sunny  &  zachary  popwell    /    BIOGRAPHY.

tw: mention of car crash / death + pill addiction.

he doesn’t wake up, and sunny has a bad feeling when he doesn’t nudge after throwing a shoe at him. she calls for her grandparents and off the hospital they go. the doctors say another hour or two and he’d probably be dead. his liver is damaged, fucked up - but he’ll live. it’s the wakeup call he needs to deal with his pain off medication.

“   excuse me?  ”           pouty lips are parted, ashy brows furrowed so tight; her mother would scold her for causing premature wrinkles. it is not the aggression that causes her to be off guard, she’s dealt with worse. it’s the assumption of acknowledgement that has her curious. who was he? she didn’t know anyone in this town, let alone this stupid school. umber eyes become heavy as they examine his sharp features, admittedly, there’s something sickly familiar that causes a hole in her throat. slender fingers clench the frame of her binder, shifting frame against the cold bench beneath her. it takes a moment, two or three, and the realization smacks her in the face. it stings, the concession of the memory. her binder is bending down beneath her grip, bringing it close to her chest as heavy head nods in slow motion.         “   you’re…  ”          a pause. she doesn’t know his name. the son of the man my father killed? not exactly the best introduction. shoulders are pulled back, the faltering state of her strength reemerging as she clears her throat.

                  “   yeah, i know who you are. i go to school here now.  ”  

blue eyes are glued onto her features as she struggles to realize who he was. the only time they really crossed paths was outside the court rooms after... the incident. but zachary remembers everything like it was yesterday. a bittersweet good memory, he has. recognized her earlier in the day in class, but he settled himself down enough to wait until school was finished to approach her. “yeah.” legs swing over, allowing himself to sit across from her on the bench, his eyes finally breaking and looking over her shoulder as fellow students begin to go home. 

“no worries,” he reassures her with a smirk that’s probably far too confident, “you’re perfectly safe with me.” and despite the madness of jay, it’s a fairly true promise, at least as far as the car’s concerned. he can drive fast, for sure, but he’s aware, he’s wary. isn’t gonna risk his license just to be an asshole on the road. definitely isn’t risking his life.

it’s still a neighborhood, so he takes off at the speed limit, cruises down the street. “lot of cars,” jay deadpans, shows her a sidelong smile after a beat. “bunch of us get together in a big, empty lot every month or so. music and shit, everybody and their souped up wheels. sometimes a little racing.” he wasn’t planning on doing that today, got his hands full enough. “we don’t gotta stay long.”

“thanks.” she nods with a tight lipped smile. yeah, he seems pretty stand up, contradicts with the assumptions she’s made about him in the past. sunny struggled with her judgment towards strangers sometimes - probably from her time at lakehurts that makes her a little wary. "we can stay however long you like, i don’t mind. i don’t have to get home until midnight.” her curfew was about two hours longer than zacs because her grandparents actually trust her and she’s usually home by then anyway - not to say zac followed said curfew.

“wanderlust, eh?” now that he gets. “maybe that’s why i’m shooting for england first. got a really good grip on the queen’s english.” but, really, craig would be happy to be anywhere that isn’t degrassi. lucky, too. he can count on one finger all the places he’s been.

he smiles at her sincerity. “sure, no problem. they’re cool girls, you’ll fit right in.” being the oddman out isn’t fun, he remembers it, but sunny’s amiable, easy to talk to. he imagines paige’ll be handing the crown to her eventually. it’s easy to preen at the reception, craig knows well that the worst thing you can do is ask a guy about his band and he’s grateful for her. “yeah, we’re kinda… niche,” he exhales a laugh, cocking his head sardonically. “little punk rock, some ska elements sometimes. all over the place. officially? singer, guitarist, songwriter. but i like all of it, i dunno.” drums, bass, keyboard, friggin’ tambourine. “you should come hang sometime and check it out. we play out of my garage all the time.”

the beer tastes bitterly good. she’s not the biggest drinker, no, that’s all zac’s area. but she could enjoy a few drinks every now and then. takes it easy, though, stuck as the D.D after all. but talking to craig seems to calm her nerves down just enough without the use of alcohol. her smile is appreciative, taking another small sip as she leans back on the couch, turned ever so slight to face him and give him her full attention. honestly, she almost forgets about the party around them.

