“So…” Zach started, and I already didn’t like the sound of it.

“What do you want?” I demanded, looking up from the book I had been reading as I continued to lay on my bed. “I’m kind of busy right now.”

“Yeah, sure,” he nodded, waving it away like it was no big deal at ll. “Anyway, you need to change into a swimsuit.”

I nearly dropped the book. “What the hell? Why?”

“Because I invited our friends over for a pool party today,” he grinned, but this wasn’t very exciting for me in the slightest. Swimming was fun, and I loved the pool, but it was something that I had to give up because of my scars.

“And just who did you invite?” I asked lazily, turning back toward my book.

“Johnny, Logan, Kate, and Aveline,” he informed me with a smirk on his face.

I slammed the book shut, very irked by what he had just said. “You invited Aveline? Seriously?”

Zach nodded. “I invited Todd, too.”

“You actually invited Todd?”

“Well, he’s your friend, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, but you hate him.”

Zach shrugged, as if this was no big deal. “Only because he asked you out.”

I couldn’t help but make a face at this. “Does that mean you hate Johnny, too?”

Zach tipped his imaginary hat as he exited my room. “That’s something that you’ll never get to know!”

“Well, I’m still not changing into a swimsuit!” I shouted after him, my eyes barely even flicking toward my gauze, that was still covered by my sleeve. “I’ll come downstairs, but I’m not getting in the pool!”

Zach didn’t respond, so I was going to assume that he had heard me but decided not to respond. I rolled off my bed and looked at myself in the mirror, making a face when I saw what my hair was deciding to do right then. I could not let Johnny see me like this.

When I was finally finished messing with my hair, Zach burst in my room in his swimsuit, telling me to hurry the hell up and get downstairs before everyone got there, since Aveline and Logan didn’t know that I lived there. Aveline was the last person I wanted knowing, so I hurried down as quickly as I could.

When our friends (and Aveline…) got there, no words were even exchange. Everyone but Johnny just jumped right into the pool, which made me feel jealous just a little bit. I was still fully clothed, long sleeves and all, and there was nothing I could do about it.

“They shouldn’t even be in the pool in this weather,” I scowled, watching as they all moved around and had fun. “It looks like it’s going to rain.”

Johnny merely shrugged. “But it’s still kind of warm out.”

I sat beside Johnny as we watched our friends splash around in the pool. Even though I had told him to go inside, Johnny refused to do so unless I did as well. But I was not about to change out of my long sleeved shirt and show off my gauze to everyone.

“Just get in the pool,” I ordered, not wanting him to miss out on any of the fun just because of me. “I’m fine with just watching, really.”

Johnny didn’t look like he believed me. “Not going to happen.”

In all honesty, I wasn’t fine with just watching, but it was something that I had to deal with because of my injuries from the fire. But just because I couldn’t have fun didn’t mean that Johnny couldn’t either.

“I’m going back inside,” I sighed now, getting up from my chair until I was being pulled back down by Johnny.

“Oh, no you don’t!” he cried, grabbing me around my waist before I could even barely get out of my chair.

“No, no, let go of me!” I cried, even though I was laughing as I did so. This showed Johnny that I was fine with this, which resulted in him now tickling me.

Zach, who was still in the pool along with everyone else, stopped trying to drown Logan as he looked over at Johnny and me. I ignored him completely, because I was actually having fun, and I didn’t want him to ruin it for once.

I actually was having fun, which had been really hard for me lately. And it was with my boyfriend, of all people. But I still wanted to get away and go upstairs even though I couldn’t, since Aveline and Logan didn’t know I lived in the house with Zach and his family.

A throat was suddenly being cleared behind us, and Johnny finally stopped tickling me as we looked over to see Ethan, who was unhappily holding a plate full of drinks.

“My mom forced me out here to give these to you guys,” he informed us, placing them down on the table before hurrying his way back inside so he wouldn’t have to be near me any longer.

“Drinks!” I heard Kate squeal from the pool, and she quickly emerged and ran toward the lemonade. “I’m so thirsty!”

With the horrible mood I was in, I wanted to tell her to just drink the pool water, but I knew I couldn’t say something as mean as that to my best friend. Even though she’d probably just think I was joking anyway…

The rest of the wet teens followed her right out, and I got a little apprehensive as they got close to me. I didn’t know what my shirt would look like wet, so I didn’t know how noticeable the gauze might have been. All I knew was that I definitely didn’t want to get wet, just in case.

