MURDER MYSTERY cont. (zarley!)

[CHARLEY HARPER]

Charley Harper was walking down a hallway. With Zack Charming. To the debate room. To solve a murder. Just normal things that happened to everyone, right? Charley sighed. This whole night was so ludicrous, and it wasn't even close to being over. She had to focus on taking deep breaths as she slowly walked down the hallway, and tried not to focus on what had just happened between her and Zack Charming and focus more on the murder she had to solve. She couldn't fit the pieces together, and it was frustrating. She hated a puzzle she couldn't solve, and this murder was the biggest puzzle she had ever faced. Or maybe trying to figure out Zack was the biggest puzzle. God, she didn't even know anymore. Great, Zack was saying something. Maybe that would distract her…but probably not.

"So who is on…the debate team this year?"

"Idiots," Charley responded, looking at him quizzically. Why was he asking about people on the debate team? Why did he even care? Couldn't he just assume that they were all complete morons? Especially compared to him. Wait…was he jealous? Why would he be jealous? There was no reason for him to be jealous. And why was she assuming he was jealous? Maybe he was just making small talk. Should she make small talk? Or say something? She should say something…this was a long hallway, they couldn't walk down it in total silence. But what would she say? So…we just kissed. How about that? No. No way. She couldn't even concentrate on talking right now, she had to pay attention to not tripping. Would it be weird if she took off her shoes? Her feet were killing her. No, no, that would be weird. Plus, there was probably bacteria all over the floor and it could get on her feet and get into a cut or something and then she'd get AIDS or some weird disease and then Zack wouldn't like her anymore and would go get a prettier, less disease-ridden girlfriend and he would forget all about everything that happened and Charley would be alone in her hospital room with her debate notebook which would be stupid to even read because she would be dying and would never participate in a debate again. So she should just keep her shoes on. She could deal with the cuts, and just hope Zack never asked to see her feet. Oh god, what if he had a foot fetish? She didn't know anything about him, now that she really thought about it. What if he had some sort of mental illness? And weren't mental illnesses more common in people with higher intelligence anyways? She was sure she read that somewhere. Oh, god, her heart was beating so fast that she was sure it was about to burst out of her chest. She didn't remember feeling this nervous since…well, ever. This was all new to her, all this boy stuff. The events that had just happened still hadn't really hit her. Zack Charming had kissed her. And she had kissed him back. That happened. It actually happened, and now she had no idea what she was going to do. What was supposed to happen? Were they supposed to pretend like it never happened after tonight, and just go on with their lives? Is that what usually happened with things like this? Or were they supposed to start…dating? What did that even mean? Her and Zack would go to various fancy restaurants and talk about House? That would get old soon, wouldn't it? And who was paying for these dinners? Would she have to pay? She didn't have the money for that! She had been saving up for Yale for as long as she could remember, and she sure as hell wasn't going to use that money on calamari or whatever they serve at fancy restaurants.

Finally, they reached the debate classroom. Now they could look for clues or something that would take her mind off of the future. And the past. And the present…damn it. An hour ago she was worrying about Regan making fun of how she looked in a dress. Couldn't she go back to those times? Those were much simpler. She liked that. Simple was good. There was no stress, no Zack, no murders, her life was pretty good overall.

Finally, they reached the debate room. Charley instinctively turned the knob, and was surprised that it actually turned. That was strange, it was normally locked. It should be locked, technically the rest of the school besides the gym was closed, nobody was supposed to be here. Oh god, they weren't supposed to be here. Why hadn't she thought of that? They were going to get caught and she was going to get suspended and not get into college and be a homeless bum for the rest of her life. She almost turned around and marched right back into the gym, but then she remembered that there was a murder to solve. That was a good excuse, right? They had to solve the murder. They. Her and Zack. Kissing. Solving a murder. Right. That was her life now. She just had to take a deep breath, not have a total panic attack and accept it.

It would be much easier if he wasn't so gorgeous. Or smart. Or experienced. He had to be experienced, right? Of course. She bit her lip as she pushed open the door and struggled to fit through in her stupid ball gown. Well, this was fantastic. She was sure she was making a terrific impression on him tonight. First insulting him, then slapping him, then not being able to fit through doors…great. After about 10 long seconds of struggling, she finally forced her way through the door, but not without the dress getting caught on the latch and ripping the seam right up the bodice. Fantastic. Now not only did she make a total fool of herself, she now had a giant hole up the right side of her dress. She didn't even turn around to see Zack's expression, she didn't want to see it. Zeke was going to kill her. He should have known she was going to ruin it, though. Maybe he got it on extreme sale or something. Whatever, Zeke's reaction to her ruining the dress was the least of her problems right now. She was basically half naked in front of Zack Charming. Well, that was a bit of an over-exaggeration. It wasn't like the dress was falling off, thank god. The hole wasn't even really that bad, as long as she kept her arms crossed. Why wasn't she doing that now? She quickly crossed her arms and slowly entered the room. She just had to pretend like nothing unusual had happened. She couldn't appear shaken up. Damn it, why hadn't she brought normal clothes?

"So…that door shouldn't have been unlocked," Charley said, biting her lip. Wow, way to state the obvious. Could she sound like a normal human being for one second around Zack?

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tag:

[/color] zack!
words:[/b][/color] 1196
outfit:[/b][/color] FINALLY HERE and HERE
notes:[/b][/color] sorry the beginning sucks. and that it's so long.
and for the insane delay. and that there's probably
a kagillion grammar mistakes.
lyrics:[/b][/color] you've really got a hold on me - the miracles
credit: noa the fantasticamazingnessomg[/size][/center]

[ZACK CHARMING]

Zack Charming and Charley Harper were walking down a hallway, as casually as two old women taking their morning constitutional.

He couldn’t quite place a finger on it, but there was definitely something very, very atypical about this scenario. First of all, Zack Charming was walking to a classroom with a young member of the female subdivision of the human species, a subsidiary with which Zack had never in his life coexisted before. The concept of an X-chromosome was one that, only a few days ago, he’d simply written off as comically extraneous. Secondly, that particular fecund specimen happened to be Charley Harper, a high school girl who, for the past few years or so, Zack had felt nothing but repudiation towards. But now…there was something about her. Something that, when glancing at her face, or feeling his eyes slide gently down the contours of her voluptuous body, inveigled him more than even the most fascinating of mathematical textbooks.

Wait. Hold the phone. A person in this world was more alluring to Zack than a mathematical textbook? That simply could not be true. What on earth was Zack Charming turning into? He simply could not allow himself to fall for this, this menial, glorified and sensationalized concept that people tended to call physical attraction? Was this a chimera, a reverie? Zack dearly hoped that it was.

At the same time, he prayed and prayed that it wasn’t.

"Idiots."

”Of course.” Zack nodded, allowing a slight smirk to cross his lips. ”I, for one, will be rather titillated the day that said idiots become a minority in the world. Unfortunately, I’ve never found that to be the case.” He spat into a potted plant as they rounded a corner.

"So…that door shouldn't have been unlocked."

[/color]

Zack laughed as he watched Charley struggle in a rather maladroit skirmish with the door frame. ”I’m sure.”[/color] He stepped carefully into the room after her. ”You know, you should enjoy this short epoch of profligacy you have before the Olympic gymnastics scouts snatch you up. Lord knows you’ve been concealing quite the dexterity.”[/color]

He sat down in a desk chair, watching her curiously. "So, my vicarious damsel in distress. What now?" [/color]
talk talk talk
other person talking[/blockquote][/blockquote]



~tags:Charley
~words:403
~listening to:Michael Swaim’s Wondrous Rapping
~lyrics:Love’s Recovery-Indigo Girls
~tag:this template is by MONICA at OUAC. DON'T BE STEALIN', YA HEAR?[/font][/size][/center]

[CHARLEY HARPER]

”You know, you should enjoy this short epoch of profligacy you have before the Olympic gymnastics scouts snatch you up. Lord knows you’ve been concealing quite the dexterity.”

Charley was too flustered to come up with a response, so she just stood there for a bit, waiting for the response to come out. After she fully processed what he said, it hit her. What was she doing here? This was fucking Zack Charming, the horrible, inconsiderate, stuck-up, egotistical asshole who had treated her like absolute shit for an entire year of debate, to the point that she almost considered dropping it, which proved how horrible it was. And she was going to forget all of that just because of something stupid like the fact that they both liked to watch House? If that was her only criteria for a friendship, or more than a friendship, or whatever they had gotten themselves into, she would be married to Mel Gibson or somebody equally as ridiculous by now. And now Zack was asking another question, and she couldn't even pay attention to what he was saying.

If Zeke was here none of it never would have happened. He was probably looking for her, anyways. And what were her and Zack they going to do if she stayed here? Solve a murder? Doubtful, nothing they'd found so far made sense. She didn't even want to solve a murder anyways, that really wasn't her jurisdiction, and she didn't want to get in trouble, or even arrested, for something as stupid as tampering with evidence.

And what did he didn't think they were going away from the corpse to solve a murder? Was he expecting to just make out in the debate room? How far was that going to go? What if he thought they were going to have sex? They weren't going to have sex. Ever. The last thing she needed was an unexpected pregnancy. And even if they just kissed, she was just going to overanalyze it and it would be stupid because once again, Zack Charming was an asshole.