“that’s really good. you must be so talented ! the closest to musical-ly i got was taking piano classes when i was little.” she laughs, shaking her head. that was awhile ago - abruptly stopped when her parents... moved away. “really? yeah. i’d like that, that would be fun. i’ve always wanted to see a band backstage.” sunny beams, eyes lighting up. it’s the little things that make her happy, and craig welcoming her with open arms? bigger than a little thing. 

the idea that he’d be reamed for not bringing a hot girl is only vaguely true, more than likely probably no one would care. bringing sunny though? every eye is going to be on them, just the way jay likes it. gaze drops appreciatively down her frame as he opens the passenger door for her further. “yeaah, big zac can catch the next one.” right, jay’s since learned that zac is the big bro and one of his favorite buyers. interesting.

back in the drivers seat, he nods fondly. “right? ten independent speakers, helluva engine in this baby.” it’s definitely his pride and joy, probably the only thing worth anything to him. revving it, the car roars in response. a smirk hints at his lips. “you like to go fast or slow?”

she doesn’t really know anything about cars - stuck driving her grandmas buggie everywhere. but the gleam in jay’s eyes tells her everything she needs to know. clearly this car meant something to him. it causes sunny to curl her lips curiously, putting on her seatbelt and glancing over. “um. either one, i don’t mind. ” she nods, pushing her blonde hair out of her face and behind her ear. “just be careful if you go fast, please.” doesn’t need the police to pull them over or something.

admittedly, it takes jay a little by surprise that she hasn’t cancelled. she really is a good friend, he thinks dubiously as he sends sunny-with-a-sun an ‘i’m here’ text. then he slides out of the driver’s seat, hooking his sunglasses into the collar of his shirt as he rounds the car, making sure to admire each inch of it as he opens the passenger door. “there she is,” he greets, brows quirking, when sunny emerges from the house. leaned back against the side of the hood, jay shows an amiable smirk. “sure we don’t wanna do the meet the fam bam thing?” he bluffs, hoping to god she doesn’t. jay taps a hand to his chest. “believe it or not, i can really win ‘em over.”

what the hell do you wear at a car thing? as if sunny would know. but she figures she can’t go wrong with some high-waisted jeans and a cute off the shoulder crop top. keeping her sandy hair at their genuine waves and clipping in some hoops, sunny glances at the mirror and gets somewhat of an ego-boost over how the fabric clings to her. yeah, this could work. keeps her makeup natural, and she had just finished applying a thin layer of gloss when she gets jay’s text.

eric ;

he couldn’t take it anymore. ever since eric had found out about sunny’s date with colin and the possibility of her genuinely liking the guy, their bickering was never-ending. he’d bump into sunny ( which was often since the popwell’s had become a second home ) and instantly be irritated as he was reminded of sunny and colin. now was no different… except that eric had kissed her. god, he’d been wanting to do that for ages. he pulls himself away from her, and for a split second he doesn’t think about the many ways zac would kill him if he found out. “of course i fucking like you.” eric grumbles, eyes rolling at the sight of her cheeky grin. it was cute, adorable even. “zac can’t know about this.”

bottom lip is sucked in, he exhales a laugh and shrugs. “hey, i gotta keep tabs on who’s coming into my school.” degrassi couldn’t be any less jay’s school, really he’s more the ghost that haunts the halls than anything else. it’s just filling time. just a wasteland for his chaos. he makes to narrow his eyes at her. “especially when they’re big, bad rivals.” as if sunny’s capable of anything other than mild-mannered sweetness. he can already tell, but he’d love to find out otherwise.

her pointed chin deposits itself in the plain of her palm and ugh, yeah, he’s thinking bad things. “yeah, here,” jay pulls his trap phone out of his back pocket, some blue flip piece that pretty much only has jackie, alex, and random digits in it’s contact list. whatever. “i’ll scoop you up. got some good karma coming to you, sunny. thanks for your help.”

“mmhm.” she believes. the entire rivalry between lakehurst and degrassi was something sunny couldn’t really understand. school is school, nobody likes it - so why exactly were they fighting over which district was the best? though sunny had only been at degrassi for a few weeks, she could definitely see the difference between the two. she liked her old school, a lot, but a fresh environment that seemed to be a little more calm in the water, she couldn’t deny enjoying.