“Aren’t you going to get in the pool, Johnny?” Aveline asked as she sipped at her lemonade, barely even shooting a glance toward me. “The water’s nice and cool.”

“I might,” he shrugged, and then shot a glance toward me. It wasn’t my fault I had a wound! “I’ll go in once Maxynn does.”

Aveline now turned to glare at me. “Even though I don’t understand why you’re even here, you should still get in the pool so Johnny can have some fun.”

I glared right back at her. “I told him to get in the pool and he won’t listen to me. It’s not my fault.”

“What a girlfriend you are,” she muttered before turning back toward the pool.

“Can I go inside now?” I asked Johnny, and he shook his head. “Oh, come on! I don’t even want to be here!”

“Well, I want you here,” Johnny smirked at me, and I couldn’t help but blush a little at this.

I gulped, turning away from him anyway and jumping up out of my chair. But before I could even take two steps toward the house, arms were suddenly circling around my waist and I was being thrown into the pool with whoever had grabbed me.

I broke through the surface to see that it had been Zach who had thrown me in with him, and I knew that I shouldn’t have been surprised. I also knew that I was seriously going to drown him for what he just did!

“You idiot! What if I couldn’t swim? I’d drown!” I shouted at him, jumping up and pushing his head under the water, wanting him to know what I had felt like to be pushed in like that. “Man, I hate you!”

“Love you, too!” he simply laughed once I let go of him.

I was going to kill him, unless he killed me first. Seriously, what if I hadn’t been able to swim or something? I would have died and Zach probably wouldn’t have even cared!

I then remembered the one reason why I hadn’t gotten in the pool, and I looked over to see that my right arm was extra heavy from the wet gauze. I couldn’t tell if it was noticeable because I knew it was there or if it was just noticeable, and this really freaked me out.

Knowing that there was no use in getting out now, especially since Johnny had finally gotten in, I paddled over to Todd, who seemed to be alone for the most part. Kate would pay attention to him every now and then, but her attention was really only on Logan.

“I don’t know why you came,” I sighed as I rested next to him on the steps. “Neither of us really have a place here, do we?”

Todd shrugged. “Well, one of the guys here is your boyfriend…”

For a second, I couldn’t figure out if he was talking about Johnny or Zach. I then remembered that to the public, Johnny was my boyfriend and there was nothing going on between Zach and me.

“Yeah, hah…” I laughed nervously, feeling stupid over what I had been thinking. “I guess you’re right. But I still don’t feel like I fit in with this sort of crowd. It makes me glad that I have a friend like you.”

Todd smiled at me. “I’m really glad I have a friend like you, too.”

I couldn’t help but remember that he had asked me out months before, which meant that he liked me more than a friend. At least, he used to. I sure hoped that he didn’t still like me, because then I would have felt horrible about dating Johnny in front of him. Maybe I’d set him up with a nice girl from the math team or something… That would probably make him happy.

“Come on and swim, Maxi Pad!” I heard Zach call out now, and it made me want to hit him. “Come on and soak up all the water!”

“Shut up, Blanche!” I shouted back to him, not wanting my talk with Todd to be cut short. It seemed like I hadn’t talked to him in a long time, since I had been so busy with everything with Zach and Johnny.

“I don’t get how you deal with that guy all the time,” Todd sighed now, and I only shrugged as a response. “I mean, he makes school a living hell for you. I can’t imagine how he is now that you guys live together.”

“You make it sound like we’re a couple or something,” I sighed, making a face as I saw Zach dunk Kate under the water. “That’s definitely the last thing that Zach Deveraux and I will ever be.”

Even though that was already kind of a lie…

When I felt someone grab at my ankles, I let out a shout. They then yanked me under the water, nearly scraping my back against the step I had been sitting on.

“I’m seriously going to kill you!” I screamed at Zach once I came up from the water, but before I could lunge at him, I was suddenly being lifted out of the water. Much to my surprised, I looked down to see that I was now sitting on Johnny’s shoulders.

“You should really learn how to control your anger, Maxynn,” he laughed as he held onto my legs.

“Put me down!” I ordered, not having enough guts to just fall back into the water. “Let me kill him!”

