Chapter 26
~Zion~
As soon as the bell rang to end second period, I gathered up my stuff and quickly left the classroom. Since it was now lunch, the hallways were starting to fill up fast with students wanting to get to the cafeteria before the line up got too long.
I wasn't going to the cafeteria yet, so I didn't have to worry about getting there before everyone else. I just had to worry about pushing my way throw the crowd to get to where I wanted to since some people liked taking up the whole hallway with their friends.
Finally, I got to Dane's second period classroom where he was still packing up his supplies. I didn't know if I was allowed to go into the classroom because believe it or not, some teachers were strict about students not going into a classroom unless they actually had a class there.
But I have never really followed the school rules. In fact, I was currently breaking one now by not wearing my school tie. I was just always too lazy to put on a tie in the morning.
And since I never really followed any rules, I walked into the classroom and over to Dane's desk. "You're so slow," I said.
Dane looked over at me, continuing to put his supplies back in his backpack. "How did you get here so fast?" he asked.
"I left as soon as the bell rang," I said. "And I am not slow, like you. Why are you taking so long to pack up?"
"The teacher ended up going over the bell for a bit," Dane said. "Why were in such a hurry to get here? We normally meet up in the cafeteria, or the music room if we have something planned."
"I know, but..." I took my cell phone out of my pocket, unlocking it and opening the email I read in class. "I wanted to show you this."
Dane took the cell phone from me and read what was on the screen. It took him a while to read it, probably because he was making sure he read it correctly. When he finished reading it, he looked at me with a smile. "Zion! That's great!" He pulled me into a tight hug. "I knew they were going to accept you!"
I hugged him back tightly. "Thank you, but I haven't gotten accepted quite yet. They said they want to meet with me and you first."
Dane pulled away so he could look at me. "You and me? Why me?"
"Didn't you read the email?" I asked.
"I only read up to the part where they said they are interested in signing you," Dane admitted. "I got way too excited to read the rest."
"Well, since you are my songwriter, they said they would like to meet with the both of us," I said. "While I'm technically the one getting signed, we're a partnership. If I get signed, you're still going to work with me so they'll need to meet you too."
"When is this meeting?" Dane asked.
"Friday, at three," I said. "So I'm going to have to try my hardest not to get a detention that day."
"And that means that you should definitely wear a tie that day."
I sighed. "Friday is going to be extremely hard, then."
"You'll survive," Dane said. He finished packing up his supplies so he slung his backpack over his shoulder.
"Oh, one more thing," I said. "The record label owners wants another song. They said it could be a brand new song or one that was written but wasn't on the demo."
"Which one do you want to do?" Dane asked.
"Would it be too much if I said I want it to be a brand new song?" I asked. "That will only give us four days to write it."
"I've written songs in less time than that," Dane said. "Besides, I... think it will be a good idea to see how well we work together now. See if anything has changed."
"I sure hope not," I said. "But I get what you mean. So... After school? We start working? I would start now but I'm kind of hungry."
"Sounds like a plan," Dane said with a smile.
The two of us headed to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Because of our conversation, all my friends were already at our regular table by the time Dane and I got our lunch.
"Took you two long enough to get here," Marjani said. "What were you doing? Canoodling?"
I chuckled a bit. "I like canoodling. It's a funny word. Canoodling. Oh, but no, we weren't. Unfortunately..." Dane rolled his eyes and nudged my side. "I actually got an email from Mementos Records. They're interested in signing me, and want to meet with me and Dane on Friday with a new song."
"That's great, Zion!" Divya said. "I'm so proud of you."
"Well, I wouldn't have gotten this far if it weren't for this amazing guy," I said, wrapping my arm around Dane's shoulder.
"You also wouldn't have gotten this far if you didn't steal my song in the first place," Dane said.
"Hey, I did not steal your song," I said. "I gave you credit."
Dane smiled. "I know. I was kidding. And... I have a new song idea."
"Already?" I asked. "Do these songs just come to you randomly?"
"Pretty much, yes," Dane said. "Inspiration is a crazy thing. I could be lying in bed, thinking about absolutely nothing, not even trying to think of a song, and an idea would come."
"I wish it was like that for me," I said.
"That song you wrote on your own was amazing, though," Divya said.
"Yeah, and it took me weeks to write," I said. "When I first started, I was sitting with my guitar and notebook for a good two hours before I wrote just one word down. If a song idea actually came to me sooner, I could have finished that song a long time ago."
At least I kept working on it, though. I couldn't expect to be an amazing songwriter like Dane without actually working towards it. I had to keep writing and writing to get to his level. If it was even possible to get to his level.
"Your boyfriend's looking at you all lovingly now," Miguel said.
I looked over at Dane to see him smiling softly at me. "What is it?"
"It's just... You didn't tell me how long it took for you to write the song," Dane said. "So... Hearing that it took you two hours to get just one written down, and knowing that you didn't give up just... It makes me happy."
I smiled back at him before kissing his cheek. "And it makes me happy that it made you happy."
"You know what doesn't make me happy?" Marjani asked. "How long it took for you two to get together."
"Then don't be so invested in our relationship," I said.
"Kind of hard not to when you two were clearly dancing around your feelings."
"I agree," Divya said. "It was so obvious you two liked each other. We even bet about how long it was going to take before you two go together."
"I won," Marjani said. "Only because my guess was the latest, thus being closest to Friday."
"You bet on my love life?" I asked.
"Of course we did," Miguel said. "It's what friends do."
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i love dane and zion so much <3 also i agree with marjani. it did not make me happy that they took this long to get together >:( (let's just pretend i'm not writing the book lmao)
also just a heads up: because of the current situation that's happening in the states (i live in canada and it does happen here, just not as bad), i want to use this book to address racism and BLM since it's something i can do to spread awareness while staying at home. and i thought this book would be perfect to do it since zion was adopted by a black family, so he gets to experience his white privilege first hand.