I catch brief glimpses of the other activities while we're washing cars, looking over whenever I get a small break. The kids here do enjoy whacking baseball bats into watermelons, and the stall gets a lot of patrons. The school bully is knocked down a few times, and people cheer it on, while watching in anticipation when ballons miss. Dana is having a good time, with the t-shirts selling like crazy. Our car wash is also successful, and almost entirely professional, with only one water fight happening throughout the whole thing, and us offering a valet service which is a hit with the teachers.

"So, how much did we make?" Nicole asks, as we watch Zoey count all the cash.

The blonde looks at us, pained, "a little over a thousand."

"That's it?" Dana asks, as shocked as us all. I suppose it makes sense that the fundraiser wouldn't make five grand, and in other circumstances one grand would be amazing. But still, we needed that money.

"Well, a thousand and this bus token," she says, holding it up.

"Great," Dana says, sarcastically, "we're only four thousand short!"

"I can't believe we can't get Drake Bell," I say, wilting.

Nicole attempts to park us up, "well, so, maybe we don't get Drake Bell. What kind of band can we get for a thousand bucks?" I look at the list of cheaper bands, and the best in there is full of older men who play trumpets, the tambourine, and the triangle. They don't like this, when I tell them.

"Spring Fling's gonna be lame."

Zoey agrees with Dana, "yeah."

We hear the sound of an engine, and turn to see the chairman is pulling into the lot. We watch as he steps out of his car. "Hey, girls, how'd your little fundraiser go?" I look at my toes, feeling dejected.

"It didn't," I mumble.

"Not great," Zoey says, also sounding sad.

Nicole tells him, "we only raised a thousand."

I raise my head, rolling my eyes, "and a bus token."

He seem genuinely upset for us, and I remember that he was rooting for us. "Oh, well, uh, how much you need to get Drake Bell?"

"Five thousand," Dana spits.

"Uh, say, tell me, is your car wash still open?" We aren't sure why he's asking, and I feel intimidated at the thought of cleaning his expensive car.

"Um, not really," Zoey tells him, awkwardly.

"That's too bad, because for a really good car wash I'd be willing to pay, oh, I don't know, around four thousand bucks?" We all stare at him, understanding know what he's doing.

"We can open it again," I eagerly tell him.

"Seriously?" Zoey asks, while he laughs at me.

"Why would you pay us so much?" Nicole asks him.

He shrugs, "cause, when I went PCA, Spring Fling was always lame. But now I'm rich! So, what, do you want the money, or don't you?"

"Yes!" I exclaim.

"Yeah!"

Nicole's smile grows. "Totally!"

"Absolutely," Dana says.

"Alright," he pulls out the money. "I'm staying at the hotel across the street, I'm gonna leave my car here on campus tonight. You guys wash it tomorrow, I got meetings all day, but I can be back in the afternoon to pick it up. Say, five-ish? Coolio."

"Cool!"

"Thank you so much," Zoey tells him.

"We really, really appreciate it," I add, trying my best to show my sincerity.

"Yeah no problem. See ya, girls!"

As he leaves, we begin to celebrate, "we did it!"

"Come on," Zoey says, waving for us to follow her, "let's go book Drake Bell."

The next morning, we leave early to wash the car, still buzzing from the good news that the Drake Bell was coming to PCA. We finish quickly, but not without being thorough, and Zoey is doing the last bits.

"There, done," she says, and we admire our work.

"Perfect," Dana grins, and we high five.

"Gorgeous," Nicole agrees.

"All that's left is to hand over the keys," I chirp, feeling light as a feather.

"Wait," Zoey tells us, "I left a rag inside, on the floor." She leans in to get it, and as she comes out, the car begins rolling.

"Zoey!" Dana and I warn, freaking out.

"The car!" Nicole shouts, and we watch as it speeds up as it head downhill.

Zoey shouts at us, "stop it!"

"I can't stop it!"

"Just try to catch it!" I say, hoping that we can catch up to it and stop it from rolling.

We all run after it, but stop when we realise it's futile to keep chasing it, as it comes to a stop by smashing into a post.

"It stopped," Zoey informs us, and we look to each other, unsure what to do about it.

We go over to inspect the damage more closely, and I grimace when I see how bad it is. "Do you think it's noticeable?" Nicole asks.

"Yeah, Nicole, I think it's noticeable," Dana tells her, and I pick up a shard of the headlight, dropping it when I realise how screwed we are.

"Well, don't yell at me! I didn't bump the shifter thingy!" She says, placing the blame on Zoey.

"It was an accident!"

Dana shouts at her, "yeah, tell that to Mr Berman when he sees what we did to his baby!"

"What do you think he'll say?" Nicole asks.

"Nothing good," I scoff.

"He'll probably start with 'give me my four thousand dollars back'," Zoey tells her.

