When I was a kid, I was only ever obsessed with two things: the weather and if our old tabby cat was the same cat as our neighbors. My mom insisted that I was seeing things or I was just making it up, and our neighbors didn't even own a cat... but Timothy Stripes had a recognizable look of disdain and one cloudy eye from a hard life on the streets in his kitten days. A cat with the same features could be seen lurking behind their curtains. Years later, Timothy Stripes went to the cat barn in the afterlife, and I never saw the cat in that house ever again.

The weather was a different kind of obsession.

Fewer assumptions and crazed theories and more like something I actively worried about. It didn't make sense that the weather could just suddenly take a turn. It was bizarre that a man in a suit on TV could say it was going to be sunny all day and then it would rain. Somehow, they still paid that guy to be wrong. As a kid, I'd ask my parents about the weather and I'd glare at the sky, daring it to change on me. I had a book about cloud variants with hundreds of photos. My favorite were cirrus clouds, like brush strokes through the sky. They were especially beautiful late in the day, soaking up the colors from a sunset.

Now, it was a part of my morning routine. Wake up, brush my teeth, and check the weather forecast. Always checked the radar the way my grandpa taught me. I've never told anybody about this little obsession. Not even Elena or Skipper. I figured they would just mark it up to be another weird thing about Zoey Summers being over prepared. Zoey's being too much again.

Now, there was something else I obsessed over.

If Daniella was going to reply to my embarrassing letter or not.

The moment after I dropped the letter into that locker and ran away, I not only regretted writing it, but that morning when I decided to get out of bed. Honestly, I should be allowed to turn back time sixteen years and try again. Every single word I inscribed onto paper was the most embarrassing thing I've ever said in my life and I didn't even say this stuff out loud. I've got the IQ of the thermostat. It was all embarrassing. All stupid. I didn't deserve to breathe the same air as the well-adjusted regular people around me.

Right after my first class, the locker was empty.

She had my letter.

She had my reply.

She was probably disappointed it wasn't from Mona.

School whirled by in a blur. I didn't even make eye contact with Daniella that day. We avoided each other successfully, even down to being at our lockers. She ghosted me, but every corner existed draw me in, threatening me with a jump scare where she might pop out and surprise me.

 I couldn't help it. I asked Loman, "Have you seen Daniella today?"

"I did," he said, taking out his books and a very large monster energy drink.

"And how did she look?"

"Like normal, I guess." He popped the can and a fleck hit my cheek. No hesitation, Loman started chugging. 

"Which means?"

"Like Daniella." He took a breath. "I don't see how she could look like anyone else."

"But what about her mood?"

"About the same."

"Thank you," I said because I couldn't take it anymore and tried to spend the rest of the school day like a regular human. No practice today meant we didn't have to do the next challenge at the school. Allison elected us to go to the cheapest pizza shop and discuss the logistics of the "favor" task... and also to get cheep greasy pizza.

The girls piled into my car, but Loman rode with Allison to keep him impartial. I didn't argue with the supreme judge. Allison didn't seem like someone I beat in an argument.

The pizza restaurant usually catered to little league teams that either won or lost, depending on how nice their coach was or the after church crowd who had a big party but didn't wanna spend a pretty penny. It was buffet style pizza, which included desserts at the end of the bar.

Outside, it was a torrential downpour, beating down on the little roof of this place. I texted Allison to just drive carefully, and we were hanging out. The place was deserted of patrons, so the staff didn't seem like they were eager to get rid of us. Only Taylor Swift was playing over the speakers and Elena was talking to the cashier about finding stuff on Depop. Skipper kept glancing over nervously, so I dragged her to the crane machine to hopefully distract her.

Skipper and I immediately found ourselves at the mercy of this claw machine, enraptured by its challenges, but more importantly its rewards. "You gotta go left," she said, her face pressed against the glass.

"You're wrong," I told her, sweat forming on my brow. I was aiming for the ugliest stuffed animal I had ever seen, a little cat that looked skinned and someone tried gluing the hair back on. Eyes bugging out with a tiny wrongly pink tongue hung out of their mouth, it was unlike anything else. It was horrible. It needed to be mine.

