Mackenzie Blue (3 page)

Zee felt like the newest inductee into the Geek Hall of Fame, when suddenly a ninth-grade girl raced toward her. Zee remembered her from the lower school. Excellent! Someone she recognized who actually seemed excited to see her. Unfortunately Zee was spacing on the girl's name. Lucy? Linda? Lorna?

“Lana!” a voice behind Zee shouted.

That's it!
Zee said to herself, delighted. She turned to
see who had helped her out. Another girl was also running toward Zee. That's when Zee realized they weren't running to
her
at all. And they hadn't noticed that they were going to make a Zee sandwich if someone didn't move.

Zee stepped backward—
bam!
—right into Landon Beck's path! As she fell on to the ground, everything inside her bag spilled out.
How could this be happening?
Zee thought.

Landon was
the
most amazing guy at Brookdale Academy. Zee had had a crush on Landon for forever. She'd secretly daydreamed about eating lunch and doing homework with him. And she'd super-secretly hoped that he might even be her first kiss one day. (Only Ally knew that.)

“Hey, sorry,” Landon apologized. His long bangs moved back and forth over his right eye in an I-don't-have-to-work-too-hard-to-look-this-good way. “I didn't see you.”

Zee wanted to say,
No way was it your fault. I'm the one who fell into you.
But Landon was hypnotizing Zee with his incredible blue eyes. All she could say was “Uhhh.”

“Are you all right?” Landon asked, reaching out his hand to help Zee to her feet. Landon had spent the summer at surf camp. He was so tan next to her pale complexion.

Say something good. Please,
Zee silently begged herself. But that wasn't going to happen. “Uhhh.”

Then out of nowhere, another familiar voice cut in. “Zee,
you should watch where you're going,” Kathi said, pasting on a phony smile. “Unless you bumped into Landon on purpose.” Landon had been Kathi's boyfriend on and off last year. Zee wasn't sure if they were on—or off—now.

“Are you hurt?” Jen asked.

Before Zee could answer, Kathi said, “Whatev.” Then she glared at Zee behind Landon's back and silently mouthed, “Back off!”

As if,
Zee thought. She felt her face turn red and worried that her skin would soon match the color of her hair from all of the embarrassment.

Finally Jasper arrived. “What's going on?” he asked. His white shirt was tucked into his dark blue uniform pants. The knot at the top of his blue tie formed a nearly perfect triangle, and the shoulders of his jacket were so straight you could have shelved books on them. His eyes, circled by silver wire-rim glasses, looked at Zee, at Landon, at the ground—anywhere but at Jen and Kathi—since Zee was just about the only girl who didn't make him completely nervous.

“I'll tell you later,” Zee said. Desperate to get away, she waved her hand in the air at Jasper, the friends' signal to start walking—fast.

“Wait!” Landon called to Zee. “You forgot your book bag.”

“Thanks,” Zee said, taking it.
Would she be able to escape with even a tiny bit of cool left?
She bent over and gathered the contents, quickly shoving everything in.

Then Zee grabbed Jasper's arm and started to drag him inside the school. “Let's get out of here.”

“Zee!” Landon shouted.

“What now?” Zee moaned under her breath. “Do I have toilet paper on the bottom of my shoe?” She turned around.

Landon wore the biggest, dimpliest smile. He pointed his cell phone at Zee and said, “Say cheese.” Zee gave him a huge grin and posed while he took a picture. “I'll email it to you.”

Tugging Jasper's arm, Zee pulled him into the building.

“Hey!” Jasper protested. “You'll wrinkle my jacket.”

“Sorry,” she apologized, releasing her grip. “I just want to get out of here as fast as possible,” she explained.

“What a daft way to start the year, huh?” Jasper said.

“Oh, it was okay.” The
cutest
boy in school had a photo of
her
on his cell phone!

“
G
ood morning and welcome to Brookdale Academy Upper School,” a cheerful woman said from the other side of a table covered with stacks of papers and boxes. “I'm Mrs. Sayles, the school secretary. And your name is…?”

“Zee.” Mrs. Sayles smiled expectantly as if she were looking at a toddler trying to say her first words.
Duh!
“Sorry. Mackenzie.”

