During later in the day, when it was the weekend, Shawn and Zoey were over to Cory's place to play some basketball. Zoey told the boys that she was confident enough to beat them so they put it up to the test.
Cory held the basketball as the three walked through the living room and into the kitchen to see Mrs. Matthews standing at the kitchen counter and Mr. Matthews sitting at the table.
"Dudes and girl! Where are you guys off to?" Mr. Matthews wondered.
"We're gonna shoot some hoops." Cory said.
"You want some actual competition?" Mr. Matthews challenged.
Cory nodded. "Yeah. Who do you know?"
Mr. Matthews got up from the chair. "Can you be funny like that with basketball stuck in your mouth?"
Zoey smirked. "Ooh, I'd like to see that."
Shawn, Cory and Zoey walked out of the kitchen and into the backyard where they played basketball. They waited for Mr. Matthews, but he did join them, so they placed one v one.
••••
When they were back at school, Zoey had history with Mr. Feeny. Zoey had slumped against her chair as she wrote down notes while Mr. Feeny was talking about their topic. As she writing down notes, Zoey noticed everyone passing notes to each other.
"Thus, the transcontinental railroad spelled the end of the Pony Express. Mail service was faster, more reliable. Letters no longer had to be passed from hand to hand." Mr. Feeny said as he took a note from Cory, who was passing it Shawn.
"Busted." Zoey muttered under hear breath, earning a smirk from Shawn.
Mr. Feeny made his way to the front of the class, collecting other notes. "These just in..." He trailed off, opening some notes. "Miss Wilder wants to know what Miss Harrington thinks she would wear to her party." He opened another note. "Miss Harrington wants to know what makes Miss Wilder think she's even invited. Ooh."
"I'm not invited?"
Melissa raised her eyebrows. "We'll just see, okay?"
Mr. Feeny walked around the classroom as he opened Cory's note. "Mr. Matthews wanted to know 'is this going to be a make-up party'?"
Melissa smiled as she turned around to Cory. "Sure, Cory. You can borrow my lip gloss."
"'Out'! Not 'up'!" Cory whispered to Mr. Feeny. "A make-out party."
"Ah, so it is." Mr. Feeny said, looking down at the note. "Mr. Matthews wants to know is this going to be a make-out party."
Zoey chuckled. "Not for him."
••••
After history Shawn, Cory and Zoey walked through the halls of the school. Zoey slugged her backpack strap over her shoulder as they made their ways into the halls.
"I blew it, guys." Cory stated. "There's no way Melissa's gonna invite me to her party now."
Shawn shrugged his shoulders. "So Feeny cut you off at the knees. People will forget. You'll get invited to the next party."
The three of them walked over to the bench. Shawn and Zoey sat down, slumping their bags to the side while Cory stood.
"You think?" Cory asked.
Zoey nodded her head. "Yeah. This is high school - too much going on to remember anything."
Zoey and Shawn stood up and stood beside each other when Harley, Frankie and Joey made their way over to Cory.
"Don't think I forgot about you, Baboon." Harley said, placing a hand on Cory's shoulder. "Don't think I forgot about last Tuesday - you sat in my chair in the cafeteria."
"I'm sorry, Harley." Cory apologized. "I didn't know it was your chair."
"Everybody knows that's Harley's chair." Joey told Cory. "Everybody knows it's always been Harley's chair and it's always gonna be Harley's chair every year that he's a senior. Ain't that right, Frankie?"
"What are you saying? I like my sister?" Frankie questioned, turning to Joey.
"No, no! I'm not sayin that. I'm just sayin you have a very... close family." Joey said. Frankie paused for a moment before he walked away. "Where are you going?
"I wanna call home." Frankie said, approaching the payphone.
"Is he gonna be okay?" Zoey asked Harley, pointing at Frankie.
"He's got a few issues." Harley responded, before looking down at Cory. "I, on the other hand, have one issue - and that's you, baboon. I don't like you. I look at your face and I wanna hit it." He then turned to face Zoey. "Is that so wrong?"
"So there I am, finals of the chess tournament." They all turned to see two nerds walking through the halls. "A mere three moves away from checkmate, and out of nowhere I swallow my rook."
"Pardon me. It's my eleven o'clock." Harley said before he began to follow after the nerds.