"But we already booked Drake bell," she says, glumly.

"Well, we have to fix this," I say, turning to the girls, not exactly sure how we can fix it.

I see Chase and Michael running over, Chase holding his phone. "Zoey, I got your text message." He looks at the car, the damage done to it. "What happened?"

"That's what happened!" She shouts at him, "you see what happened!"

"There's really nothing else to it," I add, desperate to solve the issue before we get into trouble.

"It's wrecked."

"Thank you, Michael," she snaps, and I realise that Zoey is way more stressed than I had first thought.

Nicole shakes her head, "we're dead."

"Relax, nobody's dead," Chase says. "Yet."

"Oh, they will be when that dude comes back to see his car." I glare at him as he chuckles.

"Thank you, Michael," I copy Zoey, frustrated by his unhelpful attitude.

"Is that helpful?" Chase asks him, softly. "Is that a way to be a helpful person?"

Michael stops laughing, "sorry."

"Alright, alright. We're just gonna have to get it fixed."

"How?" Dana asks.

"We're not car-fix-it people!" Zoey tells him.

I groan, "and I don't know any mechanics. Do any of you guys know a mechanic?"

"Calm down. We'll find a guy," Chase says, somehow really relaxed about this, even though he's usually fairly frantic.

Despite my lack of faith, Chase finds a guy.

"That's a bad hit," the guy says.

"We know that!" Nicole complains.

"So, can you fix it?" Zoey asks him.

Nicole adds, "by five o'clock this afternoon?"

The man checks his watch. "That gives me about," he holds up his fingers, counting, "four hours. Yeah, shouldn't be a problem."

"Yay!" I squeal, as the girls let out relieved sighs.

"How much?" Chase asks, causing my mood to plummet again.

"Well, let's see." He does some more mental calculations, drawing in the air with a pen, "that's um, fifteen hundred dollars for parts, two thousand dollars for labour. Plus, I'm gonna need a sandwich at some point, but, uh, I'll take care of that myself. So total comes to... twenty-five hundred dollars."

"Um, actually," Nicole says, and I silently curse her, "I think it comes to thirty-five hundred."

"Thanks," he says, while Nicole is pinched harshly by Zoey for what she's done.

Chase turns to the man, "could you let us talk privately for a sec?"

"You like me?" He asks, not even close to answering the question he was asked.

"Yeah, you're fine," Chase tells him.

"Okay, go ahead and talk." He gives us some room, and we talk with the boys.

"How you guys gonna pay for all this?" Chase asks, as we huddle in.

"We foots use the money Mr Berman gave us," Zoey says, as we all grimace.

"We raised so much," I say, sadly.

"Bye-bye Drake Bell," Dana says, not even sounding angry, just defeated.

"Yep," the blonde shrugs, "so much for Spring Fling."

We stay in a quiet silence, and realise that the man has come over and crouched next to us. "I got lonesome."

We wait anxiously for the car to return after being fixed, the time for Mr Berman to pick it up is approaching. Zoey is pacing, the most anxious member in our group.

"It's five o'clock, where's the car?" She asks, despite knowing everything we know, already.

"Mr Berman's gonna be here any minute," Nicole says, also pacing.

"And that minute would be this one," Chase alerts us, and we all watch where he's pointing.

"Oh no, we're done for!" I panic, holding onto my my arms, hoping that I can simply disappear if I will for it long enough.

"But, we don't have his car yet," Nicole whimpers.

"I'm aware of that," Zoey snaps.

"Well, so what do we do?" Dana asks her. The blonde begins to think of something, letting out a fit of 'um's and 'ah's in response to the question.

"Chase, Michael! Go distract him!" She tells the boys.

"How?" Chase asks, clueless.

"I don't know, just go do it!" She hurries them both away, towards the chairman. We watch them start to stall. "Where's the dude with the car?"

"There," I say, when I first see it. It drives up, as the boys are losing Mr Berman's attention.

"There he is," Zoey says, relief clear in her voice. We all go over to the car.

"Well, I got her fixed, but it was not easy," the man tells us, as Zoey slams cash into his hand.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, here's your money, bye!" She shoos.

"He's coming!" Nicole says, trying to hurry us up.

The man doesn't take the hint, "hey, I don't really have a ride back, so I was wondering if maybe you could call me a taxi?"

"Here's a bus token!" Dana says, pressing it into his hand. "See ya!"

Zoey gives a short wave, "bye!"

"Thank you," I say, words slurring together at the speed with which I say them.

"Go home!" Nicole says, finally.

We turn around, as he leaves. We're just in time.

"Hey, there's my baby!" Mr Berman says, and we pretend to act casually.

"Hi," Zoey greets, brightly.

"Mr Berman," Nicole says.

"What's up?"

"How's the weather?" I ask, panicking.

