Greens, Games, and the Undead

The spinach incident happened during third period lunch, which meant I spent the next four hours walking around with a solid green blockade between my front teeth. Nobody told me. Not even Jenna, who I thought was my best friend since kindergarten.

"You should've seen your face," she said later, completely unbothered.

I groaned, letting my forehead hit the cafeteria table. "And tonight's the baseball game. Everyone's gonna be there. Including Tyler."

Jenna perked up. "Tyler from AP Calc? The one who's been looking at you during—"

"Don't. Just don't."

My palms were already sweating at the thought. Tyler with his perfect everything and his spot on the varsity baseball team and probably never had food stuck in his teeth in his entire life.

The game turned out to be a zoo. Our school's baseball team was undefeated, which apparently meant the entire student body needed to witness it personally. I squeezed through the crowd, hyper-aware of every breath, every movement, praying nobody noticed the remnants of spinach that might still be haunting my smile.

"Hey!"

I turned, and there he was. Tyler. IN REAL LIFE. Standing two feet from me.

"Hey," I managed, sounding like I'd never spoken English before. My palms were so sweaty I could barely grip my phone.

"You come to watch the game?" He nodded toward the field, then paused. "You look... familiar."

"Yeah, I'm in your AP Calc class."

"Ohhh, right!" He grinned. "I thought you looked familiar. You're really good at that stuff. I'm kinda failing, honestly."

I blinked. Tyler, failing something?

"I feel like a zombie all the time," he continued, rubbing his eyes. "Baseball practice, Calc, my parents want me to tutor little kids on weekends... I haven't slept properly in like, two weeks."

"Same," I found myself saying. " Finals are gonna kill me."

"Hey, do you ever actually understand what Mr. Harrison's talking about? Because I'm sitting there like—"

He made this face. Blank eyes, tongue sticking out slightly.

"That's exactly what I look like," I laughed, and for the first time all day, I forgot about the spinach incident. Forgot about my sweaty palms. Forgot about trying to impress anyone.

"We should study together sometime," he said. "If you're okay with tutoring a lost cause."

"I think I can manage that."

Jenna found me ten minutes later, looking suspicious. "What happened? Why are you smiling like that?"

I glanced at Tyler across the bleachers, now furiously taking notes on a portable whiteboard someone brought to the game. "Let's just say some good things can come from being a zombie."