Chapter 1

    Zackary Pogromca Rang the doorbell once. He is standing at the front door of the house of his best friend Ezekiel Hernandes, fetching him so that they could go to school together. He looks at the clock on his phone. Well, it’s still early, they still have time, he said to himself. They will definitely make it in time before the bell rang. That is if Zeke would hurry up.

    “Coming, Hang on!” Zeke shouts from inside.

    Opens the door hoisting his backpack, Zeke meets him. “Mom we going now!” Zeke shouts back. Without waiting for a reply Both of them walked down the porch and head out going to school.

    Zac and Zeke both teenagers and high school students at Crowsdale high, have been friends since when they both can remember, best friends and inseparable. They named their duo the Double Z, their own secret club. However, only the two of them are members.

    “Dude, check this out, I watched this video last night on YouTube, you won’t believe how high a 1.5 liter of a coke can do when you shake em hard and slam their face down on the ground, man it’s like a rocket ship.” Zeke smiled showing Zac the video on his phone. The video shows a couple of kids on their loan holding huge bottles of coke shaking them, then throwing them down hard on the ground, and just watched how the bottle cap explodes and the bottle lunch in high in midair. “Cool, huh.” Zeke grinning widely, unzipped his backpack and show a bottle of coke, which he probably snagged in their fridge. “we could try it ourselves later.”

    “Woah, you serious? That would be an awesome dude.” Zac wide-eyed in surprise cannot hold his excitement on what they are going to do next.

    “let’s do it later on the field, during the break,” Zeke said as they walked on towards school.

    Crowsdale High was just a couple of blocks away from both their houses, the two boys do not want to bother taking the bus or have their parents take them to school. Both of them were already teenagers, every weekday they decided that they will just walk to school, spending time with each other’s company rather than ride inside a crowded and noisy bus, that’s just bothersome for them, they thought. The two grow up together and in the same neighborhood, and have been famous for causing a bit of mischief in their small hometown.

    Moments later, they arrived at school and just in time as always. Students now starting to arrive around them, either by bus or car and some kids even ride their own bikes to school.

    Zeke nudged him, “Hey Zac look there, it’s Emma.” Pointing over at a car that's just getting park a few feet away from them, as they head towards their school entrance. A girl stepped out. Zac Blushed as he saw her, She is wearing a skirt, blue blouse with a sweater over it, her curly blonde hair slides down to her shoulder kept neatly by a red headband. Not unlike the two boys which look very untidy. Zac’s short trimmed hair is very unkempt and looked like he has not brushed it after taking a bath while Zeke’s has long straight hair brushed down. Both boys wearing faded jeans and different video game logo shirts and jackets.

    Emma was also their friend, and also lives a couple more blocks away from Zac’s house. her mom always drops her at school on her way to work and sometimes if she is not hanging around with her other girlfriends, she usually goes home with the two boys and hangs out with them at Zac’s house or Zeke’s garage. Where the two boys always spend their time, especially on weekends.

   For the longest time as well, since they grew up and went to high school, Zac developed a secret crush on her, not telling her how he feels, afraid of being turned down, or even worst, it might ruin their friendship.

   “Hey! Emma.” He waved at her, she looked their way, saw them, and smiled. Emma kissed her mom goodbye in the car and quickly headed their way.

    “Hi boys! So, what are you planning on doing today, this great Wednesday morning? Nothing good again, as always?” She said as she gets closer to them, smiling at them.

    “Oh, you pained my heart, Emma. We are very well-behaved gentlemen, what makes you think that we are up to no good?” He said, with a suspicious glance at Zeke, who grinned widely. “As you may have noticed, we are behaving pretty well these past couple of days. Don’t we Zac?” Zeke said nudging him on the arm.

    “Of course, we’ll never do anything, that will get us in trouble.” He said crossing a finger in his back.”

    “Well, I won’t get my hopes up yet. Do I need to remind you of every stupid thing that both of you had done?”

    “Of course not, we are pretty capable of remembering those ourselves, in fact, we keep a record of it.” He said. Both boys snigger.

    Suddenly the school bell rang.

    “We’ll you boys always manage to get yourself in detention every week for the whole month now, you planning to set a record or what?” She said as the three of them started heading to the entrance as well as every single one of the kids is outside the school grounds.

    Zeke intrudes. “We are planning to stay out of everyone today and just mind our own business, for your information, young lady.”

    “Why don’t I believe that,” Emma replied suspiciously of what the boys are planning.

    “We are experimenting, it will be fun. Wanna join us later?” he asked her.

    “Nope, I rather not.” She said.

    The three of them finally made their way inside.

    “Emma, over here!” another girl called waving at her on the left hallway.

    “Oh, it’s Cindy. You boys behave now Ok.” She points two fingers to both her eyes and to the two boys. Means that she is watching them. Then she walked away happily towards her girlfriend Cindy and the two girls went off.