“Let’s play chicken!” Logan cried out before Johnny could even answer me, grabbing Kate and helping her up onto his shoulders. “We’re definitely going to win, babe!”

Kate giggled at his nickname for her, but this only caused me to roll my eyes at the two of them. They weren’t even an official couple, at least not that I knew of, and yet they acted more lovey-dovey than Johnny and I did.

Zach grabbed Aveline, barely even helping her up onto his shoulders at all, I couldn’t help but glare at this as I watched Aveline try to get up on his shoulders. I couldn’t stand her at all, but Zach could have at least tried to help her a little bit.

Finally fed up with waiting, Zach easily shoved Aveline onto his shoulders, but I still hadn’t agreed to this game. Not only was I the only one of us that was fully clothed, but I hated this game in general.

“What about Todd?” Kate asked when she saw our friend standing off to the side in the water.

“I’m fine,” he assured, waving her away with a smile. “I don’t want to play.”

If only he could take my place…

“I don’t want to do this!” I whined now, even though I still didn’t have enough guts to fall backward back into the water. Johnny was holding onto my legs too tight, anyway. “Johnny, put me down!”

When Zach suddenly smirked, I didn’t think I wanted to know what he was going to say, because it was obvious that he had gotten an idea. And knowing Zachary Deveraux, this idea of his was not going to be something I liked.

“The guy on the winning team gets to kiss Maxynn!”

“What?” I squawked, nearly falling right off of Johnny’s shoulders. “There’s no way in hell that I’m agreeing to that!”

Zach grinned, the look in his eye telling me that he was just going to kiss me later, no matter what happened in the pool. I had already kissed two of the four boys in the pool, but it still would have been too weird to kiss Zach in front of Johnny.

“But if you win, you get to kiss your boyfriend,” Zach informed me now, but this still wasn’t talking me into playing this ridiculous game. I could have kissed Johnny whenever I wanted. “Come on, Maxxy. Don’t ruin everyone else’s fun.”

“Come on, Maxynn,” Johnny laughed from under me, and I couldn’t believe that he was actually on his idiot of a best friend’s side. “We’ll just have to make sure we win, right?”

“But if Logan or I win?” Zach asked before I could even answer Johnny. I was a little relieved that he added Logan in to his sentence. “Will you be fine if he or I kiss Maxynn?”

Johnny seemed to think for a moment. “Fine with me.”

Zach smirked. “That’s great.”

I seemed to be the only one to notice the look in Zach’s eye, the look that hinted at the fact that he had already kissed me. It didn’t help that he now technically had Johnny’s permission to do so.

It seemed like there was no way I was going to get out of this, unless I won the stupid game. But if I didn’t, my penalty was going to have to be kissing a hot guy. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but I pretty much already cheating on my boyfriend with one of them…

Zach and Aveline were up first against Logan and Kate. In all honesty, I didn’t know who I wanted to win. If I did manage to win, I didn’t have to kiss either of the boys, but if I lost, I didn’t know which one I’d rather kiss in front of Johnny.

I felt my stomach lurch when I saw Kate splash into the water. I was sure everything would have went better if Logan had won, since he obviously liked my best friend and had no romantic feelings for me at all…

Well, it wasn’t like Zach was really any different…

Now it was up to Johnny and me, and I didn’t feel really great about those odds. I had broken Aveline’s nose once, but now it was perfectly healed and out of its brace. Winning this could be her revenge on me or something.

Or maybe she’d give up on purpose because she didn’t want me to kiss Zach. She obviously had a huge crush on him, so I didn’t know why she’d want me kissing him. Maybe she knew that it would mean nothing to both Zach and me if we did kiss.

I looked at Aveline, and then at Zach, and I just wanted to fall back into the water and run back into the house. I seriously didn’t want to do this, but there was no getting out of it now.

When my fingers linked with Aveline’s, I knew that this wasn’t a good idea. It was going pretty well for about a minute or two, but then I felt like I was starting to slip from Johnny’s shoulders, and Aveline definitely noticed. Her long nails were suddenly digging into my hands, causing me to let out a shout as she pushed harder then she had before. There was nothing I could do as I fell back into the water, Aveline then losing balance and falling forward into the water as well.