"They don't call me the master of the claw for nothing. You gotta go left," Skipper insisted.

"No one calls you the Master of the Claw."

"Well, if you guys did, I'd finally get the respect I deserve. Go left."

Ignoring her, I pressed the red button, and the claw descended, squishing down at the body of the deformed cat and lifting her up only a moment before dropping her. Skipper shook her head so loud, I had to sigh over it.

"My turn," she said, bumping my hip.

"I have one more try," I snipped, and Skipper laughed, scurrying back to her side of the machine.

The doors opened, unleashing a short boom of the sound of rain. In walked Allison, Loman, and Mona, smiling and waving at us all.

"Oh, hey!" My voice spiked, the surprise plain on my face. "What's up?"

Allison wagged her phone from behind Mona as Mona grinned on her way right to me. Allison's text read:

ALLISON: [Change of plans. Mona wanted pizza and I can't say no to that face].

Quickly. I pocketed my phone and gave Mona a hug. "I'm so glad you're here."

"Same!" Mona let out a relieved sigh. "I feel like we've all been so busy, nobody's been able to hangout."

I hate the way my brain works. I don't like that my first thought is to be disappointed that we couldn't compete. It sucked that I wished I had brought my homework into the restaurant, so I at least stayed productive. Even worse than feeling guilty, I wasn't getting stuff done, but I felt worse because I couldn't just enjoy being in the moment with my friends.

"What's our goal here?" Mona asked, surveying the horde of treasures at the base of the machine, all ripe for the taking. She pressed her finger to the glass. "Is it that little snow bunny?"

"Oh, no," Skipper said. She crossed her arms and leaned against the machine, holding her chin like she was any close to being cute. "We're women with refined tastes."

"We want the horrible little creature in the middle." I pointed to the cat I was a few minutes away from owning.

Mona grinned. "I love it."

"Alright, Summers, last shot," Skipper said, clapping her hands together and rubbing them in her most mischievous way. "If you bomb this, the kitty is mine."

"Don't get too excited," I said and lined up the claw again, going for that ratted big head. I tilted my head back and forth, stealing a look around the side, even if Skipper was trying to cheat and push me back. Lining the claw up, I went with my gut and dropped the claw. Its little metal fingers pressed into the cat's skull.

"I got it!" I jumped up, grabbing onto Mona's shoulder, and she cheered along with me as that furry little monster dropped right into the exit. "Mona, I think you might be a good luck charm." Bending down, I grabbed the cat out of the bottom and used its tiny soft hands to wave back and forth in celebration. I used my best impression of a gremlin that's never known peace. "Thanks for your help!"

"Always happy to help." Mona tilted her head as she smiled, her eyes twinkling up at me. She was so bright and shiny. It must be raining because she harbored all the sunshine in this pizza restaurant.

"Hey, hey," Allison announced from our table. She waved her phone. "Um, Daniella's not gonna make it. Her car broke down-"

"Oh, no," Mona said. "Is she okay?"

"Uh, yeah. It seems like her dad is gonna pick her up."

My spine straightened with my brow scrunching together.

When it came to Daniella James, I really wasn't allowed to know peace.

"Okay. That's good." Mona nodded and everyone seemed to be satiated, going back to their conversations, their games, and their lives. But I wasn't someone who could let anything go. I could hold on to something until my fingers turned blue, even after my knuckles threatened to pop through my skin. In my past life, I was probably an elephant. Something that never forgets.

"Um, I uh..." Talking, despite not knowing what to say, I wandered over to my backpack, putting it over my shoulder, making everyone increasingly confused. I said whatever came to me first. "I just realized I forgot something at school. Here-" I handed Mona the crusty weird cat. "I'll be right back."

"Do you really need it now?" Skipper asked.

"It's raining really hard, Zoey," Mona added. "It's not going to let up either."

"I'll drive safe," I promised and caught eyes with Elena, pleading with her. The others were all peppering me with reasons to stay. Allison pulled on my backpack, telling me the world wouldn't implode if I just grabbed the stuff later. I tried to argue something that made sense. "I wanna go before they lock the doors."

