DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything about this story. Ally Carter owns everything related to the Gallagher Girls series, and the storyline belongs to Anna Katmore, the author of "Play With Me," the novel in which I had translated into this Zammie fanfic story (: There will be changes made to make this story as close to the Gallagher books as possible, but I am not claiming it as my own original work.

FULL SUMMARY: Cammie has been in love with Josh since kindergarten. He's her best friend, closest confidante, and hopefully her future husband. After a summer apart, however, Cammie finds that things are oddly not the same. A new girl on the soccer team seems to have caught Josh's interest, and the only person willing to help Cammie win him back is team captain, Zach Goode. He'll train her, get her ready for the soccer team, and Josh will forget all about the new girl once he sees a new side to his best friend. It's the perfect plan.

What isn't part of the plan, though, is finding out that her unwavering love for Josh isn't as resolute as she once thought. She never would've agreed to let Zach train her if she knew he'd be infringing on parts of her life that were reserved solely for Josh—parties, sleepovers, and her first kiss. And she definitely wouldn't have agreed if she'd known how much she would like it...

CHAPTER ONE

He'd never tried to kiss me, even when we practically shared the same bed half of the time. And then he was gone. For six tormenting weeks. I thought I was going to die after day two.

But today, my torture was over. Today, Joshua Abrams returned. My best friend and future husband.

Not like I had informed him about that last part yet, but it wasn't necessary. Everyone knew we were meant to be. Josh and I had been best friends since kindergarten. We were inseparable, except for the few hours every day when he had soccer training and I had...well, some time to write about how much I loved him in my diary for the sixteen-millionth time.

Cammie and Josh, that went together like Bonnie & Clyde. Like Lois & Clark. We just made sense, and we were our best when we were together. We were PB&J, really.

The door bell chimed.

My heart banged against my throat as I tossed my diary to the side, struggling to disentangle the quilt from around my legs. I finally flopped off the bed along with the comforter.

"I'm coming!" On the way down the winding stairs, I raked my fingers through my hair to give it the last bit of oomph before I rushed to open the door. A sunbeam hit me first, then Josh's long-missed prettiness followed. His tousled brown hair fell over his forehead, almost touching his blue eyes. He wore the white shirt half open, and I had to fight really hard not to drool over his naked skin.

Hands shoved into the pockets of his shorts, he just stood there and looked at me. Then his mouth curled into his typical grin. "What is it, Cam? I know you're dying to hug me."

I flashed a smile and gave him the bear hug he expected. He dragged me outside and twirled me under the warm sun with my face buried in the crook of his neck. Ah, he smelled so good—sun-kissed and all Josh. I never got enough of that special brand.

"How was camp?" I asked after he set me down.

He wrinkled his nose. "Boring as hell without you, what else?"

"Yeah, right. As if."

To fully understand him, one had to know that, apart from his mother's amazing award-winning pies, soccer was Josh's greatest passion in the world. I appreciated his lie regardless, but I still stuck my tongue out at him.

Josh tsked at that. "Manners, girl. If you want to kiss me, just say so." His face was close enough that his nose brushed mine. I swallowed the urge to tilt my head and close the gap. But I knew he was teasing me again. So far, we'd never kissed. In regular intervals, I fell asleep in his bedroom when we played video games, or he would crash at my place when his parents were out on business trips around the state. He let me rest my head on his shoulder, even played absently with my hair. But a kiss? Never.

I was going to be seventeen at the end of this summer and I started feeling a little weird because I hadn't been kissed yet. But no one other than Josh would touch my lips, and if he needed a few more months to realize he wanted me too, I could wait.

"Hey, want to go down to the beach? I got this pretty new swimsuit and haven't tried it out yet." In anticipation of our reunion, I had put on the neon green bikini in the morning, and now pulled down the collar of my white tee to tease him with a glimpse. Green was his favorite color.

"I'd love to see you half naked, Morgan." Just another tease, but it didn't matter. Goose bumps shot up on my skin. "Unfortunately, I have to pass. I'm going to see some friends from the team down at the diner."