I squeezed my eyes shut, seriously pissed at myself for losing, but I was even more pissed at Aveline for making me lose. I was not going to come up from the water no matter what. I was not going to kiss Zach!

When I felt something hard hit my back, I immediately let out all the air I had been holding. Even worse, whatever had hit me had hit me hard enough that it had knocked the wind right out of me, so I was now practically drowning right then and there.

When arms encircled my waist and I felt myself being pulled from under the water, I was immediately helpful for my savior. I came to the surface, gasping for my desperately needed air.

“Man, maybe you can’t swim,” Zach informed me, a little out of breath. All I could do was glare at him with complete and utter hatred, even though he had been the one that had pulled me out of the water.

“I think someone kicked me in the back by accident,” I told him with a glare, still breathing a little heavily from nearly drowning. “It’s not my fault.”

“Accident, eh?” Kate asked, glaring in Aveline's direction.

"Hey!" she cried, looking very offended. "It wasn't me!"

"It was probably me," Logan laughed nervously, scratching at the back of his head. “Sorry, Maxynn. I didn't know it was you that I hit.”

"Idiot," Zach tsked, slapping his best friend over the back of his head. “You could have killed her.”

"I'm fine," I assured. "But I'm going inside now."

“Nuh-uh,” Zach grinned now, clutching onto my non-scarred arm and pulling me back toward him. “We still have to kiss! So come here, Maxi Pad, and soak up all the love I have for you!”

Kate gave Logan a flat look as she muttered, “Maybe she’ll soak up all the sexual tension that’s been going on between them.”

“Hey!” I cried, not wanting to hear about something like that. “Will you please?”

Kate waved me away, smirking as she now watched this unfold. I did not want to kiss Zach in front of Johnny, because I honestly had no idea what he would do. Knowing Zach, he really could have done anything.

“Your boyfriend’s fine with me kissing you,” Zach shrugged, as if this was going to make everything so much better. I looked over at Johnny to see that he wasn’t really pleased about all of this, yet he was saying nothing at all. “Come on, Maxxy! Just one kiss and everything will be just fine.”

Zachary Deveraux’s version of one kiss sure was different from my version of one kiss. There was no way this was going to end up well.

And yet there was no way I could get out of this. The best thing I could do was probably just kiss him and then dash right out of the pool.

So I took a begrudging step forward, not enjoying this in the slightest. Zach only smirked like he always did, obviously enjoying this way too much than he should have. This time it technically wasn’t cheating on Johnny…

 When Zach’s lips touched mine, it was a little different from usual. Not only were our lips wet from the pool water, but he was gentler than he usually was. I didn’t know if it was because my boyfriend was watching or because of something else.

I tried to pull away after a few seconds, but Zach wouldn’t let me. His arms suddenly wrapped around my waist, one of his hands going so far up the back of my wet shirt that I felt him clutch onto my bra clasp.

“Zach!” I cried, pulling away from him and smacking his hand away from me. “Don’t do something like that!”

“Sorry,” he winked, and this made my cheeks heat up even more. “I forgot that we were in front of people.”

I looked over at Johnny, who had a look I hadn’t ever seen before on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was just angry or suspicious, but both of them were absolutely horrible no matter what the circumstances.

“Your shirt is seriously messed up,” Aveline informed me suddenly now, pinching at the fabric where the gauze was. “Is it supposed to be like that?”

“Uh,” I sputtered at first, having absolutely no idea what I was supposed to say. “It’s, um, probably all messed up because it’s wet! I should probably go change into my extra change of clothes before it gets even worse…”

I quickly darted out of the pool, shooting a look that told Johnny to stay where he was before I hurried inside. Making sure no one had somehow followed me inside, I quickly darted up the stairs and to my room.

I didn’t even look in the mirror as I ripped away my clothing and the gauze. I quickly wrapped my scars once again, not even looking at them as I did so. I still didn’t know what they looked like, and I was planning on it staying that way as I continued to change.

Now that I was in fresh, clean clothing, I decided to look at myself in the mirror. My gauzed arm looked fine now, just like it usually did, as it was covered by the fabric of my new shirt. The only thing that didn’t look usual about me was my hair, but I wasn’t going to go and blow dry it when it didn’t even matter anyway.