"But-"

Elena interrupted us all with the simplest of smiles. "Just text us when you get there."

"I will," I promised and ran for it, crashing through the sheets of rain and in a matter of second, I was absolutely soaked. With a curse, I reached into the back of my car and reached for my hoodie, which seemed stupid to put on now. Blasting the heater, I turned off the radio and tried to put a plan together. This was a little too spontaneous for my weak heart.

"School," I said, putting my hands on the wheel. "I should backtrack. Daniella was probably coming from school to here. Right. Okay."

Deciding, I reached for my phone and like clockwork; I entered the school into my GPS and just listened to the voice guide me. Gripping the wheel, I peered through the rain, keeping track of the road, the other cars, the directions, and the side of the road for Daniella's car, while the rain peppered the outside of mine like machine-gun bullets. It hasn't rained this bad in forever. Maybe it was an omen.

I reached the school and didn't see any speck of a car on the side of the road. It made me wonder if she was going to head home first... but I didn't know where she lived. Just as the thought was entering my head, I noticed lights in the distance. Emergency lights. Then, I could see it. An old, busted mint green car littered with bumper stickers.

A relieved sigh left my nose, and I rolled up behind her, pulling up my hood and tightening the strings. Like I promised Elena, I texted her I arrived at the school, but looked around to see nothing but road, phone lines, and fields on either side of us.

To make myself go, I counted down, "3. 2. 1!"

I bolted out of the car and hurried to the passenger side window, drenched with cold rain in one second flat. Daniella snapped her seat up, whole face slackened as she looked at me through the glass. Tired of waiting, I knocked on the glass, so she'd finally roll it down. When she did, she shouted through the rain, drops splashing her, "What are you doing?!"

"You lied!" I shouted back.

Her brow just pinched deeper. "What?"

"You lied to Allison! You said your dad was picking you up! But your dad lives in South Dakota or somewhere, right?"

"North Dakota."

I rolled my eyes with my whole body. "Whatever. Why did you lie?"

"I..." Daniella blinked, shaking her head as she stared at me. Maybe it was from the shock of the flat tire, but she was lost. Every word took extra effort as she scrambled to sew sentences together with rusty needles and frayed thread. "H-how do you know that?"

"What do you mean? It's because you told me!"

Her eyes widened. "Sure! Like three years ago! Why do you remember?"

"Why are you the one yelling at me? I just remember! Okay?! You're the one who told me about it!" I yelled back at her, so emboldened that she told me this one detail three years ago about her parent's divorce, about her dad having a girlfriend on the side and choosing that life over the one with Daniella and her mom in it. I couldn't imagine someone abandoning their family like that. Well, not at the time. Now, I understood where Daniella might have been. Now it makes me wonder if her pushing me down even had anything to do with me. She might've just been angry. I'm angry all the time and maybe if someone as annoying as me came around, I'd push me down too.

"Did you come all this way just to call me a liar?" Daniella asked. "What does it matter now?"

"I don't know! I just don't like not understanding things, I guess!" Frustrated, I asked her, changing the subject. "Are you okay?"

Her brow tension eased as her shoulders slumped... then, a blush splashed across her face and blazoned at her ears. Never in my life had I seen someone blush redder than a fire engine could flash their lights. "I'm fine," she said. Her voice skin prickling soft. "The tire popped. Not me. Besides, my mom is coming-"

My brow narrowed again. "When's she coming? Your mom's a pharmacist, right? Is she off now?"

"No..." Daniella admitted, eyeing the field of nothing to her right. "She's... she'll get off in a few hours."

I stared. 

She didn't look at me. 

My clothes carried more water the local swimming pool. I asked her, "Is she really coming?"

"No."

"Why lie?"

"I don't know! I don't... I don't wanna tell you anything. I'm still not even sure why you're here."

"Well." I shrugged a little. "I can change a tire."

She stared. Now she couldn't look away from me. 

"Do you have a spare tire?"

She nodded.

"Okay, well, I've got a jack and a lug wrench. Just gimme a minute, okay? Well, more than a minute, but you know what I mean."

