thunderstruck - zac efron and vanessa hudgens

chapter 1 - vanessa

[tw: mentions of death, mentions of drugs and alcohol]

"Zac," calls Mr. Garcia from his table, "and Vanessa. You two have call slips to go up to the front office. Doesn't say what for, but come back as soon as you can."

"Together?" I ask, glaring at Zac out of the corner of my eye. His greasy brown hair, stained varsity jacket, and sneakers that don't match the rest of his outfit aren't doing my eyes any favors, but at least his outfits work as free comedy. It seems that Zac can sense my glare, because he shoots me two seconds of dagger eyes as Mr. Garcia starts to answer my question.

"I'm not sure," he says, looking again at the call slips. "They're for the same time and place, but, again, neither of them say what for, so I don't know. Even if you are supposed to go together, you still have to go to the office, so please come up and take your slips and head out." I groan and walk to the front of the room, taking my slip out of Mr. Garcia's hand and getting out into the hallway before Zac can catch up. Unfortunately, very little time passes before I hear the door shut and have to listen to the sound of Zac's unfashionable high-top sneakers squeaking against the hallway floor.

"Why are you walking so sadly?" he calls, pouting his lip when I turn around to flip him off. "Ooooh, somebody's mad," he whines.

"Why are you talking to me?" I ask. "Are you obsessed with me or something?"

"I have standards," he replies. "But I wouldn't be surprised if you were obsessed with me."

"Ew," I interject. "You wish."

"Are you angry?" he asks, and I'm about to say yes when he adds, "Somebody's too much of a baby to handle being in the hallway with the boy she used to like, right?"

"Can you shut up, Zac?" I burst, stopped in the hallway. Zac catches up quickly and shrugs at me. "You know that's not the reason, and you know I hate it when you try to tell everyone it is."

"I'll shut up if you stop being like this all the time," he says, his tone changing from annoying to serious.

"Like what?"

"Like blaming me for our siblings' deaths, Vanessa. It's not fair. I miss my sister just as much as you miss yours, and you can't try to make it like I didn't lose someone that night too."

"Your sister killed mine-" I start, but Zac's words cut me off.

"Are you really going to do this again?" he starts. He pushes his hair back with his hand and looks at me, his cold blue eyes laced with the very first signs of tears. "We don't know who was driving the car, Vanessa. We don't know who 'killed' the two of them, so stop taking out your grief or whatever on me. Please." For a moment, silence lingers in the air as his words start to sink in, but I already have my response dancing on the tip of my tongue. We've had this conversation enough times that I could write it out like a play.

"Do you really think my sister was the one who was driving?" I ask. He groans, burying his face in his hands, and steps away from me.

"Maybe," he says, throwing his hands up annoyedly. "We don't know. We don't know."

"My sister was the most careful, and smart, and incredible person I've ever met. She wouldn't drive drunk in a thunderstorm. She was smarter than that." Zac groans again and steps back towards me, pausing and sighing for a moment before looking back at me.

"God, okay, I get it, you idolize your sister. Yeah, sure, maybe my sister was driving. Even if she was, she didn't kill anyone. The car got struck by lightning, Vanessa, you were there when they told us that. No matter who was driving, they still would have died."