My shoulders slumped. "Seriously? You just got back, what, ten minutes ago? Didn't you see the guys enough at camp?"

"Goode wants to discuss tomorrow's tryouts."

I pouted. Ever since Zach Goode had become the new captain of Roseville's high school soccer team, Josh's training time had doubled. And more training meant less time for him to hang out with me. I hated Zach Goode.

"Cheer up, Cam. Why don't you come along? You know most of the guys anyway, and I'll introduce you to the rest. I'm sure Goode won't mind." He gave me no chance to argue, or even trade my flipflops for decent shoes. With my hand in a tight grip, he hauled me down the path through our front yards.

"Wait! I have no money on me."

"Don't need it. That single soda you'll sip on for the next two hours won't ruin me."

I pulled my hair back and fastened it with an elastic as we ambled along to Gillian's Café and Diner.

A bunch of kids sat around three tables in the outdoor seating area. I recognized a few of them from Josh's team. Grant Newman, Dillon Jones, Matthew Solomon. Jonas Anderson's arm was laid in a cast. The training camp obviously didn't pass without leaving battle scars.

I was surprised with the many female faces there, though. "What's this?" I whispered to Josh while we were still out of earshot. "Are you into co-ed training now?"

"Cool, isn't it? We played a few games together at camp, and Goode thought it would be fun to assemble a mixed team here, too."

Some of the girls looked familiar, and I even had Mandarin class with Bex Baxter. But a handful of them I swore I had never seen before. Like the one who stood as we approached and kissed Josh on the cheek with her pretty pink tinted lips.

"You're late, Joshua. I almost thought you weren't coming."

Joshua? The only person I ever heard call him that was his grandma.

"Hi, DeeDee," he replied in a strange, deep voice I'd never heard him use before. With his hands resting on her hips, he dipped his head and let her kiss his other cheek.

She smiled at him then turned to me. "Hi," she said sweetly, although it was different than when she spoke to Josh. Her smile didn't falter, but it was obvious she wasn't happy I was there standing next to him. She turned away and walked back to her seat, Josh's eyes following her shamelessly.

My glance skated to Josh's face. What the hell was that? And seriously, he didn't have to drool over her long legs when she sat down again and swung one over the other.

Josh gave our order to the waitress. A Coke and Red Bull. The energy drink certainly wasn't for me. But when did he start drinking that nasty stuff? Pink-lips had a can of that in front of her, too. I started feeling really awkward all of a sudden.

"Mixed soccer teams, huh?" I grumbled at Josh while we sat down—he opposite DeeDee, and I between him and Jonas with the cast.

"The tryouts are tomorrow, Morgan. I can put you on the list, if you're interested," Zach Goode called out to me, a mocking glint in his eyes.

The fact he even knew my name caught me off guard.

"Cam and soccer?" Josh laughed next to me. It hurt in a weird way. "You might as well try to get an elephant to dance the tango. Right, Cam?"

I directed an irritated scowl at my supposed best friend. He didn't even notice when the entire bunch joined in the laugh.

The Barbie clone gave me a sympathetic smile, but I pretended to not have seen it. I didn't need Miss Perfect's pity.

The redhead beside her snorted. "The elephant part hits home," she said to DeeDee under her breath—loudly, I may add, considering everyone else had heard her, too.

Sorry, what? I was a perfect size XS. My average height might've seemed a little short to her and Barbie's Amazonian figures, but I was in no way fat. At least DeeDee had the decency to look shocked at her friend's comment, but I still didn't like her.

I picked up my dropped stomach from the ground, and decided to punish Josh later for pretending not to have heard her. Since we've met, not once did he let anyone insult me without breaking their jaw. Okay, messing with the girl's face would be a little drastic, but he could at least have said something to defend me.

Since he seemed to have forgotten how, I turned to the redhead, looking her dead in the eye. "I tried puking my meals in the ninth grade, but that seems to be more your thing than mine."

The laughter died, and Josh choked on his swig of Red Bull while the rest of the group pretended to be conversing in lowered voices. The only sound, a full-hearted laugh, came from where Zach Goode sat.