Charley couldn't even look at him. She stared nervously down at her dress and started tapping the desk as the silence continued. The silence was lasting too long. Oh god, he probably thought she was an awkward freak. Which didn't matter, of course. She didn't care what Zack Charming thought of her, right? She never had cared before.

She looked up and stared at him for a second, preparing to combat his comment with a witty retort. He was sitting at a desk looking right back at her. His eyes were nice, why hadn't she ever noticed that? They were really…green. Wait, what was she doing? Was she really admiring Zack's eyes? No, no she wasn't. At least, not like that. She was just noticing the difference between his eyes and the majority of other people's, which she had researched for a debate recently and found out that 70% of people have brown eyes. So she wasn't admiring his eyes, she was just looking at them as an example of a possible genetic anomaly. She also definitely didn't like the way he was cocking his head slightly, it made him look like an idiot with nerve damage. See, although he was attractive, he definitely had his issues, which made him completely undesirable. Like that neck thing, and the eyes were probably a sign of a mental illness or something. That was probably why she was finding it harder to breathe, not because of…emotions, or anything like that. Right?

But wait, she did recognize one feeling. It was the feeling she rarely got in debate, when somebody else miraculously made a great point that she couldn't respond to. It was the same thing, right? Except instead of someone making a great point, Zack Charming and her had just kissed. Oh god, they had kissed. She had told herself she would never let anything like this happen until after she was totally secure and she wasn't secure right now, in fact, she was confused and frustrated and she had only been around Zack for about an hour and how did she think this was going to turn out anyways if she felt like this so early on? She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to feel…feelings. All she wanted to do was go to Yale, and become a successful lawyer. That was all, and this had nothing to do with it.

"I…need to go." She quickly scoured through her small purse looking to see if Zeke had hidden some sort of change somewhere. But of course not, he was too clever for that. She'd just have to find him. Or walk home. Or something, anything to just get out of here. She crossed her arms tight around her chest to make sure her dress stayed up and stumbled past him, pushing herself through the small door, quickly saying "Uh…bye?" before running as fast as she could down the hallway.

[/blockquote][/center]

tag:

[/color] zack!
words:[/b][/color] 833
outfit:[/b][/color] FINALLY HERE and HERE
notes:[/b][/color] I want to punch her in the face. Also, sorry this doesn't
make any sense. But that was kind of
the point?
lyrics:[/b][/color] you've really got a hold on me - the miracles
credit: noa the fantasticamazingnessomg[/size][/center]

[ZACK CHARMING]

Zack watched Charley Harper as she looked him up and down, pupils swiveling over his face. What on earth could she possibly be conjecturing about him? He really hadn’t done much tonight that was out of the quotidian. Unless one counted discourse with Charley Harper that didn’t involve insipid banter. But that was more cordial behavior than outlandish. So what could possibly have prompted such a stare?

What was she thinking, behind those azure irises? When it came to reading his fellow human beings, Zack Charming had always considered himself more than consummate. Yet there was something about Charley Harper that was like a bastion between his eyes and her inner provocations. For the life of him, Zack just couldn’t read Charley Harper. And maybe that was her gravity, he thought to himself. Maybe her polysemousness was what drew him so strongly to her. If there was one thing in the world that Zack Charming loved, it was a good puzzle. And Charley Harper certainly was one.

"I…need to go."

”Me too.” The words burst forth from his mouth as if with minds of their own. What are you saying, Zackary? He didn’t have to leave. Where could he have to leave to? He had nothing awaiting him outside of this institution of secondary education but a cold, empty dorm room with a girl he barely knew, due to her utter lack of presence in said room for the majority of the year, vexatiously easy classes, cretinous amounts of prosaic homework, and vapid, obdurate classmates whom he was expected to respect as peers. He could honestly say that there was nowhere right now, save perhaps the library with his calculator and an old mathematical lexicon pulled from a dusty basement shelf, than here in this high school classroom, with Charley Harper. And that was a fact that worried him, because lord knew Charley Harper almost certainly did not share the same sentiment.

"Uh…bye?"

Zack scoured his brain for a witty retort, one of his signature sardonic jibes, but nothing came to him, because all that he could hold in his mind was the image of Charley Harper, gazing upon him like an artifact. He watched her run away and stared after her for what felt like a millennium before following her slowly, shoes dragging along the ground, all thoughts of the previous murder conundrum already forgotten

talk talk talk
other person talking

~tags:Charley
~words:400
~listening to:Michael Swaim’s Wondrous Rapping
~lyrics:Love’s Recovery-Indigo Girls
~tag:this template is by MONICA at OUAC. DON'T BE STEALIN', YA HEAR?

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