    “Aww isn’t she adorable Zeke? She definitely likes me.” He said clasping both his hands into his chest.

    “Boy, you make me sick. For Goodness sake, Zac just tells her how you feel. Grow a pair and ask her out.” Said Zeke. “Look I bet she is just waiting for you to ask her. I don’t even know why she usually keeps hanging out with us. I mean she is definitely out of your league man yet she is still here.” Zac punched him in the arm. “Ow! Watch it, dude, what did you do that for, I’m just telling the truth.”

    “Yeah, I know. You don’t have to tell me about it. Thanks for the support.” He said sarcastically. “Your one to talk, both of us have not had any girlfriend yet. And we are already in high school.

    “Hey, dude for me I’m still taking my time choosing. Why would I just settle immediately, I’m still young.” Zeke said while looking at some passing girls nearby. “You on the other hand my friend has already chosen your mate. Awwooo. Aw, aw, awooo.” Zeke trying to look like a wolf.

    “You're embarrassing me, dude.” He nodded his head.

    Ignoring Zeke, his mind wanders off thinking about Emma. Every time that she is with them he felt great and likes hanging out with her. It’s just that he doesn’t know what will happen if she turned him down. She could even stop hanging out with them once she finds out, oh, that would be horrible. He thought to himself.

    “Hey, Zac! Hey Zac.” Zeke calls to him repeatedly but was too late, he was so busy daydreaming that he accidentally bumped into someone that is getting things in the locker.

    “Hey, watched it!” the football varsity player of their school Richard Hopkins shoved him away from him. “Oh, it’s you Zucker-y.”

    “Oh, sorry for that Rick, I didn’t see you there for a moment.” He said. Rick Stares at him looking angry.

    “You saying I’m on your way?”

    “Hey, I did not say that at all. Yo, I don’t want any trouble here Rick.” He raised both his hands up as if in surrender. Zeke grabbed his shirt pulling him out of the way.

    “Ok big guy, we’ll be on our way now, we don’t want to be late or something. Oh! Look we need to hurry to our first class.” Zeke points to his wrist pretending to look at an imaginable watch.

   Rick believes the bluff still staring at them seriously while they walk away.

   “Whew! That was a close dude. I mean, what if he remembers what we did last week to their jersey uniforms.” Zeke recall, when they accidentally soaked the newly washed jersey uniforms of the varsity team with orange juice on the previous week. That is another story.

   “don’t worry Zeke he got over it remember, he probably forgot all about it now, I doubt he can even remember what he ate yesterday.” He joked, Both of them laughed. Get their stuff in their lockers and went on to their first class of the day.

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    “Are you ready?” Zeke asks Him. They are in the parking lot at the back of the school building. Zac holding his phone ready pointing at him, waiting to push the button to start recording, Zeke holding the big bottle of coke shaking it upside down until bubbles show inside.

    “Ready when you are dude.” He said trying to hold up the excitement, smiling widely. Oh, this will be awesome. He thought.

    “GO!” Zeke stopped shaking the bottle, “Here it goes!” lifted it high over his head and with all his might throws it cap facing down the ground hard. The moment it hit the ground the cap exploded with a loud POP!!! the bottle quickly launched upward using its content to propel it upward? No?!! it did not go directly upward. It launched diagonally in front of them. Up high it flew at least 20 feet in the air, heading to the football field beside the parking lot. Up! Up! Up! And finally losing its content it slowly descends into the football field below.

     “Woah! That was awesome dude!” Zeke shouted looking at him.

     He keeps on filming the whole thing. however; the boys did not calculate the trajectory of the falling bottle on where it is supposed to land safely, he looks at it and down the field on trying to see where it may land. “Oh no dude, look at it. It’s not over.”

     “What? What do you mean?” Zeke looks back at the bottle, it’s headed for the jug of Gatorade on the table of the varsity team, that is having a practice on the football field. “Oh, no, Oh, no! you gotta be kidding me!” Zeke, both his hands above his head, he wanted to cover his eyes.

     “I can’t look!” he said

     Then, BAMMM!! It really did hit the jug, completely pushing it off of the table and pouring its content to the sitting Rick on the bench.

     “What?! Oh, no. You got a terrible aim, Zeke.” He said still filming.

     Rick stood up covered in Gatorade, his teammates saw it and laughed at him. He stood up, his teammates pointing at the car park where both of them are standing. He looks at them pointing shouting, they can hear his distinct voice. “I will kill you both later!!! You Guys are dead!! Do you hear me? Dead!!!”

     Zac and Zeke looked at each other trying to suppress their laughter. “Oh, oh.” Then both of them scrambled to their feet and ran inside the school. Both of them laughed hard clutching at their middle while still thinking where to hide.