The redhead frowned as if I'd spoken a foreign language. "Did you just insult me?" DeeDee placed a hand on her arm, then looked to me as if to apologize.

I looked away, taking a sip of my soda. Her niceties really rubbed me the wrong way.

Thankfully, Josh got a text message from his mother a little while later. Mrs. Abrams was hoping to see him again before she and her husband had to leave town for a few days. Josh looked at my glass of soda and asked me if I wanted to stay with the others.

I downed the drink in three seconds, already standing. "Nope, I'm ready."

He shook his head, but smiled, and let me walk in front of him.

"See you tomorrow, Joshua," Barbie smiled.

I ignored the rising heat of jealousy and resisted the urge to glare at her over my shoulder. Instead, I counted the cracks in the sidewalk as we walked. One, two, three...

"How about it, Morgan?" Zach Goode said as I passed him. "Will you opt for the team or not?"

I stopped, stunned that he was serious. My eyes fastened on the easy smile he cast me. "I—"

Josh's hands on my shoulders gently pushed me forward. "You shouldn't tease her. She's just not made for soccer."

My heels dug into the ground. "Know what?" I turned to face Josh with a determined glare. "I think I'll just give it a shot."

"You're kidding me."

That didn't require a reply, but I raised my brows at him anyway.

"Cool," Zach said, "so you're on the list. We meet at ten on the field."

I turned to Zach's amused tone and gave him a polite smile. "I'll be there."

A ball cap shadowed his face as he lowered his chin, but I could feel his gaze skim down to where my cut off jeans ended, then travel slowly farther down my naked legs and back up. "Bring shoes." He smirked at me.

This sent a shiver skating down my neck. Josh shoved me forward and away from everyone before I could figure out why.

We walked most of the way in silence, until we were close to home and I exploded. "I can't believe you did that!"

"What?" He looked at me baffled.

"You let that girl insult me and didn't say anything."

"You had everything under control. And she didn't really insult you."

"Oh, right. You did! You called me an elephant."

Josh took my hand and pulled me with him. "You know it wasn't meant like that. I don't see why you're throwing a fit now. You never liked soccer. When did that change?"

"Today. Now I love it."

"Yeah, I can see that. So much that you want to be on the team." He rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you're not doing this because of DeeDee."

I'm doing it for you, idiot. But it would have taken more than a crazy afternoon to tell him that. I gritted my teeth. "The girl can get lost in her closet full of Barbie dresses."

Suddenly, his arm was wrapped around my shoulders, and he pulled me close to his side as we walked on. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're jealous of her."

"We've been best friends since we grew out of our diapers," I reminded him, and I hated that I was slightly comforted by his embrace.

"And I promise we'll still be best friends when we need them again." His laugh rocked me with him. "DeeDee is just a girl who likes to play soccer. But you're the only girl I know who can watch E.T. without bursting into tears."

Even though there was this obvious note of admiration, I couldn't help but feel a chill sneaking around my heart the way he said it. Like I was one of the guys and not a delicate girl like DeeDee. I wiggled out of his embrace.

Josh quirked his brows. "What?"

"Nothing."

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

He waited a second, eyeing me with skepticism. "Okay. Is this one of those moments where you say no but actually mean yes?"

"No."

He slapped his hands to his face then slowly dragged them down, glancing helplessly at the sky. "You know I don't speak this language. Just tell me what your problem is."

"There is no problem!" I exclaimed. Then I ran up the path to my house, slamming the door behind me.

Hello everyone! Thoughts on this new story? Is it cliché because Cammie is in love Josh, who is obviously into DeeDee? Yes. Has the storyline of "Cammie tries to win Josh over but instead falls in love with Zach" been done to death? Sure has. Am I still going to write it because I'm a sucker for it? Absolutely.

It feels amazing to finally have time to write and upload to this amazing fandom (: And I'm super excited about this story (even though it's not mine). I think it'll be super cute and just a really fun read. I've dabbled with more serious genres, but I think I excel at the lighter, more cliché type of stories... which this definitely falls under that category lol. I also want to note that this is a Zammie story, but what fun would it be if Cammie wasn't in love with someone else first? ;)

As always, stay awesome (: