Operation: Zombie Apocalypse Crush

Maya stared at her phone, thumbs hovering over the send button. The group chat was blowing up about Jason's party Friday, but she was too busy executing Operation: Get Close to Jordan without Looking Like a Total Creep.

"You're being a zombie again," her little brother Leo announced, bouncing his basketball in the hallway. "Mom says you need to take your vitamin D or whatever."

Maya rolled her eyes. "I'm not a zombie, I'm strategizing." She flopped onto her bed, where Mr. Bubbles—her carnival-won goldfish—swam in lazy circles. "Mr. Bubbles gets it. Being fourteen is basically walking through life half-asleep anyway."

Her phone lit up. Jordan had posted: "zombie movie marathon @ my place, who's coming?"

This was it. The universe had handed her the perfect opening on a silver platter. All those months of casual Instagram spying—okay, fine, observing—had paid off. She knew Jordan loved terrible zombie flicks almost as much as she hated that she'd memorized their entire media feed.

"I'm going," Maya announced to Mr. Bubbles, who blinked his glassy-eyed response. "And I'm not going to overthink it this time."

Friday arrived with Maya wearing her lucky sweatshirt and her stomach doing full gymnastics routine. Jordan's basement was already crowded when she showed up, the smell of buttery popcorn hitting her like a warm hug. Jordan waved from the couch, patting the empty spot beside them.

"You came!" Jordan's smile was actual sunshine. "I was hoping you would."

Maya's brain short-circuited. Wait, what?

They watched zombies get absolutely wrecked on screen while Maya's heart did its own apocalypse thing every time their arms accidentally touched. At one point, Jordan grabbed her hand during a jump scare, and neither of them let go for the next forty-five minutes.

"Hey," Jordan whispered as the credits rolled. "My friends are doing this stupid vitamin supplement challenge next week. Want to come be the voice of reason?"

Maya looked at their intertwined fingers, then at Jordan's perfectly imperfect grin. "Only if you promise to never make me watch that zombie movie again."

"Deal."

Later that night, Maya sat cross-legged on her bed, Mr. Bubbles swimming beside her. "Well, fish friend," she said, grinning at her phone where Jordan's contact info now lived front and center. "I think Operation: Zombie Apocalypse Crush was a complete success."