Limelight

Alonzo: Dog - Part 1

(There's a little story behind this one~

So my lovely friends fist-it-out and kokinu09 help me to find the real names of the dancers who play (most of) the BG zombies in the movie and sometimes provide me with posts by those dancers on Instagram and stuff (because I don't have Instagram). And Zach Burke, the dancer who played Alonzo (yes, the guy who played Al is actually called Zach, I know), has very quickly become my fav~ I love seeing his little freestyle dance videos and I... totally don't have a Big Dumb Fangirly Crush on him, I swear o.o ANYWAY one recent video from him showed his dog, Jax! And I love Jax! I happened to have been thinking about which of the BGZ might get pets after the ban is lifted and learning about Jax made me want to give Al a dog, but him actually having a dog might mess up some future ideas, so I came up with an alternative~

This is in 2 parts because I needed to flashback real quick to establish Al's love of dogs, part 2 will be back to the current time

And the future fic is really coming along ;) )
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The humans were arriving at the zombie block party and Alonzo and his friends were excited to be performing for a bigger crowd than normal, but then something caught his eye.

"Is that a dog?!"

Zephyr, Zach and Roz all spun round to look and sure enough, there was Zed's new girlfriend in all her white-haired glory, carrying a dog through the barrier into Zombie Town.

A dog.

In Zombie Town.

None of them had ever even seen a dog in person. They'd seen dogs on TV and stuff. They'd heard dogs barking on the other side of the barrier. But they had never actually seen a dog right in front of them. That didn't stop Alonzo from loving the whole idea of dogs. They were soft and cuddly, energetic, loyal... pretty much exactly like him. Before his friends could stop him, he was already halfway down the street.

"Al...!" Zephyr was about to go after him but gave up. There was no point in trying to catch him now. Instead, he sighed to himself and watched him for a moment, then turned around to find Zach and Roz both smirking at him.

"Don't you both have humans to stare at?" he snapped and pushed past them.

Meanwhile, Alonzo was only a few feet away when Zed joined his girlfriend and greeted both her and the dog in her arms, then he noticed Al walking over.

"Al, hey!" he smiled and the human girl looked between the two zombies, "Addy, this is Alonzo. His band's gonna be playing later."

"Oh, yeah, you helped us at the championship, right? Thank you so much for that, you guys were amazing."

"Don't mention it, it was a lot of fun! More importantly," he was already ruffling the dog's fur, "Is this your dog?"

They both laughed and the girl – Addy, he guessed – shook her head, "He's not mine. He's actually a gift for Zed's sister."

Al looked at her, confused. As usual.

"Wait, what? But we can't..."

Zed grinned, "They're lifting the pet ban!"

Al's jaw dropped, but his hands were still occupied with petting, "No way. Are you serious?"

"Yup," Addy nodded, "My parents are the mayor and the zombie patrol chief, I get these updates straight from the source."

"Oh, my Z...!" he gasped, then pressed his nose right against the dog's, "You are the very first zombie pet. You're making history," the dog licked him and he laughed.

"Al," Zed nudged him and shot him a teasing smile, "Shouldn't you be helping your band set up?"

"Yeah, yeah, just a sec..."

"We need to take him to Zoey, and you need to go get ready. He'll still be here afterwards."

Al's eyebrows shot up as if he hadn't even thought about that (which he hadn't) and he just whispered, "He'll still be here...! He's staying in Zombie Town...!" he finally let go of the dog and started to back away, "You better warn your sister not to let me near him or I'm just gonna take him," he pointed at Zed then turned and ran back to the others.

He soon got distracted talking to Zach about Zephyr, being interrupted by Lindzey and then dancing to BAMM with some random cheerleader, but once he spotted Zoey and her new dog heading inside just a little while before the party came to a close, Alonzo could only think of one thing.

He found his mom with Zynthia and Zeus, Zephyr's parents, a little further down the street.

"Mom!" he came to a screeching halt in front of the three of them and Hazel blinked in surprise at her son. He didn't give her a chance to speak, "Did you see the dog?"

"The... dog?"

"They lifted the pet ban and Zed's girlfriend gave Zoey a dog! An actual dog!"

Even if Hazel wasn't quite as excited as Alonzo, she, along with Zynthia and Zeus, knew what this meant for zombie rights, "That's... Gaz, that's such a huge step forward, I-" then she caught Al's hopeful expression, "Al, don't ask me-"

"Please, Mom? Come on, I always wanted a dog! I know I'd have to take care of it, I could do that, please-"

"Alonzo!" she held up a hand to silence him, looking apologetic, "I'm sorry but I just can't afford to get a dog anytime soon. And you definitely can't, either. You don't make anything off your band and zombies your age can't get jobs."

"What if...?"

Hazel placed a hand on his face, stopping him before he could go any further, "Al, honey, the way things are right now, we just can't. I'm sorry, unless something comes up and I can get a better job, or the council actually does let you work for pay, it just isn't possible. OK?"

Al hung his head, unable to hide how disappointed he was, "OK..."

"But at least now you'll see some animals around Zombie Town! You won't be missing out completely," she rubbed his arm then brushed his hair back and smiled at him, "Where'd all that positive energy go?"

He couldn't help smiling back at her, "I guess you're right."

"I always am."

– LIMELIGHT –

A couple of months later, Alonzo and Zephyr had finally started dating, as had Roz and Keira, the band's YouTube channel had been up for a few weeks and slow progress was being made in the integration every day.

Lindzey had just arrived for her usual weekend visit at her mom and brother's house when she made an announcement.

"Guess what?" she was bouncing on her heels while Alonzo was eating breakfast, not really paying too much attention, "Dad said I could get a dog!"

Al immediately choked.

"He what?!"