Northwest Academy 2
2Northwest Academy :: Desis, Part One
Contents ↑ Northwest Academy
2.1 In The Locker Hall
The next day, Valerie found Dustin in front of his locker. "Hi Dustin, aren't you the little brother of Zoey Brooks?"
Dustin nodded. He couldn't quite remember Valerie, although he had met her briefly at the PCA.
I've heard that your sister treats you badly. She's a real meanie, sin't she?
Dustin shrugged. "Er ... hm ... what makes you think so?"
"She leaves you alone in a house with strangers, although she knows that you will miss her." Valerie stated.
Dustin sighed. He missed Zoey. But should he hate her for that? This didn't make sense.
"I just live a few blocks from Bushwell and may make it there on my bike any time. We might have some fun together, amking you forget about your meanie sister." Valerie could hardly withstand the temptation of laughing in a taunting manner. "So what do you think about it?"
Dustin pondered. Dating a girl like Valerie would soon make him the coolest guy in his class. And it would make him forget about Zoey. "Sure, why not?"
Valerie smiled diabolically. "Hey, great! Let's meet at the lobby of Bushwell's at 5.p.m!"
Dustin agreed.
Zoey saw Dustin across the hall. But who was with him? Valerie? That couldn't mean anything good. Then she saw Carly and Freddie. She stepped closer to them. "Hi, I'm Zoey Brooks. You are the guys who live in aplaza with Dustin, my little brother, don't you?" she asked Freddie and Carly.
Carly nodded. "Freddie shares his room with your brother, and I just live across the hall. We have supper together."
"Aw, great! See, Dustin is in a difficult phase. He does many things in order to prove to other guys of his age how cool he is." Zoey sighed.
"Really?" Carly was somewhat surprised. "I don't think he needs too. He's very smart yet not the slightest bit dorky. I think that is cool." Carly didn't realise yet what a bombastic compliment she had just bestowed upon Dustin whom she had only known for three days.
Sam joined the little group. "As opposed to ..." She looked into Gibby's direction. The guy was shirtless, again. But she also thought of Freddie who was a bit upset when Sam started to make that remark.
Carly introduced Sam.
"Not to be penetrant, but ... your face is familiar to me!" Zoey remarked when she saw Sam.
"You probably know my twin-sister Trish from your old school. She has come here , too" Sam renmarked with disgust.
"She's a really bad girl! She dated Dustin once, but didn't get far, thanks God!" Zoey sighed in relief.
Freddie muttered that Sam was bad, too, but he couldn't talk aloud because he felt Sam's elbow in his tummy before he could complete the remark.
Zoey wasn't interested in the insinuated bickering bickering between Sam and Freddie. "Whatever ... What I have to say is ... I still feel awful for leaving Dustin with strangers. He clings a lot to me, even if he boasts with his independence. But the housing arrangements had to be made quite hastily. And it's hard to finds a guest family for both a boy and a girl. So I ask you to include Dustin as far as it goes ... or would he be a fifth wheel?"
"Er ... Freddie is just a friend, not my boyfriend." Carly remarked. "I'm sure he adapts himself well into the little group."
Freddie grumbled when Carly had said that. But Sam's elbow prevented him from complaining aloud.
Zoey sighed in relief. "His former friends, if I should really call them his friends, all got assigned to different schools in different states. I've been separated from most of my friends, as well. Only Quinn Pensky is left - she lives in Uptown Seattle. Thus I stay with her, but Dustin can't. Btw, she's responsible for the explosion that destroyed the whole school." Zoey was embarassed.
Carly chuckled. "You don't have to feel guilty. I know that you love your brother as much as a big sister can, even if Dustin might not always see it this way."
Zoey nodded solemnly.
"I do host another boarding school girl, Megan from San Diego. But she's the step-sister of a colleague of my cousin who lives down there." Carly sighed. "Nothing against Megan, but if I had known about you, I'd have let you live with me, next door to your brother."
"Maybe you may still arrange it? Megan could move in with Quinn, and Zoey with Carly?" Freddie suggested.
"Even a dorkward may have cool ideas." Sam remarked. "Once in a blue moon."
Carly smiled. "Zoey, why don't you visit us next Saturday? You'll see Dustin again, and we may talk about a possible exchange."
Zoey deemed this a great idea. "I will. In the mean time ... could you have an eye on Dusting? You're a good girl, and I may trust you with such a task. Not that you have to spy on him or so , but ... I've just seen him hang out with that Valerie girl over there, this can't be any good ..."
"Valerie?" Carly gasped. "This can't be any good, indeed." She told Zoey about her bad experiences with that girl who had dated Freddie and tried to destroy the iCarly show.
Zoey and Carly agreed readily that Valerie was no good to hang out with Dustin. Carly promised to watch over the situation as much as possible. "Oh, by te way, you won't guess who is Megan's elder blood brother."
Freddie, Sam, and Zoey shrugged.
"It's the aspiring band leader Drake Parker." Carly smiled filled with enthusiasm when she produced an autograph of the star. "He was here to drop Megan and gave it to me!"
Freddie boiled in jealousy.
Sam, a fan of Drake bounced around, cheering like nobody's business. "Will he come back?"
Carly sighed. "I hope so. Megan says she doesn't miss the boob, as she calls him, but I'm sure she does."
Zoey, equally swooning, had an idea. "Five four years ago, Drake Parker performed at a party at my school 1. I've organised that party and got him to perform. We had difficulties to pay him, but, fortunately, he accepted another form of payment. I had designed fashionable tops with the logo of his band, and he accepted to play in turn for the rights on the design."
