It's finished! Whoo-ya!

This chapter is dedicated to all the people who have read this story and stuck with me faithfully through my first Numb3rs kid/teenfic.

A special thanks to Notsing for their endless supply of challenge words, Starfishyeti for their great and wonderful beta work, and all the people who reviewed. (There are too many to list them all, but I wanted to give a shout out to Judyann who, along with Notsing, reviewed every chapter. You two are awesome.)

Well, now that the speech is done, on with the chapter.

Enjoy ...

Z is for Zipper
June 18, 1988

Don took a seat with his other friends, trying not to get distracted by the swinging tassel he could see out of the corner of his eye. Several of his classmates didn't have the same control and the teen watched in amusement as they tilted their heads back and forth, hypnotized by the movement.

"Dude," Carlos whispered from the seat behind him, "this thing is awesome."

Mark turned to give their friend a weird look, but Don didn't bother. Carlos had been celebrating graduation a little early and, quiet frankly, it was amazing he was this coherent. Still, ten bucks said he tripped on his own robe at least once while crossing the stage.

Facing forward, Mark slumped into his seat with a satisfied sigh and nudged Don's arm. "Can you believe we're finally done?" he whispered, as their now former principle took to the stage. "We made it."

"Yeah," Andy whispered from his other side. "Crazy, huh? I was sure Eppes would have been arrested by now."

"Shut up," Don growled, giving the other teen a playful shrug. "I'm not the one who 'borrowed' vice-principle Oldman's car."

"That was never proven!"

"Shh!" a girl hissed from behind them.

Andy waved her off, muttering something about how it was a little late to be giving them detention. Don just leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, letting the words of Principle Wright's speech go right over his head. He didn't care what the guy had to say about the future, his was pretty much made. Baseball scholarship, leading into a pro career, maybe even the majors. He should probably stay awake since Charlie's valedictorian speech was up next. To be honest, he didn't care much about that either, but his mother would kill him if he didn't at least pretend to listen.

"Hey," Mark whispered, poking his arm.

"What?" Don grumbled.

"You're needed."

"Huh?"

Don gave his friend a puzzled look, but Mark just pointed to the end of the row. Charlie's friend Lauren was practically jumping up and down, motioning him to come to her. Unfortunately, that meant trying to slip pasta dozen seated classmates, something the teen didn't particularly want to do.

"Hey," Don leaned around Mark to tap his friend Jason's arm. "Could you find out what she wants?"

Jason nodded and sent the request down the line. It took only a minute for the answer to make its way back. Not that it helped much.

"She says she needs you to come back stage."

"Why?"

Again the question moved down the line where the twelve-year-old was clearly becoming more frustrated, desperate even. Don could almost make out her quick response before it wound back to him.

"She says Charlie needs you."

"For wh- oh, never mind."

Knowing that this could go on for quite a while, Don decided he might as well go see what the fuss was about. There was the chance his brother needed moral support, but that didn't explain why he had to go since Charlie had his usual geek squad behind him. In any case, this had better be good.

"What?" he almost growled at the young girl, squeezing past the largest of his classmates, who just HAD to pick the aisle seat.

Lauren didn't she grabbed Don's hand and started to pull him towards backstage. This didn't work as well as she'd apparently hoped since the kid was about half his size and he wouldn't be rushed without good reason. So, the teen casually walked in the direction he was being led, much to the frustration of the one trying to lead him.

"Hurry up," she hissed quietly. "Charlie needs you."

"For what?" Don demanded, stopping just past the backstage door. "What's so important?"

"He needs help."

The desperation in her voice turned on his, often dormant, big brother mode and Don quickened his pace. Charlie may be a pain, but if he was in trouble …

"What happened?"

"Well, he was just getting ready to do his speech and was putting on his robe," Lauren answered, keeping pace with the older teen. "But when he started zipping it up Greg threw his valedictorian ribbon over his shoulder and …"

She let her voice trail off as they rounded the corner and Don saw for himself what had happened. Standing not five feet away, was Charlie, Greg, and Bobby. The trio of twelve-year-olds had yet to notice him however as all three were frantically trying to free the wide yellow ribbon from the jammed zipper. If only he had a camera.

