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A car horn was sound from outside her bedroom window, and she peeked out to see a familiar car parking in front of her house. She grabbed her bag and unplugged her phone, rushing downstairs just as her mom called.
"Zoe, Jake's here!"
"I'm coming!"
It was pretty much an ordinary day in Blue Valley. Maybe except for the fact a new girl joined her high school, but if it weren't for Henry King causing a scene at the cafeteria and Cindy Burman complaining about it to everyone the entire day, Zoe probably would've never noticed the girl.
Zoe Bennet was not a social butterfly, to say the least. Not because she couldn't make friends (she firmly believed she could if she had just put the effort to) but because she was more than happy and comfortable with her two best friends.
It was pretty much safe to say the unusual school day was long forgotten. Besides she had a much more challenging task at hand right now – movie night.
A small town had its perks, sure. One of them according to Jake, was the drive-in theater which he luckily (his words, not hers) managed to get tickets. Zoe was not a fan of movies, most of the time she found them annoying and predictable, but she liked her quality time with her friends. Also, usually half-way through the movies they ended up cracking jokes, telling stories or just driving away to get food at Richie's Diner.
So, movie nights weren't that bad most of the time.
The redhead made her way to the front door of the house but stopped as her mother called her name once again. "Hang on, I got you something from Eve's on the way back from work."
Tuesdays were the days when her mom's shift usually ended early, but it really depended on how much they needed at her the hospital. Sometimes there were weeks when her mom got back really late or had to leave pretty early for work, so Zoe took matters into her own hands and started visiting her at the hospital. It didn't take long until Zoe decided to become a permanent volunteer at the hospital, she got to see her mom more and it was nice to help people.
"I know it's your favorite," her mom cheerily said, holding up a big bag of kettle corn, "but don't forget to also share it."
"No promises." Zoe flashed one of her signature smirks, taking the beloved popcorn and putting it in her bag. Her mother smiled brightly at her, brushing a hand through her ruffled, definitely post-work, dark hair, "Thank you. I won't stay too late so don't worry about me."
A loud scoff was heard from the living room, "It's movie night, I'm more worried for your friends."
"And I'll make sure to tell them you said that, Dad," Zoe replied just as loudly, hearing him laugh lightly in return. Zoe's disapproval for movies was no secret in the Bennet's house. Another car honk was heard, signaling that Jake was getting impatient and it was her cue to go.
"Have fun, pumpkin!"
"Thanks!"
Outside the sun was already setting, shades of blue slowly taking over the sky and mixing with hues of reds and oranges. Her family didn't travel much, but when they did, Zoe always liked to look at the sky. Yet it didn't matter where they were, she was sure no place could match with Blue Valley's view.
"Come on, Zo! I don't want us to be late!" Thebrunet called, peeking his head out of the window's car. The girl jokingly rolled her eyes at him, rushing towards the passenger seat. Once she sat down she was greeted by a sweet familiar smell.
"Is that cinnamon? Your dad made his famous cinnamon cookies?" She asked with a wide smile.
Jake reached over to the backseat and grabbed a red box filled with what Zoe called 'little pieces of heaven' desserts, chuckling at her joyful reaction, "Way to ruin the surprise, now buckle up and text Arty we are on our way,"
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out just to find out Artemis had already texted them.
🏈Arty 🏈
i can't make it today. got extra practice.
im sorry☹
With a disappointed sigh, Zoe texted her back saying it was okay and she should be careful and not overwork herself.
'As if it ever stopped her before' The redhead thought to herself.
"Uh, she can't come, she has an extra practice," Zoe told Jake, watching as a frown took over his features.
"Oh," Was his only response. Though it might seem stupid for some people, Zoe knew movie nights were special to him. Ever since he got his license, Jake used every opportunity he had to take them out for a movie night. And yeah, while it was a little excessive, it meant a lot to him.
"You know, it just means we have more cookies for us now," Zoe tried to cheer up. She opened the lid and grabbed out a cookie, holding it up with a playful smile and taking a bite, "That's definitely a win for me,"
It seemed to work a little bit as she saw a smile tugging at his lips. "Easy there! We need to save those to when we actually see the movie," he tried to scold and took the box out of Zoe's hands, putting it back in the backseat.
"Wha— I only took one! You're so mean!"
"Good thing I'm your best friend, right?"
It took them about ten minutes before they got to the theater and it was safe to say any trace of disappointment had completely vanished from the boy's face. In fact, he almost seemed to be jumping at his seat.
"You look excited,"
"Yes! It's a classic one!"
"Please tell me it's doesn't involve any high-school drama, I already know how those ones are gonna end," Zoe said, taking out the kettle corn from her bag and handing it to Jake.
"In your entire life, you watched maybe three movies." He raised his eyebrows at her.
"Doesn't matter, I know all the rules for a high school cliché movie."
"Really? Oh The Great Z, please enlighten me with your cinematic wisdom."
"It goes like this," She started with a polished tone, "The popular kid in the movie dates another popular kid, like the cheerleader and the quarterback kind of stuff. People immediately set them to be the King and Queen of prom."
"It's a life achievement, really," Jake added, playing along.
"But then, they have a fight and the popular kid accidentally bumps into a nerdy, shy kid in the hallways and things really start to go off."
"Oh yeah?"
"Totally! The shy kid and the popular kid start getting closer and tell each other stuff they have never told anyone before. They are super close to getting together, but then, totally and completely unexpected—"
"Something goes wrong?"
"Something must go wrong." She repeated dramatically, sending them both to fits of laugher.