"Really?"

"I'm not just gonna shout at you and leave!" I shouted again. It seemed I had only one volume to talk to her and it didn't help her shock at my offer offended me a little. "Despite what you think about me, I'm not like a horrible monster."

"And you know how to change a tire?"

I grinned, the rain still pelting down on me. "I know how to do everything."

This was when she usually rolled her eyes and snapped back. But Daniella her eyes returned to me. Her dark eyes ping-ponged back forth across my face as if she was looking for something. Leaning back, I wasn't sure I wanted to be studied this closely. 

"Don't look at me like that," I told her, unable to stop the words.

A small smile curled at the end of her lips. "Like what?"

"Like you're looking right through me."

"How can I look through you?" Now, she fully smiled, and I got lightheaded. "There's a whole lot of girl right in front of me. The rain's hitting you and everything. Nothing's passing through."

"Yeah well. Not bad for an empty girl," I mumbled, and her expression twisted. It was all slow motion, the feeling of slipping off a cliff and her hand reaching out to save me, but I didn't reach back. I told her again, "I won't take long." Hurrying to my car, I grabbed what I needed, then found her spare tire.

Lowering into the mud by the road, Daniella's door opened. "Do you want my help?"

I waved her back into her car. "No! No! Get back in! There's no sense of us both getting soaked."

She hesitated, but slowly closed her door. In about half an hour, probably less, I had her spare on and the busted one in her trunk. Her window was already rolling down when I approached. "Thank you," she said.

"Are you going to go to the pizza place?" I asked.

"Uh, no. I think I'll just go home. I'm not sure how good this spare tire is."

I nodded. "Okay. Well. See yah."

"See yah," she echoed, her voice soft again. 

Walking away, I had a strange feeling and when I looked back at her, she was still watching me. I ducked my head and climbed back into my car. It was almost a game of chicken, neither knew if we were playing or not, but eventually Daniella left first. I texted Elena I was on my way back and when I returned to the restaurant they met me with a chorus of confusion over how one person could be so soaked after maybe a few minutes outside. Taking in all the teasing, I just made myself a plate of pizza, accepted Allison's dry hoodie, and Skipper's spare pair of jogging pants.

Settling between Mona and Elena, I ate the greasy pizza and listened to all the games and conversations I missed. Elena nudged my leg. "You took a while."

"Yeah, I got caught up with something."

"You had mud on your pants."

"Oh, uh yeah..." I choked on my pizza a little and had to take a swig of water. "I slipped on the grass at school."

"Hmm."

Elena hummed, but she didn't fight me on it. She didn't ask any questions or bring it up to the rest of the group. For a while, I wasn't thinking about anything, the last hour of my life a total blur. If someone told me I hallucinated the entire exchange, I would be inclined to believe them, but Allison sat up straight for a moment. She got up and circled the table to reach me.

Lowering to her hind legs, Allison whispered to me, showing her texts with Daniella. "Looks like you won again, Summers."

I read the text from Daniella.

DANIELLA: [I'm not forfeiting the contest, but I will admit defeat today. Zoey can have another win.]

My brow narrowed.

"Congrats," Allison said and patted my back.

However, it didn't feel like a win. If anything, it felt worse, as if I cheated or something. My stomach twisted, the pizza leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I took out my phone... when I realized I didn't have Daniella's number, because why in the world would I have her number? But I've never needed to talk to her more. Not wanted. I needed to see her as soon as possible.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This might be my favorite chapter to write so far! I don't think I've written one SO FAST! I hope you liked it :)) Also some news is on the way, so be on the lookout for that 👀

Now for questions!! Does your town have a cheap pizza buffet? My town has a CiCi's lol. and Mona's back!!! Are you excited to see her? We gotta go on a date soon, don't we? And are you surprised Zoey left to go help Daniella?? Are you amazed she remember Daniella's parent's divorce? And was that... did they have a moment?

Sounds fruity to me.

ALSO IM GONNA BE A PUBLISHED AUTHOR. My book 30 Day Trial Period will debut SUMMER 2024