Carly beamed. "Cool, so we have another anchor even if Megan should not cooperate. Or we may make it a surprise for Megan?"
Zoey liked the surprise thing. Then she waved at the little group because classes were about to start. She was glad that Dustin had a few reliable friends at his new home that took care of him and tried to beware him from Valerie's evilness. She also anticipated moving in with Carly and living across the hall from her little brother, if possible. And the possibility of Drake Parker performing at her new school was the icing of the cupcake.
2.2 Zoey's Visit To Carly's
The Saturday after, Zoey arrived at Bushwell. She rang at the bell to the Shays's.
Spencer opened the door. "You are?"
Zoey introduced herself.
"Aw, I've heard about you!" Spencer smiled. "I hope you like tacos with spaghetti?"
Zoey pondered a bit. "But I also need some fresh vegetables."
"Not a problem ... if you help me in the kitchen. Sorry. A guest shouldn't have to ..." Spencer shrugged.
Carly intervened. "Spence, I may prepare the salad. Green lettuce and tomatoes?"
Zoey nodded. "I'll help anyways!" Zoey felt comfortable around Carly, so she liked the occasion to go cooking along with her.
Carly assured that Freddie and Dustin would show up any moment.
Zoey nodded. "Quinn would have come as well, but she's visiting her half-brother Nevel."
Carly choked hard when she heard that name. But she didn't want to bother Zoey with her stories about Nevel Papperman, not yet at least.
"Quinn has never mentioned him before. He's as smart as her, but borderline schizophreniac. Her mother hates Nevel, maybe for that, but maybe just because he's the son of the woman that Quinn's dad almost had left her for." Zoey sighed. "I guess that's the real reason why Quinn's mom doesn't want to have any boys in her house. Quinn is the only one who may talk reasonably with Nevel. They talked about Albert Einstein's relative theory or whatever it's called when she was twelve and he was seven."
Carly shuddered. But she achieved coming back to the proper topic. "Megan should be here any time, as well. We'll talk about a switch."
Megan arrived even before Dustin and Freddie. "Hi girls!" Then they started to talk about trading homes. "Quinn has a laboratory on her own."
Zoey nodded. She saw that Megan and carly were really similar, but Megan's facial expression was subtly scary, whereas Carly's was all the way nice and spice. "Quinn experiments with explosives, posions, bacteria ... she has caused a lot of troubles at the PCA. Finally, she blew it up, from top to bottom." Zoey sighed.
"I wanted to go to the PCA, just to get away from the boobs, but, when I was about enrolling, I heard that someone had blown it up. That was Quinn?" Megan tried to hide a sarcastic smile. She used to pull pranks on Drake and Josh, and she would move on to pranking others over here. Poison, bacteria, and explosives would be a good thing to use for that purpose, and being at the source of all of that would be paradise. "I'm all for it!" She beamed brightly.
Zoey smiled. "So now it's all up to Spencer, and to the parents of Zoey, Quinn, and Megan."
"No problem with me!" Spencer declared. "I'll talk to the parents."
Carly smiled happily.
Finally, Dustin and Freddie arrived.
Dustin hugged Zoey. "Sorry for being late, but Freddie's mom makes us shower twice and rubs us with tick lotion." Dustin was disgusted by this torture.
Zoey sighed. "Dustin, what do you think about me movinhg in with Carly?"
Dustin was anxious. Usually, he would have been happy about those news, but Zoey would thus easily interfer with his dates with Valerie. He had hardly been able to keep them secret from Carly and Freddie - he wasn't aware of them knowing Valerie and having a treaty with Zoey - and Zoey would for sure not approve of it. He just shrugged. "It would be nice." he said, yet not sounding overly convinced of his own words.
Zoey didn't want to provocate Dustin by mentioning Valerie. She sensed that there was something going on, but she knew that she had to be subtle in order to avoid alienating her little brother whom she loved above all, as did Spencer to Carly.
Not surprising, Spencer was impressed by Zoey's attitude towards Dustin. His grandfather would have wished Spencer to act more like Zoey 2, but Carly preferred a relaxed elder brother over an overprotecxtive one, and that was just great.
Sam arrived right in time for brunch. She had developed a sixth sense for that. She took Freddie's table cloth in order to tidy her nostrils. "Trish is so ..." Sam shuddered. "She said she could screw boys like Drake any day. There were greater challenges for her." Of course she meant Freddie, but Sam wouldn't tell him.
Megan was determined not to let Trish abuse Drake. But she didn't say anything because she didn't want to admit that she was proud of Drake.
During the meal, Carly had subtly pushed Dustin into eating his salad, telling him that green lettuce made boys cool.
Zoey beamed brightly, secure in the knowledge that Carly would have a good impact on Dustin.
After lunch, Megan offered a contribution for the web show. "I've made videos of the boobs. They are funny!"
They started watching clips showing the pranks that Megan had pulled on Drake and Josh. Sam had never laughed that much in her life, there was no doubt that this would be a new segment of the show. Sam wished she could torment Freddie like that, over and over.
The webcast they made the same day would be a great success.
Spencer finally had contacted all the concerned parents, and they had agreed to his suggestion: Megan and Zoey would trade places at the end of the month.
1: in Zoey 101 : Spring Fling Drake Bell properly portrayed himself, but is understood here as Drake Parker
2: cf. iWant To Stay With Spencer