Zoey let out a sigh as she sat back down on the bench, holding onto her bag. Shawn walked over and sat down beside her.
"You know, I almost wish he did kill me this time." Cory said.
"How come?" Zoey wondered.
"That way I wouldn't be here to be humiliated when I'm not invited to the party." Cory explained.
"You're sounding just a little bit whiney." Shawn commented, before Cory sat down beside the two of them.
"Shawn, Zoey, this is the first party of our high school lives. I mean, it'll divide our class into two groups - those who were invited, the cool guys, and those who weren't, the geeks." Cory told his best friends.
"You're losin it, Cor." Shawn said as he got up from the bench and went over to his locker.
"Yeah, I'm losing my whole future." Cory complained, following Shawn to his locker. "No one will talk to me ever again. I might as well grow a hump and find a tower and ring the bell."
Shawn grabbed a book out of his locker before he turned to Cory. "Don't worry, man. There's always room on our couch for you."
"I thought your Uncle Frank was on the couch?" Zoey asked, getting up from the bench and approached her two best friends.
Shawn shook his head. "No, not anymore. He won the lottery and stopped talking to us."
"Really? What did he win?" Cory wondered, interested..
"Six bucks." Shawn said before he looked over Cory's shoulder. "Don't look now, but the Pony Express just pulled into town."
Zoey looked over to see Melissa on top of the small staircase, talking to people as she held a stack of invitations in her hands.
"Oh, no!" Cory panicked. "She's handing out the invitations."
The three of them watched as Melissa handed out two invitations to two girls. Cory gave a nervous look between Zoey and Shawn before he turned his attention back to Melissa. She handed out another invination to a boy before she walked down the small stair case and made her way over to Cory, who was up against the lockers, spreading his arms out.
Zoey watched as Melissa handed out an invitation to Cory, who grabbed it and a wide smile spread across his lips. Zoey and Shawn turned to each with a frown as they didn't get a invitation.
"Shawn, Zoey, there's been a miracle!" Cory exclaimed, excited.
"Yeah, whatever. Come on, let's go. We're gonna be late for class." Zoey said, making her towards Mr. Turner's classroom.
"Class?!" Cory shouted. "We don't need no stinkin' class. Our futures are set. We are high school Gods. Come, let us repair to the gym and rejoice in our invitations."
"It's gonna be kinda hard, since Zoey and I didn't get one." Shawn informed.
Cory looked at them shocked. "What?"
"We didn't get an invite. No biggie." Zoey assured.
"There's gotta be a mistake. You two are the coolest guy and girl in class - you two have to be invited." Cory told them.
"Yeah, well, looks like we're not." Shawn said.
"I'm gonna find out what happened." Cory insisted.
"Let it go, okay? Just let it go." Shawn told him.
"You want me to ask her?" Cory asked.
Shawn nodded. "Yeah, would you."
Cory approached Melissa and began talking to her, while Shawn and Zoey sat back down on the bench. After a moment later, Cory slowly walked up to his best friends.
"So what's the story?" Zoey wondered, standing back up along with Shawn.
"Right, look. From what I gather, in the lass three seconds... everything in the world has changed." Cory said.
Shawn furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "What do you mean?"
Cory sighed. "I'm not sure. I mean, Shawn, Zoey, you two are much cooler than I am. At least, I thought you two were."
"Trust me, we are." Shawn said, and Zoey nodded in agreement.
"Then how come I got invited and you two didn't?" Cory questioned.
Shawn raised an eyebrow. "So we really didn't get invited?"
"Unless it's a big surprise part for the two of you." Cory said, trying to make his friends happy.
Zoey sighed as her and Shawn sat back down on the bench again. Zoey was upset, she really wanted to go to the party... but figuring out that she wasn't invited hurt her in a way.
"I guess it's just one of those high school mysteries." Shawn suggested. "Like how Janitor Bud lost his eye."
"What are we gonna do?" Cory wondered, sitting down beside Zoey.
"You're gonna go to that party." Zoey told him.
Cory scoffed. "I'm not goin to a party that you two are not invited to."
"Oh, don't sweat it, Cory. We'll just grab a burger at Chubbies." Shawn said as the three of them stood back up.