He gets into his car without any concerns or signs of suspicion. We get through it and watch as he turns on the engine, happy with the work he believes us to have done. "Bye, girls! Have fun at Spring Fling."

"Right," Zoey says, and we all say goodbye to him, disappointed even more now that the stress has been removed.

Chase and Michael run over. "What happened?" Chase asks, and I shrug.

"It's fine," Zoey tells them.

Nicole adds, "we got his car back in time."

"Except, we had to give that goofy mechanic all our money," Dana sighs.

"We better go call Drake's manager and tell him we have to cancel," Nicole says.

"I give up," I say. "I'm gonna go to my room, maybe cry, you guys feel free to try and book someone else."

I go to my room, and don't cry, but I do lie on my bed with my face smushed into my pillow. I decide to forget about it all as best as I can, and tell Logan that there won't be any Drake Bell after all, and he can enjoy the Spring Fling as little as he usually does.

When the day rolls around, Logan saves us a blanket while I seek out my friends, to discuss what's happening, since I had opted out of meetings. I find myself watching Drake Bell's manager getting out of a van, as they watch on. "I thought we cancelled?" I ask, incredulously, and they laugh awkwardly.

They talk to the manager about the new sum of money we have to offer. "Fifteen hundred? We agreed on five thousand," he says, unhappy with our change of plans. I roll my eyes, dreading that there won't be any entertainment at all.

"Yes we did!" Nicole tells him.

"And we had five thousand," Zoey explains.

"Until we wrecked a car," Nicole whines.

"Then we had to pay to get it fixed!"

"Because we're good children," I insert.

"And this is all we have left!" Nicole tells him, while Dana remains silent.

"But you can have it all," Zoey says.

"And my watch," Nicole offers, wrist raised.

"And this necklace," Zoey shows him.

"And my swim medals," I promise, although they're not to hand.

"And this hat," Dana says, taking a guy's hat.

"That's my hat," he protest, turning to face her.

"Beat it," she tells him, the sharpness she had lost slowly returning. The guy leaves, still annoyed.

"Really good kids," I say, to distract from the theft and threats taking place.

Zoey looks at the manager, and we all stare hopefully while we wait for a response. "Well?"

"I'm sorry, girls, we had a deal." He instructs for the crew to put all of the equipment back into the bus, and I frown.

"Zoey," Nicole begs, but there's nothing to be done. "There's like a thousand kids out there, waiting to hear Drake Bell! We promised them music!"

"Hey man." I hear the familiar voice and turn from Nicole to see Drake Bell standing right in front of us.

"Oh my god," Nicole says, spinning Zoey to see the star in front of us.

"Oh my god, you're Drake Bell!" Zoey says.

"What's up?" He asks, and Nicole lurches forwards, hugging him, screaming into his ear.

"Nicole!" We call, pulling her back, as Drake stumbles backwards into his manager.

"Sorry," Zoey says.

"We were all just excited to hear you play, and it got the better of her," I tell him, shrugging.

"It's okay," he tells us. He turns to the manager, "so, hey, did I hear you say the gig was cancelled?"

The manager pulls him away, and I turn to my friends, glad to have met him, but sad he's leaving so soon. Chase and Michael come over, pointing at Drake excitedly. "Hey, it's him," Chase says.

"You're you!" Michael chimes.

"I'm me."

"You are," his manager says.

Chase asks, "so are you guys gonna play?"

"Guys, unless you have five thousand dollars, I can't-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Drake says, cutting him off with a raised hand. "Wait a second. Where did you guys get those t-shirts?" He points to the shorts Chase and Dana are wearing, the ones Zoey made.

"Oh, I made 'em."

"Really?" He ask.

Michael smiles, "pretty cool, huh?"

"Very cool, that design's way better than ours." He gestures to his manager, who is wearing a shirt with a blue circle with Drake's name on it, in orange. It's basic, and not that good.

"My girlfriend designed this!" He argues.

"Yeah," Drake says, "it's not good."

The man sighs, "I know."

"So, these shirts are your design?" Drake asks.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, tell you what." We listen carefully. "You let us have your t-shirt design, and I'll play the concert for free." I can't help the laugh that bubbles up in my throat as I take in his words. Nicole screams, pushing her way to the front of the group.

"Sorry, a bee stung me." I laugh at the brunette, and pull her back.

We go out to enjoy the show from the grass, and I see Logan watch with a frown as Drake goes on the stage.

"Logan, your hair is way better than his," I tell him, taking my seat.

"Really?" He pouts.

"Yeah, really." I roll my eyes laugh as he pulls out a mirror, smirking at his reflection.

"You're totally right."

With Logan placated, we're able to enjoy the performance. It's a genuinely good Spring Fling, and everyone enjoys it. As Drake Bell sings to us, I decide that this was worth the stress of the crashed car.