is here and I got excited. I'll be honest when I say I don't know when the next update will be, but I'll do my best.
I want to tell the story in the way you would know what kind of person Zoe is and her interaction with other people before things will go down in the next chapters lol.
For me, it's a lot like what Pat said, "being a superhero is not being one most of the time"
I know the tone of the last part is a bit darker, it was the hardest thing for me to write (and ironically the first thing I wrote as a draft for Legacy) so I've been putting it off for months.
Joey Zarick will be missed