Operation: Zombie Friday

Maya adjusted her hoodie for the third time, heart hammering like she'd just chugged three espressos. The mission: spy on Jake from the back row without being absolutely mortified. Again.

The Friday night **zombie** movie marathon had been Jake's idea, posted in the group chat with a skull emoji and 'be there or be dead.' Maya had responded 'lol yeah' immediately, then spent forty minutes choosing an outfit that said 'I'm not trying too hard but also please notice me.' Fine line.

Her phone buzzed. Mom: 'Did you take your **vitamin** D?'

Maya rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. Mom had gone down a wellness influencer rabbit hole and now Maya was forced to swallow these horse-pill supplements that tasted like chalk and disappointment. She'd pretended to take it before leaving, but the bottle sat in her backpack like evidence of her rebellion. Small acts of teenage defiance.

On screen, zombies were tearing through some abandoned convenience store. Three rows up, Jake sat with Emma and the other popular kids—the ones who moved through high school like they'd been given the manual at birth and everyone else was still figuring out which way to hold it.

'Maya?'

She practically jumped out of her skin. Jake was there, right there, standing by her row with that half-smile that made her stomach do things she refused to acknowledge.

'You're, like, all the way back here,' he said. 'Come sit with us.' Her brain short-circuited. 'Unless you're vibing back here? No judgment if you're anti-social.' He laughed—that warm sound she'd been daydreaming about since October.

'No, I'm—yeah, okay.' Maya grabbed her backpack, knocking over her empty popcorn bucket. Smooth. Jake just grinned like it was the most endearing thing ever.

As she settled between him and Emma, Jake leaned in. 'I was gonna text you anyway. You're in my chem lab, right? Because I am STRUGGLING with the stoichiometry and you seem like you actually know what's going on.' He paused. 'Also, my little brother started taking those giant vitamins and he hides them in plants. I bet you do that too.'

Maya laughed, genuine and surprised. The plant thing was exactly what she'd done yesterday. 'I put mine in the succulent on my windowsill.'

'Knew it.' Jake's eyes stayed on hers a second longer than necessary, and something in Maya's chest did this little flip thing.

On screen, a character made a speech about living while you're alive. Maya thought about how she'd spent months watching from the back row, existing in the margins of her own life. Her mom's wellness phase, the vitamins she pretended to take, the spying like she didn't belong—all these zombie habits, moving through life half-asleep.

She glanced at Jake, who was now whisper-arguing with Emma about whether fast zombies were actually scary.

Yeah. Time to wake up.