Tracking Faith 》 Alicia Clark/OC

Chapter One - The Day The World Ended

《 ZACHARIAH》

I was standing on the ground, painting the mural wall that our class had started on a couple days ago beside Matt - probably the second person I was closest to in this school, outside of the basketball team. But that was only due to him dating my best friend.

And the fact that outside of the team I only really spoke to two people wasn't that big of a surprise that maybe I hadn't been as socially active as I should have been - but as a junior in high school, it was too late for that.

My chances of being the most popular kid in the school also went down when my former soldier brother had to leave the Army in order to move back here, to take care of me and our sister, Leah, when our parents died in the middle of my freshman year.

Now Ryan was the gym teacher who treated every day like a military exercise. Yeah, not many kids like his class. But all of the kids seemed to agree that he was a cool person overall. Just not his class.

And maybe the basketball team shouldn't count on my list. After all, I'm on the team - have been since the beginning of freshman year - and my brother is their coach. So maybe it didn't count.

I tried to ignore the conversation behind me when Matt got pulled off by his girlfriend, Alicia. Probably the first person I was closest to in this school outside of the basketball team.

If we didn't have Alicia in common, we more than likely wouldn't be on speaking terms. Not that I had anything against him though, we just weren't the type of people who normally ran in the same circles.

But maybe I did have a little something against him, he got Alicia. But that was old news, that crush that I had had was long gone.

"Zach, whatcha got to do tonight?" Alicia asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned around slowly, sitting the paint down in front of me.

"Basketball game." I answered, shrugging slightly. "After that, nothing. Unless we lose and Ryan goes all militant on us."

"Okay, well then we'll just come to your game and then afterwards we'll all go out to eat." Licia said, nodding as if this was a new plan.

I laughed, "You mean like we do. For every game. Since forever?"

"Yeah. That." Alicia said, smiling at me.

I shook my head and turned back around, continuing painting. Returning to ignoring their conversation. It's not like they meant to exclude me from the conversation, I just felt like I was intruding on it.

《●》

"Good game tonight guys." Coach Cortez - Ryan, my brother, said. I had to suppress a laugh at the seriousness etched across his face. It was his usual post win conversation that he had with us all.

As soon as I had changed, and checked my blood sugar, I was out the locker room door - immediately spotting Matt and Alicia. She waved immediately and I walked over to where they were standing.

"You ready to go?" Alicia asked, smiling at me. I nodded and we left the school, piling into Matt's car.

Matt was silent, as seemed usual when the three of us were together. When Alicia was taken out of the equation he was more talkative. Or at least seemed more open to conversation.