"No, you two won't." Cory said.
Zoey raised her eyebrows. "And why won't we?"
"Because I'm cool now, which means I run with a very influential crowd." Cory explained as he made his way over to the payphone. "Which means all I do is pick up this telephone, pull a few strings and get you two invited to the party."
"Who are gonna call?" Shawn wondered.
Zoey crossed her arms over her stomach and raised her eyebrows. "Ghostbusters?"
Cory paused for a moment. "Well, normally I'd call you two."
••••
Chubbie's was a cheap restaurant that was underground where students and sometimes teachers of John Adams High often hang out.
During the time when Cory went over to Melissa's party, Shawn and Zoey went over to Chubbies and sat down in a booth together. Then a moment later, everyone began to huddle around the two of them. and began talking.
Leo all of a sudden appeared and sat down beside his girlfriend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Zoey leaned into him and smiled as Leo was telling jokes which made everyone laugh, including Shawn.
"Hey! Hey! Everybody!" Zoey turned around to see Mr. Turner standing in the middle of the room. "Hand in your homework, right now. Shawn, Zoey, your friend's here. Just kiddin about the homework. Good night, everybody."
Shawn and Zoey immediately got out of the crowd of people and made their way over to Cory.
"Don't worry about me, guys. I'm just leaving." Cory said, gesturing to the staircase that lead outside.
"Why?" Shawn questioned. "I got an order of chili cheese fries. Extra gravy."
Zoey smiled. "They are so delicious."
"No, you two are too busy with those other guys." Cory responded.
"What other guys?" Shawn and Zoey asked in unison.
"The other thousand guys at your table." Cory said. Zoey turned to the group that huddled around their table.
"So they'll make room." Zoey said.
"Shawn, Zoey, they're gonna see you talking to me." Cory said as he pointed at himself.
Shawn furrowed his eyebrows. "You know, you've been acting really weird since you got invited to this party. You don't wanna hang out with us anymore?"
"I'm a geek!" Cory shouted. Everyone in Chubbies went silent and turned to him. "Oh, like you didn't know."
"Cory, what are you talking about?" Zoey asked in confusion.
Shawn and Zoey dragged Cory to another booth, away from their old table. Zoey sat beside Shawn on one side while Cory sat on the other side.
Cory frowned. "I'm the worst kind of geek. I'm a geek who didn't know he was a geek."
"Cory." Shawn called.
"Yeah?" Cory asked.
"Do Zoey and I hang our with geeks?" Shawn asked.
Cory shook his head. "No. That's why I'm leaving."
Cory got up from his seat and was about to leave until Zoey grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Come on, Cor. You're our best friend."
"Yeah, you just gotta loosen up." Shawn said.
Cory sat back down and narrowed his eyes. "You two don't think I'm a geek?"
"Of course not." Shawn responded.
"You two think I'm cool?" Cory wondered.
"Of course not." Shawn said, while Zoey nodded in agreement.
"Than what am I?" Cory asked.
"You're Cory. I'm Shawn. She's Zoey. Like it's always been." Shawn told him. "What else do you need to know?"
"I need to know how to be cool, like you." Cory said, glancing between his best friends.
Zoey shrugged her shoulders. "We're not cool."
"Yes, you two are. Guys, look around you. I mean, this is the cool party. You two are the center of the cool party." Cory said, feeling left out.
"This is the cool party?" Shawn asked, gesturing around Chubbies.
"Yes." Cory nodded. Shawn and Zoey turned to each other and gave a look.
"Let's bail." Zoey suggested as her and Shawn stood up from the booth.
"What?" Cory asked in confusion.
"This place is a zoo. Let's bail." Shawn said.
"Oh, I got it. You two are trying to teach me how to be cool." Cory said, getting up and stood in front of Zoey and Shawn, who gave Cory confused expressions. "You're trying to show me that it doesn't matter where you go because if you're truly cool, wherever you go is the cool place to be. Right?"
"Cory?" Zoey called.
Cory smirked. "Yeah?"
"Shut up." Shawn and Zoey said in unison before they made their way up the stairs.
"A very cool thing to say." Cory pointed out as he followed his best friends up the staircase and out of Chubbies.
_____________________
PUBLISHED: February 28, 2018
WORDS: 2362