Prodigy

The Basketball

Jessica almost killed him the next day when Zane mentioned Locke. She had been reeling off another story about him to Zane, Eddie and Tia and Tia was the only one decent enough to pretend to care.

To stop the onslaught of Locke's latest change of hair colour from hot red to electric blue, Zane had mentioned offhandedly that he actually had a pretty tedious attitude. His mistake.

Jess had demanded to know what he meant and how he could know that. Then proceeded to try and strangle him when she found out that, not only had he met The Great God Locke, he had failed to get his photo, his number or call Jess to let her know to get out of bed and get down to the basketball court in the middle of the night in October in her pyjamas.

(Jessica had scoffingly replied that she would have obviously dressed up to meet him and Zane had said it was too cold for her to be going out with almost nothing on just to meet a boy - which earned him a smack.)

She spent the rest of the day hating him.

She spent the day hating him and informing him that they were going to the basketball court after school and waiting there until either Locke showed up or she decided they had waited long enough.

That day being one of the few days Zane got to go home early because there wasn't basketball practice that evening but no, she wasn't letting him get away with that.

So that afternoon, he trudged out of school, regretting not having brought an actual coat, Jessica marching beside him and the others trailing behind.

The elbow to the gut was the first warning that there was something worth looking at by the school gates, the second being the shift of energy in the air, a ripple of curiosity or excitement.

The third was a voice that made Zane internally reel.

"Locke!"

Reluctantly, Zane looked over to the gates and sure enough, bundled up in a coat, scarf and a ridiculous pair of fluffy earmuffs, was Locke, hands stuffed in his pockets, blowing smoke rings into the air until he looked around at the voice.

The voice belonged to Jenny, who ran over to him, slipping her arms around his waist and, upon noticing Jess, giving her a nasty smirk before pulling Locke's scarf down from his mouth and kissing him.

"I didn't think you'd come pick me up," she said, locking her arms around him and pointedly pressing her hips to his.

Beside Zane, Jess looked ready to blow her top, steam could have been pouring out of her ears considering how red her face was.

Zane rolled his eyes and draped an arm around her shoulders - which made Jenny glare - and steered her towards the gate.

"'C'mon, lets go home," he said to all of them - Eddie more interested in his phone, Tia sticking her nose up at Jenny.

"Zane!"

Zane actually flinched at his name and suppressed the groan that he felt coming up before he glanced around to see Locke unhook himself from Jenny and bounce over to them, stepping into their path and looking at Jess, before shooting her a smile he hadn't yet bothered to use on Zane. A smile designed to steal hearts would have been wasted on him.

"Is this the friend who's the fan?" he asked, holding the smile effortlessly.

Jess was staring at him like she was seeing an angel fallen from Heaven. Her mouth was open; she was actually clinging to Zane for support. She was trying to say something but no sound was accompanying the mouth movements, like a miniature basking shark.