"Alright, alright, go on." Her best friend urged her, eating the popcorn in fake anticipation.
"But then it's prom time and one of them does a grand gesture or something to apologize, and they get together and become King and Queen of prom. End. Credit roll. Crowd claps."
"So what you're saying, if I were to bump into Cindy in the hallways, we'll end up falling in love."
"Oh no, she'll one hundred percent cut you to pieces for the tiny chance you wrinkled her new clothes." Zoe laughed, " You know, If I were a movie director I'd personally make them break up in the parking lot like five minutes later, you know for the dramatic flair. No happy ending when it comes to high school love."
"Well, listen up anyone who wants to date Zoe Bennet, do not get close to the parking lot! You are set to suffer from complete heartbreak!" Jake put his hands around his mouth and shouted, even though no one could really hear him from inside the car. "And you said I'm mean, but that's, like, straight-up evil."
"I only act like it if somebody steals my favorite cookies!"
"They are not yours," Jake argued, and Zoe narrowed her eyes at him.
"Yet." She replied, challenging.
"I swear you turn into another different person when it comes to this stuff. I can never understand what's going up in your head,"
"It's mostly elevator music up there, but I do have my moments," She joked, exaggeratedly flipping her straight hair over her shoulder.
"Shhh!" He suddenly covered her mouth with his hand, "They're playing the movie."
She stifled a laugh at his behavior and leaned back to get comfortable as the movie started to roll.
"You don't really believe what you said right?" He broke the silence after they were halfway through the movie. Zoe glanced at him with a puzzled look.
"About what?"
"No happy ending for high-school love. You don't really mean that, do you?" The was something weird with the way he asked it, like it had some underlying meaning she couldn't seem to figure up.
"Of course not, I—" Whatever she was about to say was cut off by some yelling behind them.
"Hey, knock it off, Henry! We're trying to watch the movie, assholes!"
Zoe and Jake turned around to see Henry, Travis and Brian there, laughing and picking up on some kids from school.
Without saying a thing, Jake got out of the car.
"Wait, what are you doing?"
"They are being jerks. Somebody needs to go and say something,"
"You're spending way too much time with Artemis," The redhead muttered under her breath.
"Relax, I'm just gonna talk with them," He assured her and started walking towards the jock group.
The laugher from the group continued, but then it stopped. Instead of it she heard somebody yell and grunt in pain.
'That doesn't sound like just talking,'
Zoe jumped out of her seat, scared that maybe they had done something to Jake, but when she got closer it seemed like Henry and his friends were trying to fight somebody.
The person wore a hoodie and had a scarf wrapped over their face, but what was weird was that they were holding something that looked like a long glowing stick.
She saw Jake laying on the ground not far from the group.
Zoe always had known that if the moment of truth would ever come and she would need to respond with fight or flight – she would choose flight.
So, what came over her was something she couldn't possibly explain. She rushed forward and tried to grab that glowing stick, but the second she did, a red light erupted from her fingertips as if it was clashing with the stick. For a few moments, it felt like everything stood still.
"What are you doing? Stop!" The hooded person called. It was a girl, Zoe could tell by her voice. However, she couldn't see the girl's face as the light blinded her.
A force suddenly pushed her flying back, red flow covering her vision. When she opened her eyes a second later, she was practically half on the ground, her back pressed against a nearby car door.
"You're dead, kid," Travis stood up, and just barely got out of the way as the hooded girl shot a beam of light from the top of her stick, causing Henry's car to blow up and burst into flames.
When Zoe turned around to the girl, she was already gone.
Slowly getting up from the ground, Zoe ran to Jake's side. He seemed to regain his consciousness as he stared at Henry's car with wide eyes.
"Are you okay? What happened?" She asked him, checking up to see if he was hurt in some way but thankfully wasn't. She helped him stand up as he explained how he was about to talk to Henry but everything happened too fast and he was caught up in the middle of the fight.
A crowd started to form around them, and Zoe knew it was a matter of time before the authorities would get there.
"Is your dad gonna come here?" The brown-haired boy asked, almost mirroring her thoughts.
She quickly shook her head, "I don't think so. We should go home."
After asking him to text her when he got home, Jake dropped her off at her house. When she opened the door, her dad was already waiting near the entrance.
"Are you okay?" He worriedly asked in a hushed voice, "I just heard there was a fire,"
"Yeah, I'm fine," She told him. "Nobody was hurt,"
"That's good. Did you have fun at the drive-in?"
"Things actually got super weird. There was this girl and she was shooting lasers or something from a glowing stick and I also think I got hit in the head," Zoe admitted, rubbing the back of her head.
The teen walked over to the kitchen to grab an ice pack and her father followed quickly. "Sounds like the movie was interesting." He said, not realizing his daughter was not talking about the movie, and she was too busy looking for ice to notice. "Here let me check," He said and gently grabbed her head to inspect it, "It seems okay. Maybe you should just go to sleep."
Zoe hummed in response, feeling the sleep taking over by the minute.
"Just don't forget to set an alarm for school tomorrow. Your mom has an early shift and I have to leave early to drive to Aunt Eliza."
"Okay, I will," She promised, already making her way up to her room. "Goodnight, dad."
"Goodnight, pumpkin,"
After changing to her PJs, Zoe was so close to curl up in her bed and go to sleep, but before she did she walked over to her window.
Maybe she was just imagining it, but the stars above seemed to shine brighter.
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This is completely unedited, I literally finished writing it this minute. I have little to zero self-control and couldn't wait to share it with you!
Thank you so much for the support, I appreciate every vote and comment!
I hope you'll enjoy this story as much as I do 😊