"This is not funny!" Charlie snapped as Don doubled over with laughter.

"What'd you bring HIM for?" Greg demanded, glaring at the older teen.

"I thought he could help!" Lauren defended.

"With what?" Charlie spat, wrestling against the zipper. "Teasing me for the rest of my life?"

"Careful," Bobby cautioned. "You're gonna rip it!"

Don got a hold of himself, but didn't even try to suppress his grin. This was priceless and, yeah, really good blackmail material. On the other hand, he knew Wright's speech could wrap up any minute and Charlie would be called up. Don teasing him was one thing, but he wasn't going to subject him to the ridicule of the entire school, graduation day or not.

"Move," he ordered, pushing Greg and Bobby out of the way.

It took a couple of seconds, but he managed to free the ribbon and zip up the robe the rest of the way. Still red faced, probably with embarrassment, Charlie muttered his thanks as he straightened his ribbons over his shoulders. In the nick of time too, because Coach Roth just turned the corner.

"Little Eppes, you're up."

"Break a leg, buddy," Don grinned, patting his shoulder.

Charlie nodded, got his notes from Lauren,and made his way towards the stage while Don slipped back into the main room. He got to his seat just as Charlie started, ignoring the questions and looks he was getting from his friends. He might tell them later, but not when they could be overheard by … well … everyone.

But that night as they celebrated their new found freedom with a barbecue, the whole incident was pretty much forgotten as he and his friends discussed their plans for the future.

"I got two words for you," Carlos started, his eyes gleaming, "Rio De Janeiro."

"That's three words," Charlie corrected, grabbing a few cokes from the cooler.

"How would you know?" Don shot back with a smirk. "You can't spell it."

Charlie opened his mouth to answer, but Greg leaned out the door and called him back inside. Glaring at the older teens, he headed over to where his friends were having their own little party with a couple of other kids from the neighborhood.

"So where's the little Einstein off to?" Jason questioned, helping himself to a new can of coke. "Harvard? Yale?"

"Who cares?" Carlos snorted. "All I know is I'm going to enjoy the next four years way better than the last."

"Amen to that," Mark agreed, flipping the burgers on the grill. "Okay, who's hungry?"

Don grabbed a plate and piled it high with burgers, chips, potato salad, and baked beans. Leaning back, enjoying the company of his friends, he started to think about what Carlos had said. High school hadn't been terrible, but college was going to be the first time in five years that he didn't have to wonder if he was going to be taking classes with his brainiac brother; he was going to be known for who he was and not who his Charlie was. He had to admit it was kinda liberating and he was looking forward to it.

Glancing at the house behind him, he thought about the pizza party going on inside and wondered what kind of life Charlie would have over the next four years, if it even took him that long to graduate. Of course, the number of kids who came to see him off had to say something. He would find new friends, not to mention adoring teachers. Don shrugged off the thought and joined his own friends for a game of basketball. Just a few more weeks in this house, then he would be off to college and officially free. It was time to live his life his way and let Charlie do the same. After all, they were different people on different paths and nothing was going to change that.

The End

I hope you enjoyed the ride and, for all of you who asked, no I am not planning to right another one using primes numbers, Chinese characters, verbs, ect. (I like my stories to have a tangible ending, thank you.)

However, you should be pleased to know that this has inspired something of a sequel. It is still in the planning stages so it may take a bit, but you will witness the return of Mark, Nathan, Jason, Andy, Carlos, Tyler, Lenny, the other Andy, Mitch, Johnny, Stacy, and even Vanessa. (If you don't remember one or more of those characters, don't sweat it. They're are just the various classmates that have shown up over the course of this story, some were only seen or mentioned briefly in one or two chapters.)

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter/story and thank you all for reading. :)