The secretary just stared and waited. After a pause, she finally asked, “And what is your first name?”

Zee snapped out of her
own trance, shaking her head. “That is my first name.”

“Okay. Mackenzie what?”

“Mackenzie Blue,” she said matter-of-factly. Mrs. Sayles began flipping through some cards in a file box.

“Carmichael,” Jasper added. “Mackenzie Blue Carmichael.”

“Thanks,” Zee mouthed to her friend. She knew she had been nervous about the upper school, but she hadn't realized
how
nervous. And falling down in front of everyone—including Kathi—definitely hadn't helped.

Mrs. Sayles pulled out a couple of cards and handed the first one to Zee. “Here's your class schedule.”

Zee took the card and looked at it. Seven classes! How did they squeeze seven classes into one measly day? Plus lunch! Plus time in between classes! And what if every teacher gave her homework
every day
?

Then Mrs. Sayles handed her the second card. “And here's your locker assignment with your combination. Just follow the instructions at the top—turn to the right until you get to the first number, then turn to the left, passing the number one time and stopping on it the second time around, then turn to the right to the third number.”

Mrs. Sayles smiled, and Zee tried to reboot her brain.
“Um…could you repeat that?” she asked.

“No need,” Jasper cut in. “I'll show her.” He spun Zee around. “Look at the queue.” The line had grown behind them.

“Oops!”

Then Jasper reached out his right hand to shake Mrs. Sayles's. “I'm Jasper Chapman.”

Zee couldn't believe what she was hearing! Jasper wasn't stammering or looking at the ground. He didn't sound nervous at all. Instead of being worried about information overload, he confidently pushed his glasses higher on his nose.

Mrs. Sayles smiled and handed Jasper his cards. “Welcome to Brookdale Academy.” Zee relaxed, happy that Jasper was there for her.

Zee looked at her schedule. “Cool beans!” she shouted. “I have seventh-grade instrumental music first period.” She loved music more than just about anything else. Over the summer, she'd spent a huge amount of time writing her first real song. Her diary was full of cross-outs and scribbles and revisions, but Zee was finally close to finishing it. Then she'd cut a demo, sign a record deal, and become a pop phenomenon. (So maybe it wouldn't be
quite
so easy, but Zee had no problem working hard for her dreams.)

“My schedule says I have music first period, too,” Jasper said, smiling.

“Excellent! Let's go!” Zee started to walk faster.

“Hey!” Jasper called to her. “You're going too fast.”

“I can't help it. This class is going to be so cool!” she said. “Mrs. Bradley is an amazing teacher. Brookdale's music program is practically famous. They win all kinds of awards—mostly because of her. The symphony orchestra goes every
where. They've even performed in Europe.” Zee and Jasper arrived at the classroom door. “Room 124. This is it.” They stepped inside.

“No one's here,” Jasper said, scanning the empty room.

“We can just hang out until Mrs. Bradley comes,” Zee said, looking around. A big wooden teacher's desk sat directly in front of the middle of a whiteboard. Two rows of chairs, arranged in semicircles faced that, and a shiny black grand piano sat off to the side. Then Zee noticed a bright red flyer on the wall. “I don't believe it!” she shouted as she read the sign. “
Teen Sing
is going to hold auditions at Brookdale Academy!”

“What's
Teen Sing
?” Jasper asked.

“It's this amazing singing contest for twelve-to sixteen-year-olds. They have a bunch of local competitions all over the country. If you win one of those, you get to go to the national competition. And if you win that, you get a recording contract!” Zee was talking so fast, even she was having trouble keeping up. “You didn't have that in England?”

“Um…maybe,” Jasper said, biting his lip. Zee laughed.
Teen Sing
could have been the hottest British phenomenon since the Spice Girls, but since it had nothing to do with soccer, Jasper wouldn't have noticed. He'd rather read a book than turn on the TV—unless a soccer game was on. But
despite their differences, somehow Zee and Jasper clicked as friends. “Are you going to enter the
Teen Sing
-along?” Jasper wondered.

Zee pointed to the flyer. “
Teen Sing,”
she explained, wondering if it was actually too late to save Jasper. “There is
no
way I am
not
going to compete. It's going to be so awesome. Brookdale's auditorium is state of the art. It has the best equipment.”

Zee paused and looked at Jasper. “Am I talking too much?” But before he could answer, she said, “I'm just excited. I really, really want to win.”

“Win what?” a voice asked. Zee looked back and saw Kathi had entered the room with Jen.

“Nothing,” Zee answered quickly before Jasper could. She did
not
want to hear Kathi's opinion on the topic.

Kathi looked around as if she were lost. “I must be in the wrong room,” she said. “I thought this was instrumental music.”

“It is,” Zee told her.

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I play guitar.”

“I know that,” Kathi said. “I thought you had to play a
real
instrument to be in here. Guitar doesn't really count since you only have to learn, like, three chords.”

“I hope it counts,” a voice said from the hallway. A man wearing a white button-down shirt that was only partially tucked into his dark blue pants appeared in the doorway. In one hand, he carried a mug with coffee sloshing over the side. Little brown drops splashed on to the disorganized stack of papers he had braced against his chest with the other hand. “Guitar's my instrument—well, one of them.”

“Are you a student?” Kathi asked. Zee thought he could be a student, too. He didn't look much older than her brother, Adam.

The man placed his coffee cup on the teacher's desk. “No, I'm Mr. Papademetriou.”

Kathi stared at him blankly. “Mr. P,” he continued. “The teacher.”

“The
teacher
?” Kathi asked. “No way!”

As Zee watched his papers slide down next to his coffee mug, she could see what looked like a jelly stain right in the middle of his tie. She also noticed that he was wearing a pair of Converse sneakers just like hers, only his were black.

“Actually I'm the substitute,” Mr. P continued. “Until they officially hire me.”

“Why would they do that?” Kathi asked.

Mr. P's face fell, and Zee decided she had to rescue him from Kathi. “What happened to Mrs. Bradley?” she asked
just as Landon and his best friend, Marcus Montgomery, entered the room. Even with their loose ties, untucked shirts, and baggy uniform pants, they looked more like teachers than the teacher.

Mr. P leaned away from the crowd of students standing in front of him. “Mrs. Bradley's husband was transferred to the East Coast for work.”

“Forever?” Marcus asked. Zee was glad Marcus joined in. He was outgoing and friendly with everybody.

Mr. P nodded. “I'm the new music teacher.”

“The
substitute
,” Kathi quickly added.

“That's cool,” Marcus said.

The first-period bell rang loudly overhead, startling the young teacher. Relief washed over his face, though, when he realized he could begin class. “Okay, everyone,” Mr. P said, with a loud
clap.
“Please find a seat.”

As the seventh graders scrambled for chairs, Zee smiled nervously at Jasper. This was
not
the teacher she had promised him and raved about—not even close. “Remain calm,” she tried to telegraph to him mentally—although based on the way she felt inside, she was pretty sure it looked more like, “EVACUATE THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY! EMERGENCY!”

Mr. P took roll. As he announced names, students responded, “Here.” But when Mr. P called out, “Chloe
Lawrence-Johnson,” no one answered. Zee figured it was a new girl since she didn't recognize the name. Mr. P repeated the name as everyone looked around. No response.

How could anyone miss the first day of school?
Zee wondered. That was like missing Christmas. There were no doovers for either one.

Zee and the others watched and waited to see what Mr. P would do after he finished reading off names. For a while he did nothing—unless strumming his fingers on the desk counted as something. Then he circled around to the front of the desk. Some teachers leaned against the front of theirs, but Mr. P
sat on
his.

“I guess I should tell you a little bit about myself,” he said, looking from one face to the next. “I just got back to the United States after living all over Europe for a few years.”

Cool beans!
Zee was dying to go to Europe. The new teacher might be interesting after all.

“This is my first year teaching, but I've been a musician since I was about your age,” he trailed off quietly. “Do you guys have any questions for me?” No one raised a hand. “Anyone?” he said, although Zee was sure he looked at Kathi in a way that said,
Except you. I don't want you to ask me a question.

Zee racked her brain, then stuck her arm in the air. Mr. P pointed in her direction. “Yes?”

“Who's your favorite musician?” Zee asked.

“Bob Dylan,” Mr. P answered immediately.