When I suddenly heard a loud song playing, I looked around my room to see what it was. It wasn’t my phone, or even the alarm clock that I never used on my nightstand. It wasn’t anything from my room, so that only meant one thing…

I opened my door to find the source of the sound only to see that it was coming from Zach’s room, the door open like it always usually was. Deciding that it would be fine if I went into his room because he went into mine all the time, I didn’t even think twice as I strolled right in.

I looked down on his bed to see that his cell phone was ringing. I didn’t know who could have been calling him, since both of his best friends were downstairs with him right then, but I nearly dropped the phone onto the ground when I saw the caller ID.

“What are you doing in my room?”

I didn’t even jump at the sound of this voice. I turned to see Zach, still wet from the pool, as he leaned against his doorframe. His smirk even grew when he saw that I was holding his phone.

“I… How could you…” was all I was able to say at first, not even able to form thoughts.

“Now what did you find on my phone?” he grinned, and this wasn’t the way he was supposed to be acting if I had found something bad on his phone. “There’s a lot of… things on there.”

“Why is Andie calling you?” I finally demanded, ignoring his teasing and trying my best not to think about what else he had on this damn thing. “She just called you.”

Zach shrugged, still leaning against the door frame. “We swapped numbers when I came to pick you up from your singing lessons last time.”

“Zach!” I shouted, not believing what he had just told me. I took a step forward and bashed him in the shoulder, causing him to take a step out into the hall. I followed him. “I told you to stay away from Andie!”

He shrugged again. “You can’t tell me what to do, Maxxy. Andie and I have a date this Saturday. It’s been scheduled and set and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Did you just say you’re going on a date with someone named Andy?” Brianna asked, suddenly popping up from around the corner as her face scrunched up in suspicion at her eldest son. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

“Mom, are you kidding me?”

“Are you gay, Zach?”

Her son looked horrified, which I enjoyed immensely. “Of course I’m not!”

“One can only wish!” I nearly shouted, knowing that everything would be so much simpler if it was true. “It would be a lot easier living in this house if that were true.”

Zach scowled at me before turning toward his mother. “It’s a girl named Andie.”

I didn’t know if my eyes were deceiving me or not, but I could have sworn that Brianna looked disappointed. “Oh… Okay.”

She turned and walked down the stairs now, Zach glaring at her back as she did so. I just continued to stand beside him, wanting to laugh in his face so much that I swore my face was turning red.

“It’s not funny,” he scowled, turning away from me and making his way into his room.

I couldn’t control myself any longer; I burst out laughing. “No, it is! It really is! It’s absolutely hilarious that your mom pretty much wishes that you were gay! I think I might call you Blanche more often now!”

The scowl on his face didn’t fade, but I was too busy laughing to really care. When he suddenly grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me toward him, I wasn’t expecting it at all. So all I could do while I laid on my back on his bed with him on top of me was how we could have gotten caught with all our friends downstairs.

“No, Johnny’s downstairs,” I gulped, no longer thinking anything was funny.

Zach only smirked, his hand traveling up my shirt. “No he’s not. I sent everyone home.”

And his lips met mine for the second time that day, but this time I didn’t push him away like I had in the pool. I really didn’t have much of a choice, because Zach could have just overpowered me if he wanted to.

But all I could think of the entire time we kissed was that Brianna actually thought that her son was gay, and she was disappointed when he told her he wasn’t. Imagining Zach being gay was literally the most hilarious thing I had ever imagined.

Zach pulled away from me when I started laughing right in the middle of our kiss, obviously still ticked off about the whole thing.

“Are you seriously still laughing about my mom asking if I was gay?” he nearly snarled, his lip curling up into a sneer as he glared at me.

“You can’t really blame me, Blanche,” I giggled, the whole entire thing replaying in my head and making me laugh. “I’m sure it’s something we’ve all be wondering.”

Zach didn’t smirk or smile. “Get out.”

I smiled at him as I hopped up from his bed. “With pleasure!”

Zach's forehead was in his hand as he said, "But not the good kind."

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What's this? An update, after only three days? How is this possible?

Well, I've realized that if I keep updating only once a week, there's no way I'm going to make it by the deadline for the Watty Awards. I don't even think I'l make it if I update every four days. This is going to be really stressful once school starts. >.<

But I won't give up! Only... twenty-seven more chapters to go. o.e"

Like I said, this is for the 2012 Watty Awards. Please comment, vote, and share for my sanity.